Amazing (Mostly) Women Artists! Downtown Tucson Art Walk, 8 May 2011

Last night, I walked to Tucson's downtown "art's district", where artists are renovating old train depot warehouses, in exchange for art studio and gallery space. In today's installment, I visit three galleries: Studio One, Central Arts,  and Raices Taller.  Each gallery had excellent work.

"Heart On Fire" by Martin Quintinilla (size: very big, wall sized)

First stop was a new place called Studio One Gallery.  I just kind of walked right into it, I didn't even know that it was there. It's a new place, and they'll have their official opening next month, but are open tonight to be part of the Art Walk.  Studio One Gallery is a small room just off of Toole Ave.  The room itself is about 10 feet x 20 feet.  The artists showing here now are: Martin Quintinilla, Paco Velez, Donovan White, Mary Miranda James, Gabriel Ruiz Villegas, Manuel Abril, Arial Diaz, Dave Sayre, and Rueben Moreno ( I may have overlooked one or two)  This show has about 20 pieces on its walls.

By the far, the best piece here tonight at Studio One is a very large unmounted acrylic on canvas painting by Martin Quintinilla, called "Heart on Fire". When Quintinilla is good, he's really good. His best stuff reminds of a Mexican pop-art Hieronymous Bosch. Everywhere you look, there's something going on. It's like an explosion of cartoons, surrealistic imagery, pop culture artifacts, graffiti, patterns, and textures. The effect on the senses is "holy shit!"  He's also got a small alterpiece to Jimi Hendrix, which I think is really great. Look for his work. Highly recommended.

Jimi Hendrix alterpiece, by Martin Quintinilla

Further on down the street is the new gallery called Central Arts Collective, which is a very large brick warehouse. Lots of space here, and I think that about 15 artists are showing here tonight. I showed up a bit late, so I only got to talk to two artists here about their work, before closing time. First was a woman named Kaye Guerin, who has an interesting textural painting called "Changing Woman".

Kaye Guerin, with her piece "Changing Woman"

The painting shows a young girl being escorted up the Chiracahua Mountains by her father, in what is know in Sioux Indian culture as the the "Sunrise Ceremony". According to Guerin, this happens when a young womans enters puberty.  The painting show a young girl climbing the Chiricahua Mountains with her father, but unless you know the backstory, the meaning might be lost on you. Luckily, I'd bumped into Kaye when I entered the gallery, so she explained the story to me.

Guerin's interest in the "Changing Woman" ceremony is due, in part, to her being part Sioux Indian herself, and also because she actually a "Changing Woman" ceremony.  Her painting documents the story.  She says that she's trained in Classical European Art, and that shows in the way she's composed her picture (along a diagonal that goes from the lower right to the upper left), as well as how she's treated the figure, using light and shadow. However, she's added her own innovation: a sort of built-up texture in the figures that gives the painting a bas-relief effect: the figures protrude from the surface, because they are actually sculpted. Thus, this piece is a painting with a lot of sculptural elements. Guerin regards this as a secret formula, because she had to figure out a way to incorporate sculptured images onto a flat surface without them falling off due to their weight. (The solution, she tells me, is a sort of weaving and layering process) So Kaye Guerin's work is about two things: the "Changing Woman" ceremony (which she illustrates), and the unique assembly technique which she uses to hold this thing together.

Also on exhibit tonight is new work by artist Peg Wilmore. She likes to paint pictures of reflective surfaces. The work here tonight is images of streetlights in the rain. They are based on her own photographs. I've been watching Peg's work for years, and this is her best stuff. She's really loosened up, and become more gritty and expressionistic. This is due to the fact that she's now painting with a pallate knife, and that she's working with just a few colors, usually no more than two or three. I really like her new work, I think it's great.

"Slippery" by Peg Hansen (oil on wood panel)

Peg Hansen with her painting "Red Neon" (oil on wood)

The last gallery I visited was Raices Taller (on 6th Street).  This was there big yearly "Mujeres!" show, which features the work only made by women.  There was a big party atmosphere at the gallery, as there usually is at Raices. Lots of variety. all type of work. More than half of the work in this show is paintings, so I'm happy that Raices is keeping with art and tradition; if you're going to have an art exhibit, you've got to have drawing and painting! I counted 52 paintings, 8 photos, 8 mixed media pieces, 6 sculptures, and 1 installation piece.  As far as themes go, the work is very varied. What was surprising to me is that for an exhibit that showcased the work of women artists, there were very few actual images of women. The most notable images of women were Mel Dominguez's night club singer, and Sofia Gomez's photos of "Abueltias": Mexican grandmothers smoking cigarettes.

"Abuelita" by Sofia Gomez

Lori Anderson turned in an excellent wall sculpture called "Grandmother". The face is made of ceramic, mounted on copper, with strands of fiber as hair.

"Grandmother" by Lori Anderson (sorry for the blurry image)

Right next to Lori Anderson's piece as a colorful painting by Pilar Hanson called "On The Move 3". Lots of bright colors (hot pink, orange, yellow, and blue)  The image is of a cowboy (or cowgirl?) on a horse. The word "Taos" is in the background.  There's a line that snakes throughout the picture, with dots on it; probably a map of a trip to Taos, via horse, and the destination? The "5th house"... (just guessing)

"On the Move" by Pilar Hanson

One of my favorite pieces is a sculpture by Pauline Pedregon, called "Beauty Secrets Revealed". The piece looks like big ceramic girdle, that is decorated to resemble muscle. It looks like a stripped muscle sculpture.  A mysterious hand (painted on the sculpture) reaches from behind, towards a breast, which is covered with flowers.

"Beauty Secrets Revealed" by Pauline Rodregon (painted ceramic)

There's also an interesting painted wood piece by Michelle Misteike. The image looks like a rumpled scarf (or maybe it's just a design of her own invention). The top and bottom of this painting are cut into, and given a wavy-line shape (hard to see in my blurry photo)

painting by Michelle Misteike

 In the front room of the gallery, right by the front door, and next to a big hanging installation piece, is an allegorical painting by Mahala Lewis called "The Consumption of Fragility". The first thing you notice are chickens and hens, then you notice a bunch of psychedelic designs around the sides of the picture. As you look closer, it appears that they are in a cave. I know that this isn't the most high-falutin interpretation or description, but hey...I'm just trying to descibe what I'm looking at.  She's also got this Cezanne-like thing happening with her eggs: they look their stacked vertically against a flat wall.

"The Consumption of Fragility" by Mahala Lewis (oil on canvas)

This is a good exhibit! I wish I had more time to mention some other artists, but I got to the gallery late, and didn't have a lot of time.  But I liked what I saw! Lots of work, lots of variety, and what's more, it avoids agit-prop shtick. In another era, an exhibit devoted to women's art would surely have included several depictions of vaginas, which (in my mind) has become a cliche with women's art.  No vaginas in this exhibit. This show is an all-around wide variety of solid art, that just happens to be made by women. Well worth the visit!

And that sums up my brief tour of Tucson's downtown art scene for May 8, 2011. I'll be back with more in an another installment of...Tucson's Art Exhibits Reviewed!