Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Oficina de Proyectos Culturales (OPC), together with the Secretary of Culture, Jalisco; the Ex Convento del Carmen Museum; and the Vallarta Institute of Culture, present Gil Garea's Del acstracto ranchero al naquismo mágico, an art exhibit curated by Carmen Villoro.

This exhibition includes installation, painting, and graphic work by artist Gil Garea. His work covers a wide variety of topics, such as rural and urban landscapes, seascapes, everyday found objects, still-lives, and incorporates imagery from bullfighting, soccer, and insects to portraiture, toys, folk icons, and religious figures.

The techniques used by Gil are equally varied - engraving, watercolor, oil painting, acrylic, bronze, plastic, ceramic and, above all, mixed-media. It would be fair to say mixed media elements prevail in the work of Garea, who creates objects by combining, mixing, and hybridizing wood, dirt, dead branches, dog hair, leather, ping-pong balls, gourds, tar, freight-truck wheels, stuffed and plastic toys, shells, and bottle caps.

As Carmen Villoro explains: "Del acstracto ranchero al naquismo mágico illustrates country life from the point of view of the artist. Through his paintings, sculptures, and ready-mades, Gil Garea brings to mind the furniture, ornaments, and symbols that inhabit rural houses of western Mexico, as well as the landscapes of this area. The tropics and paramo, the sea and countryside are addressed from an aesthetic cosmopolitan point of view, one that rescues the poetry and the grace of beloved small-town culture. The artist is also redefining folk cultural elements that are a part of our identity."

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Gil Garea was born in Mexico City on October 28th, 1954. From 1982 to 2002, he lived in the city of Colima and has lived in Guadalajara since 2003. From 1980 to 1982, he was part of Mexico City's Graphic Experimentation Workshop of the Center for Plastic Experimentation & Research, INBA/SEP.

Garea on his work: "I identify myself with Informalism, Arte Povera, Neo-Figurativism, and Matter painting, because these are artistic trends that mix various elements which redefine reality once they are used by the artist. I've been influenced by artists such as Antoni Tàpies, Manuel Millares, Joseph Beuys, Francisco Clemente, and Jean Michel Basquiat, to mention just a few. What I like about them is not necessarily their paintings per se, but their attitude towards art, the way they've experienced art as a vital experience."

ABOUT THE CURATOR:

Carmen Villoro was born in 1958 in Mexico City. Since 1985, she has lived in Guadalajara. She has authored several books of poetry and poetic prose, a few of them are: El tiempo alguna vez, El habitante, Jugo de Naranja, Obra negra, Espiga antes del viento, La algarabía de la palabra escrita, and Leer a los amigos. Villoro has also written children's books such as Amarina y el viejo Pesadilla, La media luna, and Papalote, papelito. She was the director of the cultural magazine Tragaluz, is a member of CONACULTA's Sistema Nacional de Creadores, and a board member of Universidad de Guadalajara's Hugo Gutiérrez Vega Chair.

For 25 years, Carmen has been a teacher and has given workshops on poetry and children's literature. She has also been a member of juries for competitions, grants, and other supports for artistic creators in various states within Mexico. She has participated in interdisciplinary projects with other artists from fields such as dance, music, theater, and visual arts. She has written texts for exhibitions and catalogues of numerous visual artists, and has worked as a researcher and curator for art exhibitions.

Currently, she is part of the curating team devoted to renovating the Guadalajara Regional Museum (Museo Regional de Guadalajara), dependent of INAH. She is an adviser for Jalisco's Council for Culture & Arts (Consejo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Jalisco.)

A series of public programs will be produced in conjunction with the exhibition, including a poetry reading, children's workshops, and a lecture.

"Del acstracto ranchero al naquismo mágico" is made possible through the generous support of David Schwendeman, Terence Reilly, and MEXLend Mortgages.

We also thank our sponsors - Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo (PAC), Instituto Vallartense de Cultura, Milenio Jalisco, Cuervo 1800, El Terrible Cerveza, El Patio de Mi Casa, Hotel Belmar, and Villa Mercedes Boutique Hotel.