MFAH gives Latin American art lovers huge present

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH)in Houston has given those interested in Latin American art an enormous gift. Completing 10 years of work, the International Center for the Arts of the Americas  at MFAH has begun putting their enormous treasure of primary source documents of 20th century Latin American and Latino art online. Starting by releasing  some 2500 documents which they expect to expand to some 10,000. This is thanks to Mari Carmen Ramirez who has spent years fighting for Latin American art to receive the recognition it deserves, as well as to what must have been a huge amount of work from researchers all of whom are given proper credit.
The archive is free for anyone to browse, and can be searched from a variety of different categories and subheadings. A cursory glance provided some wonderful reading: There is an article written in the 50′s by Francisco Zuniga complaining about not only the art school where he was teaching but art schools in general. It is an article that should be sent ot every University with an art department. There  are just amazing articles and letters, though I have to say that, at least on my woefully out of date computer some of the pieces seem next to impossible to read. Possibly if I had a new computer, they would come across more legibly, but there is still more than enough to keep anyone busy for hours. The archive can be accessed through their website

Speaking of online art, the VIP art fair is giving it a second go round from Feb 3-8. They have received something like a million dollars in investments to update their servers, etc, so presumably they won’t be plagued by some of the problems they had last year. Like last year it is a great way to see what international galleries have on offer. Especially for people here who are far away form the madding crowds and maddening crush of galleries in major urban centers, it  is an extraordinary opportunity.The fair can be accessed at VIPartfair.com

Congrats to Revista Coroto

Wanted to congratulate the team at newly founded Revista Coroto in El Paso for successfully achieving their funding goals on kickstarter last Thursday. The magazine, available online and in hard copy is the brain child of three MFA UTEP graqd students, Daniel Centano Maldanado, from Venezuela,  Daniel Rios Lopera, from Colombia, and Diego Bustos Deaza, also from Colombia, whose aim is to bring the best of Latin American writers to the world at large. All three have impressive credentials.The first issue can be found online at their website,RevistaCoroto.com I should add that it is in Spanish, natch. Here’s hoping this is the first of a long series of successful publications for them.-David Sokolec

What’s My Line?

I realize I just wrote about the Rubin Center, but I just learned about an opening they are having tomorrow (Nov 10) with a performancGae by one of the artists so I thought I would mention it, along with something else they are doing.

Artists Amor Munoz and Galia Eibenshutz, both from Mexico City,  are opening a show called Conductores, which explores not only the conduction of energy, but specifically draws attention to that most basic of forms-the line. Both seem to be involved in inclusion of the viewer, and Eibenschutz ( according to the press release) wants to show that the line is not something static, but alive. At the opening, Galia  will, in fact,  be having a performance  at 5:30. According to her CV, Eibenschutz has also extensively studied dance and performance art so it should be interesting to see what she can do. It also appears that the next day is her birthday so early wishes are in order. The opening itself is scheduled to run from 5-7:30. If you can’t make it, the show is scheduled to run through January 21.

I also want to call attention to a call the Center is making for a residency in Electronic  Arts. This is in conjunction with Cybershare program also at UTEP. the gist of the residency is that a work is to be commissioned which will be on a visualisation wall which is designed to foster appreciation for science, technology and mathematics, and which will also be used to foster community outreach. The artist must have an MFA, PhD or be able to show equivalent experience in technology based art. The deadline is Dec. 12, and more and perhaps more coherent information can be seen at rubincenter.utep.edu and click on residency for visual arts. David Sokolec

Regina Silveira shines at Rubin Center

I first fell in love with Brazilian artist Regina Silveira’s work a few years ago when I saw her work” Encuentros”at Zona Maco in Mexico City. I found these large black cutout forms of humans and various tools elongated like shadows on a wall particularly satisfying. So I was excited when I learned she was to have a show at the Rubin center.

She did not disappoint. There are several of her pieces here in a show called Limits, but I think the star is the site specific piece she entitled Coyotes, a name replete with multiple meanings and which she correctly thought particularly apt for our border.

The gallery is filled with black cutout coyote pawprints:they cover the floor, the wall and one feels completely surrounded by them. They might appear to have been randomly placed in the gallery, but I was told that there was, in fact, a very specific diagram for each and every one which was carefully followed.

Coyote paw prints might not sound like very much, but when one is in the large gallery space, one can either reflect on all of the multiple interpretations of the word, and the various type of coyotes who travel through our desert space; one can simply surrender oneself to the images on all sides or because the prints ascend the wall one can simply stare at them until like staring at the sea one can simply lose oneself in the space between the prints and the seeming unstoppability of them.

The show is up until December 10.

I also want to say something else about the Rubin Center. I just got a note that Nicola Lopez recently was given the opportunity to transform the interior of the Guggenheim to share her particular exploration of urban landscape, forcing people to physically walk though her work.

Awhile ago, this artist was part of a show at the Rubin Center and she  is just one of the many, many people who have shown at the center and then either gone on, or continued,  to make a huge contribution to the contemporary art dialogue. I am just wondering if people in the UTEP community, as well as the larger border community, appreciate the opportunity we have been given to see some exciting cutting edge art by some important and perhaps soon to be important artists. I’m not sure anyone really understands the gift this has been. I say this as one who has not always been enthralled with works shown, but I nevertheless appreciate the fact it is here, particularly since no one else seems to be doing anything else even remotely comparable. -david sokolec

Latin American Artists influence in the World

There are  (at least) two new shows and programs exploring the cross border explorations of Latin American artists and their influence on and from the rest of the world.

Sicardi Gallery in Houston is opening its fall season this Saturday, Sept 10 with a show of works on paper by four Latin American artists who moved beyond the borders of their own country and who also pushed the boundaries of  non-figurative art. The show features  Argentinian artists  Antonio Asis, and Manuel Espinosa as well as Brazilian artist Servulo Esmeraldo, all of whom either moved to Paris or travelled there in the 50′s,  The fourth artist, Argentinian born Antonio Lizarraga moved to Brazil in 1959. Info can be found at Sicardi Gallery’s website

The  Smithsonian is hosting a symposium October 5 and 6 which is exploring the interrelation of artists in North and South America. As their press release correctly points out,  the two regions have been studied separately, as though there was never a give and take between the two regions. With the renewal of interest in Latin American art (something which seems to happen every couple of decades, I must say) there has also been the realization that there was much more of an interconnection than hes been previously acknowledged. The seminars are going to be webcast and archived so that even if you can’t go, you can still access the contents. Information at the Smithsonian site.- david sokolec

Juarez US consulate fostering Creativity

I have to admit that when I used to think of the US consulate I used to think of lines, paperwork and high costs among other things, but I’ve recently discovered that a division of the US consulate here in Juarez is engaged in some really creative ways to interact with local citizens. They recently had a simulcast at Sol y Luna Cafebreria in coordination with the Plaza film festival, they are sponsoring at least one panel discussion in the upcoming Juarez writers conference; they brought the highly creative Circus Finelli, a quartet of female clown artists  from San Francisco to participate in Arte en la Parque and a few weeks ago they brought New York based artist Robert “Tres” Trujillo to Juarez to give a series of workshops.

Trujillo, whose “tres’ apparently stands for “treasure” rather then the number three, is an artist who does murals, comic books, graffitti, etc. Some of the people at the Consulate assumed that the turnout would be mostly youngsters or teenagers, and while there were plenty of those, there were also adults in their 50′s and 60′s. At the workshop at MUREF (Museo de la Revolution de la Frontera), they paired kids with adults and the resulting collaboration was, I am told, something inspiring to watch, not only in terms of what was produced, but watching the cross generational working together.

So kudos to the Consulate not only for trying to be creative in how it interacts with the Juarez community, but also with being open to alternative artistic explorations. To see more of Trujillo ‘s work, he has two blogs, and the US consulate is of course at  ciudadjuarez.usconsulate.gov.-david sokolec

Renovated Juarez Museum of Art opens great show

It was probably the blast of cold air from the interior of the renovated Museo de Arte that let people know something really major had taken place. Closed for repairs for the last 14 months the Museum, reopened last Thursday night to a huge crowd. From the water flowing in a semicircle around the outside to gleaming walls, refurbished roof and a host of other structural and electrical improvements, the museum has been restored to the iconic structure it was when built in 1963.
The first show in this restored museum focuses on depictions of the countryside and people living in that landscape across the last 100 years or so, Entitled Horizontes de Mexico, El paisaje en los museos del Instituto de Bellas Artes, the show brings together the work of 63 artists from 7 museums and galleries of the Institute de Bellas Artes as well as a number of other institutions.

Landscape in Mexican art played a somewhat different role than similar types of painting in the US. Early works were certainly imbued with the romanticism for the land found  in Europe and european romanticism, but after the Revolution, the government actively supported portrayals of the land and its people in an attempt to help form a national identity as well as celebrating indigenous laborers. There seemed to be an attempt at establishing a sense of “who we are” and the works here reflect that as well as portraying various indigenous workers, endowing them with a dignity that they perhaps did not always experience while laboring.

While elsewhere the European experiments with impressionism, cubism and other forms were taking center stage, in Mexico realistic portrayals of the landscape endured, combined perhaps with what was essentially a tribute to the local people and customs, and Mexico’s history and development.

During the 40′s, there emerged a parallel strand of surrealism, (it shouldn’t be forgotten that Andre Breton came to Mexico, pronouncing it perfect for a surrealist “since the whole country is surrealistic”).

In the 60′s, there emerged La ruptura in which artists began to work in a more experimental way playing with geometric forms and with abstraction.
In all of these formats however, the landscape often  played a part and this range and growth from the traditional landscapes of Jose Maria Velasco to David Siqueiros to contemporary purely abstract and symbolic forms is well displayed tin this excellent show, which also includes a room of various forms of engraving on the same theme..

Beautiful show in what is a beautiful museum once again-David Sokolec

Vinegaroon comes to Northeast El Paso

Tomorrow,  the 24th, Northeast Regional Park, in El Paso will be the scene for the unveiling of a new Public art sculpture entitled “Rivals”. Composed of hand-forged steel by local artist Lars Stanley, it features a representation of a Vinegaroon and a Scorpion. According to the press release, they will be facing each other in a challenging way, thus representing the friendly competitive way teams will be challenging each other on the playing fields.

Really!

A vinegaroon, also known as a whip scorpion, is a night hunting eater of insects and millipedes, though sometimes worms and slugs. (according to wikipedia). It crushes its prey between teeth on its legs and is valuable in controlling cockroaches. They are not venemous, but spay two kinds of acid which smell like vinegar, hence its name.

Scorpions, which are venomous, are also night hunters feeding on small arthropods and sometimes lizards and mice.

The Public Arts department always says it involves stakeholders in the community in its public art selection, and certainly those involved probably know the Northeast better than I do. Again according to Wikipedia, I see that Scorpions can consume huge amounts of food at one sitting,  have a relatively inactive lifestyle., and can sometimes glow in the dark.

Although scorpions eat small arthropods, it is not clear that it eats vinegaroons, but perhaps I am missing something.

One can imagine other artistic representations to indicate a friendly rivalry., but Vinegarooon and scorpion it is.

The Public Arts department has brought some world class sculptors to the city, even if those often abstract works aren’t always appreciated. This one seems questionable, but it is for the Northeast residents to enjoy.

Perhaps a Vinegaroon and a Scorpion are precisely what people want welcoming visitors to their park.  In any case the unveiling will be tomorrow morning from 10 to 11. The park is located at 5951 Redstone Rimstone Dr, off the Patriot Highway. Cans of insect repellent would be too unkind. david sokolec

 

Margarita Cabrera to open at EPMA

Long time local resident and internationally known artist Margarita Cabrera will be opening an exhibition showcasing 10 years of her work this Sunday (August 28). Long trying to draw attention to the workers who make commonly used products through her soft sculptures, she has recently been working with Mexican artisan communities to craft models of importance to those communities as well as to our own, such a a life size model of a John Deere Tractor in Clay.

The exhibition, in the Grand Lobby will be up for two years, and Cabrera will be at the opening scheduled for 2 pm David Sokolec

Por Fin-Museo de Arte en Juaresz to Reopen

After some 15 months or so (It seems like it’s been forever) the Museo de Arte in Juarez is set to reopen this Thursday night (Aug 26) with a showing of some 63 pieces culled from 7 museums in the INBA world. Called Horizontes de Mexico, it will feature 150 years of work in a variety of formats focused (if I have this correctly) on the countryside. Work form artists such as Tamayo, Siquieros and others will show how Mexican artists over the centuries  approached the question of depicting the landscape of Mexico.
The opening is scheduled to start at 6:30, and it will be as interesting to see the restored building as the works themselves. The museum, originally opened in the 60′s was actually supposed to be an architectural prototype for art musums through Mexico. The years have been somewhat unkind to it, but after a fire, it was decided take the opportunity o completely restore it. I have been looking fondly at the water recently returned to the  the outside moat, and it will be interesting to see what they have done to the interior. -David Sokolec