Tag Archives: exhibition

Virgin of Guadalupe Textiles Show in Mexico City

Created and curated by Oaxaca folk art collector Linda Hanna, this is a not-to-be-missed exhibition of hand-woven and embroidered textiles — an Homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe and who she is. The textiles — huipiles, rebozos, and other unique pieces — feature the image of our revered Mexican Mother, La Virgen de Guadalupe.

This is a testimony to the artistry and skill of Mexican artisans.

This is the first time the textiles will be exhibited in Mexico City. If you are visiting or live nearby, please see the exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares in Coyoacan (near Casa Azul). The exhibition opens December 4, 2019, and is spectacular and memorable.

Oaxaca Rugs in Philadelphia, Pa.

Omar Chavez Santiago from Galeria Fe y Lola in Oaxaca is traveling with me to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the end of the week to start a series of rug exhibitions, sales and natural dye demonstrations.

Events start on Saturday, October 27, 2018. We hope if you live in the region you can stop by.  On November 5 and 6, Omar will be in New York City — his first time to the Big Apple. We will confirm dates, announce location and time soon.

Huge thanks to Leah Reisman, Ellen Benson, Suzanne Bakewell and Kathleen Bakewell for organizing Omar’s visit. They made it happen!

We hope to see you. I’ll be there the first weekend. Stop by to say Hello!

Please share so we can give Omar a big Philly welcome. It’s his first time there.

If you want a PDF flyer, send me an email!

North Carolina Hosts Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Weaver with Two Trunk Shows

Omar Chavez Santiago is a fifth generation weaver from Teotitlan del Valle who works in natural dyes. His family operates Galeria Fe y Lola in Oaxaca city. I asked my Congressman G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) to alert the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City that Omar was coming on March 1, 2018,  for his visa interview. Few are successful. Omar received a 10-year visitor visa. He is here and we are excited.

Omar Chavez Santiago explains natural dyes in Oaxaca, Mexico

Wendy Sease, owner of INDIO Durham, will host Omar this weekend for a Mexico Art & Textile Trunk Show. Thank you, Wendy. Please come!

FIRST TRUNK SHOW — INDIO DURHAM

SECOND TRUNK SHOW — ECHOVIEW FIBER MILL, WEAVERVILLE

Thanks to Judi Jetson from Local Cloth and Grace Casey-Gouin from Echoview Fiber Mill, for hosting us in the Asheville area. Please let your NC mountain friends know!

Preparing the cochineal dye bath, Teotitlan del Valle

Getting the most intense red possible! Straining the bugs.

Bamboo bobbins with natural dyed wool, ready to weave

 

Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico at the Skirball Center, Los Angeles

Once the dust of Mexico settles on your heart,

you will have no rest in any other land.

On September 13, I joined Patrice Wynne and Gloria Orenstein at the Skirball Cultural Center in West Los Angeles for a curator-led preview tour of this landmark exhibition, Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico.

The exhibition runs through February 25, 2018.

The term promised land is rooted in a vision of freedom and liberation.  Emotionally, it has meaning for peoples seeking release from oppression who want a secure life where one can become fully realized without restraint. Jewish identity is intertwined with Israel as the promised land. African-American slaves looked to the north as a promised land. Oppressed peoples throughout the world continue to seek asylum in America, their hope of the promised land where opportunity and justice prevail. (We must be vigilant.)

Tina Modotti captures Anita Brenner in black and white

Anita Brenner (1905-1974), a Mexican-born Jewish writer who lived and worked during the Mexican Renaissance, saw the country adopted by her Latvian parents as a promised land for intellectual and artistic expression. Her own experience with prejudice and discrimination helped give her voice to bridge understanding.

Mexico was a haven for immigrants escaping Europe throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Even today, Mexico has a welcoming immigration policy. Her people are a blend of indigenous, Spanish, African, Filipino, Chinese, German, and French — representing waves of conquest and immigration. Jews sought haven in Mexico when the gates were closed to the United States of America. (Thank you, Mexico!)

Diego Rivera, Dance in Tehuantepec, watercolor

Brenner was an integral part of the circle of Mexican modernists in the 1920s and played an important role in promoting and translating Mexican art, culture, and history for audiences in the U.S.

Jean Charlot, The Massacre in the Main Temple, fresco, Collegio San Ildefonso

Born during the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Brenner was close to the leading intellectuals and artists active in Mexico at the time. These are names we know well: painters José Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jean Charlot, and photographer Tina Modotti. There were others whose name we do not widely know in the USA, including Rivera’s second wife, Guadalupe Marin, Frances Toor, Nahui Olin, Luz Jimenez and Concha Michel.   

Abraham Angel, La India

Art historian Karen Cordero says they would meet at Sanborn’s Casa de los Azulejos to talk about politics, social injustices, women’s rights, feminism, and other issues.

The exhibition introduces us to Brenner as an important figure who has been heretofore obscured by the more illustrious in her circle.  An influential and prolific writer on Mexican culture, Brenner is best known for her book Idols Behind Altars: Modern Mexican Art and Its Cultural Roots (1929). 

Cover of Mexico this month, February 1956

Her work is rooted in the shaping of post-Revolution Mexico, when a new identity for a new nation needed to be reassessed to reflect the persistent indigenous culture behind the Spanish conquest. The Revolution brought with it the need to create political, social and cultural change and artists turned to folk art as inspiration to re-imagine past with future.

Mathias Goeritz, Satellite Tower. He was close to Luis Barragan, architect.

She was also instrumental in creating cultural tourism for Mexico — promoting cultural exploration as a vacation activity by publishing the cultural travel magazine, Mexico this month. We can consider her a pioneer in learning about the people who live where you visit.

The Skirball’s exhibition includes a narrative of Brenner’s life. It features pre-Columbian art, paintings, prints, photographs and drawings by Miguel Covarrubias, Jean Charlot, Edward Weston, Leonora Cunningham, Maximo Pacheco, Lola Cueto, Abraham Angel, plus those we are more familiar with: Kahlo, Rivera, Orozco.

Lithograph by Orozco

Charlot was a disciple of Rivera who contributed to the murals at the Secretariat de Publica Education (SEP). He was in love with Brenner; they could never reconcile religious differences and did not marry, though they remained lifelong friends.

Cultural map of Oaxaca, Mexico/this month

Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty.

Gloria Orenstein, Norma Schafer and Patrice Wynne at the exhibition

Footnote: Los Angeles County has the second largest Jewish population and the largest Latino population in the United States.

Thank you to the Skirball Cultural Center for background information and photographs.

Carol Beron Ceramics Exhibition Opens at ARIPO, September 30

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Carol Beron is a ceramic artist who takes her inspiration from much in Oaxaca, from carved animal figures to pre-Hispanic indigenous organic forms. She lives in New York City and visits Oaxaca often.

At ARIPO Opening reception: Friday, September 30,  4 to 7  p.m.  

Exhibition and sale until October 15, 2016. 

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Where: ARIPO — Oaxaca’s state operated artisans gallery, Garcia Virgil #809, near the aqueduct and Plaza Cruz de la Piedra. Tel: 01 951 514 1354

ARIPO is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 pm., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

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All pieces are for sale and can be picked up on October 15  at ARIPO.

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If you are interest in particular pieces, please contact Carol Beron directly at  cgetrollin@gmail.com

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