FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Miguel Novelo: INFRAMUNDO
April 18 – August 23, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 18, 2–5pm
Institute of Contemporary Art San José
San José, CA — The Institute of Contemporary Art San José (ICA) is proud to announce INFRAMUNDO, the first institutional solo exhibition by Mexican-born interdisciplinary artist Miguel Novelo, opening Saturday, April 18, 2026 and on view through August 23, 2026.
In INFRAMUNDO, Miguel Novelo presents an immersive, technologically driven exploration of life, death, and perception that bridges Indigenous knowledge, ecological inquiry, and advanced media systems. Visitors move through spaces that shift with presence, motion, and time, encountering the entanglement of humans, machines, and the living world. The exhibition invites reflection on impermanence and the forces—both human and nonhuman—that shape intelligence, perception, and ecological awareness.
Through responsive environments integrating Slow AI systems, gaming engines, augmented reality, interactive sculpture, and generative imagery, INFRAMUNDO transforms the ICA galleries into a contemporary underworld inspired by Maya cosmology and the cenotes, or a sinkhole, resulting when a collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater, of Novelo’s native Yucatán Peninsula. Novelo describes his approach as technoshamanic, combining emerging technologies and Indigenous knowledge to access nonhuman perspectives. One gallery evokes a cenote through immersive sound and light environments, while another integrates interactive and augmented reality systems that allow visitors to navigate layered digital and physical worlds.
Working with game engines, algorithmic cinema, and experimental AI, Novelo constructs living systems that respond to audience movement and environmental input. Myth, ritual, and simulation intersect to create spaces where visitors are asked to reconsider static viewpoints and experience alternative modes of being.
With a penchant for the poetic and metaphorical, Novelo says about the project, “At a moment when artificial intelligence and ecological instability are redefining how we understand progress, agency, and perception, INFRAMUNDO asks: What is death, and what is life? How do we move forward without erasing what is essential? What can we learn from the rocks that support our weight? Can we defy fear and learn how to move in the dark?”
INFRAMUNDO follows Novelo’s Winter 2026 residency at the Recology Artist in Residence Program, where he developed key components of thinking through the living permanence of discarded tools and themes of the ghost in the machine. The exhibition builds on his long-standing engagement with film and expanded cinema across Mexico and the United States, and on research initiated during his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and Stanford University.
As a lecturer at Stanford University and in the CADRE program at San José State University, Novelo teaches on how emerging technologies reshape creativity and expand our understanding of nonhuman intelligence.
About Miguel Novelo
Miguel Novelo is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher working across emerging media and community organizing from the Yucatán Peninsula. His projects include algorithmic cinema, technoshamanic installations, thermodynamic hypnosis, and friendly computer viruses. He earned a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2018 and an MFA from Stanford University in 2022. His work has been presented at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, the Recology AIR Program, and international film festivals. Novelo teaches at Stanford University and in the CADRE program at San José State University.
Exhibition Details
INFRAMUNDO
Opening: Saturday, April 18, 2026, 2-5 PM
On View: April 18 – August 23, 2026
Institute of Contemporary Art San José (ICA)
Support
Major support for INFRAMUNDO is provided by Lead Exhibition Funders John Green and Martin Fox, along with support from the Mercy and Roger Smullen Fund and the Ronald Whittier Family Foundation. Additional support for ICA programs and exhibitions comes from the City of San José’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, Applied Materials, the Lipman Family Foundation, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, and SVCreates. With direct artist support from San José State University, Department of Art & Art History, James E. Olson Art and Design Endowment Fund and Stanford University, Art and Art Practice Department.
Credits and Collaborators
The exhibition is curated by Zoë Latzer, Curator and Director of Public Programs, with exhibition design and built by Sam Marks, Facilities and Operations Manager, and Paul Gallo. With thanks to ICA Staff, James Leventhal, Makeda Barr-Brown, Liliana Aspromonte, Jose Perla, Ruby Medina, Kirk Walukiewicz, and Sue Hunter. Collaborators include FMT Estudio (Zaida Briceño and Orlando Franco); actors and performers Josué Maychi, Anna Díaz, Joselyn Amaya, Nicté del Carmen, Mariana Mendoza, Andrea Buenfil, Jairo Mukul, Jason Ramno, Maricarmen Sordo, and Pata de Perro Films. Some materials sourced at the Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence Program. With thanks to Deborah Munk, Catherine McMahon, and Karina Hammoud. Design by Arina Pozdnyak.
Public Programs
A series of public programs will accompany Miguel Novelo’s exhibition, highlighting digital decay, technoshamanism, and ecological interconnection:
- April 18, 2026: Opening Reception
- May 1, 2026: First Friday Curator & Artist Tour
- May 16, 2026: Talking Art: Digital Decay & Technoshamanism
- May 21, 2026: Digital Decay (Virtual Program, San José Climate Art Program)
- May 28 & June 2, 2026: Digital Ghosts, E-Waste, and Data Loss Workshops (ICA x Recology)
- June 5, 2026: First Friday Found-Object Workshop with Sam Marks
- June 6, 2026: Live Performance with Miguel Novelo & Champoy
- August 22, 2026: Closing Celebration
For press inquiries, images, or interviews:
Makeda Barr-Brown | Programs and Marketing Associate | makeda@sjica.org