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Santos y Otros Creatures

Gallery Exhibition/Event

Artists at Creativity Explored delve into the world of saints and creatures from a uniquely personal perspective, presenting artworks that are brimming with mythic characters and rich metaphors.

January 7 through February 11, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

The belief in saints and creatures has been maintained for centuries, preserved through faith and romanticism. Saints and other creatures are often what people talk about when recounting a story, a fable, or a miracle that is born out of the traumas of reality. The purchase of a saint or “creature” is one of the ways in which people sometimes fortify themselves in the battle against pain, fear, loneliness and death. Throughout history, human beings have been attracted to and fascinated by the world of certain creatures. Creatures have been present in the myths and legends of most world cultures, which believed in the mystical powers of particular animals. The exhibition Santos y Otros Creatures reflects aspects of this vast pool of human belief through the artwork on view, in which creatures have been transformed from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and new visual narratives of saints and enigmas have been created.

Santos y Otros Creatures is curated by Victor D. Cartagena, artist, and instructor at Creativity Explored. According to Cartagena, his own upbringing informs his interest in this subject matter. He says, “How does the Catholic religion’s definition of sainthood differ from that of the Bible? In Roman Catholic theology, the saints are in the heavens, whereas in the Bible, they are walking the earth. In the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, a person does not become a saint unless he or she is canonized by the Pope or a prominent bishop, whereas for the saints that are created by the artists at Creativity Explored, there is no need for the benediction of a church or the certification of a religion. No authority is called upon to validate these very personal saints and creatures that our artists carry within their minds and hearts.”

The exhibition is largely composed of prints and reflects the dynamic new and developing printmaking program that Cartagena initiated when he joined Creativity Explored a year ago. Printmaking has proved to be a breakaway medium for a number of artists at Creativity Explored, leading not only to the development of new techniques and heightened levels of artistry but also to bold explorations of new subject matter.

Bertha Otoya’s work incorporates script and images of hybridized animals that have a mythic quality. These creatures display a remarkable degree of personality that ranges from the sweet demeanor of a unicorn to the ferocious aspect of a pair of serpents that form a diptych. By overprinting the animals onto sheets that are filled with text copied by hand from a variety of sources, she produces unique prints that are rich, complex, intriguing, and highly personal. In addition to her prints, Otoya has also created a signal, handwritten scroll on a roll of rice paper that is 15 feet long. Completely filled with passages copied from a variety of texts, including Mexican Folk Retablos and Fantastic and Mythological Creatures, the work is housed in a custom, gold leaf-covered box, which imbues the piece with a sacredness or religiosity.

Ana Maria Vidalon is represented in the exhibition by two stand-out works. Her black background monoprint on gold Japanese paper is completely filled with her signature, calligraphic musical notes. The luxurious surface quality of this print, with its highly stylized gold notes, suggests an illuminated manuscript and has an ecclesiastical quality to it. Vidalon’s other work is a gold-point drawing—again of music notes—on gesso. This panel was created with the same technique that was developed during the Renaissance, in which the gold point stylus creates a chemical reaction with the ground of gesso, leaving an image created through oxidation. As imagery is laid down over a period of several days, the result is a composition made up of many exquisitely subtle shadings and gradations.

Quintin Rodriguez has created a body of monoprints with imagery that encompasses papal figures, God, hybridized African-Mayan deities, saints, and composite animals such as a tortoise with a dragon’s head. Although of diverse subject matter, when seen together these arresting white-line images on black backgrounds form a pantheon of sorts, unified by Rodriguez’s accomplished draftsmanship and distinctive style. While all the images are striking, his traditional depiction of God with long flowing hair is particularly unconventional. The print is composed in the format of a mandala. The central figure of God, who maintains a beatific calmness, is being attacked by four demonic dogs that converge on him from each corner of the print, ravening as though having escaped from the underworld.

Rodriguez’s sense of design serves him well in his papal images. Here, the figures are adorned with vestments done in elaborate patterns, some of which refer to the Byzantine period. In addition, one of his images of a saint has a flat, plate-like halo characteristic of Byzantine art, and the much earlier work of Giotto.

Byzantine design elements and composite animals also figure in Gerald Wiggins’s work. His monoprint of an unearthly saint has an animal’s face and a flat, plate-like halo. It wears a garment composed of a geometric pattern of flames that lick towards its face. Another image of a composite creature has a lion’s face and body, a large dorsal fin, and a reptilian tail. This fantastical and elegant chimera-like creature, rendered in white line on black background, is beautifully executed with a graceful stance and perfect proportions. Decorative elements on its face, fin, and tail further animate the creature.

El Cadejo
The exhibition also includes two images of a much more realistic animal, but one that is nevertheless deeply imbued with magical properties in today’s Hispanic culture: El Cadejo. the black dog/devil with red eyes that protects males by warning them of danger. Visitors to the exhibition will be greeted by a four-foot high mixed media sculpture of El Cadejo that sits in the storefront window of Creativity Explored. The sculpture is made of crocheted black yarn, has red discs for eyes, and two incisors—dog’s teeth that have been repurposed from an old folk bracelet.

The other image of El Cadejo is by Maria Berrios. Her dramatic mixed media work on paper is drawn on a washy background of gray Chinese ink. Using charcoal pencil, and white and red paint, her black dog has many white striations along its body and amusing details such as toes and teeth made of loopy white lines. His intense red eyes identify him as El Cadejo.

Both of these versions of the mythological dog contain strong elements of folk art. As such, they encapsulate the premise of the exhibition and communicate the ongoing power of belief in saints and other creatures.

Calendar Listing

Santos y Otros Creatures

GROUP EXHIBITION AND OPENING: Artists at Creativity Explored delve into the world of saints and creatures from a uniquely personal perspective, presenting artworks that are brimming with mythic characters and rich metaphors.

What

The belief in saints and creatures has been maintained for centuries, preserved through faith and romanticism. Saints and other creatures are often what people talk about when recounting a story, a fable, or a miracle that is born out of the traumas of reality. The purchase of a saint or “creature” is one of the ways in which people sometimes fortify themselves in the battle against pain, fear, loneliness and death. Throughout history, human beings have been attracted to and fascinated by the world of certain creatures. Creatures have been present in the myths and legends of most world cultures, which believed in the mystical powers of particular animals. The exhibition Santos y Otros Creatures reflects aspects of this vast pool of human belief through the artwork on view, in which creatures have been transformed from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and new visual narratives of saints and enigmas have been created.

When

• Opening Reception: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
• Exhibition Dates and Times: January 7 through February 11, 2010; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, Thursday from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, and Saturday from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Where

Creativity Explored Gallery, 3245 16th Street at Guerrero Street, San Francisco CA 94103 (Map)

Information

• (415) 863-2108
• www.creativityexplored.org

Cost

FREE

Creativity Explored is a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art.

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Press Contacts

Barbara Traisman: publicity@creativityexplored.org
Amy Auerbach: (415) 863-2108 · gallery@creativityexplored.org
Amy Taub: (415) 863-2108 · director@creativityexplored.org

# Posted on January 7, 2010