Visitors to the Hispanic Cultural Center in the coming weeks will be treated to glimpses into the landscapes and lifestyles of Mexico and New Mexico - past and present.
"Elena Climent: Ventanas de la memoria (Windows of the memory)," an exhibition of about 50 oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings by Mexican painter Elena Climent, opened Nov. 17. Climent created the works featured in the exhibition during the last decade.
Climent exemplifies the beauty in everyday bits of the human experience - bric-a-brac, home alters, shop windows and kitchen cabinets are all infused with competing elements of mystery and familiarity. Universally recognizable objects - a kitchen counter with domestic detritus such as keys and papers, a shelf crammed with books, magazines, family snapshots and children's toys, a hairbrush resting near a mirror with postcards and family photographs tucked into its frame - are all reflections of the painter's world.
Climent focuses on the domestic surroundings, both real and imagined, of her home and those of other Mexicans.
"In Mexico, people may be poverty-stricken financially, but many still find resourceful ways to imbue their visual world with richness and abundance," she said in a statement.
Without revealing the entire room or environment, Climent creates tiny vignettes focused on tiny corners of a space. Though the scenes are usually manifestations of human activity, the only images of people appear in photographs rendered in the paintings. Climent prefers to paint people's possessions because, as she explains, "Wherever we are, we reproduce ourselves. People reflect themselves by their surroundings. We create an order around us, a mirror of what we are. I'm fascinated by what objects absorb people."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Climent was born in Mexico City in 1955 to a Spanish father and a Jewish American mother. The resulting combination of cultures caused her to latch onto Mexican tradition with the fervor of a convert, according to the statement. Her art education came from her father, also a painter, and a handful of art classes in Barcelona and Valencia, Spain, as well as Mexico City. Climent's works have been exhibited around the world, and she now lives in Chicago.
During this month, Climent will make lithographs - a limited run series of reproductions of a painting applied to stone - at UNM's Tamarind Institute. Pieces created at Tamarind will also be exhibited at the cultural center.
"Elena Climent: Ventanas de la memoria" will run through April. The Hispanic Cultural Center, at 1701 Fourth St. SW, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Climent will lead a tour of the exhibit during a reception Nov. 30 from 6-8 p.m.
