Collective exhibit at Kunsthaus Santa Fe
By Ana Quiroz May 23, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art opening
Kunsthaus Santa Fe
Sat, May 24, 7–9pm
Santa Fé 22A
Colonia Allende
152-5608

Kunsthaus Santa Fe will present a collective exhibit with eight artists who work in different media such as photography, sculpture, painting and installation pieces. Without any specific curatorial theme, the exhibit will showcase the work of talented, dedicated artists whose work is particularly distinctive.

The participating artists include Norma Suárez, Tina Cárdenas, Daniel Toca, Gilberto López Elías, Ileana Ortega, Rodrigo Lara, André Malacara and Liliam Domínguez. 

Norma Suárez and Tina Cárdenas are local artists. Suárez will show unpublished abstract photographs that are a departure from her usual work, and Cárdenas will present a wry installation piece about consumerism and sex.

Toca, a young artist who graduated from La Esmeralda in Mexico City, will show sculptures in paper. Gilberto López Elías, known as Gil, and Ileana Ortega are both art students from the University of Guanajuato. Gil, who is known in the Guanajuato Plastic Arts School for his enthusiasm and hard work, presents “Neones,” a series he was able to create thanks to a scholarship from the Instituto de Cultura de León. The controversial series comments on ultra-conservative Catholicism in Guanajuato. Ortega, though young, already has received several commendations, including a scholarship through the national program Jovenes Creadores (Young Creators) from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, FONCA (National Fund for Culture and Arts). She will use space in the gallery to create a “pictorial intervention.”

Lara graduated from the Instituto Allende and his sculptures have been exhibited in various venues in San Miguel. In the exhibit he will present a new series of sculptures that breaks with the classical formality usually seen in his work.

Malacara, from León, will present photographs from his series titled “Black Hole,” which focuses on obsession with the body.

Finally, Cuban artist Domínguez superimposes images of urban life to create outstanding, nostalgic images. 

The exhibit runs until June 30. 

Can you find the non-local image?

Photography exhibit
Hecho en Mexico
Through May
Café Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública

“Hecho en Mexico” carries with it an entertaining quiz for the observer. Designed to not only visually entertain, but also encourage each visitor to study the faces, details and setting within each photograph, in an attempt to guess which one of the 27 images was not created in the locale of San Miguel Allende, or the broader state of Guanajuato.

The photographer Judith (JJ) Anderson, now residing in San Juan Capistrano, California, gave a prize to a finalist of this concurso at the opening on May 3, won by Nell Zier, a new resident of the city.

This same “mystery” image is also the only one taken with film, rather than by digital capture. All have been printed on canvas, either as a “giclee” direct canvas print, or through the more laborious process as a photographic paper print, then stripped of the emulsion and heat-pressed to canvas substrate.

If you haven’t yet played the guessing game, just do it the next time you mingle at the café. 

For the correct answer, more information, or to send comments to the photographer, email her at jjaphoto@cox.net;  the website is www.japhoto.biz.

Scars to observe and enrich
By José Luis Arias

Art Opening
Scars
Alejandro Lopez
Mon, May 26, 5pm
Instituto Allende
Ancha de San Antonio 22

The Instituto Allende, School of Culture and Arts, has the honor of presenting the work of Alejandro Lopez, with a pictorial exhibit called “Cicatrices” or “Scars.” The author exhibits and focuses mainly on “symbolisms of love,” reminding us that the capacity to love has no limits and that the beauty of our generosity and sacrifice has a divine quality in our lives.

Alejandro is a local artist recognized by his work with the mojigangas (large-size, human-led puppets). He is also known for his altars dedicated to the Dolorosa Virgin, who continuously inspires his work. He has received his strongest influence from the popular arts, such as sacred art, colonial paintings and artists such as Francisco Goitia, Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso, particularly with the “The Guernica.”

In my opinion, Alejandro is not only a talented young artist with an immense creative promise, but someone who rescues popular values of everyday life in Mexico. This, without a doubt, is something we would like to support so that he continues to enrich us with this amazing pictoric vision of tradition.

The opening will be held on Monday, May 26 at 5pm, Ancha de San Antonio 22. The exhibit will be open until June 26.

Jose Luis Arias is a local artist and owner of Arias Art Gallery.

Portraits of Africa…and beyond
By Michael Wierach

Art Lecture
“Portraits of Africa”
John Rowe
Wed, May 28, 8:30pm
Art Print Photo Gallery
San Francisco 11

Photographer John Rowe will be in San Miguel to give a presentation of his latest travels through India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Africa.

He will take us on a visual voyage around the world while describing to us the many customs and traditions of the people he has photographed. Rowe also will speak about the different tribes of the Omo River in Africa including the Dassenach, Mursi, Surma, Karo, Hamar and Nyangatom whose lives and traditions he has so wonderfully documented with his camera in “Portraits of Africa.” 

Join us (with a glass of wine) for the closing ceremony of the exhibition “Portraits of Africa” and a preview of Rowe’s latest photographic work and adventures.

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.