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Past News, Events and Travels at Indigo Arts Gallery |
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Oñí pa´ Ochún
Acrylic on canvas
Javier Gonzalez Gallosa
Cienfuegos, Cuba
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The International Caribbean Art Fair
Indigo Arts Gallery was pleased to participate in the first International Caribbean Art Fair held at the Puck Building in SoHo, New York, from November 1st through November 4th, 2007.
The International Caribbean Art Fair is a first-of-its-kind expo exclusively featuring artworks by Caribbean artists—either living in or outside of the Caribbean islands. It brought together more than 40 distinguished galleries and artists representing the best in Caribbean Art.
Indigo Arts exhibited work by Cuban and Haitian artists, including Javier Gonzalez Gallosa, José Garcia Montebravo, Pierre-Joseph Valcin, George Valris and others. Click here for more information about the ICA Fair.
In November 2008 Indigo Arts will be participating in the second annual International Caribbean Art Fair. Stay tuned for news on this event!
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¡News!
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"La Sirene"
Haitian Vodou flag by Myrlande Constant
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Vodou Flag Trunk Sale!
Direct from the Finest Sequin Artists in Haiti.
Presented with Nancy Josephson – Artist, musician, student of Haitian Vodou, and author of the upcoming book on Vodou Flags
Doubtless the most spectacular Haitian art form is the sequin-covered Drapo Vodou or "Voodoo Flag". Vodou banners derive directly from the practice of the Vodou religion. Vodou is a syncretism of the traditional African religions brought to Haiti by slaves, with the Catholicism of their former masters. The banners are traditionally the work of practicing vodou priests and their followers. They are displayed in the vodou sanctuaries and are carried at the commencement of a ceremony. Each flag depicts the vévé symbol or image of the loa to which it is devoted. The flags are made of shiny silk fabrics to which have been sewn a brilliant mosaic of sequins and beads. A full-size banner typically contains 18,000 to 20,000 sequins and may take ten days to complete.
Among the more traditional practitioners of the art are Sylva Joseph, Clotaire Bazile, and Yves Telemac. Other important sequin artists include Maxon Scylla, George Valris and Myrlande Constant.
Nancy Josephson brought work by these and other current sequin artists to Indigo Arts for a two day sale on November 19th and 20th, 2005. Nancy is a woman of diverse talents. Widely known as a visionary artist, her installation pieces were featured in the recent exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Holy H2O: Fluid Universe. Both as an artist and as a student of vodou, she has worked and studied with Haiti’s best sequin artists. She is currently completing a book on vodou flags for Schiffer Press. You may also have heard her as a member of the David Bromberg Band and most recently, the Angel Band.
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Chickens made from recycled plastic bags
South Africa
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Bags, Bottle Caps and Tin Cans
Our recycled products were featured in the March 2005 issue of Sky magazine. The article, Bags, Bottle Caps and Tin Cans: Craftspeople from Around the World Create from Recycled Materials tells the story of our long fascination with people's resourceful use of discarded materials:
Philadelphia gallery owner Tony Fisher grew up in Africa. Traveling the continent, his family would often see children playing with homemade toys—creations like cars of scrap wood with shoe-polish cans for wheels, or dolls sewn from shreds of fabric. In homes, he saw kerosene lanterns made from repurposed cooking-oil cans and storage containers made from pieced metal.
This Third World ingenuity still operates today, but what Fisher first saw done to supply things for the home is now also done as marketable folk art. American and European collectors are going to Indigo Arts Gallery, the store Fisher and Devi Cholet launched in 1986, as well as to museum stores and other specialty shops, to buy baskets, home décor, tote bags and toys—all made from surplus or recycled materials.
Click here for the Recycled Art and Toy Bazaar.
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Special Event!
Affordable Art Soirée at the Allentown Art Museum
Indigo Arts participated in the Affordable Art Soirée at the Allentown Art Museum on Thursday, October 26th, 2006, from 7 to 9pm.
The second annual Affordable Art Soirée was a wonderful evening of fun, fine food, wine, conversation, and affordable art. Nine regional artists and six dealers presented original works of art for sale
For more information about the Lehigh Valley’s unique new social event, or to receive an invitation, e-mail deni@allentownartmuseum.org or call 610-432-4333, ext. 52.
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Twins Seven-Seven opens African Visions at Indigo Arts Gallery
on November 5th, 2004
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Twins Seven-Seven Named
UNESCO Artist of Peace!
Indigo Arts wishes to congratulate Nigerian-born Philadelphia artist Prince Twins Seven-Seven on his naming as UNESCO Artist for Peace for 2005. The award was presented by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura at a ceremony in Paris on May 25th, 2005. The ceremony was attended by His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Chairperson of the African Union. 2004 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai of Kenya also received a UNESCO award at the ceremony.
In making the award, the Director-General said:
"Your outstanding career as a painter, teacher and musician and your contribution to the promotion of dialogue between cultures through artistic development have been widely and internationally recognized. Indeed your manifold artistic initiatives resonate with many of UNESCO's objectives and values. It is therefore with great pleasure that I have decided to designate you as UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Your ability to shape new artistic paradigms and your capacity to move beyond conventional norms of proportion and perspective have been hallmarks of your genuine artistic approach leading to understanding, appreciation and tolerance among peoples. Your work underlines the notion that diversity is an asset."
Prince Twins Seven-Seven was one of the original artists of the famed Oshogbo School (named for the city of that name), which arose in the newly independent Nigeria of the early 1960’s. Seven-Seven rapidly achieved international fame, with major exhibitions in Europe, Japan and Australia as well as the United States. His work is now in museum and private collections around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution.
Indigo Arts Gallery has shown the work of Twins Seven-Seven since 1994, most recently in our African Visions show. One of Twins Seven-Seven’s paintings was featured in the Philadelphia Museum of Art show, African Art, African Voices, He is also a very talented musician, as he and his band (consisting of his wife and five children) demonstrated with a thrilling concert at Indigo Arts on November 5th 2004.
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Amy Kahn Russell at Indigo Arts Gallery
on May 7th to 9th, 2004
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Amy Kahn Russell Jewelry Weekend at Indigo
On the weekend of May 7th to 9th, 2004 we featured the jewelry if our most popular designer, Amy Kahn Russell at Indigo Arts. Starting on the evening of First Friday, (May 7th, 3 to 10pm) and through the weekend we will feature an unusually large selection of Amy's exquisite designs. Don't miss it!
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Ignacio Fletes Cruz instructs a visitor to Indigo Arts Gallery on March 6th, 2004
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Ignacio Fletes Cruz at Indigo Arts
On March 5th and 6th, 2004 Nicaraguan Primitivista artist, Ignacio Fletes Cruz visited Indigo Arts. Fletes Cruz was on hand for the opening reception at Indigo Arts Gallery on First Friday, March 5th, from 5 to 9pm and a painting workshop on Saturday afternoon, March 6th (2-6pm). The work is on display at the gallery through May 2nd, and can already be seen on the website. In addition to the show in Philadelphia, Ignacio has been commissioned to paint two murals in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary and at Gettysburg High School..
An interview about Ignacio Fletes Cruz and this exhibition with Indigo Arts Gallery co-owner Tony Fisher aired in the Philadelphia area on the program Puerto Rican Panorama on April 4th and 5th, 2004. It aired on ABC affiliate Channel 6 (WPVI) at 6:00 AM on Sunday April 4th, and at about 3:20 AM on Monday, April 5th. No. its not exactly prime time.
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Havana, November, 2003
Abelito Mainegra with George Bush
Trindad, Cuba. November, 2003 |
Cuba 2003
In November, 2003, as the deadline approached for the expiration of nearly all licenses for Americans to travel there legally (see below), Tony made a trip to Cuba. The Havana Biennial, an immense exhibition of international contemporary art was in full swing. More than ever, it was an experience both gratifying and as it turned out, deeply disturbing.
Tony was generously received by artists and people of the arts, both old friends and new, in Havana, Cienfuegos and Trinidad, including José Basulto, Javier Gallosa, Alicia Leal, Abelito Mainegra, José Montebravo, Omar Castellanos, Jorgé Sanfiel, Elio Vilva and Wayacon. The artists of Cuba continue to produce extraordinary work. Unfortunately new barriers to free travel and artistic exchange are being raised on both sides. We hope to be able to return, and to continue to share tthe art of Cuba with the United States and beyond.
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Alejandro Benito Cabrera of Leon, Nicaragua
visits Indigo Arts on Oct. 9, 2003
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Alejandro Benito Cabrera at Indigo Arts
On October 9, 2003 we were pleased to have a visit from Nicaraguan Primitivista artist, Alejandro Benito Cabrera at Indigo Arts. Fresh from artist's residencies and exhibitions at both Cornell University and the University of Pittsburgh, Alejandro stopped at Indigo to show us some of his vibrant new paintings. He was accompanied by Larry Knutson, director of Americas' Gallery, in Gettysburg, PA. After a visit to Gettysburg, Cabrera returns to his hom and studio in Sutiava, Leon, Nicaragua. We will be putting more of his new work on the website in the coming weeks.
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Indigo Arts at the Pittsburgh Folk Art Show and Sale!
Friday, December 6 through Sunday, December 8, 2002
Indigo Arts joined with the Gettysburg, PA gallery Americas' Arts in exhibiting at the Pittsburgh Folk Art Show and Sale. We showed a variety of Cuban, Haitian and other eclectic work alongside some 20 other fine folk and outsider art dealers at the John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center. The event featured the exhibition Contemporary Folk Art - Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a folk art symposium featuring many noted speakers, including Brooke Anderson (The American Folk Art Museum, NY), Rebecca Hoffberger (American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore), Lee Kogan (American Folk Art Museum, NY) and Tom Patterson (the Nerve Museum, Winston-Salem, NC).
For more details, call 412-454-6430 or visit www.pghhistory.com,
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Roberto Torres Lameda (right) discusses his work at Indigo Arts on First Friday, Oct. 4, 2002
Luis "El Estudiante"Rodriguez at Indigo Arts
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Roberto Torres Lameda and Luis Rodriguez at Indigo Arts
It was disconcertingly close to the wire, but artists Roberto Torres Lameda and Luis "El Estudiante" Rodriguez, received their visas in time and were on hand for the October 4th, 2002 opening of Por un Mundo Mejor/For a Better World (see Exhibitions, above). They brought with them fifty beautiful new paintings by themselves and four other artists from the Grupo Bayate, a collaborative of self-taught artists from the village of Mella, outside of Santiago de Cuba. If you missed the opening, you still have a chance to meet the artists at Joan Pearlman's gallery talk at Indigo Arts on Saturday, October 19th, at 5pm. For complete information on the show, and a selection of the paintings, click here. We have put nearly all the paintings onto the website. You can see them in our Cuba Gallery.
You can read about Luis, Roberto and El Festival Cubano in a October 14, 2002 article, Cuban Art is Preparing the Stage for Life after the Embargo in the Dallas Morning News.
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José Garcia Montebravo with
La Infanta de Philadelphia at Indigo Arts
Philadelphia, Pa, July 17, 2002
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José Garcia Montebravo at Indigo Arts!
We were privileged to host one of Cuba's leading self-taught artists, José Garcia Montebravo, on his visit to Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 17th, 2002. Montebravo spent the entire day with us at Indigo, even painting a beautiful new work while he was here - an acrylic painting of an infanta (princess) in a red dress which he christened La Infanta de Philadelphia. For more pictures of his visit click here.
In honor of his visit, Indigo Arts showed a new selection of Montebravo's paintings and drawings. Montebravo's work has been a prominent feature (and without a doubt the best seller) of our three annual group shows of self-taught artists from Cuba. We will be adding some of the new Montebravo works to our web gallery over the upcoming weeks.
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Giant puppet -Street Parade.
Oaxaca, Mexico, March, 2002
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Oaxaca 2002
Indigo's most recent destination was Oaxaca, Mexico, where Tony sought out old friends, such as painters Fernando Olivera , Felipe Morales, Eddie Martinez and Enrique Flores and sculptors Jose Hernandez and Josefina Aguilar. But he also met with new (to Indigo) artists such as the Japanese-born Oaxaca painter and print-maker, Shinzaburo Takeda.
Tony also visited the village of Ocotlan to pay respects to the late master, Rodolfo Morales. He toured Morales' house, now a community cultural center, and the church and monastery, now a museum, both exquisitely renovated by the Rodolfo Morales Foundation in the years before his death.
Keep checking back here for new work on the website and the show of New Art from Oaxaca, which opened June 7, 2002.
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Painter Abel Perez Mainegra
with his grand-daughter.
Trinidad, Cuba, August, 2001
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Cuba 2001
In August 2001 Tony returned to Cuba to meet new (to us) artists, revisit old friends, and bring back a new collection of fabulous paintings, prints and sculpture by Basulto, Castillo, Fito, Ledon, Mainegra, Montebravo, Pelly, Sanfiel, Wayacon and others - just in time to exhibit in our October show, Cuban Self-Taught, part of the city-wide El Festival Cubano celebration. For more informations see Exhibitions above, and to see the work our Cuba Gallery section.
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Costa Rica
In Spring 2001 Devi went to Costa Rica, where she worked building houses with another team from Habitat for Humanity.
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The Cats of Isla Mujeres.
Mexico, January, 2001
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Mexico
In January 2001 Tony travelled on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. He brought back a new collection of Mexican dance masks, selections of which can be seen in the Dance Masks of Mexico and Guatemala section of our Gallery.
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"Shango"
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¡Cuba Vive!
In February 2000 Tony travelled to Cuba in search of sun, music and last but not least, art to exhibit at Indigo Arts. He found all three in abundance, plus a very generous and hospitable people. Click here for more of his Notes from Cuba. Click on our Cuba Gallery section to see the art he brought back.
Honduras
In April 1999 Devi travelled to Hurricane-devastated Honduras, where she worked building houses with a group of volunteers from Habitat for Humanity. Click here for her report.
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Latest Update October28, 2008 |
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1400 North American St., #104 • Philadelphia, PA 19122
Phone: (215) 765-1041 • Toll Free: (888) INDIART • Fax: (215) 765-1042
E-Mail: indigofamily@indigoarts.com
Al l photographs and text Copyright Indigo Arts Gallery, LLC., 1998-2008. Use without permission prohibited.
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