Lena Bartula: Material Meditations and Eduardo Rincón: Cuercus

Lena Bartula: Material Meditations and Eduardo Rincón: Cuercus

By Margaret Failoni

 

Textile art in all its various forms, has slowly but surely taken its rightful place in the private and public world’s collections. It does not come as a surprise that more and more of the stars of this genre are coming out of Africa and Latin America. These two continents have maintained close ties to their rich cultural heritage, culling inspiration from the continued creation of native artifacts. Mexico is a front runner in this genre with artists and artisans who continue to create masterpieces while delving deep into their countries’ cultural past. 

 

The artist, Lena Bartula, lives and works in San Miguel de Allende and has lived in Mexico for many years. She is a dedicated student of the Mexican and Guatemalan huipil, a woven and sometimes embroidered garment. By embracing the Mesoamerican dress called the huipil as the vessel for her body of work, the North American artist Lena Bartula creates a bold body of contemporary art and process thinking. Bartula deconstructs, using the different native garments to create magic, contemporary pieces, sometimes in huipil shapes, sometimes in abstract collages, masks, and other objects. She has an uncanny gift with color and texture and has created ceremonial huipiles made of straw, feathers, or flowers. A well-designed catalog of her work will be available in the gallery during this three-month exhibition.

 

Nature is the name of the game for Eduardo Rincón. His exhibition is reminiscent of a walk through a museum of natural history with halls dedicated to the presentation of and education about plants. Rincón’s focus on this occasion is the-all mighty Oak. There are beautifully presented boxed seeds and leaves. A lovely small oak is presented in all its living beauty along with small drawings and oils. He is a true nature lover, a botanist similar to those of past centuries, who traveled with their pen and inks and watercolors. Rincón lives in the countryside just outside of San Miguel and has dedicated his life to studying and chronicling the nature that surrounds him.