Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Exhibitions by artists Eva Mondragon and Luc Gauthier open at Galleria Dante on Friday, November 16, as part of the first South Side Shuffle of the 2018-2019 season. Stop by PV's largest and most eclectic art gallery to meet the artists and enjoy complimentary cocktails from 6:00 to 10:00 pm.

Eva Mondragon

Born and raised in Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia on March the 11th in 1990, Eva Xiomara Mondragon-Villar majored in business administration, but her passion for arts led her in 2006 to take painting lessons at the Cristian Toledo's school of art in Bucaramanga, where she not only learned the fundamentals of oil and acrylic painting but also started a never-ending improving process evident in her most recent work.

Her work has been exhibited not only in Colombian cities like Bucaramanga, Bogota, San Andres Islands and Saravena, but also she has had the opportunity to exhibit her paintings in main Mexican cities like Oaxaca, Puebla, Guadalajara, and Puerto Vallarta. Due to the quality of her work, she also enjoys a dedicated chapter in the book of Santander's painters, "Escuela de Maestros Colombia."

Influenced by famous painters like Voka and Jackson Pollock, she transformed the pain of losing her child into a colorful work that she called "Emanuel, el susurro de Amor", where she opens up her soul to explore topics like memory loss, and the human body and their vulnerability to the uncertainty of what is about to happen. In March 2017, the DuubieDie Casa de Arte gallery in Oaxaca presented the first exhibition dedicated to her work, called "Carnaval de Colores."

Looking for new sources of inspiration, Eva Xiomara and her family moved in 2018 to the coastal Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta, where she discovered a whole new world where art penetrates society in such a way that it transforms into a new entity where the border between abstract art and reality loses meaning. In her work, Eva Xiomara creates animal figures and human bodies that manifest themselves out from a fluid and vivid background. Currently, her work is exhibited in Galleria Dante, located in the very heart of Puerto Vallarta.

Despite her self-taught learning process, Eva Xiomara not only masters oil and acrylic painting, but also cast and paper painting, among other techniques, in such a manner that there is no way to look away. Collectors are captivated by her work and impatiently wait for her next creation where vivid color and intensity becomes the centerpiece of everything.

On April the 30, 2018, Eva Xiomara opened an exhibit of her work at the Feria Artesanal en Romeria Senorial Compostela in Nayarit. A few days later, she presented a new work, called "La Manzana de Eva," at the Expo Centenario Puerto Vallarta, which from from May 18 through June 1st. From these experiences, she concludes that her major satisfaction was having the opportunity to share her gift with the people around her.

Luc Gauthier

Luc Gauthier was born on April 22, 1952 in Chicoutimi, a small town in Quebec, Canada. From a young age he became aware that the artistic fiber was part of his life and his immediate environment. He obtained his bachelor's degree in Visual Art from Université Laval in Quebec in 1976, held a certificate in Education science since 1978 and completed a master's degree in creation in 1988.

A see-saw professional path: Working as a photographer in a graphic design enterprise, part-time teacher at CEGEP St-Jerome, then at CEGEP de Jonquière, and worked in a medical clinic for 10 years, and as substitute teacher for the Rives-du-Saguenay school Board. These were his work experiences before becoming an art teacher at Séminaire de Chicoutimi in 1989 and in more recent years, a lecturer at UQAC.

Luc is a lover of color, light, transparency and words and his bestiary becomes a perfect outlet. He particularly likes to lend to his horses, which make up a good part of his production, a human look making them hybrid by allowing the transfer of deep feelings to the benefit of his animal subjects giving them a soul.

His paintings are constantly evolving in his subjects, his encrustations of texts, his gesture, his furtive glances, leaving to his artistic spirit all the space necessary to flourish. Last year he added bulls, and dogs to his list of animal subjects.

The bestiary of Luc Gauthier is a parallel between human and animal who, over time, has taken an increasingly personal tangent where attitudes, representations, situations, words are the body between experience, vision and pictorial representation.

This season Luc, for the first time in Puerto Vallarta, has added "glass" works. His thirst for creation led him to this medium almost 5 years ago. Following this new challenge, the adventure of the thermo-formed glass takes flight. This medium allows him to exploit the effects offered by the transparency, the light and the distortion of the material.

He then begins an active and continuous search with testing the weaknesses, strengths, compatibility, physical constraints of this medium to achieve the mastery of this material. He is currently working on the integration of colours and overlapping elements and also discovering new avenues of this art form, which will be available for this exhibition.

To make a concise summary, Luc Gauthier's work is a gentle dreamlike journey of feelings shared between humans and beasts, colors and light, forms and transparencies, strengths and weaknesses, words and atmospheres all in a representation and a personal interpretation of the subjects. Luc has been a beloved member of the Galleria Dante team for three years.

Don't miss your chance to meet these talented artists and enjoy complimentary cocktails at Galleria Dante during the 1st South Side Shuffle of the 2018-2018 season on Friday, November 16 from 6:00 to 10:00 pm.

While you are there, be sure to check out Di Vino Dante, a chic wine and tapas bar overlooking the gallery's sculpture garden that serves creative cuisine and cocktails. Last summer, Di Vino Dante opened a small dining area on the ground floor in a corner of Galleria Dante, for those who like to people watch. Please Note: Di Vino Dante does not take reservations on South Side Shuffle nights.