through November 30, 2014
Careyes Art Space
Paseo de los Artesanos S/N, Careyes
48894 La Huerta, Jalisco
Mexico
www.careyesfoundation.org
The Color of the Air video
The Careyes Foundation is proud to recognize Mary Weatherford’s summer 2014 residency, and its culminating exhibition of paintings titled The Color of the Air. Produced by the artist in collaboration with school children from the neighboring town of Perula, the show opened on August 8 and runs through November 30, 2014 at the Careyes Art Space, in Careyes on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.
Weatherford is known for virtuosic chromatic abstract paintings reflective of her relationships, often personal, to particular geographic landscapes. Her early works were based on direct observation of coastal locales in California. More recently she has approached a sense of place more broadly, as a theme or point of departure for meditations on natural and urban light. Attaching irregular streaks of neon light to her “Flashe” stain paintings, she has developed a series of sculptural pictures related to her experiences in Bakersfield, California; Manhattan; and the environs of Los Angeles. Encountering dusk over the ocean, the inky night sky, and a gathering storm in Mexico this summer, Weatherford adopted a palette of roses, midnight hues, and grays to create new paintings in Careyes—which she further accented by adhering locally scavenged elements, such as seashells and bottle caps, to the surface of each work.
During her residency Weatherford also led student workshops focused on understanding collage, abstraction, and landscape, with a particular examination of seeing and depicting color and light. Utilizing locally sourced fabrics and her characteristic vinyl paint, the artist taught students how to make their own stain paintings. The children similarly glued shells, sand, and buttons onto their works to create abstract and representational compositions inspired by the landscape of their hometown. Together, the students’ and Weatherford’s Careyes paintings comprise The Color of the Air.
To view a video documenting the collaboration, please click here.
About the artist
Mary Weatherford’s paintings have been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; Brennan & Griffin, New York; LAXART, Los Angeles; Todd Madigan Gallery, California State University, Bakersfield, California; and MoMA PS 1, New York. In December her neon paintings will be featured in the group exhibition The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, curated by Laura Hoptman, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
About the Careyes Foundation Art and Community Program
The Careyes Foundation Contemporary Art and Community Program is committed to supporting cultural exchange and dialog in the context of Careyes, Mexico, by inviting international artists to produce work in a unique and generative environment with a focus on arts education in the surrounding community. Artists in residence have included artists from Mexico City and Guadalajara including Artemio, Maximo Gonzalez, and Francisco Ugarte. Forthcoming artists will include Scoli Acosta, Conrad Shacross, and Adria Julia.
