Guide to the Mesones Art Walk
By Henry Vermillion July 18, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Group Art Opening
Sat, July 19, 5–8pm
Galleries and studios,
Mesones 57–80 

Artists, art galleries, antiquarians and craftsmen on the lower two blocks of calle Mesones in centro are opening their doors for an Art Walk. Stroll for hours and enjoy wine, refreshments, good art, jewelry and unique folk art.

The eight participants (in order, walking down Mesones) are Galería Magenta, Agnes & Victoria Studio, Bonnie Griffith Studio, La Petite Porte, SUA, La Calaca, Galería Aspen and Galería Izamal, next door to Teatro Ángela Peralta.

Galeria Magenta occupies a cozy corner space at Mesones 57 off the courtyard of the China Palace restaurant. A cooperative, its members include photographer Jo Brenzo (co-author of a recent book about the Island of the Dolls in Xochimilco, Mexico City), printmaker and teacher Gary Berkowitz, painters Judit Gimbel and Elvia Montibeller, assemblage maker Rebecca Peterson and ceramicist Rosa Torres.

The Agnes & Victoria Studio and Bonnie Griffith Studio share the building at Mesones 65. Agnes Olive, well known for her doll-like “crones,” is now making larger wall constructions of handmade paper and bone to honor the spirit of nature. A larger “quilt” made of small bits of fabric—including teabags—is about women supporting women. Victoria Lynn Pierce is a painter who creates her mixed-media work on both paper and canvas. The winner of numerous awards in competitions in the US and around the world, she has lived in San Miguel for three years.

Bonnie Griffith designs and makes unique jewelry, sculpture and “collage clothing,” which has been taken apart and re-made differently.

Across the street is La Petite Porte at Mesones 56-A. The owner, Ismael Hernandez, has a large and eclectic antique silver collection. Each old bracelet, shot glass and saltshaker comes with its own story, and Irene Lesot-Hernandez knows them all. There are religious medals from Mexico and ornamental pieces from China, Brazil, Afghanistan and Africa, as well as a collection of pearls in unusual settings. The scent of copal incense characterizes the shop.

SUA Jewelry and Workshop owner Javier Hernandez is a native of Bilbao, Spain. He learned the art of silversmithing in Taxco, the silver capital of Mexico. Last year he was a prizewinner in the First Annual Design Competition at Bellas Artes in San Miguel. SUA at Mesones 77 features only unique handmade jewelry and sculptural pieces by Hernandez, David Godinez, Beatriz Llamosas, Estefano Dimalta, Joe Miller, Heidy Parks, and Alifie and Federico Rebis.

La Calaca at Mesones 93 is a hidden treasure. Evita Avery has owned this tiny treasure trove for 20 years. She offers unique, high quality folk and ceremonial art pieces from all over Mexico—textiles, antique and modern lacquerware, dance masks and antique saints and nichos. Ask to see her antique fireworks rifles and her Pharisee staffs.

In the same block at Mesones 74, Aspen Gallery shows the work of established international artists such as Leonard Brooks, Mai Onno, Jacques Desgagnes, Juan Manuel Guillen and the late John Nevin, all in a relaxed environment.

Galería Izamal (Mesones 80) is an artist-owned and -operated space established in 1992. Artists include jeweler Maria Bracho and the painters Christian Calvillo, Steven Cary, Juan Ezcurdia, Marion Perlet, Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado, Henry Vermillion and Britt Zaist. 

After enjoying the art and other treasures of the art walk, visitors can retire to one of the fine restaurants and watering holes on or just off Mesones to discuss their favorite discoveries.

Women, landscapes and animals
By Henry Vermillion

Art Opening
Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado
Sat, July 19, 5–8pm 
Galería Izamal
Mesones 80

San Miguel painter, printmaker and teacher Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado will have his second exhibition of work this month, this time at Galería Izamal as part of the Mesones Art Walk.

Ruiz is a tall, lanky, quiet and unassuming man, a friend to many. But many are not unaware of how distinguished an art career he has had. Born on a ranch in Tlaxcala 60 years ago, he was the only one of six brothers and sisters to take up art. He earned a master’s degree in sculpture in 1984 at the famed Academia San Carlos in Mexico City, the first art school in the Americas (founded 1781). He has had 18 one-man shows in Mexico, the US and Europe and has shown in 35 group exhibitions.

He taught art at Academia San Carlos for two years and at UNAM in Mexico City for six years. He was a visiting professor of art in 1994 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas, Venezuela, and currently teaches in his San Miguel studio next to Fábrica la Aurora.

In short, he has had a distinguished and solid artistic career, but he isn’t resting on his laurels. In the Galería Izamal show, his work features women, landscapes and animals. Many of the works are etchings, of which he is a master, and others are small-format oils or acrylics, done with a restricted palette.

A peek into a fanciful, playful world
By Margaret Failoni

Art Opening
Alejandro Rivera-Leal
Sat, July 26, 5–8pm
Galería Atelier
Fábrica la Aurora

Alejandro Rivera needs little introduction to the international admirers of Mexican art and even less introduction to those of us who also call San Miguel home.

It is more than likely that as a guest at a party of one of Rivera’s many local collectors homes you were admiring one of his fantastical drawings, paintings or etchings when your host pulled him over to introduce you to him; perhaps you caught a glimpse of him and his mother, the retired ballerina Cecilia Leal, as they salsa danced the night away, or maybe you have seen the ads placed by his US galleries announcing his work in ArtNews or Architectural Digest.

Whatever the circumstances of your acquaintance with Rivera’s work, you will find in it a depth, seriousness, and imagination that few artists have, and in him, charisma, charm and intellectual curiosity as well as a passion for experiencing life to the fullest, and it is these very intricacies of Rivera’s character that the artist beautifully expresses in each of his works.

Used to seeing Rivera-Leal’s allegoric paintings superbly created in the mannerist style with lovely young women in the foreground, this series of works is a total departure from his former style, and I must say a very happy surprise. Visually inspired by Zurbaran’s still lifes, Rivera-Leal takes them one step further, converting a static still life into a living, breathing thing. Exquisitely drawn bowls and vases come alive with a surrealist bent, moving and swaying in what appear to be a sensuous love dance. Magic birds, the bearers of messages of love, perch and fly in and out of the scene. His work is carefully and deftly executed using HB, B and 2B graphite lead points in automatic pencils to produce exquisite fine-line drawings. Some are in black and white, creating depth and contrast with very fine graphite strokes. Most are beautifully colored with Rembrandt watercolors on mold- and acid-free Windsor & Newton Cotman paper. Many are small and jewel-like.

With more successful exhibitions outside of Mexico and with his work entering important private and public collections in the US, Rivera-Leal’s paintings have steadily grown in price in accordance with his success. This long overdue exhibition affords San Miguel collectors access to the beautiful work of this artist. He is a brilliant draftsman and with these works on paper, he allows us to peek into his very fanciful, playful world of love.

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.

Mexican color meets calligraphy
By Stephen Kurtz, Ph.D.

Art Opening
Marcela Andre Lopez
Fri, July 18, 3–7pm
Andre Creación Gallery
YogaPlanetJewels
San Francisco 7

New work by Marcela Andre Lopez draws on a lifetime of immersion in the mystical and the Mexican, the Hindu and the indigenous of her Chichimeca birth home. She combines East and West design with centuries of family tradition and sacred art decoration in San Miguel. Born to a devout local family, her earliest memories are of eye-level close-ups of gilded flowers and garlands on the town’s baroque altars. This love of the shiny and gilded was accompanied by the great love of the grandmother who held her hand as she gazed at the shiny details of the churches.

Inspiring, too, were other cultures of the world via the paternal grandmother living at the California shore, and decades of studying yoga and sciences.

This exhibit is dedicated to Swami Satchidananda, who died in 2002 and for whom Andre Lopez created sacred installations at the international headquarters in Virginia and New York. The date is Guru Poornima in the Hindu calendar, when devotees offer worship to their gurus.

Mexican color meets calligraphic movements of paint and brush in homage to the great Asian cultures and to Mexico’s dynamic life force, with a nod to the Siqueiros thesis, How to Paint a Mural, encouraging the use of new painting instruments for speed.

While artist-in-residence at the Siqueiros Mural Room, Andre Lopez received approval from Bellas Artes Director Carmen Masip’s to create a multimedia performance combining Sanskrit invocations and Mexican indigenous songs— Homenaje al Infinito/Madre de la Compasion.

Andre Lopez was taught photography by her grandfather, the movie director and producer Tom Andre, using photos documenting the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri ending World War II. Tom Andre was production manager for the James Dean film Giant and for the George Stevens epic, The Greatest Story Ever Told. His wife was Oscar-winning costume designer Elois Jenssen Andre.

Andre Lopez apprenticed in photography with Swami Satchidananda, whose early career preceded Bollywood. She was named official photographer in New York City for the world guru.

The Andre family has been photographing and documenting the family and events through portraits since the 1860s.

Andre Lopez also is an expert on the environmental history and restoration of this region, and has studied and taught sustainability and permaculture in San Miguel and around the world. Immersion in India’s Brahmanic culture and work with original art for trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened the doors to a position (1989–2002) as senior regalia master for sacred events and ceremonies in a major international yoga school sponsored originally by artist Peter Max, designing commemorative silver and jewels, regalia, ceremonial vestments and installations for international events, blessing ceremonies and silver anniversaries.

She is a grateful recipient of numerous scholarships such as the Polytechnic University of New York Fellows Scholar and their Mermaid Club Award in Humanities, and the yoga title Jewel of the Guru’s Teachings. Many thanks also go to the San Miguel Educational Foundation. Andre Lopez offered classes in San Miguel and on radio for years teaching rural communities about cultural and health matters. She is Lord Keeper of the Sacred Conch for the most ancient native Chichimeca lineage in San Miguel and was named Malinche Mayor by Don Felix Luna Romero in 2007.

Andre Creación Gallery is located in one of the oldest buildings in the historic district at San Francisco 7, near calle Relox, and is an heirloom from Don Ezequiel Lopez Escobedo. Jewels, colors and paper are on view inside an ancestral setting. An ongoing computer slideshow of Andre Lopez photographs runs during the opening. The exhibit will be open through August. For information, visit http://andregallery.googlepages.com.

New art space to open at Fábrica la Aurora
By Margaret Failoni

Gallery Opening
Sat, July 19, 5–8pm
Espacio Carral
Fábrica la Aurora

The former Marilo Carral Espacio was a smaller, uneven space crowded with large glass holes. This new space (section 9) has a long extension of high, pristine walls, allowing for a better distribution of art work.

And as Carral, the founding artist, shares the space with three other represented artists the name of the space has been changed to Espacio Carral.

In addition to Carral, the permanent artists in the space are Marisa Bullosa and Santiago Corral (from San Miguel) and Georgina Quintana, from Mexico City. For those not familiar with their work, I can only say that the four represent exceptional quality in figurative art.

With works in major Mexican museums and private collections in the US and Mexico, Carral can always be counted upon to enchant us with her impressionist renditions of flower arrangements and Mexican landscapes.

While painting with generous brushstrokes and with a Fauvist palette, Carral owes a debt to the great French painters. There is a great joie de vivre in her work.

Marisa Bullosa works mostly with paper and generally depicts nature. Her large creations are beautifully drawn with some collage on large sheets of amate (bark) paper. Exotic plants, flowers and cacti along with small, pictorial references to native Mexican iconography are artfully placed on the picture plane. Smaller works, including exquisite aquatint etchings, also depict native flowers and cacti.

Santiago Corral’s realist imagery brings the viewer into his very personal world. There is something almost voyeuristic about his work: The epitome of a genre painting, we see a baby playing with water while waiting to be bathed in a sink; the remains of a plate of spaghetti toward the end of a meal; a dishevelled bed in dawn’s light with the first sunrays shining through billowing curtains. All beautifully executed with a gentle array of muted colors. His work also has found its way into US collections, with galleries in New York and San Francisco representing him.

New to San Miguel, Georgina Quintana’s paintings are a hymn to nature. With many trips to India, Quintana adheres to the Hindu philosophy of seeing beauty and experiencing peace through nature. Her world is at one with beautiful trees, exotic animals, ripe fruit and flowers which we can almost smell. The paintings depict an exotic world seen in gentle, muted tones, never garish. This artist is represented by some of Mexico’s most prestigious galleries, such as Mexico City’s OMR and Monterrey’s Galería de Arte Actual, and no wonder.

Espacio Carral plans to have several invitational exhibitions throughout the year, bringing to the San Miguel scene some of this country’s most prestigious contemporary artists.

Given the present world economic situation and this city’s propensity to avoid spending on art, one can only wish them luck and stand behind them in every way. It would be a pity to close this window of opportunity to view and collect contemporary Mexican art of such distinction. 

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.

Speaking the language of color
By Sharon Steeber de Orozco


Art Opening
Judith Jenya
Mon, July 21, 7pm
Café Santa Ana 
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A

Brilliant colors and images by Judith Jenya now decorate the walls of the Café Santa Ana. Bright primary colors mixed with shadows give familiar images a new taste and feeling seen though a unique eye.

The works include paintings in acrylics and tempera, mixed media and pastels. Additionally there are four evocative photographs taken during her travels in India, Nepal, Kenya and Russia.

Jenya’s paintings include a vivid look at San Miguel and nearby landscapes, islands lit by sunlight in the Adriatic Sea, flowers and more abstract figures and scenes. The pastel portrait of a young man shows a fine use of color that captures his essence. Her work has a direct appeal with intense colors and an expressionist style mixed with a sophisticated use of design and form. 

In the mixed-media pieces Jenya experiments with gauche, watercolor and acrylic paint with pencil, ink, pastel and oil pastel on watercolor paper. In her canvas paintings she uses layered acrylics mixed with less dense paints to achieve a depth of color and immediacy.  Jenya’s home also is a gallery, Galería Aloha Milagros, in colonia Mexiquito.

It reflects her love of San Miguel as well as her many years in Hawaii and California and her world travels. Jenya says, “I have always taken my inspiration from the richness of color, design and the beauty of people living their daily lives wherever I am.”

While looking at the works, the viewer is drawn into each by the line and color and finds the pleasure of seeing the familiar in a new way. While color has always been the hallmark of her work, the clarity of light here in the highlands of Mexico gives her paintings a different dimension.

Jenya has been painting since her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. She holds a master’s degree in teaching fine arts from Harvard University. She has been a teacher of art and a fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC. During her 20 years in Hawaii, Jenya was an attorney in Honolulu specializing in international adoption. In the early nineties, she founded and directed Global Children’s Organization, a humanitarian aid organization helping children of war. In her programs she used art as one of the tools for healing children during the wars in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and Kosova. Jenya personally experienced much of the horror of war and says, “I came to the conclusion that beauty and love are the two essentials of life. I try to reflect that in my art, photography and writing.”

Jenya has had one-woman shows in Honolulu, San Francisco and Sarajevo, and participated in group shows in London, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Taos and Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Her work is in collections in the US, Europe and Mexico, and it has won both national and international awards. Her works will be on exhibit in the Café Santa Ana through July.

Third anniversary of popular Saturday outing

Art in the Park
Saturdays, 11am–1pm
Central Kiosk
Parque Benito Juárez

July 23 marks the three-year anniversary of “Art in the Park,” a painting program for children held every Saturday in the kiosk of Parque Benito Juárez.

“It is very gratifying to see this program proceed for three years,” says director Nina Wisniewski. “It began with seeing a need and receiving an inspiration; after that, things kept falling into place in a wonderful way.”

The program provides all materials in the beautiful park location; it is accessible to all children ages 2 years and up. The children are free to create, experiment and experience the tactile quality of the paint, use colors with sponges and brushes—and with their hands! Attendance is now up to 40 or more children weekly.

Paintings are hung up in the kiosk as a weekly “gallery” and then the children take them home.

“It is a lot of work, yet I receive so much from the children every week: their smiles and joyful energy, their dedication to the process of painting and their growth as artists,” says Wisniewski. “I am very grateful to all who have helped and supported this project in the last three years. I could not have done it without them.” She wants to give special thanks to her assistant, Ruben Olvlade, for his dedicated presence each week. Many thanks also go to Geraldo Arteaga, Bob Haas and the Amigos del Parque, who provided the support to start Art in the Park. Many more thanks go to Veronica Agundis for her continued support and to all the volunteers and sponsors who have lent a hand to make this program a success.

Come by some Saturday to see the program in action! Donations and volunteers are most welcome. If you would like to work with the children in this program, contact Nina Wisniewski at 044 (415) 151-2462. (Photos by Irene Diaz.)