El Gozo De Vivir by Vayadares & Papalote by Peace Kat

Open to the public from October 10, 2024 to January 15, 2025

Two artists unite in a stunning art showcase that evokes the joy of life and kites, bringing you closer to the vivid colors of Oaxaca alongside the iconic imagery of contemporary Mexico.

EL GOZO DE VIVIR BY CRISPÍN VAYADARES

"El Gozo de Vivir" presents a vibrant collection of works by the celebrated Oaxacan artist Crispín Vayadares (1962-2020). Born in San Miguel del Puerto, Vayadares was a self-taught artist whose paintings are characterized by their intense colors, textures reminiscent of woven textiles, and a joyful pictorial universe populated by children, brides, lovers, saints, birds, cats, Oaxacan food, and an infinity of forms that nourished his life.

Though born in the coffee-growing mountains of the Oaxacan coast, Vayadares grew up in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where his first contact with art was through the painting of huipiles (traditional blouses). This early experience led him to explore watercolor and three-dimensional figures, a path that eventually led him to abstraction. Vayadares masterfully transitioned from watercolor to oil, creating Dionysian and unparalleled universes.

PAPALOTE OR THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT BY PEACE KAT

This exhibit presents a fascinating exploration of cultural intersection and historical interplay by Peace Kat (Katherine Wong), a contemporary artist of Jamaican origin who has made Mexico her home. Kat's work is a vibrant fusion of figurative, abstract, and conceptual elements. In this exhibition, she interweaves characters and historical scenes from Imperial China (specifically the Tang Dynasty) with the present-day, local, and mestizo reality of Spanish-speaking Mexico.

Drawing inspiration from Oaxaca, where she has lived and worked since 1993, Kat's paintings replace the spatula, prominent in her previous series, with the delicate strokes of a brush. This shift results in methodical, allegorical, and delicate pieces that evoke youthful tenderness, a desire for social provocation, and a childlike vivacity, blending elements of Chinese and Mexican cultures. Spiral compositions, reminiscent of ascending kites, often in the traditional diamond shape, address themes of identity and family lineage.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Crispín Vayadares (1962-2020) was an artist who lived and worked in Oaxaca, Monterrey, Mexico City, and Miami. He exhibited individually and collectively in Mexico and abroad in more than a hundred exhibitions in museums and high-level galleries throughout an artistic career of 40 years. In 1993 he won the Boca Raton Museum Jury Award in Ft. Lauderdale. This same year he also presented his work in the art fair Art Miami. He won the gold medal of the LX Union Congress in recognition for his career and artistic contribution to Mexico in 2008.

He has been published in Vogue Mexico, Casas y Gente, Arte al Día Mexico, La Jornada, and El Financiero. His work is part of important private and public collections. He developed textile visuality by weaving color with brushes and palette knife through the deconstruction of traditional Oaxacan textiles makings his canvases become textiles within themselves. He also created his own universe through a personal iconography that included children, masked wrestlers, couples and lovers, madonnas, isthmian textiles, animals and Oaxacan cuisine, that navigated between the figurative and the abstract.

Peace Kat (Katherine Wong, Jamaica, 1969, Mexican by nationalization) is a contemporary artist who, due to her great capacity for plastic mutability, develops a body of work that converges between the figurative, the abstract and the conceptual. She graduated from Brown University with honors in visual arts, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. During her time there she was the recipient of two Ford Foundation Work Grants to assist recognized artists as well as the Arnold Fellowship. She has shown her work in both Mexico and the United States.

Texts by: Erik Castillo y Alejandra Bustamante.