Previous Exhibits at El Taller

REFLEJOS PROPIOS (our own reflections) by Ron Gresham

Mixed media works on paper
December 2001

Primarily composed of mixed media (colored pencil, pastel, etc.) on gesso-covered paper, the works in this exhibit are figurative experiments in color, exploring how shape and light can be represented with color and hue. El cuerpo, the body, is the theme, the center and the beginning.

Purposefully small, these drawings are intended to invite the viewer to move in closer, to filter out the outside, to take an intimate look at the details. Once inside, unexpected colors create a psychological world where familiar forms evoke memories, dreams and new reflections.

Ron Gresham was born in Huntsville, AL. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art while living in Washington, DC. He has lived in New York City since 1996.

DAR A LUZ (bring to light): a celebration of life and creativity

Paintings by Nikol Drouin —— Photographs by J. Maya Luz Pliego
November 2001

Nikol Drouin was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada. She began painting at an early age then attended York University's School of Fine Arts, where she studied with Chilean master printer Eugenio Tellez and woodcut artist Antonio Frasconi. After art school, she settled in Montreal. There she became involved in the Latin-American community, which led her to travel extensively in Latin America and learn Spanish and Portuguese. Her painting style owes a great deal to latin influences. She has exhibited her art work and painted murals in Montreal, New York and Cuba.

Nikol is presenting a series of acrylic paintings and gouaches, portraits of 'Wayward Angels', winged and wingless angels on an unholy quest-rising through dark waters, waltzing through fire and winter lightning, celebrating love at the heart of chaos. Also featured : verses by T.S. Eliot and the sound of winds across the continent.

Jennifer Maya Luz Pliego was born and raised in NYC. Her family life was as diverse as the city itself as it was both multicultural and interfaith: her maternal side of Eastern European decent and her paternal side from Mexico. She received her BA from Bennington college in 1992 where she studied photography with Neil Rappaport. During this time and for a few years after graduating, she was a freelance photo assistant in NYC where she gained insight into the fast pace of commercial photography. Between 1994 and 1996, she was studio manager to David Seidner where she was able to learn more about the fine art side her craft. She has shown in many small galleries in NYC but, found a home at The Latin American Workshop where she felt she could explore her roots. This exhibit, "Dar A Luz - bring to light" will be her second showing at The Latin American Workshop. Her first, "God Space", in December 2000 explored the icons and statues in churches and cathedrals throughout central Mexico.

In my work I am searching for an "equivalent" from the external world for my internal questioning process. The answers come from the experience of taking pictures itself. The images are made in collaboration with whatever subject matter I behold. In this way I am not a director, but a confident. I am given a unique opportunity to participate in moment as well as observe it. There is a metaphor found in the external landscape that can describe the internal one.

This work in progress, "Dar A Luz - bring to light" began as an investigation into my own desire to give birth, both literally and metaphorically. I wanted to behold modern models of maternity (sheros) as I contemplated this choice for myself. I also wanted to explore the idea of birth as a continual journey of creativity and renewal that we embark on as individuals. The process of maturity occurs as we give birth to ourselves.

This work is also a dedication to my mother who died in 1995. Through this work I am able to thank her for her motherhood. It has been through this work that I have been able to palpate the delicacy of life and the importance of creativity or renewal despite change.
J.M.L. Pliego

The Tlaloques by Héctor Olivares

October 2001

Through a legion of characters named The Tlaloques, Olivares explores the man as a being that mutates through time. This exhibit features some 22 drawings in figurative and abstract style using the conté media.

In my work, the cosmos is a system and this system is created by The Tlaloques. They are the bridge between us and the cosmos. They are time, speed, energy, movement, space... They are driver and vehicle at he same time. They themselves are the rain.

These images are the product of a childhood evocation. They are shreds of time from my memory.
Héctor Olivares

"The work of Héctor Olivares occurs in this unusual world where shapes acquire a density and weight that closely relates to life itself; where gravity incarnates a moral, rather than a physical dimension."
Eduardo Antonio Parra, Mexican writer

"In this new valorization, Olivares leaves behind the cannon of classical sculpture and its representation of equilibrium and gravity. He goes, instead, for incredible acts of acrobatics, figures in flight, fish people, he goes for the man who keeps the rock of conscience, for Tlamatini: Knowledge, and for the duality that is part of everybody and everything and that he has represented in an impossible hug."
Cándida Portugés, Noticias del Mundo

Adolfo Revuelta's INNER IMAGES (Imagenes del Centro)

September 2001

Adolfo Revuelta's presence in sculpture began with a mature use of traditional materials such as wood and steel. He then turned to conceptual art (through organic and figurative expressions), backed by an emotional and straightforward discipline, both in precise drawing and in the making of his sculptures.

The economic cost of transforming matter sometimes creates problems for an artist's language. Through the observation of natural elements, including a dry branch, tree or a recently found stone as well as his respect for the sculptor, Scholsser, Revuelta has searched for his own language. His appreciation for organic rubbish is clearly seen in his piece, "sarcophagus for a tree".

Adolfo Revuelta was born in Palencia, Spain, and studied Art at the Universidad de Salamanca. Since 1972, his work has been exhibited in several European galleries. This is his first exhibition in the United States.

PETTO'S FAKES: True Fake Art from a True Fake Artist

August 2001

My work is a psycho exploration of myself. It is a statement about the values that should be important in our society: integrity, beauty, quality and true fake art...
This work is what gave a purpose to my fake life...
I am a fake victim of the system...
I am the one and only, authentic true fake artist, without borders and at the service of the real.
Oscarcito Petto Sosa, New York, 2001

Petto has exhibited in renowned contemporary art galleries, museums and biennials around the world. Parts of his work can be found in private collections in Argentina, Chile, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Italy and the United States. He is the True Fake Artist, the only one in the world..

To see more about the True Fake Artist please visit: www.contemporaryart.com/petto

Fotografias de Mauricio Ushiña A.: "Imagenes cotidianos y tradicionales en Ecuador"

Winner in the 5th National and 1st Continental Competition of Photography and Video, "Women, Images and Testimony 2000" in Cuenca, Ecuador.
June - July , 2001

To think and to question oneself and one's surrounding world seams to be an inherent human quality. Ushiña does it through photography. To me, it appears that the vantage point of art from the street has permitted him to be close to people, to speak of himself through the things that happen, to suggest whether he is for or against something, but in a clear, agreeable and conversational tone. All themes are important and vital to him. He brings them into focus with a sharpness and skill that is both acurate and passionate. Photography - his photography - becomes a reflective antidote, full of warmth, battling pedantry and dogmatic intimidation.
Fabián Guerrero Obando

I am a son of the Earth in this, the Center of the World, Quito. My roots come from the indigenous village of Kita Kara. I wish to capture, to recover our historical memory through photography. My real work is to record in images the identity of nationalities and the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador.

Other Exhibits

Angelo Romano

"Awakening": paintings and nature collages by Sonia Sola

"proceso" by Benji Rosen

QUESTIONS AND SWORDS: Paintings by Domitila Domínguez & Antonio Ramírez.

from Guadalajara, Mexico.

Domitila Domínguez

Antonio Ramírez

In celebration of Subcomandante Marcos' new book, Questions & Swords, illustrated by Domi Books available to be signed by the artists at the opening.

About "El Colectivo Callejero": In 1985 in Mexico City, a group of friends conceived the idea of creating a collective portfolio of serigraphs with the city being the unifying theme. They discussed the necessity that the images that they created would reach out to everyday men and women, people on the street. They agreed that the political propaganda of the left suffered from the absence of a hugely important ingredient---the artistic element---and that this ingredient it was simply a heap of paper without meaning.

When the EZLN marched out of the Lancondon jungle on 1 January 1994, the Colectivo Callejero immediately identified themselves with the Indian rebels struggle. A series of books that illustrated he words of el subcomandante Marcos, in particular the stories of el viejo Antonio. To date the books published by the Colectivo Callejero are: " The Story of Colors" illustrated by Domi Domínguez; "The Story of questions" illustrated by Antonio Ramirez; "The Story of the Sword, the Tree, the Stone, and the Water", also illustrated by Domi.