Photos from the mother of all humanity
By John Rowe March 21, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Opening
John Rowe
Sat, Mar 22, 7:30pm
Art Print Express Photo Gallery
San Francisco 11

The Omo River Delta is rich in cultural and human history. It’s been said, “If Africa was the mother of all humanity, then the Omo River acted as a main artery!” Hominid remains from the Omo Valley date back almost four million years and it is believed this area had an almost continuous “human” presence during that time.

The tribes of the Omo River, including the Dassenach, Mursi, Surma, Karo, Hamar and Nyangatom, occupy the southwest region of Ethiopia near the borders of Sudan, Somalia and Kenya. Disease, hunger and tribal warfare are realities of everyday life and result in a life expectancy for the region of 45 years with a high incidence of infant mortality.

The peoples of the Omo maintain tribal and cultural traditions which are slowly being eroded by the pressures of population growth, encroaching political strife and the influence of evangelistic missionaries who attempt to convert the people to a Western morality and way of life.

Through photography, Rowe has captured the spirit and humanity of these amazing people. Although they live very differently from us, we share many human traits that join us together as people in this delicate and dynamic world.

John Rowe is an award-winning photographer who has traveled the world capturing images of cultures and environments which are changing or being threatened with extinction. His prints are exhibited in galleries throughout the world and for more than 25 years he has worked to produce images which inform, educate and inspire. He lives with his wife and two children in San Diego, California, and Teahupoo, Tahiti.

Into abstraction

Art Exhibit
Susan Williams
March 21–April 4
Puente Viejo Residencial
Calzada de la Aurora 52

Enter Susan Williams’ world of process art: works in transition or visual states of energy.

They have a beginning or starting point but there is no real end. Rather, it is involved with the process of change. The results for each work are a series of images.

The scientist Isaac Newton explored the laws of energy and came to the conclusion that “energy can not be created or destroyed only changed from one form to another.”

When water turns to ice or a raw egg is cooked—think different the visual images become.

The computer has afforded the artist many new ways to explore visual energy. It is the artist’s job to put into existence that which comes from an idea. Traditionally, artists have expressed their ideas with paints and brushes or various materials like clay and wood.

Now, we have a new tool with incredible programs to tap into creativity—the computer. In fact, this new way of creating cannot be achieved or imagined without the use of the computer.

The decisions when using a computer, just as with paints and brushes still arise from the creator’s choice on how best to achieve the desired effects.


In these works, one is meant to explore the poetic-visual possibilities of change, from one form to another; just as the human experience is in a dynamic of flux between life and death.

These images are meant to invite you into a visual energy of change. If they have achieved that goal, I am satisfied.

Vermillion shows “art-world” paintings
By Henry Vermillion

Art Opening Henry Vermillion Sat, Mar 22, 6–8pm Galería Izamal Mesones 80

Galeria Izamal will show new paintings by Henry Vermillion at a reception for the artist and the public. As an introduction to the work, a self-interview follows.

Doppelganger of Henry Vermillion: What’s your new work like? Henry Vermillion: It’s figurative, like my other work, but more concerned with art-world matters than usual. DHV: For example?

HV: Well, the biggest piece shows people like Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol and Clement Greenberg sitting around discussing art. Others show ladies wearing high-fashion clothes. Some are exercises in painting and in linoleum block printmaking. The fashion-model pictures are a reminder of the triple marriage several decades ago of art, fashion and commercial advertising (or pop culture), though I did them in a retro-painterly style.

DHV: You spoke of “the art world”—what do you think of the contemporary art world?

HV: To me, much of the international art scene of the past 20–30 years has been negative, nihilistic and elitist. Art that is minimalist, conceptual, or assemblages of junk—what messages do they convey? But, with any art scene, no matter how dismal, there is always something good, something encouraging.

Britt (my wife) and I were able to spend last October in New York City. One of the heartening things to me was the number of new figurative painters being shown in Chelsea and elsewhere. Figuration (and I don’t mean “Realism” in the academic American Artist magazine sense) is growing stronger, making a comeback. We saw artists like Kara Walker, Neo Rauch, Linda Christenson and others who have something important and contemporary to say. I didn’t see any of John Currin’s work, but I just read the long story about him in the January 28 New Yorker. He’s a Yale Art School grad who, on his own, began painting weird, unsettling figurative pieces in the old-master techniques—grisaille (monochrome) underpainting and c
olor glazes on top. He may or may not wind up being a great painter (he himself says his outlook is basically vulgar. He’s currently painting porno scenes in his Northern European Renaissance style), but even so, the critics pay attention and he sells paintings for six figures. Take that, you conceptual and “Bad Painting” artists!

DHV: You don’t care for conceptual art, then?

HV: I think it was da Vinci who said, “The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance.” Conceptual art is only theory and little or no performance. For the last 100 years artists and art dealers have been afraid to take a pee unless some art critic validates it.

DHV: What about abstract art?

HV: Abstract painting can be gorgeous, full of energy, or otherwise fine. It has freed up the use of color. But figurative painting can do everything that abstraction can—color, pattern, design, and so on—plus something that abstract painting can’t. It can strike more resonances, more chords which relate to our human feelings and experiences. In other words, figurative painting can communicate more. I don’t think an abstract painter, no matter how strongly or passionately he (or she) feels, can transmit their feelings and ideas as well. And the idea that abstraction is the ultimate purity in art, and therefore better, is like saying virginity is the purest human condition and therefore the ideal. The problem is that it’s much harder to make a really good figurative painting than a good abstract.

DHV: What do you think about art critics?

HV: They can serve a purpose—to explain and interpret art for the public. I wish we had more good art critics in San Miguel. But art writing too often is pseudo-poetic obfuscation, rather than clarification.

DHV: Are you pleased with your new work?

HV: Well, I’m not nearly where I hope to be. I love painterly brush work, but I’ve usually suppressed that inclination. I’ve got to work through it. The thing about painting is that it’s far from dead, despite conceptualism, videos, etc. Each new painter has to re-invent painting based on his or her own life, in a sense, so the possibilities are endlessly fresh.

The work of jeweler Maria Bracho and painters Steven Cary, Juan Ezcurdia, Javier Garcia, David Mikesell, Marion Perlet and Britt Zaist also will be exhibited at Galería Izamal.