Revelations through art
By Melanie Harris de Maycotte June 6, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Opening
Revelations
Iola Benton, Lizzie Castillón
Fri, June 6, 6–9pm
Galería/Atelier
Fábrica la Aurora

Mexico City artist Iola Benton has been a professional artist for over 50 years, making her not only one of Mexico’s most revered artists, but also somewhat of an art sage.

Her reputation precedes her as each day she inscribes her legacy into history following the footsteps of her notable Mexican predecessors, painters like Gunther Gerzso and Wilfredo Lamm, early pioneers of the Mexico City abstract art movement. Benton differentiates herself by her emphasis on space, movement and light, tending to lean more towards the De Stäel school of abstraction through her studies with Toby Joysmith. With her strokes of color through the negative spaces of her canvas or with a firm yet spontaneous line, she alludes to the figure without tiring the eye with detail.

Her work is reminiscent of poetry in the way a poet alludes to life without bogging down in the details. Benton acknowledges the influence of poetry on her artistic vision and thus will quote poets as the inspiration for each of her exhibitions. The poet Carlos Lopez has been inspired by Benton’s work for years and in turn wrote a poem, Revelaciones (Revelations), the name which she now uses as the title for her current exhibition.

Most recently Benton has emerged from her San Miguel Chapultepec-style home and studio to present her works in Switzerland, Germany, the US and in major Mexican galleries. She is a dynamic woman in the very essence of the definition, always looking to evolve and improve herself as a person and artist, to forge true relationships with others and to stay relevant, which gives her work a true sense of youth and vitality. It is the sage in her, the intrinsic sage that makes for a world-class artist (and person) that makes Revelations a telling and apropos title for her current San Miguel show. For what is an artist other than she or he who has the wisdom and takes the time to absorb each of life’s revelations and interpret them for the world?

To complement the work of Benton, the gallery has chosen the sculptural work of another woman artist, Lizzie Castillón. Also a Mexico City native, Castillón was born the same year Benton began her professional career and has pursued it with the same amount of vigor. Castillón was a student of Adolfo Riestra, the all-too-quickly extinguished flame of the Mexican ceramics movement of the seventies.

Her studies began in Patzcuaro, Michoacán, with an immersion in traditional Mexican pottery techniques before moving on to abstraction.

Today Castillón’s medium-fired sculptures are more like organic temples to art. Each piece reveals a complexity of structure and overall aesthetic, a truly eye-pleasing experience that transforms any interior or exterior space.

Melanie Harris de Maycotte is the director of Galería/Atelier.

Fate and fine art careers
By José Luis Mendoza

George Whiteman will be showing his paintings at the Café Santa Ana at the Biblioteca Pública for the month of June.

After returning from Europe, George Whiteman continued studying fine art at several prominent schools in Los Angeles. The GI Bill was not enough to pay tuition at more than one school, so part-time jobs took up all his spare time, which was spare at best. Women’s Wear Daily was a good place for Whiteman to get hands-on experience and ink under the fingernails. During the holidays there were store windows to be painted with festive scenes.

A commercial art agency offered him a well-paid job on graduation, so he put his life as a struggling painter on hold. Within a year, Whiteman was offered a freelance art direction job and so he ventured out on his own to build a successful graphic design studio servicing leading record companies like Capitol, Verve, Warner Bros., Reprise, Motown, VJ Records and Crescendo. He replaced brushes and canvases with a drawing board, cameras and strobe lights.

His business grew and prospered with a staff of designers and production artists, thus leaving him free to create album covers and marketing campaigns for artists such as the Beatles, the Mamas and the Papas, Jimmy Hendrix, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr., dozens of jazz giants, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, Don McLean, country and western legends and—because the “bread” was good—Liberace, Lawrence Welk and the Lennon Sisters.

Stacks of 12-inch cardboard album covers lurk in closets and attics with credit lines on the back: “Design and Photography by George S. Whiteman” or the company title “Gribbitt.” Into the sixties and seventies he plied his trade and the reputation grew. 

In 1974, he sold the design studio to his partner and, once again, Whiteman worked toward a fine art career. Again fate changed his course. While building a state-of-the-art photo studio in the Hollywood Hills, he was signed by Twentieth Century Artists and became an actor. While working and waiting for the “big break,” Blanco opened a watercolor studio and gallery in Laguna Beach on the Pacific Coast Highway. With the azure sea as a background, he spent his days painting and waiting for the phone to ring. It did, but not enough, so he was off to the Mendocino North Coast to continue the creative process, adding screenwriting to the mix.

For Whiteman, life was good as long as his creative energies were in motion, which included acquiring a large collection of Papua New Guinea tribal art which led to the opening of a gallery on Melrose Place in West Hollywood. The ethnographic art business lured Whiteman to Asia and lit a collecting spark. The outcome was digital “Dharma Art” and a plethora of Asian art and artifacts.

Later, comfortably settled in San Miguel with his wife, Brigitte, Whiteman remembered something he had shelved for the last half century—painting. Now, his brushes and canvases are back in the clear light of Mexican days, and from his reservoir of inspiration and experience, the work flows.

Dreams come true, but not always on our timeline—living and painting in Mexico, a dream from the turbulent past—turn it over to the universe and get out of the way.

Turn old books into works of art
By Carol Wheeler

Altered Book class
Sandra Stone
Mon–Sat, June 16–21
Studio on Calle San Jorge
152-5259
350 pesos

Are you heavy on books you’ll never read again and light on creative projects from your own hand? It might be time for an altered book class. Sandra Stone, doyenne of the palimpsest, will be back in San Miguel in June, and she’s planning to teach an afternoon class in altered books, an art she taught here regularly until she moved away last year.

An altered book is modified, even transformed, into a work of art that tells a story or records memories and events. The book is a canvas for the artist to add her own creativity, which you must have plenty of—it’s just figuring out how to use it. With Stone’s (and eventually your own) help, the book becomes something new—a personal journal, scrapbook, sketchbook or whatever the imagination dictates.

The art of altered books is a hot new trend that goes back to the eleventh century, when monks recycled vellum manuscripts by scraping off the ink and adding new text and images. Those recycled books are called “palimpsests,” whose two Greek roots mean “scraped again.”

Today we seldom scrape. We alter books by various other means—folding, cutting, tearing, gluing, stitching, collaging, rubber stamping, drawing, painting and decorating the pages. Artists use photos, postcards, postage stamps, buttons, charms and other ephemera to embellish the pages. Techniques such as cutting windows, doors and niches, and constructing pop-ups are crucial and Stone teaches them all in a few hours. No matter what techniques or embellishments you choose for your altered book, it will be a unique, treasured keepsake to be displayed and exhibited.

Stone’s three-hour course is held in her studio on calle San Jorge. For more information and to schedule a class, call 152-5259 or email her at sandrastonesma@hotmail.com.

Twelve painters shine in group show
By Lou Christine

Art Opening
Wed, June 11, 6pm
James Pinto Gallery
Instituto Allende
Ancha de San Antonio 20

Twelve dynamic and versatile artists will show their stuff and be on hand for a special reception. The diverse group is spearheaded by painter Juan Perales Perez, an acrylic artist who organized this talented group. All 12 artists paint in acrylics, and oil on canvas, yet some plastic representations will be displayed.

Ten of the 12 are classically trained Mexican nationals who stem from Guanajuato, Michoacán and Mexico City. Including Perales they are: María Alicia Alonso Campos, Francisco Lemus, Augustín Jaramillo, Sabino Patlan Sierra, Leonardo Maldibado, María Gricelda Araceli Dueñas Urbano, Adrián Sergio Ortiz Pastén and María Valle. Spaniard David Romero and Colombian Andrés Molado Oleus round out the dozen.

All will showcase works that are colorful and thought-provoking. Their styles are as far apart as their ages, ranging from 32 to 76 years. The exhibit will be a chance to see a group of national artists being shown as a unit. Complimentary refreshments and botanas will be served.

Images from memory
By Flor Acosta

Photography Opening
Fri, June 6, 6pm
Iconósfera
Museo Municipal
Plaza Principal 8

Photography in itself transcends a host of barriers within human behavior, which seemed insurmountable, mainly those of the spoken and written language; in fact photography has become a new and different language from the one we knew and used every day. It is more direct because it can impact the observer as fast as a ray of light. It is almost impossible today to not make use of photography in any of its modes: As a direct operator, as a social observer, as an investigator in science and technology, as a graphic documenter and many others. It can be said that currently there is no human activity which does not occupy photography; photography is indispensable for creating tangible memories so as to achieve that those scenes which vanish because of the dynamism of life remain forever. —Luis Felipe Nieto Gamiño

One goal of the photographic project undertaken by the collective Iconósfera is to create a collective memory through pictures of those who have walked among us and formed part of our daily lives, to foster a sense of community in which individuals are also reflections of their fellow men and women.

To that end, the collective will inaugurate this project with an exhibit that includes portraits of sanmiguelenses as well as 25 historic photographs compiled by the Casa de la Cultura of Xichú in 2005. The collective hopes this will be a starting point for yearly exhibits of both historical and contemporary photographic portraits of the residents of our city. 

The portraits will form a sort of archive and record of San Miguel’s history, which the collective believes will help instill in its viewers a sense of value, pride and identity. 

Local artist selected for MoLAA auction
By Cati Demme

The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California, has selected a work by local muralist and painter David Leonardo for its annual fundraising auction. This year Leonardo was invited to submit work and his “El Músico del Mar del Fuego” was chosen. It will be exhibited from September 20 through October 19 along with 100 works from other selected Latin American artists. The auction October 18–19 will be televised. For viewing information, visit molaa.org.

The MoLAA´s mission is to educate the public about contemporary Latin American fine art created by artists who have lived and worked in Latin America since WWII. Founded in 1996, the museum is the largest contemporary Latin American art museum on the West Coast of the US.

Cati Demme is an artist and the owner and director of the Generator Gallery in the Fábrica la Aurora.