Tag Archives: artists

Huatulco

Enrique Flores Workshop and Artists of Oaxaca

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By José Palacios y Román—

In the mid-twentieth century, Mexican muralism experienced a turning point. Yet by then, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo had already secured a central place in modern art. Among them, Rufino Tamayo, a native of Oaxaca, stood out not only for his artistic genius but also for his generosity.

In Oaxaca City, Tamayo’s deep commitment to culture lives on in the Museum of Pre-Hispanic Art of Mexico, a carefully curated collection he donated in January 1974. That same year, through the initiative of Roberto Donis, the Rufino Tamayo Workshop of Visual Arts was founded. Tamayo contributed resources to create a space dedicated to the artistic training of young people from rural communities. From its first generation, the workshop became an important reference point for artistic education in Mexico and Latin America. Among those early students was Enrique Flores.

In 1981, Rufino Tamayo and his wife, Olga Tamayo, made another extraordinary gift to the nation: the Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City. Their collection includes works by many of the great masters of twentieth-century art — Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Bacon, Dubuffet, Calder, Warhol, Vasarely, Magritte, and others. Today, the museum is recognized as one of the finest in the world.

This legacy is closely tied to the ongoing vitality of Oaxacan art. Enrique Flores, painter and educator, has built an extensive career that he combines with the work of the Enrique Flores Cultural Center and Workshop, which he has sustained for over thirty years in San Pablo Huitzo, near Oaxaca City. The workshop has become a vital meeting point for the teaching and exchange of artistic techniques — printmaking, stained glass, ceramics, sculpture, and high-quality editions in engraving.

Now, Copalli Art Gallery in Huatulco is honored to present, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Enrique Flores Workshop, a new exhibition featuring recent works by the master. On this occasion, he is joined by ten internationally recognized Oaxacan artists, reflecting the strength and diversity of contemporary art from the region.

The exhibition, “Enrique Flores Workshop and Artists of Oaxaca,” opens on December 21 at 6:30 p.m. and will remain on view until January 18, 2026, at Punta Tangolunda (across from the entrance to the Golf Club). The opening event will feature Chef Eusebio Villalobos and live music.

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Spirit of Art 2022

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By Tirza Bonifazi

Spirit of Art 2022 is officially HAPPENING. The second edition of Spirit of Art will be hosted at the Hotel Eden Costa, thanks to the support of entrepreneur Juan Benito García, who invested in the establishment to make it the first Art Boutique Hotel in Huatulco. And what better way to inaugurate his venture, than a collaborative art exhibit?

Four of the pieces that are being shown this year are actually part of Eden Costa, and are the murals of Mexican artists Irving Cano, Edna Guzmán, and Rafael Ortega. But art will flow throughout the property featuring the work of more than 15 artists, between national and international figures coming from different parts of the world.

Also, this year Spirit of Art is having an extra exhibition inside the exhibition. Through the “Exposición de Arte Emocional para niñas y niños” we’re showing the 30 best pieces of art made by kids from Huatulco and Santa María Huatulco, who have been invited to participate through a call made in collaboration with DIF Municipal. The artworks are for sale – half of the proceeds of each piece will go to the kid artist, and the other half to DIF Municipal.

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An Artistic Pair

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By Eva López García

Editor’s Note:
Mateo López and Chely García are a dynamic and artistic couple who live in Puerto Angel. They have two daughters, one of who is Eva López García (the author of this article). Mateo López is also the grandfather of my daughter Frances. I am a fan of their art work and if you have come to Café Juanita or my cooking school you will have seen some of their work on display. To see more of their paintings and what is available for purchase you can contact their daughter Eva: evartlines@gmail.com

Mateo López

Mateo López Rodríguez, the seventh son of twelve, was born in Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, on September 21, 1948. His mother was assisted by a Zapotec midwife who cut Mateo’s umbilical cord with a machete.

In the modern world, life developed, but in Puerto Angel there were still no colours for a child with artistic aspirations. He began his first mural at the age of fifteen on a wall of the old house that his father had built. With charcoal chalks from his mother’s fire pit, he drew a compass that his father had taught him so as never to lose his way.

Mateo, who has Mixtec and Kuna ancestors who had sailed the sea; this influenced his identity and his art. He began a life at sea as a diver and has never stopped swimming and exercising. For Mateo painting counts as spiritual and mental exercise. Throughout his life he has collected knowledge and experiences that he captures in his oil painting and writing poetry.

Throughout his career he has produced more than 500 art works. Many of them are in different countries; currently he is trying to collect photographs of the works that he does not possess.

Mateo López has four children. He tries, through art, to give a little of his heart to each of them, either by giving them his portrait or by showing them his lifestyle on the path of painting, as he says “I only had primary education. Only six years of schooling in the small school in the Puerto Angel of 1955, and after that I had the best school – life.”

His forms of expression are writing and painting; his style evinces the patience he imposes in pointillism and his lyrical artistic roots. Mateo describes his painting as the technique of inner awakening; knowing yourself is a full-body window to happiness and the realization of the spirit.

Chely García

Araceli García García (Chely) was born November 12, 1976, in San Pedro Pochutla, Oaxaca, a market town that served as a distribution center for mountain coffee beans that would be exported from Puerto Angel. She was the eleventh daugther of twelve children; her family comes from the Oaxaca Valley, which has traditions and customs rooted in the cultivation of the land and the harvest. She spent part of her childhood with her family on a coffee plantation in San Pedro el Alto, high in the mountains north of Pluma Hidalgo.

As a child, she had artistic aspirations for painting. Her work today embodies her experience in that beautiful mountain landscape; flowers and exotic fruits with bright colours, the work of harvesting coffee, the horses and all the energy that producing a cup of coffee entails, the expressive faces of women who were the first to awaken each day to prepare the comal, tortillas, salsa, egg and coffee to feed the men who left on the long day of harvest.

Chely now lives facing the sea. She has dedicated herself to observing it very closely and paints it as a magical and mysterious world. Her magical surreal style with bright colours always has the distinct feeling of Mexico as it is lived in Oaxaca, often showing landscapes of small towns. Her work depicts times of sowing, of traditions like Todos Santos, when cempasúchil (marigolds), Saint Teresa and archwood flowers are harvested to elaborate our altars. Women are Chely’s favorite subjects; she captures them with different expressions, according to their memories or feelings. Angels also figure prominently in her works, they are her dreams and longings.

Chely has been dedicated to painting for 25 years. Instilling in her family the patience and inspiration that comes with a painter’s lifestyle, she is a disciplined, flexible, loving and sensitive mother. Her motto is “I paint because I feel, I am sensitive, and sensitivity is not a weakness is a gift.”