An Artful Look at Spanish Colonies

The clashing and mingling of European and Latin American ways of life in colonial Mexico and Peru are the focus of “Converging Cultures: Art & Identity in Spanish America,” opening Saturday at the newly expanded Phoenix (Ariz.) Art Museum.

The exhibit brings together more than 250 items produced in colonial New Spain (which included Mexico and the Southern U.S.) and Peru in the 16th through 19th centuries. They include paintings, sculpture, textiles, jewelry, furniture, silver tableware and religious objects.

Among the unique styles is the painting of religious images on tin plate, developed by the 1820s and apparently exclusive to Mexico, according to the Brooklyn Museum, which assembled the exhibit. Phoenix is the show’s only venue in the Western U.S.

Also opening at the museum Saturday is “La Familia Mexicana: Portrait of a Nation,” which looks at contemporary Mexico through more than 100 photographs by Mexico City photographer Lourdes Almedia. Both exhibits run through Feb. 23. Information: (602) 257-1222.