January 12, 2007, Arturo Meade show at Mero Arte Contemporáneo, By Julie Doherty, Daily interpretations, By Melanie Harris de Maycotte, DaNisha exhibit at the Ellen Noël Art Museum

Works by Arturo Meade

Saturday, January 13, 7–9pm

Mero Arte Contemporáneo, Zacateros 24

Arturo Meade is an artist whose work demonstrates both the felicity and the gravity of the artistic process. His work is immediately appealing for its vibrancy and joyfulness yet holds one’s interest with its underlying narrative and profundity. Heavy textures, high-contrast colors, and quirky, slightly off-kilter geometric compositions typify his work. Principally an abstract artist, but not exclusively, Meade incorporates ancient symbolism and a primitive, childlike aesthetic on top of rich backgrounds. Is it a smokestack, a burial site, a smiling insect, or a train careening off its tracks? You can never quite put your finger on it.

Meade was born in Mexico City and moved to San Miguel de Allende 12 years ago. Since childhood, he has maintained a close relationship with art and creativity, working as an experimental musician in his youth and later designing and manufacturing furniture for companies in Mexico, New Zealand and Europe. In San Miguel, he has been the creative director of several galleries, including La Galería Aurora in the Fábrica La Aurora. Since he began painting six years ago, his work has been shown in San Miguel, Mexico City, Real de Catorce, New York and Valencia, Spain. Recently, his work was included in a publication by the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City.

A painter, sculptor and graphic artist, Meade will be showing his works on paper and sculpture at Mero Arte Contemporáneo. The collection will include both monotypes and oils on paper. While all of Meade’s work has a whimsical quality, his work on paper is an expression of his lighter and more playful side.

Working with a range of materials—from oil pastel to black coffee—he draws bugs dancing across a page, scribbles love notes, or joyfully splashes drops of paint. The result is exhilarating, giving one the sense that Meade loses all inhibition when poised to work on a sheet of paper.

“I am very pleased to show my work on paper because it is the medium with which I most identify,” says Meade. “With paper, you don’t feel the same sense of commitment as you do with canvas. It gives me more freedom and there are many more accidents, it’s less controlled. The result leaves me with a lot of satisfaction, something I don’t feel is quite there with my work on canvas.”

Despite the bright subject matter, his work on paper is highly textural. When creating his monotypes, Meade employs various unconventional printmaking techniques that create depth and complexity. Meade’s work is sustained by these profound backgrounds. It is through this texture that the piece gains its seriousness and profundity, as the viewer is drawn to closer examination.

Works by Ana Castelán and Marie-Hélene Féron

Saturday, January 13, 5pm

Galería/atelier, Fábrica la Aurora, Calzada de la Aurora

Back by popular demand, innovative new sculptural works by San Luis Potosí artist Ana Castelán will be on display at galería/atelier. This year, to complement the monochromatic, earthenware sculptures of Castelán, the gallery has chosen the prints, etchings and drawings of Marie-Hélene Féron, also from San Luis Potosí, to hang alongside them at the gallery.

Ana Castelán, born in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, has lived in San Luis Potosí for over 15 years and has developed an antithetical vernacular that is influenced by this industrialized city.

Her approach to art is very organic in both its shape and material. “It comes from being surrounded by a hectic city,” she admits. “I don’t like the bustle of the city and its harsh walls and smog.” The ironic part is that Castelán is an architect by trade. She never chose architecture as a career, even though the income would have been much appreciated because her husband is an underpaid, brilliant and caring university professor who is actively involved in helping the state alleviate problems of poverty through sustainable farming. It is through art that she has brought about dialogue toward improving architecture in one of Mexico’s most important industrial cities. Castelán uses her role as artist during her museum shows in the city and around the country to discuss a new, more organic approach to big-city
life.

Marie-Hélene Féron in some ways celebrates the hectic city and harshly criticizes how it can draw you into interior spaces. The French-born Féron has lived in San Luis Potosí for about 15 years. She, like Castelán, has seen the city grow into the industrial giant it is today and admits that the theme snuck into her work without her even really noticing what was happening. “Art is a dialogue with the subconscious, you know,” she says laughingly. Ironically, Féron has lived in many big cities, including Paris and London. She has also exhibited her Mexico-inspired work in Japan, the United States, Egypt, Serbia, England and France, aside from Mexico.

Féron’s art is much more figurative and bold, which contrasts beautifully with Ana Castelán’s Henry Moore-ish, organic sculptures. Both artists invite the viewer to walk through their reality and find themselves reflected in the intimate contemplations of their daily life’s work. It is this dialogue that is worth taking time to see.

For more information, email info@galeriaatelier.com

DaNisha, also known as Dan and Nisha Ferguson, are well known residents of the artistic community in San Miguel de Allende. Their ceramic and bronze sculptures are collected internationally and bring a certain joie de vivre to people who have brought their work into their homes.

DaNisha will be holding an exhibition of their ceramic sculptures at the Ellen Noël Art Museum in Odessa, Texas. This is the couple’s first museum show featuring a display designed to reveal the entire creative and technical process from start to finish. The exhibition, “Celebrating the Circus,” will delight the anticipated 5,000 attendees. DaNisha have been honing their mastery of ceramic sculpture for more than 16 years through time-honored and traditional sculpture techniques, seamlessly combining Dan’s sculptures and Nisha’s distinctive hand-painted bowls in a rare union between painting and sculpture. The success of this couple’s career is a testament to their creative vision and talent.

The museum provides access to art of enduring quality for the culturally diverse audience of the West Texas Permian Basin by engaging communities through changing exhibitions with a cross-cultural focus, and through the growth of the permanent collection. DaNisha’s exhibition brings a body of work by Canadians living and working in Mexico, influenced by the festive colors and the uplifting spirit of Mexico and its people.

Karen Hembree, curator of the museum, remembers the first time she met DaNisha: “Art has the capacity to elicit many varied emotions. When I first viewed the San Miguel de Allende artists Dan and Nisha Ferguson’s lively ceramics, my initial reaction was pure joy.

The delightful sculptures, reminiscent of the circus and other pleasurable memories, allow the viewer to interweave their past into the viewing experience. We are quite pleased to feature these artists at the Ellen Noël Art Museum as part of Child’s Play 2007.”

DaNisha will present a gallery talk for a community reception at 7pm on Thursday, January 25, as well as participate in an artist-in-residency at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. The Ellen Noël Art Museum show opens January 6 and runs through March 4.

In addition to the Museum exhibition, DaNisha will also be attending the Coconut Grove Arts Festival in Miami, Florida, February 17 through 19, immediately followed by the international exposition Artexpo New York, in New York City, March 1 through 5.

DaNisha always welcome visitors to their atelier here in San Miguel. For an appointment, call 152-0456.

Correction

In the issue of December 29, 2006 (page 3), the Heart of Frida gallery was incorrectly referred to as a museum. Also in the same edition (page 21), it was erroneously written that “entrance fees directly support the Red Cross emergency service and will be used to increase staff salaries and hire more desperately needed staff. To make online reservations, visit www.frida2007.com.” Entrance fees, in fact, cover operational expenses, but the gallery invites visitors to make a donation to the Red Cross. The exhibition has directly or indirectly raised 845,924 pesos for the Red Cross since September 2006. Also, the website does not include online reservations.