Bringing out the madam in all of us
By Bonnie Griffith

Benefit Bordello Galería Sat, Nov 17, 6–9pm Organos 19 50 pesos Benefits Hospice San Miguel

On November 17, the Bordello Galería presents the work of seven San Miguel fashion and jewelry designers—Alegria Scully, Bonnie Griffith, Darla Nordstrom, Dianne Shields, Karen Wright,

Margarita Burbidge and Paloma. The fabulous evening of fashion and fun is a special opportunity to find unique jewelry and apparel for the favorite madam in your life, while benefiting Hospice San Miguel.

All outrageous women of San Miguel are invited to dress in their favorite madam outfit (however they interpret the word madam), and the men are invited to create attire appropriate for a bordello. Fun, food and libations will be provided.

In a perverse twist, men pay a 50-peso entrance fee, which entitles them to vote for their favorite madam. Tickets are available at La Conexión, Casa de Papel, Border Crossings and at the door. At the end of the evening, there will be a drawing for several luxurious gifts, something the lucky madam will so desperately need after another exhausting night at the bordello. Sagrada Wellness Center has donated two facial rejuvenation treatments and lunch. The Spa is donating a 90-minute spa treatment. A lover’s night, in the Madam’s Suite at the Bordello, is also offered.

This evening will showcase several of San Miguel’s designers in a gala pre-holiday shopping spree, with San Miguel women modeling fashions and jewelry.

Among the participating designers is Darla Nordstrom, who has been in San Miguel for over 20 years. During this time she has trained many indigenous women to create clothing and jewelry for her store, Darla’s features clothing made from exquisite fabrics that are fit for a queen (or madam).

Bonnie Griffith has been a visual artist for 40 years, focusing on painting and photography. She has developed a line of 3-D sculptural earrings and recently has created a line of “collaged” clothing, cutting and pasting (or sewing) fabric together into unique wearable art. She is co-founder of Magenta, a cooperative gallery here.

Karen Wight celebrates the human form in movement with her hand-sculpted figurative jewelry. Sensual and athletic, spiritual and sexual, her miniature bodies revolve. The ancient symbol of the hand is honored in her new series, “Hands-On,” with hands praying, giving, receiving, meditating and holding other hands. Her work can be seen locally at Azul y Plata, Generator Gallery and Galeria Atelier.

Alegria Scully’s magnificent hand-knit scarves possess a jewel-like quality due in part to the beauty of the imported ribbons and yarns she uses. Lacey or full-textured, these scarves are an enhancement to any wardrobe. From New York to Paris, her creations have adorned the most elegant necks!

Dianne Shields offers beautiful handmade jewelry from India along with her own unusual designs. Her collection also includes lovely hand-embroidered shawls and jackets from Kashmir as well as other interesting collectibles from Southeast Asia.

Jewelry making became an obsession for Margarita Burbidge while she was living in South Africa in 1994. Fascinated by the abundance of beautiful stones, she plunged into a hobby, which soon became a business when she wore her newly created pieces to the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of African Art and was then invited to exhibit in these museums. Her work is shown in New York, Tucson and San Miguel.

From couture to concrete, Paloma, known for her beautiful leaf sculptures, has branched out into an exquisite line of cement leaf jewelry, incorporating stones, pearls, brass, copper ribbons and silver. In the process of transforming a hard, unyielding material into graceful, delicate works of beauty, she finds a symbol for life’s journey.

Don’t miss your opportunity to dress up, do some early holiday shopping and contribute to a wonderful organization, Hospice San Miguel.

The Bordello Galería is located at Organos 19, just off Hernández Macías, one block north of Insurgentes. It is the site of a former house of ill repute which has been transformed into a delightful guesthouse by Barbara Poole, the resident madam.

Bonnie Griffith, San Miguel artist, photographer, jeweler and painter is now a clothing designer, creating one-of-a-kind collaged clothing.

The recent art scene
By Margaret Failoni

Contrary to my expectations, not only do I have nothing negative to say but am happily surprised to find so much interesting art, all in a 10-day period. Starting with the Barro (baked clay) exhibition in Bellas Artes, the three artists’ work was interesting, especially the pieces laid out on the floor, but Xavier Marin’s large sculpture displayed beneath the arches was sensational. From the texture, I assume the original pieces were sculpted in clay and then processed in a plastic material, which when dried, resembles bronze. The very large torso is particularly impressive. Ever since the new management has taken over with director Ernesto de la Peña, the shows are getting better and better. Kudos to whoever is handling the installations.

The Fábrica la Aurora Center of Art and Design opened two particularly interesting shows, one at the Generator Gallery and one at the Galería Florencia Riestra. In conjunction with the Pan American Road Race which stops in San Miguel, the Generator hung two equally good exhibitions. To the left of the large main exhibition space hung the works of Lulu Torbet. “Carma” is an exhibition of stunning color prints which at first glance appear to be abstract color fantasies. Then, upon closer examination we realise they are very detailed close-ups of old cars with damaged chassis, rusted paint, scratched surfaces on what were once brightly colored automobiles. 

Torbet’s inquisitive eye and excellent sense of composition has created beauty from this very questionable source. The accompanying exhibition “Wheels and Chrome” consists of some very finely detailed, glossy and rather glamorous photos by Ricardo Vidargas and Tom Hassler.

This duo chose to photograph the most publicly recognised glamour symbols of the world’s most glamorous cars of the past. A silvery chrome Jaguar seems to pounce from the photo, clouds are almost touchable when reflected from the high shine of a classic Cadillac, a car is seen mirrored in a shiny chrome hub cap. The overall stroll into nostalgia is heightened by the beautiful Ferrari red, custom-built, one-of-a-kind vintage race car parked in front of the gallery with a classic racing costume alongside it. All in all, this is a beautifully installed exhibition of beautiful work.

A photo from Erika Corral

That same evening, just around the hall, Galería Florencia Riestra opened with the exhibition, “Homage to Adolfo Riestra.” Considered the foremost contemporary artist of his generation when he passed away 18 years ago, Adolfo Riestra’s work can be found in every major museum and corporate collection. It was, therefore, a pleasure to see that some of his work is still available, and the four sculptures exhibited in the gallery along with some early paintings were a pleasure for the eye. This gallery has cleaned up its act. While always handling some really good art, they now exhibit it well, separating the gallery part from the furniture. Now, all they have to do is get the lighting figured out so as to best show their excellent selection of Mexican art.

A piece on display from Adolfo Riestra

Across town, the always prestigious exhibition space, the Kunsthaus, located at Santa Fe 22, Colonia Allende, opened a stunning installation exhibition of new works by Marta Palau. Three museum quality pieces were exhibited, all in clay with natural, arte povera materials such as twigs, string, nets and feathers. Her Kachina dolls altar was particularly arresting. In the work shown in the main hall, “Double Wall,” the artist created two walls made of branches and twigs, between which lay the outline of a man’s body cut out from natural fiber mats. The implication of this work is more than obvious. Palau has always been a “naturally politically aware” artist and her work usually depicts the mores of the times. A must-see show. A new monograph on her work has just been published which can be seen at the Kunsthaus, and will be available in a month or so in the Bellas Artes book shop or from Amazon.

The Friday prior to this exciting Saturday, the Le Noir Gallery opened the most recent Peter Levanthal exhibition with drawings on canvas and paper plus two small wooden sculptures. Leventhal continues to surprise us.

 For this exhibition, he forfeited his usual brass colors for a lovely group of drawings; these were almost tender. The subject was the artist in his studio. The artist and surroundings were beautifully drawn 

—Leventhal is a brilliant draftsman—in black pencil and Conte crayon. The models, lusciously nude as always, were drawn in sepia. The canvases were large, the works on paper, medium to small. I would be hard put to make a selection as they were all quite beautiful. This time the work was not erotic, but gentle and rather tender.

This last week, to continue my good luck, I saw some good work at La Fonda Rosa, a mom-and-pop, chilango-style Mexican restaurant located on San Antonio Abad 17, just off Canal Street, which normally caters to Warren Hardy students and/or a young, hip, art crowd when open (usually for special occasions). The Juan Ordóñez art opening was one of those special evenings.

Ordòñez is one of those painters whose work can be pretty mediocre, but when he’s good, he’s really good. And this was one of those occasions. Approximately 10 works in all were hanging throughout the restaurant, but only two really caught my eye— “Nadadora I and II” (Swimmer). “Nadadora I” is a small 44x70 cm encaustic and oils on canvas. The artist was so pleased with this painting that he repeated the image on “Nadadora II,” the same technique measuring 120x220 cm. The painting is wonderful and is the image La Fonda Rosa used for the invitation. 

Rounding off my happy week was the Erika Corral exhibition at the Café El Correo on Correo 37. Used to seeing Erika behind the desk in the Le Noir Gallery, we never realized that she was such a talented artist. But then, she comes from a family of talented artists (San Miguel’s own Santiago Corral is but one). Erika presented a series of photographs in large, glossy full color from her recent trip to Asia . They are of the quality and beauty of National Geographic reportage.

So, as you can see, more than half of the artists mentioned above live and work in our own town.

San Miguel this week has no reason to envy Mexico City as far as the art scene is concerned. We look forward to the continuation of this fortunate trend.

Margaret Failoni is an independent curator and art historian who has lived in San Miguel for 13 years. She curates exhibitions of contemporary art for museums, public spaces and some galleries in Mexico after a full-time career in Rome, Italy.