Linda Laino

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Bio:

Linda Laino is a visual artist and writer who has been making art in one form or another for over 45 years. With an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, she was influenced by language from a young age, and moves between painting and writing in search of the connections and the crossover. In recent years, she has been making art around the world at residencies in France, Spain, New Mexico and most recently, Maine. In June, she will travel to Greece where she was awarded a grant for a month-long stay to paint on the island of Skopelos. Her poems and prose have been published with distinction in many small presses and anthologies, most recently in”La Presa” out of Guanajuato City. Her poem, “Poem at Sixty” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. Originally from Philadelphia and Richmond, Virginia, since 2012, she has lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where the color and flavor blow her mind daily.

Linda Laino/Artist Statement

I approach art-making as an investigation. My paintings are not planned and never attempt to tell a story. The narratives evolve as a by-product of my subject matter and process, coupled with my response. Rooted in nature and biology, I rely on intuitive associations, remembered forms, repeat patterns, and chance encounters with my chosen materials to provide structure and visual vocabulary. While I  paint mainly with watercolor on rice paper— exploiting the transparent qualities of both— I don’t believe in a hierarchy of materials and will use whatever media that makes the image feel more convincing. To that end, my arsenal also includes gouache, charcoal, graphite, conte, wax crayons, ink, and acrylic.

While my paintings have always been representational, during the pandemic, I returned to  figures, exploring unusual ways they might interact with various forms of nature or biology: animal, plant, and human. These figures appear to merge with the organic forms physically, psychologically or metaphorically. I’ve always been enamored with the idea that as humans, we are nature, and so it is a matter of “like meeting like”.

In my practice I attempt to map where I’ve been. This results in a surface that not only exploits the qualities of different media but also different levels of finish. I prefer to let the viewer see the history of my thought process.

I like to think of the visual layering of my images as similar to the way we hear sound in our daily lives. Incongruous sounds enter and exit our space without consent resulting in a tapestry of song that needs no composer. We encounter the world visually in the same way, but mostly in a blur, unconscious and un-awake. I hope to harness the stillness of that moving picture in an effort to arrest the viewer and create a vivid sense of experience.

Paola Rippoli y Thibault Barrére

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Paola Ripoll (1994) is a Mexican painter from the city of Querétaro. From a young age she was drawn to the art world. He began his training in art classes with Mexican artists Andrea Avendaño and later Román Miranda. Her eagerness to learn more led her to take drawing painting courses in Milan and Florence, until she finally settled in the latter to begin her formal training at The Angel Academy of Art from which she graduated in June 2018.

During his time in Italy, Ripoll had the opportunity to meet and learn from great contemporary painters such as César Santos and Jura Bedic. He complemented his studies in some courses at The Florence Academy of Art and with drawing lessons with the great Russian artist Sergey Churbiko in his atelier: Bottega Chiaro Scuro.

Paola's work has been selected for various exhibitions in Europe and can also be found in private collections. Currently one of his paintings ("Self-portrait with glasses") is on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The artist now resides in San Miguel de Allende where she runs her own atelier of academic painting and drawing methods.

Thibault Barrère is a French artist born in Grenoble in 1988. His interest in the arts began very early and in 2012 this led him to Florence to study at The Angel Academy of Art, where he completed the fundamental program of drawing and painting.

In addition to painting, Thibault expanded his areas of expertise towards engraving and sculpture. The same that he learned through specialized courses he took in Florence while studying painting.

From that moment on, Barrère has been exploring traditional painting techniques. Following recipes from the great masters of the past as well as those of his contemporaries, Thibault found a passion in the creation of his pigments and media as well as the construction and preparation of his fabrics and frames.

He begins to develop his works from sketches of his imagination that are followed by studies from a live model.

The narrative of his work is based on various mythologies, with the purpose of gaining a greater understanding of humanity. His work is an infinite search for the perfect balance between technique, craft and narrative.

Find inspiration in the Baroque movement, especially in the design, the color palette and the handling of light that dominated in that era.

His path through the art world has led him to live in different countries, including Bulgaria, Italy and France. His work has been selected in several very important pictorial competitions (Figuratives, Lang Leve Rembrandt, Mall Galleries). The artist currently lives in Guanajuato, Mexico, where he continues to develop his work in addition to sharing his knowledge in his own atelier: Atelier Barrère-Ripoll.

Estefania Mongrell

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Through my art I experiment with unconventional textures and materials seeking to recreate and allude to certain characteristics of nature.

In my painting I seek to capture an image that maintains its freshness, looking for a line that is always in motion. Creating landscapes with endless skies and plants with their own life.

Together with the spatula and other tools as well as materials, I intend to recreate the organic of nature. Its irregularity that makes it perfect to its invisible imperfection.

Estefania Mongrell was born in Ciudad Victoria Tamaulipas in 1994 and studied Art Education in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Mongrell has exposed in the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in Texas and several locations along the border of the Valley in South Texas and in the north of Tamaulipas. Recently she moved to San Miguel de Allende were her creativity now blooms with its landscapes and colors that surround her in the hearth of Mexico.

Sixto Rey

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Sixto Rey is a painter, printmaker, psychologist and Tarot reader. His approach to art is based on traditional religious symbols, old alchemy illustrations and Tarot cards in a unique mix of fantasy and esoteric meanings. A visit to Miguel´s studio is a journey into the world of ancient magical traditions, with collective or individual Tarot readings and above all, with the artist´s friendly disposition to share his knowledge and unique view of the deep relation between the artistic expression and human emotions.

Ana Cornejo y Heinz Künzli

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The expression of transformation, morphology in painting, birth and death, participated in the intuitive work of Heinz Künzli and ana Cornejo. All his work is a reflection of the natural processes of life and a tracking of the materials that will be used, as the technique in the process of his art. The love and dedication that inspires them to handle natural materials with their own life, such as: pigments, marble flour, earth, oils, dammar, glue for bones, wax, soft limestone, quark and more, creates a close relationship between the artist, the earth and nature.

Again and again I am attracted by this contact that feeds my soul and my inspiration. Upon entering this exciting world, more than fifteen years ago, I began to collect pigments and collected samples from all the places I visited. Exceptional teachers and great friends introduced me to painting. As a self-taught person, I like to experiment with all kinds of materials. Together with my wonderful wife, Ana Cornejo, we always discover new forms of artistic expression. What started as a hobby became a passion. "

As a child, in addition to rods, bushes and flowers, which gave me great pleasure, strolling through those fields Cuzquenos of my childhood, I also took home other things that almost pleased me more because they did not lose color or consistency as quickly as plants, and They were all kinds of stones and objects that I saw on the ground, that awakened my imagination and creativity.

Ezshwan Winding

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Ezshwan Winding is a classically trained artist who has been working professionally for over 60 years. She moves easily from figurative to abstract painting. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of museums, universities, celebrities, and corporations.She lived in Europe for years and traveled extensively with her late husband, a well know jazz musician. These travels experiences to other cultures continue to inspire  her.

 20 years ago Ezshwan discovered the ancient medium of encaustic. She became excited about the sensuality and diversity of the medium. She has worked in and taught this technique for many years in San Miguel de Allende. A few years ago she added online workshops of advanced encaustic techniques.

Encaustic can be  laborious and magical at the same time. Ezshwan paints the liquid, hot colors with brushes and fuses each layer with the flame of a gas torch. The fluidity of the encaustic medium is exhilarating and freeing. She opens her senses to the experience of hot wax and fire, and emotionally consents to a poetic and thrilling adventure. Ezshwan allows her subconscious to take over so that the work may transform the artistic experience. The application of many layers of molten beeswax, resin and pigments build countless layers.  At times She draws or paints on the layers and then scrapes and rebuilds the surface. This action is much like analyzing a dream. Layer after layer is applied, scraped, incised, fused and marked to allow the truth of the piece to speak. The reveled layers whisper their subtle messages. New layers may veil the original image and take the work to a deeper, more subconscious state; adding rhythmic, curving lines and shapes to break up the rigidity of some of the geometric forms. Allowing the flame to move the paint, reminds her that one never has total control of  life or encaustic. Ezshwan creates layered luminosity that is appealingly tactile. She encourages viewers to stroke and caress the paintings and discover the tactile experience of the painting.  

In all her work she feels that the painting must have a reason for being. What can take the painting beyond the mundane and predictable? What message can she subtly suggest to the viewer?  Although she has been called the encaustic artist in San Miguel de Allende, she rejects that title and includes many other mediums in her work. Lately, Ezshwan finds that mixed media is what accomplishes her creative mission and a re-introduction of oil and cold wax paintings, continuing to work in many layers, has expanded her ability to add newness to her art.

Suzy Taylor

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 “I paint what I see. The joy is in the seeing and I try to capture that in my paintings.”

I am more interested in light and what it does for my subject than in the subject itself.  I find flowers fascinating for their color and transparency and cacti and succulents for not only what happens to the color but also the wonderful shadows produced by their shapes.

I paint in many thin colored layers.  This creates a beautiful depth of color and also the soft edges for which I am known .

My background is as an interior designer.  I designed my building which houses my studio, gallery, home and a top floor rental. I also design and produce custom furniture for the gallery.

My early professional life included working in magazines and advertising where I worked with some great photographers and learned to translate three dimensions into a two dimensional  composition

I started painting later in life studying Impressionism at the prestigious Art Students League in New York City.

Suzy Taylor

Juan Zaragoza

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Juan Manuel Zaragoza Zúñiga, born in Michoacán, Mexico, in 1979, a graduate of the University of Guanajuato in 2002.

Juan chose to begin his career in the fine arts as a painter. At first his work focused more on the abstract, playing with interesting combinations of colors and geometric shapes. Next, he entered into a post-pictorial abstraction period, sometimes difficult for ordinary people to understand but always intense and sharp.

Having attended almost all of his exhibitions, we have noticed his rapid evolution from a little naïve to Modern. In his studio, we have witnessed his growing expertise with oils, watercolors, composition, sculptures and most recently acrylics.

Currently, many of his expressive compositions are a unique form of mixed media, depicting everyday topics such as landscapes, flowers, and animals. Continuing to express and communicate deeply and without losing the abstract, Juan has expanded his work in the field of figurative art, including his horses, his Madonnas, and his still-life’s. As we admire his artwork, we are reminded of something Terry Fenton once said: "They don't shout, but neither do they whisper; they don't intrude … yet they transform their surroundings as only great art can.” And, what Pablo Picasso said in a phrase that applies to our artist: “Art cleans out the daily dust from our soul.”

We congratulate Juan Manuel Zaragoza, who through tremendous dedication, honed his natural talent and won himself a place of recognition among other young artists in Mexico. We are not surprised that his artwork is now being sold internationally.

Juan Ezcurdia

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Juan Ezcurdia has become has become known for his wild and varied interpretations of animals and people and how they intermingle. It seems artistic and humorous at the same time, sort of like Gary Larson meets the Masters, for lack of a better analogy.

The work itself is as unique and multifaceted as one might expect from the special mix of a psychologist/children's books illustrator turned artist. People and animals are portrayed in a naïve manner but the ways they interact blur the lines. Its almost as if the painter has decided that all living creatures are on the same equal footing, and talk of opposable thumbs and enlarged craniums be dammed.

Lourdes Rivera

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Manuk Gallery is the achievement as an artist of my dreams, goals and work.

My dreams.... To have open studio and a gallery to show my work.

My goals..... To share the gallery with other artists and to be able to create a working space for adults and children where they can become artists themselves.

My work.... Day by day to make possible to have new exhibitions of original and beautiful work. To surprise clients and visitors.

I chose the name Manuk, it means bird. Because I admire all winged beings, always amazed by their freedom, creativity, strength, but more importantly their ability to fly.

As an artist, the ability to open your wings and fly it is a challenge to be taken to be able to be free and unique.

Joaquin Piñeiro

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In my artistic work, the encaustic work is always present. It is one of the most sophisticated, passionate and older technique I know. It allows me, at the same time, to use and combine materials which are simple and easy to get. I use many elements, apparently with no control, such as wax and fire. I like this surprise blow, of astonishment for expected outcome, even venturesome. When processing an idea, it never ends in the original stroke. Fire and time change everything, that is why I like to work on topics that make me think of what would be the fate of things when nobody uses them anymore, when they are only part of the past... memories of things that lead to other things.

Kathleen Cammarata

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Kathleen Cammarata’s paintings and drawings examine the place and terrain of an imaginary world subject to growth, change, explosion, and rebirth. Her work teams with life of the strangest variety presenting nature as dynamic ambiguous characters.

An American artist born in NY, Cammarata has been painting for over 30 years and in the last decade pursued drawing as a formal contemporary medium. She has had 24 solo shows and participated in over 50 juried shows throughout New England and the USA. She has received numerous grants and awards for her work.

Cammarata has taught drawing, painting and printmaking in two museums and a university in the USA. She attended two residency programs at the Vermont Studio Center. Her work is in collections in the USA, Canada, Europe, and here in San Miguel de Allende.

Gerardo Ruiz

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Gerardo Ruiz art studio and gallery is a beautiful peaceful place where he creates prints, paintings and drawings and also gives classes of many techniques. After graduating from the Academy of San Carlos, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (ENAP-UNAM) in the 1970s, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his postgraduate studies in Sculpture. He has also received prizes for his work.