Finding a language in art
By Edward Swift

Art Exhibition & Art Walk De bríos y riendas Mario Oliva Fri, Jul 3, 5–8pm Galería Alebrije Fábrica la Aurora, Section C

Mario Oliva says his artistic anxieties have been with him as far back as he can remember, ever since the day he informed his mother that he was an artist and therefore would not go to kindergarten. She told him if he did not go to kindergarten he would not learn to write his name and therefore would never be able to sign his work. Fortunately, he listened to her and today all his work is signed. 

Horses are the common thread in Oliva’s new exhibition, “De bríos y riendas.” Bríos are strength, spirit and force. Riendas are literally the reins that control this powerful force. “The work addresses feelings of vitality and strength,” Oliva explains, “and at the same time the need to channel and control this strength into positive actions.” 

Originally from Guadalajara, Oliva now lives in San Miguel and almost every day he can be found painting in the Galería Alebrije—a name that refers to those fantastical and colorful papier-mâché or wood animals invented by Pedro Linares López in 1936, many of which look as though they would be quite at home in the surrealist world depicted in Oliva’s paintings. 

Oliva’s mind is wide open to new ideas, forms, styles and techniques. After completing his studies in visual art at the University of Guadalajara, he discovered that the range of his artistic influences, from Michelangelo to Siqueiros and the Mexican surrealist Remedios Baro, was actually endless. One influence, however, spoke to him above all others. “The influence that was most decisive,” he says, “was that of my father, who is a sociologist. He vehemently gave me to understand that the guidelines most important to my creative life were not the influences of technique or style. What is most important is to express my authentic self.” 

From his earliest memory, Oliva’s major concern as an artist has been “to find a language with which I can express freely my ideas and feelings without damaging the sensitivity of others. To find in the arts a language that, even though it may be subjective in relation to the accepted criteria, is also immediate and direct.” 

Oliva’s first solo exhibition was featured in Guadalajara at the Chucho Reyes gallery in 2006. That same year he undertook a trip to Playa del Carmen in Quintana Roo to take part in a group project called Animalesque, which was an interaction between artists and the cenote—a sinkhole generally found at a great depth in the center of a cavern. Cenotes are prevalent in the Yucatán Peninsula and they are the area’s main source of water. For his part in this installation Oliva created plaster masks that were exhibited on rock formations surrounding a cenote. The masks were painted to resemble the rocks, thereby obscuring the line dividing the two forms and erasing the boundary that divides human beings and nature.

Shortly after a return to Guadalajara for a second solo exhibition, he moved to San Miguel. He then developed and presented the project Naif Puro (Pure Innocence)—an exposition of art created by 4- and 5-year-old children from St. Paul’s Early Childhood Center, an institution that supports people with low incomes. The exhibition, held in William Martin’s gallery in Fábrica La Aurora, included drawings and paintings from the children as well as their group-effort sculpture. This was Oliva’s first proposal for a socio-cultural development through the arts, and the first time he attempted to use the arts as a language of mass communication.

Oliva says, “The result of this project was very positive and it was apparent through public response that the language of art is much broader than is typically considered, especially when applied in the sociological aspect.”

In San Miguel he is particularly interested in discovering the impact of art on a multicultural society. Recently in Fábrica La Aurora, he organized an exhibition of student artists from Instituto Allende. Currently, he is participating in Rocking with the Angels, an auction of functional art which supports Casa de los Angeles. The auction coincides with the July 3 Fábrica la Aurora Art Walk and the opening of Oliva’s new exhibition. Visit www.mariooliva.com  for a preview of the exhibition.