Xipe Projects October 2013 Newsletter

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No. 4

u The Director’s

OC T. 1 0 2 0 1 3

welcome ..... 1

u Seri Indian Marketplace.....2 u Recent Donations...............3 u The LA Art Show. ................4

Xipe Projects October 10, 2013

I’m happy to announce that Xipe Projects has been doing exciting things! We just renewed the lease on our exhibition hall, and we’re even expanding past the walls of our museum to participate in Treasures of the Maya Spirit, an engaging and dynamic exhibit on Maya art and ethnography planned for the 2014 LA Art Show to be held at the convention center in downtown Los Angeles. Our curator and I are also in the process of planning an outstanding exhibit and symposium for this coming Spring that will detail the Maya masking tradition in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, a village in Guatemala. But before all of those things come to pass, thanks to Mr. Abe Sanchez and Mr. Mike Gray, we have the rare opportunity to host the craftswomen of Comca’ac, the Seri Women’s Artisan’s Cooperative, who will display and sell the crafts for which the Seri have become internationally known. We would be delighted to have you share this festive occasion with us. There will be fabulous food, wonderful talk, and great things to see and buy. As many of you may know, the Seri are an indigenous group in Sonora, Mexico, just across the Sea of Cortez from Baja California. To a great extent they continue to maintain their traditional way of life, despite the difficulties posed by modern civilization. Their numbers, however, are dwindling, and they are mired in poverty. Despite these difficulties, the Seri women continue to weave their traditional baskets, beautiful examples of the basketmaker’s art. The baskets are made in time-honored ways, completely from materials native to the Seri lands and the adjoining Sea of Cortez. The women also make fascinating jewelry, much of it crafted from maritime materials. These things will be on display and for purchase at Xipe, in addition to the sleek, strikingly beautiful ironwood carvings, a more recently developed craft of the Seri. We are honored to be able to host the Seri and to help in our small way the survival of their crafts and their culture. Abe and Mike will also be there, happy to help answer any questions about the Seri art, culture, and way of life. Join us on November 7th! We thank you for your continued support! Sincerely, Peter Markman, Director

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Seri Indian Cultural Exchange and Marketplace November 7th, 3-9PM Xipe Projects is pleased to announce the launch of their first annual Seri cultural exchange and Indian marketplace. On November 7th 2013, between 3PM and 9PM, Xipe Projects will host the Seri/Comca’ac Women’s Artisans Cooperative from Desemboque and Punta Chueca on the Sea of Cortez in Sonora, Mexico. The talented artisans will be demonstrating their craft at the Xipe Projects exhibition hall and works on sale will include traditional coiled baskets, ironwood carvings, and shell and fishbone necklaces made from native materials gathered in the Sonoran Desert and the Sea of Cortez. Confirmed participants include Ms. Angelita Torres, the iconic “Angel Woman” featured in the photography of Graciela Iturbide and Mr. Abe Sanchez, an artist and promoter for the Revitalization of Indigenous Arts and Foods. Join us for a unique cultural experience and the opportunity to purchase these crafts directly from the artists themselves. The event is scheduled to take place at the Xipe Projects gallery at 15121 Graham Street, Suite 103, Huntington Beach, CA. Accepted forms of payment will be cash and personal check. All proceeds directly support the Women’s Artisans Cooperative. Refreshments and light hors d’oeuvres will be served and parking and admission are free. For directions or more information about the Seri Cooperative, please contact us via email at staff@xipeprojects.com or check out our website at http://www.xipeprojects.com/ We hope to see you there! ¡Hasta luego! Images on pages 2 and 3 © Deborah Smalls, http://deborahsmall.wordpress.com/

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Recent Donations

Seri Indian Marketplace Continued... About the Co-Organizers

Abe Sanchez has been involved in the revival movement of Native American basketry for 15 years throughout the Southwest with an emphasis on Southern California traditions. He is experienced in identifying, gathering, and processing from the wild most materials used in Native American basketry in the Southwest. He has coordinated trips to the US for the Seri Indians Women’s Cooperative. of Sonora, Mexico with the intention of exposing them to Native American and Mexican Folk art collectors, in order to help supplement the income of these women.

We wish to thank the following individuals and organizations for their generous donations to this museum. Xipe Projects is dedicated to increasing knowledge and understanding of the rich ritual traditions underlying Latin American popular arts in general and the masked dance tradition in particular. Your ongoing help in our efforts is very much appreciated. David and Linda Caplan Gallery West in Tucson, Arizona

Furthermore, he is currently launching a project for the reintroduction of native foods among Native Americans in Southern California. He spends time assisting tribes in the gathering and processing of wild local foods once used, by trying to encourage a sustainable and healthier diet to combat illnesses affecting Native people today. Mike Gray has worked with the Comca’ac for nearly 20 years, coordinating volunteer assistance and assisting the tribe with small development projects that contribute to their economic well being and cultural survival. He has worked with many of the tribes in the southwest, but lately has focused on nomadic peoples, notably the Seri and the Oglala Lakota. For nearly 10 years, that assistance to the Comca’ac has been shaped by the need for economic development. Fisheries and arts and crafts are the two most significant economic activities of the tribe and have retained their cultural relevance. While fishing has modernized with appropriate technology, basketry remains essentially unchanged. With rare exceptions, such as the use of a steel awl or an occasional chemical dye, baskets are still made with the same tools, techniques and materials that were in use centuries ago.

Stan and Marsha Gontarski La Ruta Maya Conservation Foundation Los Amigos del Arte Popular Jim and Jeanne Pieper Lee Price Arellano Giorgio Rossilli Laurel Waters We are always interested in acquiring significant individual pieces or collections to enhance our ability to exhibit the best and most exciting art that exemplifies the creative spirit of the popular artists of Latin America. Donations to Xipe Projects are fully tax-deductible, and whenever material donated to Xipe Projects is exhibited, the donor will always be credited as standard museum practice dictates and as our commitment requires. Join us in our endeavor to bring the beauties and joys of the art we treasure to the attention of a wider audience. Your donation is vital to our shared desire to bring these wonderful pieces out of our private collections and into the world. For more information on how you can help, please contact us at staff@xipeprojects.com

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The LA Art Show!

X ipe

Treasures of the Maya Spirit

P rojects Latin American Masks and Popular Art

Staff Peter T. Markman, Director Alison L. Heney, PhD Curator and Assistant Director Jesse Hoffman, Staff Consultant Image by Peter Dworin, Los Angeles CA

The Guatemalan foundation La Ruta Maya, in conjunction with Xipe Projects of Huntington Beach CA, is pleased to present Treasures of the Maya Spirit, an exhibition of Maya art from Guatemala that brings together 51 ceramic and stone sculptures from the classic period of Maya civilization (250-900 AD), a number of significant examples of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Maya ritual art, and several contemporary prize-winning works of art from the Guatemalan Bienale. Treasures of the Maya Spirit explores the evolution and significance of Maya religion in art and highlights instances in which their most powerful symbols have defined the meeting place of matter and spirit from the third century to the present. The treasures on display will include an amazing nine-foot-long stucco representation of a masked jaguar dancer from Guatemala’s early classic period (ca. 300 AD) – a piece reported to be one of the centerpieces of the newly proposed Museo Maya de America to be built in Guatemala City. The exhibit also features several outstanding examples of dance masks and folk saints drawn from the collection of Xipe Projects. These masks represent the continuation and transformation of ritual mask use among the post-conquest Maya of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and, as are many others pieces featured in the exhibit, among the finest examples in existence.

Armando Colina and Victor Acuña, Representatives in Mexico

Xipe Projects is a Non-Profit Educational Foundation and a member of Los Amigos Del Arte Popular For more information, or permission to reprint text and photos, please contact us via email at: staff@xipeprojects.com Visit us on the web at www.xipeprojects.com

The exhibit will open Thursday, January 16, 2014 and run through Sunday, January 19, 2014 at the LA Convention Center during the 19th Annual Los Angeles Art Show presented by The Palm Beach Show Group in Tandem with the 29th Annual IFPDA Los Angeles Fine Print Fair. For more information, please visit: http://www.laartshow.com/

XIPE PROJECTS

Xipe Projects

Latin American Masks and Popular Art

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Alison Heney - staff@xipeprojects.com Content contributions are encouraged

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15121 Graham Street, Suite 103 Huntington Beach, CA 92649 EST. 2011


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