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 Vallarta Living | Art Talk | December 2006 
Mixed Media Elicits Unmixed Reaction: Marta Gilbert's latest exhibition is Fantastic!
 Kathy Taylor - PVNN
| | Marta Gilbert, The River Café, Puerto Vallarta, November 2006 | 
| | The Artist's Hand - Marta Gilbert wears beaded bracelets from the Americas - American Indian, Mexican Huichol, and Guatemalan | 
| | Marta Gilbert with son Shanti at Mixed Media Opening, November 27, 2006 | 
| | "Requiem for a Pueblito", Marta Gilbert 2006 | 
| | Detail of "Requiem for a Pueblito", Marta Gilbert 2006 | 
| | "Tapiz", Marta Gilbert 2006 | 
| | "Sones del Mar", Marta Gilbert 2006 | 
| | Detail of Drum with Huichol bead work | 
| | Mixed Media Drums with Huichol bead work, feathers, sinew |
Puerto Vallarta - Marta Gilbert's most recent exhibition at Puerto Vallarta's Galeria ArteLatinoamericano was enthusiastically attended by her legion of admirers - as the round red "sold" stickers dotted the price cards rapidly, it became evident that opening night was going to be the only opportunity to view this collection, Mixed Media, as a whole.
Mixed Media, her latest biannual exhibition (next is February 7, 2007) is a mix of both medias and tone, from haunting visions to beautiful faces to political statement, implementing a rich textural palette of materials.
Gilbert is perhaps Puerto Vallarta's best known visual artist, an internationally celebrated painter known for her piercing portraits of indigenous people, soulful portrayals of the native people who live closest to the land both in reality and her dreams.
The landscape they occupy is as important as their visages - adobe villages, beaches, dry gulches, mountain plateaus, fertile fields and green valleys.
The jungled mountainside and wave-fringed ocean shores of Puerto Vallarta have been Marta Gilbert's landscape since 1971; she has witnessed the metamorphosis of Puerto Vallarta from a quiet seaside village to traffic congested city in just these short years.
So it seems natural that one of the prominent works of Mixed Media is a political statement titled "Requiem for a Pueblito". At the exhibition opening she said, "I painted it before they took down Lazaro Cardenas," the second of Puerto Vallarta's parks to be replaced with a parking structure. When asked if it was inspired by the destruction of the first one, Parque Hidalgo, she stated, "It's about all of them. It's about what Vallarta used to be."
The 47 x 59 inch canvas is a darkly rich jungle fantasy, populated with exotic birds, flowers, butterflies and animals, with the tower of the Cathedral, one of Puerto Vallarta's oldest and most recognized images, glimpsed through a gap in the foliage.
A photograph of the tower is seamlessly painted into the centre of the canvas, along with photos of the bold protest signs that were posted in Lazaro Cardenas seen through palm fronds and banana leaves.
The iguana-draped, bowed head of an Indian woman lit eerily by candlelight occupies one side of the picture. The overall impact is visceral - Marta Gilbert's statement is sad and raw and strong. It is an artist's cry, a lament for a town and lifestyle that is being irrevocably changed.
Hanging in an archway, a trio of drums painted with native faces and close-ups of weathered features, decorated with breaded sinew, Huichol bead work, and feathers spin in the early evening breeze.
The flatness of a series of long rectangular paintings of women and children is interrupted by small clay masks mounted onto the canvas, a textural detail that is at once whimsical and academic. The clay masks are miniatures of some of Gilbert's life-like clay masks from earlier work.
Tapiz, a stunning, huge canvas of an Indian woman holding a blanket inside a tent is another "mixed media" example. The painted stitches holding the hides together on the upper right side of the canvas are echoed with real cord lacing together the cut edges of the canvas on the left side.
Sones Del Mar, another of the larger canvases, is simply beautiful. It is a study of youth and age, set against a sandy beach, a horizon striped by a few waves and filled in with a watery blue sky - a grey haired woman holds a brace of fish and a young girl holds a shell to her ear. The old woman's hair is a thick gray braid, the young girl's dark hair is loosely lifted by the sea breeze; the old woman fishes, the young girl listens to the songs of the sea.
These original paintings by Marta Gilbert range in price from just under $1000 USD to around $8,000. Galeria Arte Latinoamericano has a selection of original work and superb quality reproductions of Gilbert's paintings as well as a selection of "soft art," a licensed collection of bags and cushions adorned with Gilbert's images.
Galeria A.L. Arte Latinoamericano is located one block from the ocean in the center of Puerto Vallarta. The gallery participates in the "Old Town" Art Walks which are held every Wednesday from 6-10 pm.
For more information, please call: 011 +52 (322) 222-4406 send an email to: galeriaal@pvnet.com.mx, or visit www.galeriaal.com to see upcoming exhibits. Marta Gilbert's personal website is www.martagilbert.com. |
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