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

Call for Artists-Llamada para artistes

I’m reproducing here the full bilingual text for the call for artists for the upcoming binational art show:

Call to Artists:

Border Art Biennial 2010 / Bienal Fronteriza de Arte 2010

DEADLINE: January 31, 2010

Exhibition will take place November 14, 2010 – February 13, 2011.

Description

The El Paso Museum of Art and the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juarez announce the Border Art Biennial 2010, the first juried exhibition to examine and highlight the often under-represented, but vital art and artists from the states on the US/Mexico border: Arizona , Baja California , California , Chihuahua , Coahuila , New Mexico , Nuevo León , Sonora , Tamaulipas, and Texas . To emphasize the notion of collaboration, each Museum will exhibit one of two artworks by every artist selected. All works included will be reproduced in the accompanying exhibition catalog.

Descripción

El Museo de Arte de El Paso y el Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez convocan a artistas residentes en los estados fronterizos entre Estados Unidos y México (California, Arizona, Nuevo México, Texas, Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León y Tamaulipas)  a participar en la  Border Art Biennial/Bienal Fronteriza de Arte 2010, exposición binacional que mostrará trabajos seleccionados por un jurado. De cada artista se escogerán dos obras para exponerse una en cada Museo. Se publicará un catálogo con la obra de la bienal.

Bikinis, lowriders and Chalk-MCAD Knows Culture

So maybe in Juarez we are being treated to international stars like Sarah Brightman, Concha Buika, opera, theater,dance,  accomplished international writers and amazing performers from all over the world for the next few weeks, MCAD on its limited budget is also providing cultural treats.
Last year was the first year for Chalk the block and the combination of music and watching artists chalk up small quadrants of the plaza by the Art museum proved a lot of fun, so this year they have gone all out and are running it for three days beginning this Friday night and running through Sunday. In addition to watching artists draw, there will be inflatable art sculptures called “lighter than air” in different locations including San Jacinto Plaza, Cleveland square as well as by the EPMA. There will also be a KIDZONE, skatepark, face painting and music by a wide variety of groups. All of these eventas are free and should be a great way to spend the weekend.

This Thursday night, the El Paso museum of Art is opening their show the bikini model and the builder featuring Liz Cohen’s exploration of lowrider culture in Phoenix and her self transformation into not only a builder of a lowrider car, but also into the sort of lowrider magazine pinup model that makes some of us buy the magazine. In conjunction with this there will be a dislplay of lowrider cars outside and the third Thursday will feature a rockabilly theme.

Who needs Tosca, Carmen and international stars when you can get down with homies from  da hood.-david sokolec

Concha Buika dazzled

OK, I know I am only writing about visual art here, but the Chihuahua festival brought Concha Buika to Juarez last Friday night, and she left the packed theater enthralled.

Born in Mallorca, her ancestry is from Guinea and she has become over the years an internationally recognized star with an amazing voice. Friday night she was accompanied only by her pianist and a drummer, who was using a type of drum he could sit on and play with his hands. She was dressed in a yellow top and long green african patterned skirt with a bright yellow train. From the first cords og nina de la fuego she mesmerized all of us with her voice. She sang flamenco tinged jazz and african beat mix with carribean sounds. Her unique rendition of the Carlos Gardel favorite Volver as more of a flamenco song was unique and she transformed the ranchera volver, volver into something else entirely.
She also showed how one doesn’t need huge projection screens or special effects-one only needs an extraordinary voice, top rate musicans and a first rate sound system and the audience will go away happy.
I kept thinking how the perfect venue for this particular show would have been a small nightclub or tavern full of dark wood, low lights a couple of tables and a spotlight on a small stage. Of course, most of us wouldn’t have been able to get in, and the sound system was so good that we could hear her pefectly, but the intensity in a smaller room would have just been unimaginable. In any case, this was a concert to be savored for a very long time, and the organizers of the Chihuahua festival should be thanked for consistently bringing such an enormous range and diversity of talent to Juarez-David Sokolec

Nuevo Leon Painters

As a part of the Chihuahua festival going on all month, tomorrow night (Friday 11) will mark the opening of a show if painters from Nuevo Leon at the  museo de arte de Juarez. There will be 32 different works in a variety of media. The opening will be at 8 pm.

As was the case last year, the Chihuahua festival is bringing a large variety of extraordinary musicians, dancers, performers and literary talent to this city for the whole month. The opening tomorrow night conflicts with a variety of literary round tables which are going on today, Friday Saturday and Monday, the latter in El Paso at UTEP and the Mexican Consulate. These discussions range from local poetry to international literature with speakers coming from equally far rangong places including France and Greece. For complete info go to the Cultural Center website. (ccpn.com.mx) and try to take in at least some of the events many of which are free.-david sokolec