In art as in life, Diego Rivera was a man constantly in rebellion. At 16, he left the prestigious San Carlos Academy in Mexico City in protest against the academy’s emphasis on representational art. He became an avid Marxist but outraged the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union by welcoming Trotsky to Mexico. Rivera shocked […]
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Porfirio Santiago is at his loom, diligently weaving a massive 2 x 3 meter rug with traditional designs, from memory, with representations of Zapotec diamonds, rainfall, maize and mountains… just as his father Tomás, grandfather Ildefonso and great grandfather before him. Wife Gloria is carding a mix of white and caramel colored raw wool. Behind […]
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Where others see a mass of shapeless clay, Hilario Alejos Madrigal envisions exquisite forms that are just waiting to be coaxed out. And it is this creativity that has played a key role in the success of this award-winning potter. “It is necessary and very important to have an imagination,” Alejos explains. “A lot of […]
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Lorena Rodríguez is shattering stereotypes about Mexican women one brushstroke at a time. “When I first started exhibiting outside of Mexico, I realized that a lot of people have this image of a Latin American woman as subdued, ignorant and in the shadow of men,” says the 34-year-old artist from Monterrey, Nuevo León. “They were […]
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The area’s reputation was considerably enhanced in the 1930s, ’40s and’ 50s by a long string of visiting writers and artists, many of whom settled permanently in the string of villages along the northern shore of the lake. This brief alphabetical listing of some of the stalwarts of the Lake Chapala art and literary scene […]
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Never have I known a name to so perfectly capture the essence of a person as in the case of artisan and philosopher Kupíha’ute-Itzpapalotl. Both parts of his name mean obsidian butterfly — Kupíha’ute in the Huichol language and Itzpapalotl in the Aztec or Mexica language. “The butterfly, or kupí, is the movement, the transformation, the continuous […]
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The Mexican state of Oaxaca is renowned for its handicrafts. From black pottery and handloomed Zapotec rugs to silverwork and alebrijes, the collector will find a wealth of beautiful handcrafted work. For some time, the Aguilar sisters of Ocotlan have created colorful terracotta sculptures, including figurines of women in traditional Oaxaca costume. Friduskas are newcomers […]
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Part of the wonder and adventure of experiencing life in Ajijic, Mexico is the incredible diversity of color in the natural world — pungent reds, a range of blues, pale purples, brilliant yellows — and of form: broad leaves, lace-like foliage, sharp narrow leaves of bamboo, and fields of cultivated raspberries, set between surrounding mountains […]
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Abdon Punzo Angel’s thick hands tapped minute details into the menacing snout of the copper dragon that sat immobilized in a vise, its body seeming to squirm. Beside him, another shiny dragon writhed from its base, teeth bared, tongue flicking, the scales across its back bristling. A candle holder sat on its head, another on […]
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Inspired by the caricatures of lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada, the elegant Catrina has her origins in Day of the Dead celebrations. Capula’s Catrinas arrived only recently. They stand in the doorways of this small quiet colonial town, Catrinas of every size and description decked out in flowered dresses and clenching flowers in their cratered teeth, plumed […]
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