Last weekend for Luz y Solidaridad
By Randy Jayne Rosenberg September 26, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Exhibit
Susan Plum
Fri–Sat, Sep 26–27, 10am–5:30pm
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75

Susan Plum’s art installation, Luz y Solidaridad (Light and Solidarity), addresses the plight of the women of Ciudad Juárez. The work was originally created for the 2006 exhibition “The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama” and evolved out of Plum’s love for her native Mexico, her social activism and her belief in art as a vehicle for transformation.

 She wrote me, stating, “while creating Luz y Solidaridad, I knew that this was only one seed being planted for a much greater problem globally of violence toward women. It has been a dream of mine for many years to participate with others in bringing some cohesive awareness to this problem. I believe my role as an artist from the onset has been about healing of the ‘feminine’ and the greater healing of Mother Earth.”

When Luz y Solidaridad was previously exhibited in 2006, at the Museo de la Ciudad, Querétaro, Plum initiated a fund to help the organization and center for the mothers, Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa (May Our Daughters Return Home). With the funds and combined efforts from organizations in Europe, the center has started an art therapy program, Otro Juárez es Posible, for the siblings at home.

Plum states, “This is the one life we know we have. I can’t be complacent about the world I live in. The escalation of deaths on the border and the ensuing violence and murders of the women in Ciudad Juárez led me to investigate creating a project for the women. I felt it was time to take action.”

Plum’s Luz y Solidaridad artwork inspired the grassroots project, “Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art,” a multimedia contemporary art exhibition opening in Norway featuring 23 internationally recognized artists, including Plum.

The show uses the transformative and healing power of art as a catalyst to promote awareness of global violence against women and to empower individuals, communities and leaders to address the issue. 

Women and girls around the world are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. In a great many of these instances, they are victims simply because they are female. The range of gender-based acts of violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb. Violence against women and girls occurs in every segment of society—regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, country, or whether the country is at peace or war.

In “Off the Beaten Path,” artists like Plum are being asked to share their responses to this violence and create new stories through artworks in a variety of media (painting, video, textiles, installation, sculpture, photography). These artists are not looking to create a sensational, tabloid-driven exhibition of violent images. We all have seen, heard or experienced the world of violence against women. This exhibition is meant to provide a portal for a new consciousness. It will create awareness, educate, inspire and offer new stories for a new morality and a new ethic to our collective audience of children, families, men, women and survivors of gender-based abuse.

For more information on “Off the Beaten Path” and how you can participate and take action, visit www.artworksforchange.org. The show opens in June 2009 at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo and continues to the National Gallery of Iceland and UNESCO headquarters in Paris. 

Randy Jayne Rosenberg is the curator of Art Works for Change in Oakland, California.

Ortega and the Orozco brothers
By Jan Searle

Art Opening
Enrique Ortega, Samuel and David Orozco
Fri, Sep 26, 6–8pm
Rainbow of Art Gallery
Ancha de San Antonio 3
110-3200

As a student of industrial design, Mexico City artist Enrique Ortega started his career with early success in creating and marketing iconic images of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors.

He influenced the collective perception of these musicians among the young generation in Mexico. During his career designing furniture and creating pavilions for fairs and exhibitions, he continued painting and sculpting. In 1982, he sold his business and began to paint seriously and sculpt full time. He also designed artistic jewelry.

Ortega enjoys creating art and never felt he was “working.” He especially delights in the moment when the public sees his paintings and sculpture.

His work has been shown in Palacio de Belles Artes and in the Museum of Anthropology and History, Chapultepec, in Mexico City, plus in many other exhibitions throughout Mexico.

The Orozco brothers are from a well-known family of artists in Mexico. The grandfather, José Clemente Orozco, helped establish the “Mexican Mural Renaissance” and his sons followed in the tradition. Now the grandsons, Samuel and David, are following in their predecessors’ footsteps. Their work is clear, colorful and dramatic. They are a family of true Mexican painters, with excellent technique and original compositions.




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