Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Exhibitions by artists Miguel Angel Martin del Campo & Juan Carlos Navarro open at Galleria Dante on January 9, as part of this week's Southside Shuffle. Stop by Vallarta's largest and most eclectic art gallery to meet the artists and enjoy complimentary cocktails from 6-10 pm.

Miguel Angel Martin del Campo

Miguel Angel was born in 1971 in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico. He currently lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexico. He studied Fine Arts at the Cabañas Cultural Institute from 1992 to 1995, and specialized in wood and stone carving courses in 1996.

During his studies at the Instituto Cabañas, Miguel Angel studied modeling, mold making and glazing tile under teacher Antonio Ramirez Ruiz. This period marks the beginning of his fascination with color in sculpture. Constant touring in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacan and Oaxaca brought him closer to the magic of the original artisan crafts of those areas and the complexity of shapes, colors & narrative told in each piece.

In 1997, Miguel Angel traveled to the city of Florence, Italy, where he lived until 2007. For four years, he directed the design area of a ceramic factory (cotto) in the town of Strada in Chianti. For three years, he was a professor of sculpture at the ADA art academy, also in Florence. During his stay in Italy, de Campo participated in competitions, two of which are awarded Internationally. Between 2006 and 2011 he developed his work and participated in events in Mexico, Italy, Colombia and USA. Miguel Angel is a great admirer and lover of art nouveau, geometry, insects, animals and plants in general.

"During the 10 years I was in Italy I was fortunate to work with many different artists and in many different techniques, including painting, etching, fresco, sculpture and installation. In my career I have had the opportunity to work in different jobs, different environs, places, continents and with people coming from different perspectives. In three-dimensional art, bronze has always been my favored medium. I like to mix bronze with resins, ceramic and other materials. I have studied their chemistry in order to know that they are permanent or archival and that that they match with the theme and intention of the art piece. Each creation is the result of the past, present and future. My work revolves mainly around three elements: Metamorphosis, Change and Movement. Nothing is created and destroyed, only transformed."

"I like to use the 4 elements motif in my work. In my bronze sculptures the direction and color of the hair pertains to water, wind, fire and earth. I have worked a lot to define the style of the hair in my bronze pieces. Most of my pieces "move up". This has to do with their own direction as they are looking for the light of the sun. They want to levitate, to leave the reality of the earth, to leave the ground in order to meld with the same space which contains them. Some almost touch the earth and others seem to be levitating or taking off for flight. The figure of the woman represents the Mother Earth who gives life. A tree trunk growing from Mother Earth who is the strength of our past and present - It is about our deepest roots, our historical reality and everything that makes us who we are. Most of the art pieces have no arms because they are becoming beings in continual transformation. The hair is light, following in the direction of the light. The light is fire, the heat of the sun and is mythologized in the sun that gives and receives light. The eyes are closed on the face which is in a deep sleep which is where the impossible can become the possible. My main objective is to provoke in the viewer an instant of light, well-being, a thought... a smile."

Juan Carlos Navarro

Juan Carlos was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco in 1975. He graduated as an Engineer – Architect. A self-taught painter, he participated in exhibitions as early as 2006. A painter endowed with imagination, splendid qualities for stroke and sensitivity in the use of color. Whoever sees his paintings are immediately drawn in and are surprised by the natural skills of this artist who has no formal training.

Juan Carlos plays with women's faces, images of children, nostalgic trees, changing landscapes that are located in an area where the value is more tonal than thematic, where the color is amending the forms and composition. For the artist, the search is given in the light, in the space and figure, in the balance that gives us his artistic vision, in the landscape that is formed through a discreet and bright language.

In each of the works in this Pictorial Exhibition, Juan Carlos Navarro creates an expressive and aesthetic universe, a visual discourse, a powerful metaphor in which figurative, spiritual, ecological and mystical currents are intertwined. The paintings refer to a comprehensive and questioning worldview contemporary, life, relationships between human, environment, rhythms of nature and attempts depth passing through the Earth, its existential journey. Its natural are closer to the substance and poetic alchemy, that of the mythological research or historical treatise are hybrid beings, beings of light, in which converge the animal, mineral, vegetable and human, to shudder with their very presence and his reference to a space and time where everything is integrated and linked, where the macrocosm corresponds to the microcosm and vice versa, where everything flows and really communicates its true meaning and significance, as we know with a glance or a beat, where the most important and urgent trip is we do within ourselves: time, space, vitality, where the only important thing is to be.

So, Juan Carlos, made in this artistic project which naturally corresponds to their essence and their innermost dreams: to paint these natural, who have given her limbs and trees in the head, wreaths, bouquets wind light, meetings with imagination, creativity, painting, communion with nature and human sacredness, the world's conscience ...; meetings that he has given this wonderful natural peat, in particular, have given a path, their own way.

Don't miss your chance to meet these two Jaliscan artists. Be sure to stop by Galleria Dante on Friday, January 9th from 6 to 10 pm during this week's South Side Shuffle.

While you are there, be sure to check out Di Vino Dante Wine & Tapas Bar, a new addition to the old hacienda that houses Galleria Dante and the gallery's sculpture garden. This chic wine and tapas bar is open Monday through Saturday from 2:00 to 11:00 pm.

Open Mon-Fri from 10 am-5 pm, Galleria Dante is located at Basilio Badillo #269 in Puerto Vallarta's Romantic Zone. For more information, call (322) 222-2477, or send an email to info(at)galleriadante.com.

Click HERE to learn more about Galleria Dante.