By John Dodge Meyer
Richard Schultz is turning the page of a new chapter in the remarkable history of the Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery. Sixteen months after the passing of Anado McLauchlin, his husband, friend and co-conspirator in all things fabulous, Richard is pleased to announce a new and unique exhibition of Mexican inspired work by Meryl Truett, an artist, curator, gallerist and full time resident of our inspiring Pueblo Magico. Since leaving her Southeastern U.S. lowcountry home in 2016, Truett (in true artistic parlance) has developed a deep attraction to the surreal visual playground that inhabits, and in many ways defines, the very soul of this culturally influential country. Building on a lifetime of exploring various photographic techniques in her personal work and as a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Meryl took advantage of the “down time” that was the pandemic to embrace the possibilities and creative freedom of mixed media. Incorporating photographic transfers with paint, chalk, pencil and wax, she developed a new way of expressing her vision.
Meryl has exhibited extensively in the United States and Europe. She has been widely published in numerous magazines such as Oxford American, The Vanderbilt Review and Camera Austria. Her work “Thump Queen and Other Southern Anomalies” is in its second printing. Her work is in the collections of major museums and corporations. She earned an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2003 with additional art training in France. She has extensive experience teaching at the college level and conducting photography, mixed media and book publishing workshops. Artist Fellowships include the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Le Moulin å Nef in Auvillar, France and The Hambidge Center, Rabun Gap, Georgia.
Other artists included are Ann Chamberlin and the late Leigh Hyams. Chamberlin holds a BFA from the Universidad de las Américas, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico and an MFA from the University of Texas, Austin. She has worked as a Fulbright scholar/artist in Medellín, Columbia. Her paintings “tell stories that treasure the personal and vulnerable.” The late Hyams was also a Fulbright scholar, having received a Western European Regional Research Grant for her series of paintings on megalithic sites. She said she was driven by “a passion for what frees us and makes us aware of a deeper reality.”
Openings at the Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery are known for spectacle and surprise. All are invited to this celebration of art and community in an environment that’s become a San Miguel destination. The New York Times described the riotous compound as a “force.” The Los Angeles Times called the Casa de las Ranas “the happiest house in San Miguel de Allende.”
Art Opening
Tropes and Topes: a New Chapter at Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery
Sat, Aug 6, 1-5pm
Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery
Temazcal 3, La Cieneguita, GTO
www.chapelofjimmyraygallery.com
Free
