Above: Detail of “Aborregados 6” by Soledad Velasco
The works with acrylic and India ink are a mixture that balances the safe and the unsure, the spontaneity and the calculated. While acrylic is more stable and gives solidity to the work, the pen and water give that feeling of chance, of an accident that must be controlled…. The immediacy and freshness, the lack of control when one decides to drain the water and the necessary control that ends up being exercised, all of this is a metaphor for what each day has in store for us. And in my case, a reminder that nothing is entirely predictable or certain.”
Soledad Velasco
Originally hailing from Oaxaca, artist Soledad Velasco spent 25 years working in Spain before returning home in 2019. Earlier this year, we saw the fruit of her time spent since then in a one-person show, “A Eva,” at Museo de los Pintores Oaxaquenos, or MUPO.
The title of this exhibition, ‘To Eve,’ is a dedication to all of us, especially to women painters. It’s very important to me, because it means integrating myself into my state in a forceful way.”
Soledad Velasco in Oaxaca Media, October 9, 2023
Above: Works by Soledad Velasco
Another major exhibition, “Gente de Mi Tierra,” focused on works by Jesus Urbieta, a native of Juchitan, Oaxaca. Urbieta made his living as a surveyor before entering art school in Oaxaca in 1983 and becoming one of Oaxaca’s most famous artists. Imagery in the artist’s paintings reflect his Zapotec heritage.
Above: Works by Jesus Urbieta (1959-1997)
“Viaje al Fondo de la Pintura” featured paintings by Jazzamoart. An early and ongoing love affair with jazz inspired Francisco Javier Vazques Estupinan of Guanajuato to begin signing his music-inspired art Jazzamoart at age 20. He created the name he still prefers by compounding the words jazz, amo (I love) and art.
Above: Works by Jazzamoart (1951-)
Above left: “Minotauro,” Victor Caudura Rojas. Right: “Hombre que Piensa en Reproduccion,” Carlomagno.
The handsome colonial building housing MUPO dates from 1686 and first served as a Catholic school for girls, The Maids of Our Lady of the Presentation. The role of the museum occupying it for the past 20 years is to display visual arts and to contribute to the artistic development of Oaxaca.
Above: Museum of Oaxacan Painters, MUPO
Postcards from Barton Springs 