EPMA to hold three lectures

This week El Paso Museum of Art is holding three lectures which are free to the public.

Thursday night,  Dr Babette Bohn,  professor at Texas Christian University, will speak on the Museum’s painting “God, The Father”  credited as being by a follower of Lodovico Carracci.  Dr Bohn, who has impressive credentials including a Ph.D from Columbia University, is a specialist in Italian Renaiisance art. She is, in fact, preparing an exhibition for the Uffizzi gallery in Florence. The lecture will start at 6 pm.
On Sunday afternnon,  there will be two lectures. EPMA curator will give a talk at 1 pm on Impressionist prints, in conjunction with the opening of a show from the museum’s collection in the DeWitter gallery. At 3 pm, Dr  Jacqueline Orsini, who has a masters in world religions from Columbia and New York University, and is the author of a book on the Virgen de Guadelupe,  will give  a talk on the Virgen de Guadelupe, in connection with the presentation of retablos representing the Virgin de Guadelupe currently on display in the Museum.

Juarez Festival

I should have published this a few days ago, but here is the schedule for the Juarez city festival of the arts. All events are free.

El Paso airport looking for a few good artists

El Paso public arts program is looking for artists to be available for any upcoming projects for the Art Windows of El Paso program at the El Paso airport. Info is available at www.elpasoartsandculture.org and you press the public arts tab. Entries must be submitted by Jan 29.

Impressive photo shows at Centennial Museum

Two shows currently on display at the Centennial Museum on UTEP’s campus are in one case impressive and in the other inspirational.
“From Above: Images of a storied land ” features large scale photos taken by Adriel Heisel from a low-flying airplane. He apparently flies his plane   himself by taping his leg to the control stick leaving both hands free to take his photos. This also means he doesn’t have to tell a pilot where to fly, but can spontaneously swoop and dive at will.
These photos are mostly from the Navajo Nation, Hopi land and  a variety of other sites from Western Mew Mexico and Arizona as well as the Sonoran desrt. Flying low over ruins from Chaco Canyon and Puye cliffs as well as over various large formation glyphs gives form and pattern not immediately evident from an on the ground view. This exhibition which comes from the Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson contains amazing detail and some breathtaking views.
The other exhibition called Picturing grassroots development celebrates forty years of the Inter-American Foundation which invests in grassroots development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The photos of people involved in and benefitting from these projects are sweer and joyful, but it is even more inspiring to read about the projects involved. whether helping to preserve traditional cultures at the same time providing income for impoverished villagers or helping to create cottage industries this organization appears to be doing vital and extraordinary work. The photos attest to their good deeds and after viewing and reading about these projects one of the immediate questions is where can one sign up-david sokolec

 

Art events in EP and Juarez Nov 2-8

Friday Nov 6:

Cecilia Briones and Angel Miguel “Elel Parra” will open a two man show at the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juarez. Her show is called Desde el Precipico and his is Ecos del Silencio. Opening at 7.

Sunday Nov 8:

Unreal Cities, informal architecture zone by Emilio Said opens at the El Paso Museum of Art. Said, from Mexico City will be showing 22 formal abstract pieces in differing media which generate  visual fields exploring notions of space  ultimately creating their own abstract metropolis. Said himself will be here on Thursday Nov 12 at 6 pm to give a lecture on this work.

Casasolo photos at EPMH magnificent

As a part of the El Paso Museum of History exhibition celebrating the Taft-Diaz meeting of 1909, the museum is showing some extraordinary prints from the Casasola photo studio of Mexico City.
Agustin Victor Casasola (1874-1938) along with other photographers who worked for the studio as it grew toopk pictures not only of the famous but of daily life in Mexico City. This exhibition, which came through help of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso is a traveling show which has been all over North America.

Here in finely detailed black and white are photos of a very serious looking Agustin Lara at his piano, as well as Emiliano Zapata among other notables. Even more interesting are the  scenes of nightclubs, felons awaiting jail, street scenes and political protests.
Some of the photos have damage at the edges and many seem to have been flipped in the printing, but the detail in general is amazing. It also reminds of what we may be losing with digital photography. Much as I love the convenience of digital,  the rich blacks and  whites of these largish densely packed photos reminds what old style photography provided.-david sokolec

Concurso por Dia de Muertos at Museo

I was wondering if the Museo de arte here in Juarez was going to have another Day of the dead exhibition since last year’s resulted in a fire. Today I received this so it is definitely on:

Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez convoca

CONCURSO DE ALTARES DEL TRADICIONAL DIA DE MUERTOS 2009

B   A   S   E   S:

1. Podrán participar Asociaciones y Organizaciones Civiles, Instituciones de Educación Media, Superior y público en general.

1. Deberán inscribirse en la oficina del Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez a partir de la publicación de la presente convocatoria y hasta el viernes 30 de octubre en: Av. Lincoln y Coyoacán s/n, zona PRONAF, de 10:00 a.m. a  4:00 p.m.

La inscripción al concurso es gratuita.

1. Los participantes se comprometen a observar el cumplimiento de las presentes bases y el reglamento que será proporcionado al momento de su inscripción.

1. Se requiere llenar el formato de inscripción para quedar debidamente registrado.

1. En el caso de grupos se deberá nombrar un representante. En todos los casos el representante deberá ser mayor de edad.

1. El montaje de los altares deberá ser construido en el exterior del Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez los días sábado 31 de octubre de 11am a 6pm y el 1 de noviembre de 8am a 1pm.  Los altares permanecerán únicamente el 1º de noviembre de 3:00pm a 12:00 am.

1. Los participantes deberán comprometerse a usar en su altar los elementos tradicionales, dejando a su libre juicio el uso de otros objetos que lo complementen a impriman su creatividad.

1. El altar deberá estar dedicado a una figura pública (fallecida) del medio artístico, político, histórico o religioso de México.

PREMIOS

1. Se otorgará un primer, segundo y tercer lugar.

1er. Lugar: $8,000.00 (Ocho mil pesos 00/100)

2do. Lugar: $6,500.00 (Seis mil quinientos pesos 00/100)

3er. Lugar: $4,000.00 (Cuatro mil pesos 00/100)

1. Resultará ganador el altar que cumpla con todos los requerimientos estéticos y creativos.
2. El jurado estará integrado por personalidades del medio cultural y educativo de nuestra ciudad.
3. El fallo del jurado es inapelable y la premiación se entregará de manos de las instituciones convocantes el día de la celebración oficial en la explanada del museo.
4. Lo no previsto en esta convocatoria será resuelto por los organizadores.

Informes: (656) 616 74 14 y 613 17 08

Av. Lincoln y Coyoacán s/n zona PRONAF

museodearte.cdjuarez@gmail.com

Art Events-Rubin Center and more

Thursday: Oct 8

Rubin Center is having three openings on Thursday.

Photos from the Andy Warhol foundation will be in Project Space,

Ruben Verdu, Venezuelan artist currently living in Barcelona makes highly conceptual works involving a variety of media. A retrospective will be shown in the L space.

In the main Gallery, Snagged will feature the collaborative work between UTEP students and faculty and Tom Leader’s group from Tom Leader Studio in Berkeley. The studio concerns itself with large scale site installations involving man’s interaction with the environment. In this case, there is the use of accumulation to record memory and experience. This project involved site-specific work showcasing the Rio Grande valley. 5:30-7 pm

SPECIAL NOTE: Tom Leader will be giving a lecture at 3 pm on Thursday in the Rubin auditorium

Friday  Oct 9:
Sol y Luna Cafe (Torre Naranja) in the pronaf will be presenting the book by Arturo Ramirez Lara entitled Nanas para Dormir a Jonas and new works by Cecilia (La Catrina) Briones. The show is scheduled to start at 7.
Sol y Luna recently got a great write up in El Universal

Collectivo 8:06 will be having an opening at the cultural center of the city (next to Plaza de las Americas) at 8 pm.

Saturday Oct 10
Arts International. This is the 42nd year of this juried show with work from local and regional artists , and if past shows are any indication there will be nothing to disturb the casual viewer. This will be held at the main public library.
Tosca at CCPN
This is the first of the live broadcasts from the Met at the Cultural Center Paso del Norte. The CCPN is joining select countries and theaters around the world to show on an enormous screen a live broadcast of a season of operas live from the Met. There are only three other theaters in Mexico doing this, and of course no one else in the region, but countries as diverse as Argentina and Spain as well as certain theaters in the US are taking part.
The opening opera is Tosca, and it starts at 11. Tickets range from 150-50 pesos.-                    david sokolec

EPMA Call for Artists- llamada par Artistes

As MCAD in its infinite ineptness not only sends out incomplete info but makes the simple complex and the complicated impossible, I am providing a link to the entry form and info for the Border Art Biennial sponsored by the El Paso Museum of Art. If you go through all of the hoops, you find this link:

Este es la link para informes sobre la Border Biennial Buena suerte a todos

david sokolec

From New Spain’s art workshops

Among the many things Spain brought with them to North America was an apprentice style method of producing art as well as objects for everyday consumption. These workshops were called “Gremios” and  examples of their output are now on view at the gallery in the Centro Cultural Paso del Norte as part of the Chihuahua festival. Each Gremio was overseen by a Master artist as well as  someone who saw to the daily day-to day operation. Apprentices served for anywhere from 4 to 8 years before they advanced up the ranks eventually, hopefully reaching the level of Master.

The show, entitled  “Talleres Gremiales de la Nueva Espana”,  comes from the Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepozotlan. A remarkable display of work, it covers  the areas of ceramics, sculpture, painting and silver working. E
The show reveals some wonderful objects mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a sculpture with real hair attached; paintings are beautifully detailed as are the silver objects.
A beautiful show, important historically, and more than worthwhile on purely aesthetic grounds.-david sokolec