01 September 2009

MCCLA: Bohemian Night Soiree - 3 Worlds Exhibition - Arias, Fuentes, Banjo

MCCLA Header
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For immediate release: 08/25/09


CONTACT


Sebastián Dávila: Events and Media Coordinator - MCCLA
events@missionculturalcenter.org - 415 643 2796
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Luis Arias Vera has had a working studio at MCCLA's main gallery as part of the 3 Worlds Exhibition. Join us on September 12 for a fun night of live art when Luis Arias Vera gets together with some of his friends for a Bohemian Night Soiree.

Live Collaborative Painting
imagePaz de la Calzada
Todd Brown
Sue Matthews
Rene Yañez
Adrian Arias
Luis Arias Vera

Dance
La Tania and Aljibe Flamenco

Performances
Nadja Haas
Shelley Cook-Conterras

Poetry
Nina Serrano

and much more...

Luis Arias Vera

imageIn 1987 Luis Arias Vera initiates his " DANZAQ" Series. The subject-matter of his work has always showed us an artist intrigued by the deep value of his ancestors' graphics, by the visual wealth of the images produced by pre-Columbian South American Cultures, signs and symbols that are increasingly getting more attention from researchers, historians and anthropologists because of the immense contribution that their careful study can provide to understand the level of development accomplished by these cultures.

In the case of Arias Vera, being Peruvian, his interests are focused on the Inca Culture and the pre-Inca Cultures, especially the Mochica Culture, which is where he comes from.

But for this artist, the playfulness, the magic and the myth that comes from the previously mentioned visual wealth, blends almost without intervals, with the time he has had to live in and its unavoidable problems.

We can perceive this in his current work, the insistence in searching for the balances that we have lost, that we have left aside, vainly attracted by the disturbing mirages with which current society tends to distract us in every step.

Since these signs, these symbols which Arias Vera uses are there, and they are getting more recognition every day, there is no better way of giving meaning to his work than this insistence in showing them, in exhibiting them within the amalgam that presupposes to be contemporary.

The work that Arias Vera presents at the MCCLA definitely aims to show with a very contemporary vision, the wealth and relevance of this system of symbols that he knows very well by inheritance.

Take a look at a video about Luis Arias Vera's work here

The Bohemian Night Soiree is the third and last event in a series of special events related to the following exhibition:

Opening reception
Friday, August, 14th, 7-10pm $5


Artists
Luis Arias Vera
Juan R. Fuentes
Casper Banjo

Curators
Art Hazelwood
Rene Yañez

Works on view available for purchase.

Take a look at a video Mission Local made about the exhibition here


Curators Rene Yañez and Art Hazelwood have organized this exhibition which celebrates artists from three very different worlds and ties their work together through a series of events.

Art Hazelwood is paying tribute to African American artist Casper Banjo who was widely known in the Bay Area before he was tragically shot by Oakland Police last year. Banjo was known as the "Brick Man" for his use of bricks which he used in a surprising range of imagery. This memorial retrospective explores the breadth of his work.


Rene Yañez has put together the work of Luis Arias Vera and Juan Fuentes. Vera, born in Peru, and now living in Berkeley has strong ties in Spain where he has been commissioned to create a significant public art sculpture. He will present a body of paintings as well as the on site creation of new work in collaboration with his son Adrian Arias and other artists.

Fuentes has been a part of the Chicano poster movement since the early 1970s. He has created screenprint posters for countless community groups and political causes. He was director of MCCLA's Mission Grafica screen print studio, from 1999 to 2007. Fuentes will be presenting linocuts and silkscreen prints and displaying sketches and photographs from his participation in a contingent of Bay Area artists visiting Peru.


Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
MCCLA is 1/2 block from the 24th Street BART Station
Muni: 14, 14L, 48, 49 & 67 and is wheelchair accessible



More Info
(415) 821-1155
www.missionculturalcenter.org



Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) was established in 1977 by artists and community activists with a shared vision to promote, preserve and develop the Latino cultural arts that reflect the living tradition and experiences of the Chicano, Mexican, Central and South American, and the Caribbean people.