Take a walk on the art side
By Edward Swift September 5, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Walk
Fri, Sept 5, 5-7pm
Fábrica La Aurora
Calzada de la Aurora

The galleries and studios at Fábrica la Aurora open tonight for the first monthly Art Walk. Most of the galleries and studios will be open to the public and many of the artists will be working but will take time for questions. In almost every location something dangerously intoxicating will be served in order to encourage interest in the arts, particularly interest in investing in a famous or up-and-coming talent.  Many such talents are at Fábrica la Aurora.

If you have not visited Marilo Carral’s spacious new gallery, you are missing out. Not only is she showing her own work, but also the work of Santiago Corral, Georgina Quintana, and the always fascinating Marisa Bullosa.

The new Otto Gallery is the creation of Marco Vargas, who has moved his studio from Mexico City to San Miguel and is currently showing several artists including Jorge Marín.

Juan Ezcurdia, always ready to receive visitors, will be on hand with paintings, illustrated books and his intoxicating smile to dazzle and beguile.

Kelley Vandiver just recovered from a bout of nerves but also will be on hand and tells me he will be courteous to all who enter his space. The Generator Gallery, which frequently hosts drawing classes with nude models, will open with an exhibition of Impressions of Mexico by 19 artists.

The nude models will not attend the Art Walk, but if you wish to sign up for the life drawing class, please speak to Generator’s manager Cati Demme for more information. 

The art bookstore Librería la Deriva now features illustrated children’s books, literature in Spanish and books about San Miguel in both English and Spanish. It will be open for the celebration and so will Adobe y Marmol directly across the hall where you will find the paintings of Pedro Urquiza.

Galería Atelier features the work of Patricia Mahan, Ed Osman Alejandro Rivera, Lola Benton and Patricia de la Para.

Merry Calderoni, a noted bullwhip artist and a celebrated painter, will be on hand to demonstrate her ability with the brush—possibly the whip.

Located in the first courtyard, Ar y Ar – Galería Estudio features a new exhibition by Hugo Laborice, Francisco Peralta and Christina Alfaro.

As a rare treat, Peter Leventhal and William Martin, two of the movers and shakers of this event, open their galleries as well as their studios.

I, too, will be receiving, but if you ask me too many questions I will send you rapidly across the hall to Buenas Noches where Donna Mattson will put you to sleep on her designer beds decked out with fine linens and surrounded by paintings of Brian Care and James Harvey.

 More importantly, Edina Sagert has promised me that she will be in a very good mood. 

The Art Walk will be held the first Friday of every month.

Edward Swift is a local artist and writer.

Art in movement
By Leigh Bohné

Art Opening
Jorge Marín, Marco Vargas, Alcides Fortes
Fri, Sep 12, 7pm
Salon Galería
Casa de Sierra Nevada
Casa Limon, Hospicio 44

Thomas Merton, an influential twentieth-century writer and poet, said “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

Join Galería Nudo and Casa de Sierra Nevada in proving that quote true, at the opening of an exhibition by sculptors Jorge Marín and Marco Vargas, and jewelry designer Alcides Fortes.

The opening night cocktail reception is in the Salon Galería inside Sierra Nevada’s Casa Limón. View the stunning artwork on display and participate in a silent auction whose net proceeds go to charity. The first night of the two-week exhibition is a private event, with a limited number of invitations available.

If you would like to attend, call Galería Nudo at 044 (415) 114-2090 or visit at Recreo 42 to pick up an invitation. 

Galería Nudo is a recent addition to the San Miguel art scene. Owner Alcides Fortes opened with a specific idea in mind—to support the continuing growth of contemporary jewelry designers in Mexico. Fortes creates unique pieces of wearable art using silver and precious stones from Mexico. His designs have been published in two comprehensive books about contemporary jewelry from around the world and he was just recently nominated as one of the 1,000 designers to be published in The “Compendium Finale” of Contemporary Jewellery Makers, the bible of the field. Fortes has won awards in Beijing, Korea and Holland for his evocative and dramatic jewelry. Fortes was born on the Cape Verde Islands, grew up in Amsterdam and has been living in Mexico for 10 years. He continues to exercise his skills in jewelry design in San Miguel, Mexico City and Amsterdam.

Jorge Marín is a renowned sculptor whose work is shown in galleries in Spain, France, Ireland, Germany and the US. He creates tabletop, life-size and monumental sculpture in bronze, proving that the alloy’s strength and lack of brittleness is an advantage when creating pieces centered on figures in action. The balance and harmony of his “sculpture in movement” show bold innovation and give his audience a view of how light and full of powerful energy bronze can be.

Marco Vargas divides his time between Mexico City and San Miguel, and has been working with ceramics for 20 years. Much of the power of the artist’s work lies in his ability to capture the particular expressiveness of the range of human emotions. 

The effect is all the more striking due to the size of his “heroic sculptures.” The exhibition offers a large collection of Vargas’ work, including some of his most recent pieces.

Whether you have been collecting great works of art for a lifetime, or thrive on being surrounded by such works, come to the opening night gala. The exhibition will be housed in Sierra Nevada’s Salon Galería for two weeks, September 12–28. After opening night, the artwork can be viewed on two Fridays, September 19 and 26, noon–5pm, or by appointment. Call Galería Nudo at 044 (415) 114-2090 for an appointment. 

The exhibition is hosted by Casa de Sierra Nevada and sponsored by Sollano 16 .

Regaining lost romanticism
By Fernando Islas


Art Opening
Cristina Alfaro
Fri, Sep 5, 5–8pm
Ar & Ar - Galería Estudio
Fábrica la Aurora

Cristina Alfaro was born in Mexico City in 1969 and wanted to be an artist from a very young age. “I was seven when I understood that my whole world was defined and could only be expressed in terms of drawings, paintings and visual art.”

She studied graphic design and trained in the workshops of Gilberto Aceves Navarro and Rigel Herrera. With their help, she finally discovered herself as an artist. A painter has become an artist when she has mastered technique and gives the work her full dedication, care and honesty. Viewers of Alfaro’s paintings understand her full involvement in her art and can observe her different facets as a painter and also as an expert in oil on canvas. Her artwork searches the complex actions and reactions of human feelings; it poses questions about love, friendship and daily life, and immerses the viewer into deep personal reflections.

Some relationships last forever and one is the relationship between painting and feeling—not just the representation of feelings but rather the comprehension of them. In this sense, Alfaro’s paintings are a tribute to interpersonal relationships. She offers the viewer the miracle of feeling through her eyes and the chance to experience a diverse range of emotions. Whoever admires Alfaro’s work regains a piece of romanticism that seems to be lost in our time.

Alfaro’s artwork has been in group shows in Panama, Spain, England, Mexico City, Guanajuato and Chiapas. She has had four solo shows.

Fernando Islas has been subdirector of Masmédula Gallery in Mexico City since 1996. His art reviews have been published in Novedades, Milenio, Excélsior and cultural magazines in Mexico.

We will not be forgotten
By Judith Fink

Art Exhibition and Sale
Amuzgo huipil weaving 
Fri–Fri, Sep 5–12, 11am–2pm & 4–6pm
Evita Avery’s gallery
La Calaca, Mesones 93

The Amuzgo are a proud, strong and beautiful people whose first language is Amuzgo. Although they are a small group, once subjugated by the Mixtecs and the Aztecs, they have managed to maintain their language, culture and traditions. This survival is in large part due to their respected skills and abilities. They call themselves Tsan-nua, which means “people of the yarn.”

The word Amuzgo translates to “place of books.” The Amuzgo were known for their knowledge of medicinal plants and textile arts and these ancient traditions continue to hold an important place in their daily life, dances and fiestas.

They are centered in their capital of San Pedro Amuzgo with locations in Guerrero and Oaxaca. The women have long been world famous as the finest weavers in Mexico. To protect their heritage and to pass their traditions on to the next generation, they formed weaving co-ops to maintain the integrity of design, color and history of the huipil or blouse.

For the past 10 years Margarita Gil and her husband have taken the 24-hour trip to San Miguel de Allende to share the work of the 120-woman co-op in Xochistlahuaca, Guerrero. Left behind are their two daughters who, although young, continue the weaving they have learned from their mother. Gil began weaving at the age of six, sitting by her grandmother, mother and sisters in this ancient art of womanhood in the Amuzgo community.

The co-op has presented their finest pieces—huipiles, rebozos and table runners—to Gil and now each piece is lovingly packed and labeled with the artist’s name, age and length of time it took to complete the work. Many times the huipil can take up to 12 months to complete. The women return home to start the next project, sitting in front of their homes, watching the children play or visiting with each other while creating yet another work of art.

Each woman, each huipil, is worth so much more than a photograph or a tourist’s admiration. This is a woman’s contribution to her family’s finances, her duty, her joy, her tradition. The beauty of the work, the story it represents, the history that has made it possible, keeps the Amuzgo weaving tradition alive and remembered. Many people think the huipil is made on a machine and even machine-embroidered. In fact, it is hand-woven on a traditional backstrap loom. Threads are 100-percent cotton, sometimes using traditional dye and other times using the beautiful and rare green or brown cotton known as coyuchi. A more accurate way to refer to the beauty of the design is to describe it as brocade.

Each design on a huipil has a special meaning. Weaving can sometimes serve myths, dreams and cultural beliefs. Some have traditional symbols (serpents, zig-zags, eye of God) whereas others are new, innovative and contemporary designs combined with the ancient.

Just preparing for the weaving is laborious. Cotton has to be picked and cleaned of impurities, beaten until it is smooth and then shaped into strips and rolled into balls. Setting the warp with the very fine threads can take several days, since the huipil in its infancy is one continuous weaving.

To understand the significance of this garment is to understand what it represents to an Amuzgo woman. It is her honor to weave, to preserve the tradition and also to be part of the entire history of her people and her family. It is worn by both young and old proudly, every day of the week.

As a wedding gift a mother-in-law will weave a huipil of flowers for her new daughter. From a young age small huipiles are worn by the children. And in death the proud Amuzgo woman is buried in her huipil with her instruments of weaving beside her: the backstrap loom, spindle and whorl of clay…a lifetime of service, creation and dedication to her family and people.

This year Gil will only be in San Miguel for one week at Evita Avery’s gallery. Avery not only shows her appreciation of the huipil in daily wear, but she is an educated expert on Mexican textiles.

 She is fourth generation Mexican, bicultural, with a history of museum work, extensive travel and a love of the history and traditions of indigenous art.

Protect and support the beautiful work of the Amuzgo in this rare opportunity to see their incredible huipiles. Visit Margarita and show your appreciation and admiration for their history. This tradition shall continue!

Two galleries in Fiestas Patrias conspiracy

Art Opening
Collective exhibition
Sun, Sep 14, noon–3pm
Boutique 4 Vientos
Galería Casa Diana
Recreo 48

Foto caption: Multimedia painting by Camen Gutierrez.

In celebration of Fiestas Patrias, Galería Casa Diana and Boutique 4 Vientos have conspired to open a collective exhibition. Those sympathetic to the cause are invited to imbibe cocktails and whisper secrets on Sunday afternoon, the day before El Grito.

The exhibition presents a large silkscreen selection by internationally renowned artist Pedro Friedeberg, along with photographs by Deborah Turbeville from her “Unseen Versailles” and “Newport Remembered” collections. Fellow insurgentes Miguel Angel Morales, Carmen Gutierrez, Juan Carlos Cazares, Miguel Castellanos, Guillermo Guerrero and Feipe Lopez have been plotting new work for months.

Boutiqe 4 Vientos will display diverse works of art and collectibles: painted ostrich eggs by Hugo Laborice, magic boxes by Sioban O’Donnohue, oils by Alejandro Von Waberer and Marilo Carral, along with ethnic jewelry, African and Burmese sculptures, ceramics, wrought iron mirrors, eighteenth-century ecclesiastical objects and painted and lacquered trays from Olinala.

Artists celebrate Mexico
By Cati Demme

Art Exhibition
Impressions of Mexico
Sat, Sep 6 – Thu, Oct 2,
10am–6pm, Sun 11am–3pm
Generator Gallery
Fábrica la Aurora

Nineteen artists exhibit their “Impressions of Mexico” at the Generator Gallery in celebration of Mexican Independence. A full range of media, from stone sculpture to assemblage, will be featured.

Newcomers to the gallery include sculptor José Antonio Vázquez, who carved the evocative wooden sculptures gracing calle Nueva alongside the Instituto Allende grounds. Printmaker Steve Thompson presents his stunning multicolored wood block prints on Japanese mulberry paper. Clare Rosenfeld evokes the wild tenderness of the Fauvists in her latest monoprints. Judith Roberts captures slice-of-life scenes in Mexico in her compelling large-format photography.

Among the gallery regulars, local artist Margarette Dawit exhibits yet another side of her tremendous versatility with whimsical assemblages. Keith Miller, a keen observer, interprets the Mexican landscape, reflecting his profound admiration and affection for his subject. José Ignacio Maldonado, always provocative, presents mysterious urban landscapes in oil.

Twelve more artists are exhibiting in the show.

Angélica Castañeda, oils on canvas

Cati Demme, drawing and assemblage

Nancy Dwyer, photography

Al Goldfarb, photography

David Leonardo, oils on canvas

Shirli Marcantel, photography

Dennis Pohl, assemblage and painting

Norma Suárez, photography

Rosemary Swann, lithographs

Navarro Tadeo, painting on canvas

Lulu Torbet, photography

Juán Zufiaur, serigraphs and painting

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

Notes on Picasso’s Suite 347 
By Heidi LeVasseur

Art Exhibit
Picasso’s Suite 347
Galería de Pozos 
Casa Montana Hotel & Restaurant 
Plaza Principal
Mineral de Pozos
(442) 293-0033

Pablo Picasso was never shy about depicting eroticism in his work. From his earliest drawings to his last series, sex in all its pathos, pain, humor and lust is a constant influence.

Produced in a torrent at the age of 87, Suite 347 was Picasso’s penultimate series of prints made in collaboration with the master printers Aldo and Piero Crommelynck at their studio at Mougins, in the south of France. Completed between March 16 and October 5, 1968, five years before Picasso’s death, the series was originally created as illustrations for Fernando de Roja’s novel La Célestine, illustrating the life of an aging procuress. The subject matter, however, is more about human encounters, described by Picasso himself as theatrum mundi, and influenced by his own life, his loves, his art and the art of other masters such as Rembrandt, Degas, Velázquez and Goya. The result is a series of delicately drawn erotic encounters that are both touching in their humanity and sensual in their depiction.

Throughout his career, Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) moved between media with agility and inventiveness. In the graphic arts alone he created over 2,500 prints and countless drawings.

 He worked with a range of printmaking techniques including drypoint, etching, aquatint, lithography and linocut. He never let the technical conventions restrain him, but chose instead to do things that professional printmakers said were impossible. As with the old master printmakers, Picasso liked to be closely involved in the whole process. He usually collaborated with a professional printer who could offer advice and experience.

One can trace distinct shifts in the style and subject matter of his prints and drawings. Some of his earliest prints date to his Blue Period, when he focused on circus performers and human vulnerability.

Picasso also chose to revisit styles and themes such as the circus, bulls and bullfighting and paid homage to his artistic predecessors such as Rembrandt and Manet.

This time, however, his characters come directly from his own experience in a fantastical autobiographical version of This is Your Life.

Selections from Picasso’s Suite 347 are on exhibit at Galería de Pozos.

Seven colors of the rainbow
By Jan Searle

Art Opening
Group show
Tue, Sep 9, 6–9pm
Rainbow of Art Gallery
Ancha de San Antonio 3
(415) 110-3200

The Rainbow of Art Gallery inaugurates a group show with works by seven artists, all of whom have made names for themselves in the US, Europe and Mexico. 

De la Fuente returns to San Miguel after a month-long one-man show sponsored by the state of Tamaulipas. His paintings are very symbolic, showing us how we put on different masks for different occasions. He is a master at portraying the mystic and the mystery of the subconscious. His post-Tamaulipas approach to new expression takes the form of glass etchings.

Linda Ericksen is a San Miguel watercolor artist, photographer and writer. Her photo was the cover of the San Miguel Garden Club 2007 calendar and others appeared in their postcard book. One of her poems is included in the local anthology Solamente en San Miguel.

Julian Fedorak’s sophisticated, upscale new canvases, hot off the easel, are exciting, colorful additions to brighten and enliven the contemporary home. 

Eunice Hundley brings several new pastel “snapshots” of San Miguel—an elderly woman carrying flowers to the cementerio, a young girl with arms full of flowers, and a girl dressing her donkey in ribbons and bows for an annual festival.

Liora LaPerle paints in oils on wood panels in both a meticulous realistic style and a colorful impressionistic style. She also sculpts in plaster, concrete, marble, bronze and stone.

David Orozco, a member of a famous Mexican family of artists shows sharp, colorful paintings of intense realism.

Jan Searle’s new paintings are moments of time caught in Mexico. On her first trip to Mexico she fell in love with the color, flowers, architecture, traditions, festivals, the people and the food.

Two artists explore faith and tradition

Art Opening
Faith and Traditions
Genny Claro and Esperanza Orvañanos
Wed, Sep 10, 6–8pm
Galería Ra Luz, Sala de Arte
Posada de San Francisco
Plaza Principal 2

“Faith and Traditions” showcases the work of Genny Claro and Esperanza Orvañanos, two artists with very different visions and styles whose work leads the viewer down alternative paths.

One explores faith through images of the sanctuary at Atotonilco, and the other offers images of the Locos parade, a local tradition unique to San Miguel.