GALLERIA DANTE
Presents:
Luis Valui & Jorge Coste
exhibit opens
Friday, March 8th, cocktails 6pm to 10pm
Luis Castellanos Valui, born in Guadalajara in 1955, is a painter who infuses his Latin American roots with the traditions of tropical jazz and cafe culture. Collected by the J. Paul Getty Institute and Capitol Records, Valui creates rhythmic images, bringing his subjects to life. His works are also in the collection of Atlas and Mambo Restaurants, Go West Productions, Televisa, Ripstein Collection, Univision. At his openings in Los Angeles, many Hollywood jet setters are among the collectors.
He studied for two years at the Fine Arts University in Guadalajara. At the age of 20 he moved to Mexico City where he studied at the “Esmeralda” school. He restored Colonial and Pre-Hispanic art for 4 years at the request of the Mexican government. He then established himself in the Bohemian community of Tepoztlan, Morelos, a small village south of Mexico City. There he began his formal career as a painter. In 1986, he had his first individual exhibition at the prestigious OMR Gallery in Mexico City.
“For me, in the beginning it was van Gogh,” Valui says. “But, over the years, I learned about the German Expressionists, pre-Hispanic art, and became influenced by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall.” Not just people, but animals are also a favorite subject — crabs, parrots, lions, tigers being some of his most favorites to paint. Musicians and dancers recur in Mr. Valui’s paintings, and their heat and energy are palpable. You could get a charley horse in your calf just looking at his dancers’ legs. “We say in Mexico, when you are a musician who is very …” he rolled his hand in the air, “… very talented, very into it, we say, ‘tiene duende,’ he has it in his blood, in his soul.”
Luis paints in oil, as well as water color. When you attend his shows, you will hear the friendly bantering of his collectors: “Well I own 7 of his paintings”. Another will say “But I own 11”. Very few people stop at purchasing only one painting by Luis. The paintings make you smile and leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Luis is a painter of our senses, what you feel looking at his paintings: to dance, to sing, to dream, to love. And when it comes to dance, there is probably not a style that Luis has not painted: mambo, tango, salsa, cha-cha-cha, waltz. There are scenes on the beach, by the campfire, in plazas, street and market scenes. His paintings are fresh, luminous and definitely tropical. They are full of humor and saturated with color and light. Thank you Luis for bringing us such joy. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151461117055939.1073741827.153286505938&type=1&l=fe8865b15c
Jorge Coste – Mexican sculptor born in Cordoba, Veracruz in 1959. He has a degree in hydrobiology by UAM-I. He later took classes in sculpture and ceramic in art studios of IMSS and currently holds a diploma of plastic arts from the Helenic cultural center. His work was exhibited for the first time in 1983, since then he has participated in 19 individual exhibits and 55 collective exhibits. His work has been acquired by collectors in the US, Canada, France, Spain, Israel, Japan and of course Mexico. He tries to express in his work a positive message that invites the spectator to reflex on all the good things that exist in the world, and sometimes we forget to enjoy. The majority of his work is created in Bronze, but he also uses clay, concrete, fiber glass, wood and different types of resins. In some works he combines various materials like crystal, marble and bronze together to interpret a single idea. In general Jorge Coste can express himself through four basic lines of work. Marine fauna, Horses and bulls, human figure in motion, stylized and minimalist figures. Many of his new works in resin tell a story, in the painted collage of memories that are depicted on each sculpture, as in one of his new works “What I want to say!”. Currently his work is exhibited primarily in ten galleries around Mexico and one in US. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151461109330939.1073741825.153286505938&type=1&l=919eb20a99
Last Friday evening show of the season is
22 MARCH 2013 – Jean-Gabriel Lambert & Brewster Brockmann
To view works prior to the event, visit: www.galleriadante.com
Galleria Dante will remain open our regular hours till June 1st, after that by appointment till October 1st. We are available all summer, so do not hesitate to call or email for an appointment!
Save on toll charges to Mexico by calling our Michigan based numbers: (269)-282-8926 or 810 43 DANTE or (269)-282-6865 or (269)-282-8576
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