No matter what side of the border it comes from, there’s one language anyone can understand: art. Though cultural differences and experiences may skew a viewer’s perspective, a piece’s meaning generally comes through, proving just how very small the world can be.
Shepard Hall Gallery will reach below the equator in January to show works from 11 Argentine artists, each presenting an interpretation of life, from dance to language to childhood. Maria McCreery, an Argentine native turned Santa Maria resident, helped coordinate Artistas Plasticos Agrupados’ (A.P.A) show of contemporary, original Argentine art.
A.P.A. is a nonprofit group of 11 artists from the Province of Córdoba, Argentina, created in 1998 to disseminate members’ works. McCreery explained that the artists capture the culture and sentiment of the Argentine people on each canvas.
“I wanted to help because none of them speak English—and for the love of my country,” McCreery said of her involvement in organizing the installation.
When McCreery first brought the exhibition to the United States, she was living in Santa Barbara. A friend of hers asked her to help coordinate an installation from her hometown. Reaching the artists’ group was easy, but bringing the works to the United States took a little effort. McCreery’s mother, visiting from Argentina, actually hand-delivered the canvases when she arrived here. After the Santa Barbara showing—and McCreery’s relocation to Santa Maria—she believed this city should get a glimpse of Argentina’s artistic side, too.
The show is a mix of professional contemporary abstract work with touches of magical realism.
Among the artists is Maria Alejandra Garcia Morano, who strives to break the structures imposed by reason, switching from the real to the imaginary world. Using pastel colors and large spaces around objects, she depicts the harmony and balance of daily life.
Garcia Morano has participated in many exhibitions and been a panelist at numerous art galleries and contests. She has created stage designs for plays and dance shows and currently teaches at the School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Argentina, and at private art studios. She’s won numerous awards for her art in Argentina and has shown her work all over her native country and the United States.
Anahí Vénica uses digital impressions and diverse plastic techniques, including the use of polychrome and graphite, to take viewers on a passage back to childhood.
She’s participated in many collective and individual art exhibitions since 1986.
Gabriela Ludueña is a painter,
interior decorator, and landscaper from Córdoba, Argentina. Ludueña identifies with colors and lines, explaining that shape and color represent the basic grammar of speech. She expresses passion using red, green, yellow, and golden splashes that enrich her pictoral vocabulary.
The 11 artists in the exhibition have 24 works on display.
“They are very interesting, very different from what we usually see around here, more eclectic,” McCreery said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone speaks in triangles and circles, yellows and greens. Send her a square at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 8-15, 2009.
