Dolls, an island, and Mexican surrealism,
March 2, 2007

Works by Jo Brenzo Tues, Mar 6, 6 to 8pm  Theater, Bellas Artes

In her cross-media presentation, “Lord Of The Dolls: Voyage at Xochimilco,” photographer Jo Brenzo adds to her Mexican portfolio with a surrealistic one-night exhibition sponsored by San Miguel de Allende’s Bellas Artes, the National Art School of Mexico, where she has been a profesora of photography for 15 years. The presentation consists of a video presentation, art prints, and a short reading from the just-published book on the subject—a fine arts photography/literary nonfiction collaboration with writer Eva Hunter.

The images in the exhibition come from, or are related to, an island in Mexico City’s ancient canal system, Xochimilco, where a life-long resident of the canals—Don Julián Santana—hung and suspended dolls and body parts of dolls to trees, sheds, stumps, and lengths of wire connecting them, for over 20 years.

The perhaps unintentional outcome of Santana’s efforts was, at the same time, a delicately beautiful and undeniably disturbing art installation.

Brenzo first encountered the island, which is commonly known as la Isla de Las Muñecas, two years after Santana’s death. It was, and currently is, being cared for by Santana’s nephew. Her first reaction to the dolls and the island was an appreciation of their beauty.

She discovered that others, while appreciating the beauty and the art of her photographs, were often either appalled or fascinated. “When I show the photographs,” Brenzo says, “people are either totally intrigued by them, or totally put off—there is little reaction in between.”

A little more than four years ago, after seeing some of Brenzo’s photographs of the island, Hunter accompanied Brenzo on a trip deep into the canals of Xochimilco to see the dolls.

Their collaboration on the art photography/literary nonfiction book, The Lord Of The Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco grew out of that trip.

In addition to her position at the Bellas Artes, Brenzo is the director and an instructor at the Academia de Fotografía, which she founded in 1995. Her work has been shown in Mexico, and throughout the US and Europe.

The March 6 presentation, which will include a wine and cheese reception, begins at 6pm at the theater on the second floor of the Bellas Artes, 75 Hernández Macías. A book signing and reception will follow the presentation.

Ceramics exhibit

Yasuaki Yamashita Thurs, Mar 8, at 7pm Museum Franz Mayer Mexico City historic center Hidalgo 45

A work entitled “Veladora” by the sanmiguelense ceramist Yasuaki Yamashita (Yasu) has been selected for the 3rd Biennial of Utilitarian Ceramics organized by the Museum Franz Mayer in Mexico City. Forty-six works were selected from among 351 pieces presented by ceramists from throughout the Republic. The inauguration of the exhibition takes place Thursday, March 8 and remains open until June 3. After this period the exhibition goes on the road for two years, to various cities throughout Mexico.

Abraham Peyret at Caracol Collection

Furniture exhibition Abraham Peyret and Calle9 Thurs, Mar 8, 7pm Caracol Collection Cuadrante 30, esq. Jesús 152-1617

Abraham Peyret, 29, an industrial designer from Mexico City, moved to San Miguel de Allende in 2005. With his brother Daniel, he founded Calle9, a studio dedicated to the design and production of furniture, spaces and objects. Their first project here was the restaurant Nirvana. Abraham designed all of the furniture and accessories and made all the wooden pieces—tables, chairs, placemats, bread baskets, napkin holders and the bar. It all has his distinctive modern style but with the warm look and feel of tropical wood.

Caracol Collection opened its doors in San Miguel in January, 2001. The gallery/store offers decorative, functional objects from different regions, artisans, materials and traditions of Mexico. Everything is Mexican, and everything is handmade.

For one month Caracol Collection presents a special exhibition of furniture and functional objects designed and produced by Abraham Peyret and Calle9. The pieces are primarily made with tropical wood from Quitana Roo—chactecok and katalox.

Chactecok is a soft wood with a rich red color and beautiful black grain. Katalox is a hard wood that is brown with reddish-brown grain and sometimes a white color.

These woods are responsibly harvested by the 216 members of the Noh Bec ejido (commonly held property) and are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization that audits the management of Noh Bec’s 18,000 hectares. Cutting is strictly managed and audited, as is the reforestation. The goal of the ejidatarios and of the FSC is to maintain the sustainable production of the tropical woods. The amount of lumber available each year is very limited, but in 2006 the Peyret brothers were able to buy a good quantity of these two woods, which you will see at Caracol Collection from March 9 to April 7.

Peyret produces a variety of pieces—tables, chairs, a chest of drawers, a bench, racks, vases—all incorporating chactecok or katalox with aluminum, glass, leather, stainless steel and Corian. While the wood elements are made by the designer, the other materials are made in a Mexico City shop that was once the taller of their father and now is used by Calle9.

The exhibition will be in the gallery through April 7. For more information, contact the gallery at 152-1617 or caracolmexico@hotmail.com.  Gallery hours are Monday–Saturday, 10:30–2pm and 3–7pm.

Painting the power of nature

José Ignacio Maldonado paints landscape as seen with his heart. The life of painting resides in the sprit and, in these wonderful paintings, the spiritual inhabits the visible. When an artist can make essence and phenomena inseparable, that artist has achieved an ultimate accomplishment of the creative spirit.

In the work of José Ignacio Maldonado the reality of the substance of landscape proceeds into the essence of its nature. Something is there that cannot be seen in the usual way.

Maldonado paints landscapes of magnificent breadth and overwhelming presence. The vistas stand before us, the viewers, and envelop us in the power of nature. These paintings have a fierce aspect showing the tatters and crinkles of abrasion by wind and water, being truly geologic in their presence. The canvases, spare in form and subdued in color, have a certain austerity. This severity gives them dignity. The impact of the brushwork interacts intensely with the construct of the forms producing revelations of perspective, points of view and dimension. Not seductive in the ordinary way of landscape, the universality expressed in José Ignacio’s pictures reminds us that great art often depends on subjugating the self. The human self is an infinitesimal part of the whole universe. Man forgets himself to totally harmonize with nature.

The language of painting speaks to us in a definite manner. The language of José Ignacio Maldonado’s painting evokes the magnificent sonorities of heroic landscape painting. These exceptional, beautiful paintings with their adroit stacking of gesticulated marks, one layered on the other, panoramic and visionary seem to say that now these hills and crags and thorny trees appoint me to speak for them, they are born in me, and I in them.

Anima Mundi: An archaeology of inner realms
By Edward Swift

Anima Mundi: An Archaeology of Inner Realms
The Vandiver Gallery
Fábrica la Aurora.
Sat, Mar 3, 5–8pm
Artist Talk 
Thurs, Mar 8, 11am–noon

Vandiver Gallery is currently presenting the work of Hope Swann, seen in San Miguel for the first time. Swann, originally from Arizona, is a local, mixed media artist working in found object assemblage, and speaks of her process and intentions with poetic clarity.

“I love the history and mystery of found objects. My work generally focuses on my dreams and personal deities; on information that is lost to us historically or is inaccessible to our waking consciousness; on archetypal knowledge, specifically the re-emergence of the Sacred Feminine and the re-sacralizing of the Earth.”

She thinks of herself as a psychic archeologist, a hunter and gatherer who embellishes her environment with found and natural objects such as sticks, stones, bones, nests, tools, spools, bottles, bottle caps, mechanical parts, kitchen utensils—anything that can be used to transport the viewer from the ordinary into the realm of the most extraordinary. One of her many fascinations is the process of “infusing inanimate objects with intention and energy.” This is quite evident by the work she has chosen to display such as “Queen of Heaven,” “Holy Things Left Far Behind,” “At the Crossroads Hecate Weeps,” “Thunder Perfect Mind,” (a reference to “the enigmatic Nag Hammadhi text which continues to baffle Biblical scholars and historians”) “Alchemy: Sublimatio.” (“the process of rising above a situation to gain perspective”) “Moon Beyond Desire,” (“a fun little piece about sweet sexual desire”), “Ya Mamit,” (“the 61st of the traditional Muslim names of Allah”), and “Kali Wants a Word with the Patriarchy in General a
nd George W. Bush in Particular.”

Why does Hope Swann work with found objects? Her answer is as thorough and thoughtful as the sculpture she creates. 

· “I work with found objects because of the thrill of the hunt.

· The economy of found object materials. Materials are readily available and for the most part, readily dispensable—if I inadvertently destroy something, it generally doesn’t matter—therefore I am encouraged to experiment creatively and I am only limited by my own imagination.

· There are no predetermined aesthetics, standards or trends to be considered, other than good design. I don’t have to adhere to any externally imposed criteria and my work is free to evolve organically. To me, it’s what art should be: a personal uninhibited interaction with materials, filtered through my experience and perceptions.

· Found Object Art has built-in humor, puns and metaphor if I choose to use them. 

· Working with found objects allows me to play in a variety of media. I work in metal, wire, paper, paint, inks, rubberstamps, wood, natural materials, polymer clay...in addition to the found objects themselves, giving me a huge visual vocabulary. 

· It recycles discarded objects, eliminates a little trash in our over cluttered world.

· It challenges my ingenuity. Each new piece is a whole new puzzle to be solved. It’s never boring.” 

The artist also explained some of the objects she uses and what they represent to her. “I use a lot of circular forms in my work—bottle caps, can lids, sanding discs, circular saw blades—to represent cycles, seasons, completions, moons, or the movement of energy. Small mirrors and mirror fragments indicate inner vision and reflection, and bring light to my pieces, which are usually very dark. I also like the viewer to see him/herself in the piece, thereby creating a personal interaction with the work. I use bits and pieces of metal, pottery and other materials to indicate dismantled or disintegrated structures and I often create my own ‘shards’ of polymer clay. Old bottles, tools, kitchen utensils, car parts, plumbing/electrical supplies, street wire, and general street mongo add humor and provoke thoughts. I use natural objects in my work: stones and bones and shells. This exchange of energy, the impetus for the hunting and gathering of non-food objects simply for the sake of the piece itself has always fasc
inated me. Why do we adorn our bodies/environments/houses/spaces? Why do we pick up certain stones? Why do we collect crystals? Why do we surround ourselves with objects?”

Although Hope Swann has taken a few art classes, she considers herself largely self-taught. By trusting her natural instincts her art has evolved without outside interference. Her influences include Joseph Cornell “who gave us permission to hunt and gather,” Frida Kahlo “who gave all of us permission to mine the subconscious” and Betye Saar “who just blows me away.” In the early ‘90s she took a collage class with Dennis Pohl at the Instituto Allende. “Dennis was a huge influence. His class opened my eyes to found materials. It opened a new world for me.”

To talk to Hope Swann is like sitting at the feet of an unassuming Sphinx. Her verbal listing of treasured objects is an incantation of all the things that contain personal as well as universal significance. Her home is filled with art as well as objects waiting to be transformed into art. Her work room is stuffed with boxes and bags of things she has collected on her daily rounds through San Miguel and other places. All the objects are carefully sorted into groups and put away on shelves, chairs and tables. It is as though each object is waiting, not always patiently, to be chosen by the artist. Sometimes an object calls out to her and she has to stop what she’s doing and give it attention. 

She seems to sort through her labyrinth of material and ideas with the help of her notebooks. The notebooks are filled with ideas for new work, sketches and dreams which may find their way into her art. Currently she has discovered the world of Dream Bearers, a tribe of beings that deliver the seeds of dreams to waiting sleepers. She discovered the Dream Bearers in her sleep, but she doesn’t know too much about them yet. “Each seed contains a dream,” she has written in her diary, “and each seed has the potential of creating a new dream bearer, but we don’t know how. There are so many more questions than answers.”

Edward Swift is a novelist and visual artist. He lives in San Miguel.

New values

Art exhibit “New Values” Works by Saúl Villa Sat, Mar 3, 7pm Kunsthaus Santa Fe 22A Colonia Allende

The most recent work by Saúl Villa (Mexico City, 1958) combines the pictorial, esthetic, technologic and conceptual investigations and explorations that he has developed over the years.

Saúl is particularly interested in and observant of war, violence, change and the permanent destruction of things.

For his most recent works he used multimedia technology, photography or video. He deconstructs the digital image to build color fields of organic forms. The paintings configure from small to large silhouettes or maps, exalted with the movement of brushstrokes.

Saúl has passed from the search of images to the experiment of the event itself. For “New Values,” he prepared the explosion of a Renault car in the open landscape of a field in Texcoco. He chose a beautiful horizon as the natural curtain to juxtapose this sarcastic kind of “car terrorism” act.

The explosion, prepared by a local fireworks maker, included a series of fires. The event was documented with photographs and video, which were thereby incorporated into paintings and a great mural. The oleo paintings, portraying light, air and movement, register the physical, chromatic and atmospheric changes. They are landscapes of smoke, earth or fire, which present a morbid beauty behind the empiric and sensorial impact.

The mural follows the form of the “teomerized mono infinite”, work which he performed for the Eco Museum in Mexico City. The color fields are papers of 5 x 5 centimeters that, with precise combination, form the huge image.

A few weeks ago, Villa received first place in painting in the 3rd Biennial of Yucatán. 

The “New Values” exhibition by Saúl Villa is open until April 20.







Satellite comes to San Miguel

Gallery opening
La Boveda
Fri, Mar 9, 6pm
Instituto Allende
Ancha de San Antonio 20

A new gallery, La Boveda, located inside Instituto Allende, opens its doors on Friday, March 9. The gallery features Satellite of Paris, a high-fashion jewelry appreciated by stylish women worldwide.

In 1987, Parisian, Sandrine Dulon, an ethnologist, was traveling through the Americas, Asia and Southern Europe. She began collecting antique jewelry and other precious materials such as mother-of-pearl, Venetian crystal, semi-precious stones and all sorts of different fabrics. Her father was a primitive art collector and her mother a passionate jewelry maker. After returning to Paris and showing her parents the odds and ends she collected, an idea was born as was “Satellite Fine Antique Jewelry,” as Dulon incorporated her parents’ passions into one creation.

The fashion editor of the French-based women’s magazine “Elle” fell in love with Satellite’s initial Spring and Summer collection and chose to feature Dulon’s designs on the front cover of its special fashion.

For the past 20 years, Dulon’s original stylish mixes of juvenile investigations, ethnological spirit and recollections, spurred from her various buying trips, have influenced the fashion world. Those inspirations also launched lauded perfumes and scented candies.

Today, around the world, Satellite is a respected trademark widely sought after by women of distinction. Fashion editors everywhere admire Dulon’s unique slant on fashion and sensual femininity.

Now La Boveda will exclusively carry Satellite’s original, upscale. La Boveda is owned and operated by Pakina Langenscheldt, and hosts an opening reception at 6pm in conjunction with Instituto Allende’s, boutique neighbor, YAM, the same night.