Always Shining: Beauty in the Grit

Always Shining: Beauty in the Grit
Sculptural works by Margarita Velazquez
Curated by Allison Baker
📅 Opening: Friday, August 1 | 6–10PM
📍 MaMO - 2725 N. 62nd St

Indianapolis-based artist Margarita Velazquez draws from her lived experience as a first-generation Mexican immigrant and U.S. Armed Forces veteran to explore transformation through everyday labor. Her exhibition, Always Shining: Beauty in the Grit, is inspired by time spent working at her family’s business, Always Shining Hand Carwash.

Through iridescent film, glass, wire, and found car parts, Velazquez highlights the repetitive gestures of care, cleaning, and survival—revealing how imperfection and effort can become sources of reflection and strength. The installation uses controlled lighting and sculptural forms to mimic the interplay of sunlight, water, and movement found in the carwash environment.

Part of the 12th Annual New American Arts Festival, Always Shining invites viewers to reconsider what is often dismissed as mundane or worn, and to see the quiet beauty that persists in overlooked spaces.

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