More Time Than Life | Remembrance & Celebration

Marzen presents More Time Than Life, an exhibition spotlighting modern Mexican art grown from long-held, rich traditional folk mediums and imagery. Artists in this exhibition come from various backgrounds yet share a common thread as they relate their craft to their personal and cultural traditions.

The exhibition will feature the original woven art of master weaver Erasto “Tito” Mendoza from Oaxaca, Mexico. His innovative textiles are skillfully woven and push the boundaries of the archetypal Saltillo style serapes. Mendoza has collaborated on multiple occasions with Madison textile and installation artist Carolyn Kallenborn, whose elaborate, ethereal concepts blend beautifully with the more traditional textile forms. Marzen will be exhibiting some of these internationally celebrated collaborative works for the first time ever in Madison as well as a brand new installation piece crafted by Mendoza and Kallenborn.

More Time Than Life also includes the kaleidoscopic paintings of Edgar Salguero, an artist residing in Guanajuato, Mexico. Salguero’s colorful paintings do not betray the uncomplicated freedom of his hand while maintaining a seemingly impeccable control over the uncontrollable. The paintings are blanketed in luscious texture due to the artist’s meticulously painted motif of dots and line-work which tell many stories within the greater narrative of the composition. His work is humbly inspired by literature, music, and aspects of his own life and persona.

Also on display will be an assortment of pottery from Mata Ortiz. Mata Ortiz is a small pueblo that is home to a unique group of potters located along the Palanganas River in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico. The region is rich with history dating back to ancient Paquime, a large city that at its zenith was emblematic of high culture and trade in its time. In the mid-1950’s a man named Juan Quezada, deeply inspired by the prehistoric pottery scattered throughout the region, set out to learn the lost art of the beautiful pottery. Using only the region’s diverse range of clays and minerals and hand-built ovens and tools, Quezada successfully recreated the ancient style of pottery which eventually caught the attention of outsiders. The other families in the village began to learn how to process the clay, hand build the pots and hand-paint the incredibly intricate designs, evolving into its own contemporary art form and becoming the trademark of Mata Ortiz.

Continuing an annual project initiated originally by Edgewood College, Marzen will be the home base for the Remembrance & Celebration shrines this year complimenting the incredible breadth of artwork on display. Memorial shrine making has been a widespread tradition all over the world but most notably in Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca’s incredible Dia De Los Muertos celebration is an honored and time-held tradition to commemorate those who have passed on. Marzen invites the community to make their own ofrenda (altar) and display it at the gallery for the extent of this exhibition.