Spiritual traditions in Guatemala and the country’s...

Spiritual traditions in Guatemala and the country’s troubled journey toward democracy will be documented in two art exhibits through Dec. 11 at Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery.

“Venerating San Simon: A Spiritual Tradition of Guatemala” explores the cult of San Simon, a composite Maya-Catholic figure with roots in the ancient Mayan culture. He is often portrayed as a life-size personage wearing Western-style clothing and a broad-brimmed hat. San Simon is worshiped by Guatemala’s Indian and ladino (of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry) people of all economic backgrounds.

The Laband exhibition contains a reconstructed public shrine and a household shrine, and will also display numerous Simon figures and paraphernalia from his cult. The pieces were loaned by Malibu resident Jim Pieper, an internationally recognized collector, and the curator of the exhibition. Pieper is on the boards of the Los Angeles Ethnic Arts Council and Craft and Folk Art Museum.

“Venerating San Simon” will be accompanied by 40 color photographs taken by Pieper in Guatemala documenting the ceremonies and rituals connected with the deity. This exhibition has been funded in part by a grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Another Laband exhibition, “Remembering Turbulent Guatemala: The Photographic Testament of Jean-Marie Simon,” features beautiful and disturbing photographs taken from 1981 to 1987, a period when Guatemala was making painful progress toward democracy.

Simon’s work first appeared in the 1988 book “Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny,” now in its fourth edition. Her photographs tell the story of the persecuted Maya Indians, whose lives have been torn apart by national army, police, paramilitary forces and guerrilla insurgents. “Remembering Turbulent Guatemala” will be the first Southern California showing of Simon’s photography.

The Laband Art Gallery is in the Fritz B. Burns Fine Arts Center at Loyola Boulevard and West 80th Street, Los Angeles. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. The gallery will be closed Nov. 25 to 27. Information: (310) 338-2880.