By Sarah Rose Sharp – HyperAllergic.com – Image artist unknown.

Image: “The Last Supper” on black velvet, artist unknown

DETROIT — Velvet painting collector Elena Herrada began her introduction of Black Velvet: A Rasquache Aesthetic to me with a definition of the word “rasquache.”  An exhibition in Detroit’s Mexicantown takes an in-depth look at the black velvet painting tradition in Chicano communities, from renderings of a Nahuatl legend to portraits of Elvis and Zapata.

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