Daniel Del Real’s “No Seas Concha” sculpture, on display at the Global Village Welcome Center near Lafayette Square Mall, may inspire you with its flair and functionality. You’re welcome to sit down on it, because it doubles as a bean bag chair. It might also make you hungry, because it looks like the delicious Mexican sweet bread.
Conchas (“shells” in English) are a popular treat in Mexico, where they are found in just about every bakery. Although the origin of the seashell-shaped sweet bread is unknown, it likely dates back to the 19th century.
But you can’t talk about the history of the concha without talking about the introduction of wheat into the Mexican diet by European settlers in the 16th century, after the Spanish conquest, or the Mexican pastry glow-up that followed the French invasion of the 1860s.
“Every time people come in here, and we talk and show them the ‘Concha,’ we’re like, ‘Well, you can go into any of these (nearby) bakeries and pick up a concha,’” says Del Real, curator at the Welcome Center, which is run by the nonprofit International Marketplace Coalition. Del Real’s favorite conchas come from Panadería Artesanal, 4036 N. High School Road, but he also spotlights Panaderia El Globo at 2911 Georgetown Road.
The Welcome Center, however, highlights an extraordinary array of neighboring international restaurants and markets and also celebrates the vibrant cultures that created the cuisine. There are artifacts and art works from all over the world on display here, with frequent public events celebrating these cultures and cuisines. So it figures, considering where Del Real works, that people of many nationalities have experienced his “Concha.”
He created the sculpture in 2017, around the time the University of Indianapolis hired him to curate a show at the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Gallery that featured 13 Latinx artists.
At the artists’ reception, a local arts blogger took photos of the concha and posted it to her Instagram. One thing led to another and the Smithsonian Institution, which was putting together its Molina Family Latino Gallery, sought out Del Real.
They commissioned him to make four conchas – “in different flavors too,” he says. You can see them in the gallery at the Smithsonian, which opened in June 2022.
These days, in addition to his curatorial work, Del Real spearheads the Latino Artist Mentorship Project with Eduardo Luna.
Del Real is excited about the emergence of Latinx artists in Indianapolis. Two artists he’s eager to highlight are Mary Mindiola and Mirvia Eckert, co-founders of Indy Latina Artists. He’s also eager to point out the work of Jackie Espinosa, a student at Herron School of Art & Design, who started in printmaking then expanded beyond paper.
“She started incorporating textiles and embroidery, inspired by her grandma,” Del Real says. “These pieces are basically like quilts that had been printed on.”
Between making connections between artists, curating exhibitions, and making his own art, Del Real is a busy dude. So busy, in fact, that you wouldn’t be able to say, “No seas concha” to Del Real with a straight face. The colloquial meaning of “No Seas Concha” in Mexican Spanish is, “Don’t be lazy.” But occasionally, he’ll sit down for a moment on his concha and reflect on the work he’s doing to bridge cultures in Indy.
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