|
Series celebrates
international diversity
KALAMAZOO, Jan. 25, 2013:
A spring visiting artists series celebrating international
diversity and featuring four eclectic artists will start
Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 at Western Michigan University.
Each artist will present a free public talk or performance while
on campus. The series was organized by the College of Fine Arts.
More information is available by contacting Teresa Valdez in
WMU's College of Fine Arts at:
teresa.valdez@wmich.edu or (269) 387-5810. |
Gabriela León |
|
Monday through Thursday, Jan. 28-31, 2013: Gabriela León,
who lives and works in Oaxaca, Mexico, will be on campus working
extensively with students in the Frostic School of Arts. León
will present a public lecture on “Contemporary Artistic
Practices Within Political and Social Realities of Oaxaca,” at
5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31, in Room 2008 of the Richmond Center
for Visual Arts. She will talk about her multidisciplinary and
collective projects, La Perrera and Ojo de Perro.
A multidisciplinary visual artist, she founded and directed
Re-Active Art Lab: La Perrera, an artistic project focusing on
“action art” and photography among diverse disciplines. She is
interested in hybrid projects and creative collaborations, and
explores ways to integrate contemporary artistic practices
within political and social realities of Oaxaca, which is the
second poorest state in south Mexico.
León utilizes unique metaphors and symbols of Mexican culture in
her works to express her consciousness of being and perception
of the world. She has shown those works in Mexico as well as
abroad. She has received several national and international
honors, including a Tierney Foundation Fellowship for
photography and a grant from the National Foundation for Culture
and Art for literature.
Friday through Monday, Feb. 15-25, 2013: Laurencio Carlos
Ruiz will be on campus working extensively with students in
the Department of Theatre and Frostic School of Art. Ruiz will
give two public performances beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb.
23, in the Gilmore Theatre Complex's York Arena Theatre. He will
first present “Shifting Strengths,” which employs puppets to
display a new perspective of looking at, appreciating, and
valuing the wounded, mutilated and different bodies with which
we engage, but are afraid to make contact with or are unable to
appreciate.
He will perform the sketch, “Give Me a Hand,” an interactive
presentation. Audience members will have the opportunity to be
the puppet's right hand while they and Ruiz complete a task
together. In the process, the audience members will see and
practice the opposite side of taking their bodies for granted.
Ruiz is an instructor of theatre arts and resident scenic
designer at Penn State University Altoona as well as a freelance
artist and designer, puppeteer, photographer and visual and
performance artist. He studied visual arts and industrial design
in Mexico as an undergraduate and has a master's degree in
scenic design from Penn State.
His experience as a
multidisciplinary artist and designer includes photography,
installation and performance art, plus sets, costumes, props,
puppets and masks for cabaret, theatre and television. Ruiz has
performed in the United States, Germany, Japan, and Mexico and
in recent years has come back into the international eye.
|
