Entijuanarte 2009, Another face of Tijuana

Hi friends!!
Some times we have exchenged Emails about how the situation its in Tijuana (all the bad things we usually see in the news), well this time I would like to share with you the other face of Tijuana, a cultural event that hapend last weekend, its name its "Entijuanarte", basically its an art fair at the Tijuana Cultural Center (this was the fifth year). The fair, showed paintings, performance, theather, music, cloth by local designers and other cool stuff. Arround 50,000 people visited the fair, and it was very exciting to see the work of new emerging artists and also see the work of reknown artists like David Silvah.
For the closing event there was a very interesting concert where 20,000 people went see it, this concert was an experiment to fusion Nortec Music with clasical instruments of the Orquesta de Baja California (Nortec its a world famous type of electronic music that originated in Tijuana, it has a big influence of Norteño music or Banda music). As you can see in the video of youtube the concert was exceptional and 20,000 people with joy started to shout "Tijuana, Tijuana, Tijuana" at the same time. Click here to see a Youtube video of the concert!
Over the year there are other cultural events in Tijuana like "Opera en la Calle", which its an Opera festival in the streets where thousands of people gather to enjoy live Opera music, food and art. Lets hope that all this cultural inspiration gets more in the hipe, so people could talk also about good things of Tijuana.
Here it is a link to an article on the San Diego Union Tribune about Entijuanarte, click here.
If any of you guys would like to visit next years event, please send me an email in order to remind you next October (mexfolkarts@yahoo.com.mx).
Enjoy!!!!

Ricardo Linares: Humor & Day of the Dead

I have been always a big fan of papier mache folk art, specially the one made by the Linares Family the creators of those fantastical animals called "Alebrijes". The story tells that the Patriarch of this family "Don Pedro Linares" saw this fantastical animals in his dreams while beein sick. Once he recovered, he started making those fantastical figures on papier mache and gave them the name of "Alebrijes". He never imagined that his creation will have such a deep reception on Mexican Folk.
Ricardo Linares (grandson of Don Pedro) at age 40 its one of the most prolific members on the family; museums, Galleries and private exhibitions in the States and Europe have had his work on display some the places are: San Jose, Sacramento, San Fransisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. Over seas his work has been in Spain, France, Germany and Australia.
The special trade mark of Ricardo has been the sense on humor that his pieces show, for example you can see scenes with devils and angels figthing for the soul of a skeleton, or the same devil and angel having fun with a bottle of Tequila. One of his most famous piece its called "Dolor de Cabeza" (The headache) basically its a day of the dead skeleton running with an expression of pain in his head, and poping out from it there it is an Alebrije!!. Another piece that I like its the piece entitled "El coco" (the bogeymen) it shows a skeleton with a mask playing a joke to a scared smaller skeleton.
For more information on the Linares Family, you can also check my older post on Felipe Linares. Enjoy!!
To see the art by Ricardo Linares that we have for sale click here.