 
 
CHRISTMAS
IN OAXACA
Guelaguetza!   
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Galleries & Studios
in Oaxaca |
also:
Museums
in & around Oaxaca
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Original artwork is not limited by the $800.00 duty-free exemption when you return home– paintings, sculptures, and hand-woven rugs, hand-carved wood animals, hand-made pottery, etc.– are considered original artwork. They are duty-free and you don’t have to claim them at the Customs.
ART GALLERIES
ARTE DE OAXACA located at Murguia 105 between Alcala and 5 de Mayo was founded in 1987 with the help of famous Ocotlan artist Rodolfo Morales to promote young Oaxaca artists in Mexico and internationally, an effort that has been very successful. Prominent among the artists are Rodolfo Morales (whose work has inspired so many other artists in Oaxaca), Filemon Santiago, Eddie Martinez, Cecilio Sanchez, Abelardo Lopez, Fernando Olivera, and Enrique Flores. Flores and Sanchez work in gouache on amate (bark) paper; Santiago and Lopez are oil painters; Olivera and Martinez work in various media. A print workshop is allied with the gallery.
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ARTE MEXICANO is located in the Plaza Santo Domingo on Alcala 407 at the corner of Allende and has been operating since 1990. The gallery is one of the most important in Oaxaca and has successfully promoted its artists and crafts people world-wide. (The owner's mother, from Pinotepa de Don Luis, ran a handicrafts shop, hence the gallery's collection of beautiful coastal huipiles.) Among the artists are Juan Alcazar, Justina Fuentes, Bonifacio Garcia, painters and printmakers; painter Luis Inffanzon; the sculptor in black clay. Adriana Alanis makes papier Mache sculpture, large modern figures yet reminiscent of the hinged-limbed dolls sold as popular art. Another part of the gallery sells popular art: fantastic painted wooden iguanas by Gerardo Ramirez from Arrazola, painted wood cats and standing lions by Maximiliano Morales, pottery figures from the Guillermina Aguilar Family, erotic painted reliefs and figures by Luis Valencia, whose sons are also represented by the gallery; papier Mache by the Linares Family in México City, and Marco Antonio Abarca's amazing altar pieces filled with angels, circus creatures and Adam and Eve.
CULTURAL CENTER FLORES MAGON which is run by the Social Security Institute is located at Alcala 302 between Murguia and Abasolo. It holds temporary exhibitions of visual arts and handicrafts, theatrical productions and other events in the adjacent patio, as well as foreign movie showings.
CULTURAL CENTER OF OAXACA (Casa de la Cultura) is located in the Ex-Convent of the “Siete Principes” on Gonzales Ortega 403 on the corner of Colon. Since 1971 this magnificent 18th century, two-story, ex-convent has been a government-run institute with workshops in music, the visual arts, poetry, dance and theater. It hosts temporary exhibitions in three galleries, concerts and lectures.
EL SOY y LA LUNA (gallery and restaurant, bar) was located on M. Bravo 109 between Alcala and Garcia Vigil. They have since relocated. Paintings, prints and drawings are hung around a fun night place with good food and live jazz.
GALERIA GRAFICA SORUCO is located on the Plazuela Labastida. Artists represented include Francisco Toledo, Rafeal Soruco, Grace Bishko, Sergio Hernandez, Shinzaburo Takeda, Ruben Leyva, Luis Zarate, José Villalobos, and Guillermo Olguin Toledo, Takeda, and Olguin show etchings, engravings and lithographs; the other artists exhibit prints and oil paintings. All are well-established artists now living in Oaxaca; gallery owner Soruco is originally from Bolivia.
GALERIA N. MAYES is also located on the Plazuela Labastida on the corner of 5 de Mayo. Paintings of women and children by gallery owner Nina Mayes.
GALERIA MIGUEL CABRERA is located at Independencia 909 between Fiallo and Armenta y Lopez. Established in 1984, this one-room gallery near the Alcala Theater holds exhibitions by Mexican and foreign artists and groups.
GECKO is located at 5 de Mayo 412 on the corner of Constitucion. It is a small commercial gallery attached to a coffee shop/patio, showing good quality work by Rafael Charco, Soledad Velasco, Dionisio Martinez (who recently won a prize in Japan), Bonifacio Garcia, Artemio Gomez, Deborah Allan (English photographer/artist living in Oaxaca), and others.
LA MANO MAGICA is located on Alcala 203 between Morelos and Matamoros, across street from the Museum of the Contemporary Museum. It is one of Oaxaca’s major galleries which has pioneered the “Oaxaca School” and helped create its international fame. Among the artists are Felipe Morales, Ruben Leyva, Emiliano Lopez, Maximo Xavier, Mario Mizrahi, and Héctor Vasquez. The gallery has a front exhibition space and sells a wonderful selection of handicrafts in the back. Mary Jane Gagnier de Mendoza, the gallery’s curator attributes the shop’s rapid expansion and success since opening in 1992 to the passion for Oaxaca and its art on the part of those involved in the gallery; its distinction is being a “bridge” between folk art and contemporary painting.
MUNICIPAL GALLERY of OAXACA located at Porfirio Diaz 115 between Independencia and Morelos in a patio with government offices off the corridors. It has changing exhibitions in all media by local, national and international artists. The Rufino Tamayo Institute of Graphics Arts shows here.
OLLIN GALLERY Arte y Tradicion is located at Garcia Vigil 406 between Matamoros and M. Bravo. A small but interesting gallery started in 1995, OLLIN carries fine, original work. Adrian Gomez's figurative design tapestries made in the Gobelin technique are unique in Oaxaca. Vidal Ambrosio shapes and paints stones, to hang on the wall and makes beautiful abstract collages inspired by “papel picado”, the cut tissue paper hung up for fiestas. Edmundo Aquino does lithographs; Virgilio Gomez, Cesar Reyes and Jorge Bautista are featured painters.
TURISSSTE is located on Alcala 302 between Murguia and Abasolo. It’s a one-room gallery with changing shows of visual arts and handicrafts, usually of good quality.
There are also
ART STUDIOS and WORKSHOPS
in Oaxaca. Following is a partial list.
ARTE DE OAXACA located on Alcala 305, (2nd floor) between Murguia and Abasolo. At this workshop printmakers take one-year courses (beginning in February) in etching and engraving from Barrera, a fine artist in his own right. High quality prints are sold on the premises and at the Arte de Oaxaca Gallery. Visitors are welcome; space and facilities for rent.
MARIO BOURGET is a painter, sculptor and restorer. He can be reached by phone at 2 14-74. Oaxacan native Bourget worked with his father nine years on restoration of the interior of Santo Domingo Church. He studied and traveled in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy and in 1973 executed the fountain sculptures in Oaxaca’s newly-restored Zocalo. His other work includes the mural of clay vessels in the dining room of the Camino Real Hotel, the fountains in the Museum of Contemporary Art, a bronze Christ in the Cathedral of Mexico City, and the monument celebrating the founding of the City of Oaxaca on the road to México.
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GRAFICA SORUCO located in the Plazuela Labastida 104 is a workshop founded in 1984 where Oaxacan and international printmakers produce lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, and work in innovative techniques, shown at Grafica Soruco Gallery.
RUFINO TAMAYO INSTITUTE of GRAPHIC ARTS Juarez 514 between Constitucion. and Dr. Liceaga was founded in 1974 by Oaxaca native Rufino Tamayo (one of México's internationally-renowned muralists) in cooperation with the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA). The workshop has thirty students and professional artists, including Shinzaburo Takeda, Luis Aguirre Andriacci, Maria Teresa Arias Diaz, Tomas Pineda Matus, Rebeca Martinez Pérez, and Rolando Sigñenza Acevedo. Prints and ceramics are sold in the small gallery on the premises.
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