Father and son art opening at Bordello Galeria

Art opening Works by Steven and Noah Leaf Mendelson Thurs, Aug 16, 6–(N)9pm The Bordello Galeria Casa de la Turca Organos 19

The Bordello Galeria invites you to a double exhibition of the work of two accomplished artists, Steven Mendelson and Noah Leaf Mendelson, who happen to be father and son. Each has ventured on his own artistic path, and yet they have also succeeded in inspiring each other in many ways such as painting side-by-side, critiquing each other’s work and even completing each other’s paintings on occasion.

Steven says that when he paints, his main objective is to mold a certain space into something beautiful using colors, textures and forms in harmony.

His other aim is to evoke an intellectual and emotional response, to nudge the observer toward seeing something ordinary or familiar in a new way. Achieving either of these objectives brings satisfaction; accomplishing both in the same painting is truly exciting, he says.

Some elements of style are common throughout his work; however, Steven says he has not yet found a niche and each piece seems to come out of nowhere.

A self-taught photographer and artist born in New York City, Steven loved taking pictures as a teenager and in later years traveled throughout Mexico and Europe with camera in hand. He found Mexico so interesting that he spent part of almost every year there until 2000 when he discovered San Miguel, where he has lived ever since, continuing and expanding his creative efforts in this culturally rich international community. Although Steven’s artistic work began with photography, in 1995 he moved toward painting, employing a unique style of mixed media art. He uses his own color photographs as the basis for paintings, either beginning with a single photo or as a collage. The images are then transformed by hand using acrylics and/or other media. He is a man of the “old world” of paper, paint, scissors and glue; no computer imaging is used for any of his artwork. Steven has expanded his artistic repertoire by doing original acrylic paintings on canvas, wood panel and paper; and abstract oils on canvas using the palette knife, a style inspired by his son Noah.

Steven’s works are in private collections worldwide.

Noah Leaf Mendelson has practiced a range of visual art media, to find himself happily at home with oils and a palette knife on canvas. Since receiving a studio art degree from Berea College, Kentucky, in 1998, he has engaged himself in varying lifestyles and life experience, ranging from social worker to monastic life. Noah has exhibited regularly throughout the US for the last three years, showing in prestigious galleries as well as alternative venues. His paintings hang in corporate, governmental and private collections. He has been residing in San Miguel for about a month, embarking on a new page in a life of creative endeavor.

Noah Mendelson feels his creative process is both intuitively guided and self-reflective. He says he relishes “the continuity between interior consciousness and the external life that rises from that consciousness” and that it is extraordinary “to experience art in its every facet of evolution as a partial reflection of my being.”

Collectors and viewers of Noah’s art are drawn by his ability to personalize the abstract. In his work we may observe a landscape with mountains and a stream that give us, as he says, “a foothold to spin in imaginative, vast, abstract delicacies.” The artist's oil paintings frequently intertwine vivid representation with the depths of formless abstraction. We see a mesh of thick, bold strokes balanced in melodies of simple smoothness. Noah hopes viewers will “find common grounds in the work yet be offered newness for expansion.”

The Bordello Galeria is part of Casa de la Turca, formerly one of San Miguel’s most esteemed houses of ill repute, presently an art venue and a beautifully redesigned home offering rental apartments and rooms. Owner Barbara Poole has provided the venue for this special exhibit.

To reach the gallery from Insurgentes, go north on Hernandez Macías and turn left on Organos. There will be live music at the opening cocktail party. A portion of the proceeds from art sales will be donated to Jovenes Adelantes. After the reception, the work may be seen by appointment 152-0732.

Steven’s art can be seen on the web at smendelsongallery.com or he can be reached at sm22903@yahoo.com. 

Noah Leaf’s art is at leafgallery.com and he can be reached at art@leafgallery.com,  or at 602-330-8014 (US).

New works to the power of eight
By Henry Vermilion

Art opening Group show Sat, Aug 11, 6–(N)8pm  Galeria Izamal Mesones 80 154-5409

To celebrate the peak of summer in San Miguel, the eight artists of Galeria Izamal welcome the public to an opening of mostly new works.

Marion Perlet, one of the seven painter/partners of the gallery will show works completed after her recovery from a major coronary earlier this year; her new work has deepened but is as poetic and rich in color as before.

Jaime Goded shows new small oils and a recent sculpture. Britt Zaist’s palette has brightened even more; she will present new “net abstracts” which glow with internal fires.

Juan Ezcurdia has also continued to brighten the colors of his mysterious philosophic-whimsical humanoid animals and animaloid humans. He continues to cement his position as the painter of some of the most popular and instantly recognizable paintings in San Miguel. Steven Cary, the newest member of the co-op, continues to expand his range, from blue pigs and dancers in stopped-action to more contemplative studies of faces and figures. Javier Garcia’s vigorous expressionist oils are spontaneous and immediate, whether abstract or figurative. Javier is the only native sanmiguelense partner in the gallery.

Jeweler Maria Bracho, the only non-painter in the co-op, creates sterling silver pieces with gold accents and semiprecious stones. Maria designs and crafts each piece personally often employing Korean jewelry techniques. Each piece is unique and never to be repeated.

Henry Vermillion has been involved in local theater for the past month, but will have several new pastel pieces for the show.

Galeria Izamal was founded by artists in 1992 and remains a premier location for contemporary art in San Miguel. It is next door to the Teatro Angela Peralta and is open every day from 11–(N)3 and 4–(N)8.

Jesús Barrón Collection exhibition extended

Art show Jesús Barrón Collection Works by graphic artists Mero Arte Contemporáneo Zacateros 24 154-8580

The current exhibition at Mero Arte Contemporáneo offers the San Miguel community the unique opportunity of viewing a selection of graphic works from the Jesús Barrón Collection. It contains a representative selection of important works by more than 100 contemporary Latin American artists, including Gerardo Cantú, Jose Luis Cuevas, Joy Laville, Damián Flores, Tere Metta and Vicente Rojo.

The importance of this collection is found in the breadth of artists represented and their individual achievements. It demonstrates the undeniable impact of the graphic arts on the history of Latin American art.

The intention of this exhibition is to offer a cohesive representation of important artists working today in Latin America. The history of printmaking is full of eloquent circumstances, of apparently insignificant moments, that accumulate and become a way of perceiving the world in which we live. An appreciation of graphic arts, and its history and processes, lends a new way of looking at and reading the visual language in great works of art. Recognition is given to important artists working in various printmaking media and provides a forum to analyze the graphic qualities of these works on paper.

Some works contain great contrasts, where positives and negatives are in a constant struggle to find harmony and balance. Here exsists an art where form and content share equal importance, where emerging light becomes truth in the midst of darkness by way of an honest artistic search for freedom of expression.

The public response has been overwhelmingly positive and Mero Arte Contemporáneo is obtaining more works from Jesús Barrón’s excellent collection. Therefore, this show will be extended until the end of August in order to better honor the quality and importance of the works represented.