January 31, 2016

At the Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s Centro de Artes, it has been our pleasure and privilege to mount the Trees of Life exhibition featuring the artworks of Verónica Castillo and Kathy Sosa. The exhibit has been well received by diverse audiences. It has been particularly popular with tourists to the region as well as with audiences interested in the rich aesthetic tradition of Mexico’s arte de popular and its impact on contemporary artistic expression.

Verónica Castillo’s masterful works are part of a contiguous folkloric tradition dating back for over a century. El Árbol de La Vida represent an integral part of the folk art of Mexico and are expressive of its ever evolving indigenous Mestizo cultural landscape. Amongst the various Mexican folk art traditions, particular families have tended to specialize over multiple generations in their own specific craft areas.

The Castillo clan is particularly famous for their multigenerational contributions to El Árbol de La Vida. Veronica Castillo’s works are firmly grounded in those traditions and regional expressions but they extend beyond folk art in their aesthetic aspirations. Ms. Castillo’s Árbol de La Vida are also informed by contemporary concerns with the reinvention of Mexican indigenous identity and its expression in contemporary fine art. While El Árbol de La Vida may have originally served a more ritualistic function within their communities, in the hands of Veronica Castillo, these pieces have become more straightforward sculptural works to be considered as fine art for their intellectual complexity and their technical virtuosity of execution.

Kathy Sosa’s paintings reference her appreciation of Mexican cultural traditions. In this series of paintings, she has created a body of work that is inspired by the Árbol de La Vida tradition and by the art of Verónica Castillo in particular. Ms. Sosa’s paintings are informed by historic Mexican portraiture but are also cognizant of early European Postimpressionism in their Fauvist palette that harmonizes nicely with the colors seen ubiquitously throughout the Mexican interior. Ms. Sosa has used the Tree of Life form, itself historically associated with marriage and fecundity, to illuminate the characters of the women she depicts. The iconography the artist invokes provides the viewer with insights into the nature of the personal identities of her chosen subjects. Beautifully rendered and lyrical in their narratives, Ms. Sosa’s paintings are easily appreciated by general audiences regardless of the viewers’ level of art expertise.

Trees of Life: Cultura, Tradición e Inovación is a wonderful exhibition for audiences interested in the intersection of folk art and fine art, tradition and contemporary practice as well as art at the frontier of Anglo and Hispanic cultural expression. I would unreservedly recommend this exhibit to any institution looking to explore these areas and to serve their audiences through providing an exhibition of multicultural significance to as wide an audience as possible.

Sincerely,

Joseph Bravo
Art Administrator