By Barb Webb
Bordello Galería will be hosting the new year offerings of our favorite Morelian artist, Ruben Morales. The reception will be held this Friday evening from 6 to 8pm. Morales will be on hand to greet patrons.
Morales is a long-time favorite at Casa de la Noche where his works are featured in many of the rooms. Morales has recently endorsed the Bordello Galería as his primary venue and spent a week last summer as our “Artist-in-Residence.” In recognition of the rapid changes in the cultural flavor of his country, Morales is naming this exhibition “My Mexico.”
Barbara Poole, the exhibit organizer, first became interested in Morales’s work in the 90s, and has since collected many of his oil paintings and line drawings. His typical Mexican figures and street scenes may seem simple at first, but his use of rich colors and limited, intentional marks reveal a more sophisticated art style.
The 75-year-old Morales says, “I work to create a mood or emotion, not just a picture.” He does this through faceless subjects in everyday situations: a woman selling flowers, an old man walking with a cane, or a girl washing clothes. Emotion is evoked through posture, composition, and color which are applied in broad strokes with a pallet knife or brush.
A former student of Morelia’s Bellas Artes School, Morales says he rejected most of the traditional art education and learned from other painters he met. He works from memory and imagination capturing the nostalgia of everyday life in the campo, the rural Mexican countryside.
Morales esteems Diego Rivera as his favorite influencer, but only his subject matter reflects Rivera’s style; they both pay tribute to the common man and woman. Morales’ gestural works are technically looser and more flowing than Rivera’s and without the strident political content.
In the past, Morales sold his work in Morelia in the artisan’s market, on the streets, and also through galleries in Mexican beach locales. He has been noticed by American collectors over the years and has had shows in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, Florida, and New York. He has also traveled to Uruguay with his paintings and recently won a French Painters award after one of his pieces was entered into a competition by a patron. Now the Bordello Galería is the official venue for Morales’ exhibitions.
See you soon!
Opening Reception
“Ruben Morales…My Mexico”
Fri., Feb. 3, 6-8pm
Casa de la Noche Hotel Boutique, Bordello Galería
Organos 19, one half-block off Hernandez Macias
Free
415 152 0732
