"Wence & Sandra Martinez: Presence"
will officially launch the Fairfield Art Center's summer
season on Thursday, May 15. The exhibition, showcased
in the first-floor Main Gallery, will open with a free reception
at 6:30 p.m. The acclaimed Door County artists will be on
hand for the reception, which will include wine and hors
d'oeuvres.
"Presence"
incorporates several pieces of new work created this past
winter in Teotitlan del Valle, Wence Martinez's home village
in Oaxaca, Mexico. The husband-and-wife team often spends
the winter offseason in the village, working on their art,
visiting neighboring households to select yarn for new weavings
and building a bed-and-breakfast that also will serve as
an artist's retreat. "Presence" includes hand-dyed
and -woven Wence Martinez rugs as well as a series of Sandra
Martinez paintings that were inspired by the efforts of
local farmers to preserve indigenous seeds that are being
systematically destroyed.
According to Sandra Martinez, this past
winter's visit started as an art retreat for her after a
long year of recovery from hand surgery. "Since
I couldn't make any art, it started me thinking about roots
- that what goes on under the surface is integral to the
visible, it precedes and nurtures the visible," she
explained. "Once we arrived in Oaxaca, I became aware
of the indigenous plant movement, which is part of the ongoing
social movement."
Her awareness of this movement, which
is deeply affecting local communities, infused her new paintings.
"The drawings of roots became broader
talismans, symbols of the spirit of the plants," she
continued. "They are meant to honor, uplift and energize
the sacred and the natural in the face of a tenacious assault
by corporate, genetically altered, experimental food crops."
During the coming summer in Door County,
some of Sandra Martinez's paintings will be reborn on her
husband's loom. Others will become patterns on her well-known
functional and wearable-art design projects. In addition,
Wence Martinez will review the many photographs he took
during winter and process the many themes that will influence
his own designs during the busy summer season.
Master weaver Wence Martinez is a full-blooded
Zapotec Indian whose family still lives and works in Teotitlan
del Valle, a community of approximately 5,000 people that
has been renowned for textile weaving for centuries. Martinez
himself has been weaving for more than three decades, and
he has garnered international recognition for his one-of-a-kind
artwork. He carries on the Zapotec legacy by using hand-spun,
hand-dyed wool, weaving his original contemporary and traditional
designs into museum-quality tapestries for the floor or
wall. His looms are handmade in the village.
Martinez was working there with his family
20 years ago when his path crossed that of a young Milwaukee
artist named Sandra Hackbarth, now his wife.
"Wence wove one of my designs, and
we fell madly in love," she said. "Five years
later, we painted up a sign, opened our gallery, the Martinez
Studio, and fulfilled a dream."
At the Martinez Studio, Wence and Sandra
Martinez continue to produce hand-crafted pieces that celebrate
a soulful artistic process. "For Wence, working directly
with our clients stands in stark contrast to the system
of his home village, where anonymous weavers rarely rise
above to develop their own designs and their own following,"
Martinez said. "For me, a formative study of conceptual
art and roots in 3D combined to erase the hierarchy of 'fine'
art. Having our own gallery gives me an instant venue to
exhibit anything I may be tempted to make.
"Together we have flourished - enjoying
each other's input and encouragement as we work on collaborative
and individual projects," she concluded. "We welcome
everyone to visit us at our studio - anytime - to see what
comes next."
Wence and Sandra Martinez will conduct
a slide presentation and artists' talk in the Fairfield
Art Center's Main Gallery at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June
12. "Wence & Sandra Martinez: Presence" will
run through Saturday, June 28.
