Exhibition News for the Web

The Women of Michoacán:
Art and Artists
Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS)
has announced that KIIS and the Ministry of Culture of Michoacán have arranged
to bring an exhibition of Mexican artists to Kentucky entitled -- The Women of
Michoacán: Art and Artists.
In the fall of 2007, KIIS
was privileged to cosponsor with the Ministry
of Culture of Michoacán,
an art exhibition entitled
“Cinco Maestros
Michoacanos.”
Four KIIS institutions--Berea College, Morehead
State University, Murray State University and the
University of Kentucky-- hosted the exhibition.
Before arriving in Kentucky, the exhibition traveled
to California, Nevada and Chicago. “Cinco Maestros
Michoacanos” exhibited the works of five of the
most distinguished artists from the State of
Michoacán in Mexico. It featured 50 pieces of art: 45
paintings and 5 sculptures. As part of this exhibition,
the Secretary of Culture of Michoacán and one of the
featured artists attended the inauguration of the show
at Murray State University.
For the Fall of 2009 and Spring of 2010, KIIS and
the Ministry of Culture of Michoacán have arranged
to bring another exhibition of Mexican artists to
Kentucky.
The exhibition will be
entitled “The Women
of Michoacán: Art and
Artists.” The foci of
this exhibition will be
the work of female
artists and of artwork
representing images of
women in Mexico,
primarily indigenous women of Michoacán. This
exhibition will consists of 50 pieces of artwork
representing a variety of media--photography,
painting, ceramics and metalwork. Images of the
artwork in this exhibition, may be viewed at the
following gallery link: http://picasaweb.google.com/
fredkiis/MICHART2009?authkey=LP5oWV6G41Y
Art and Artists
Six artists feature in this exhibition from the Mexican State of Michoacán. A brief
profile of their work and their personal interests:
Ana Pellicer
Ana Pellicer was born in Mexico City and studied art at the New School
in New York. She has served as the national director of FONART, the
organization that oversees the popular traditional arts and crafts of
Mexico. Her copper sculptures have been exhibited throughout Europe
and several of her pieces form part of the permanent collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. For many years she has lived in
Michoacán in the village of Santa Clara del Cobre with her husband,
James Metcalf, also a renowned metal sculptor.
Leonor Solís
Leonor Solís was born in Mexico City and completed an advanced degree
in Environmental Biology at the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM). Concurrently she studied photography, trained under
some of Mexico’s most renowned photographers, and earned national
recognition by winning competitions and having her work published in
some of Mexico’s most widely circulated publications. For the past ten
years she has lived and worked in Michoacán.
Dolores Goméz
A native of Michoacán, Dolores Gómez has spent her career studying
traditional ceramics and designing and building high temperature kilns
throughout Michoacán. She and her husband have their own pottery
studio in Morelia called the Santa Maria de Guido pottery where they
make ceramic pieces from clay from Michoacán and fire them in kilns of
their own making and design. Many of their pieces are inspired by the
cosmogony of the Purépecha civilization, the indigenous group that
populated Michoacán long before the Spanish arrived. As Dolores says,
“our work is not solely a job; rather, it is a way of life which sustains us
and manifests itself in all that we do.”
Jéronimo Mateo
Jerónimo Mateo is a Purépecha who studied art at the University of
Michoacán in Morelia. He has had a long career devoted to producing
paintings of the traditions of the villages and people of Michoacán. He
has also been commissioned to paint a number of murals over the years.
Mateo has exhibited his work throughout Mexico and in Europe. He says
that growing up as a Purépecha, he “observed and felt the problems of a
marginalized group of people” which caused him to reflect on their
circumstances. He also realized that “everything changes with the
passage of time…as the new generations become transformed by
modernity.” It is his desire to conserve what little he remembers from his
youth, the disappearing world of his ancestors.
Marcela Ramírez
Over the past thirty years, Marcela Ramírez has been exhibiting her work
in Michoacán, throughout Mexico, and in California and Texas. Many of
her engravings, drawings, and paintings focus on the indigenous women
of Michoacán, the types of garments they wear and the traditional roles
they play. She has overseen the children’s fine arts program for the Casa
de Cultura in Michoacán and she also serves as a permanent juror to
evaluate state-wide arts and crafts competitions.
Rosa Angelica Gómez Mier
After studying in Mexico City, Rosa Angélica Gómez Mier returned to
her native city of Morelia to study under Michoacán’s best-known artist,
Alfredo Zalce, where she concentrated on painting and engraving. She
has exhibited throughout Michoacán and Mexico and was one of the
artists featured in an exhibition in Chicago in 2006 to celebrate
International Women’s Day. Shortly before he died, her mentor, Alfredo
Zalce, said of her: “Her creative impulse listens to the voices that life
offers her… It is exciting to see a young painter escape what is
fashionable, and paint what she wishes to without feeling compelled to
justify it.”
Schedule of shows:
To be announced.
For more information on the exhibition, please contact Maria Canning in the KIIS office at
[email protected]