The artist Antonio Ortiz Loud, died last December 5, was sanctified
as our guru of mobilization, action and commitment
by dedicating Hey, Lupe, Lupita my love… in memory Antonio Gritón, a group exhibition inaugurated last Thursday the 12th in the parking lot converted into the Lúdica Diseño gallery, in the home of the museographer and artist Miguel Ángel Corona The Little King. The title of the sample takes up a sixties song played by Los Teen Tops.
At the entrance to the space, an image intervened by Loud (1953-2024) with Guadeloupan attributes. At the foot of the installation, a semicircle of colored markers, the artists’ weapons/tools to create aesthetic and playful experiences, alluded to one of the ideological-philosophical-humanitarian ideas
of the honoree: his project Antenna to change the world.”
The Little King, carnalito
of Loud since the 90s, he was already preparing the exhibition with the idea of heat
the traditional Guadalupana Biennial to be held in 2025. The preparations coincided with the death of the companion of so many battles. The 35 artists invited to participate in the exhibition They agreed to dedicate it to him
Corona points out to The Day.
The Guadalupana Biennial began in 1985 at the initiative of Marco Antonio Arteaga and Gonzalo Ceja, both deceased. Over the years different people have taken up the mantle of organizing this independent project in different locations, sometimes with external support. The present exhibition was planned to be held in the Tlalpan mayor’s office, however, “the new authorities – very tender, to be honest – did not fully understand what it was about. “They said religious exhibitions, no,” he said. The Little King.
Hey, Lupe, Lupita my love… It includes a wide range of works from object art, photography, illustration, design, sculpture to toys that allude to the culture of Guadalupana. Artists such as Lourdes Almeida, Armando Cristeto, Gilberto Chen, Carlos Jaurena, César Martínez, Jorge Ismael Rodríguez, Rogelio Cuéllar, Néstor Quinones, Eloy Tarcisio, Enrique Cantú and Rubén Maya participate.
Each exhibitor offers a very own vision regarding their approach to this great image that symbolizes many things, and that we intervene, respectfully, in a playful, daring, provocative and sensual way. The different approaches taken by the artists in their reading contain all this great symbolic and pre-Hispanic load.
he added The Little King.
In your text La Guadalupana in duet with Gritón: Super good! Cultural promoter Gloria Maldonado writes: “The Little King It does not gather from faith, but from its interest in exploring some symbols considered to identify many Mexicans. This is the case of the Virgin of Guadalupe, whose ‘appearances’ in 1531 refer to the colonial syncretism that produced the spiritual conquest. The deities of the pre-Hispanic native peoples were the germ for the Spanish colonizers to impose new gods, saints and virgins.”
The participants in the exhibition “approach the subject with complete freedom and from various techniques, including optical magnifying instruments or ‘lupitas’ engraved with the representation of the virgin, without missing the performances apparitionists. Some authors record the place that the Virgin of Tepeyac occupies in the collective imagination and popular culture. Others intervene in the image in a playful and affectionate way. Certain artists carry out more transgressive approaches, in which the virgin is desacralized and even sexualized,” says Maldonado.
Over the years, The Little King y Loud They collaborated together on a long list of projects under the idea of artivism
; That is, generating art with the dynamics of participation and commitment to causes of all kinds, from social to labor causes of art and culture workers.
This involvement of our humanitarian conscience has always led us, in a good way, to accompany, denounce and contribute to all these demands and mobilizations with our creative work.
During the opening night, the crowded audience enjoyed three performances by the dancer Karen Reyes, the singer Mariana Garte and Miguel Ángel Corona himself.
Hey, Lupe, Lupita my love… in memory Antonio Gritón will remain until January 6, 2025.