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Artist Galleries:
Coady Contemporary
205 Canyon Road
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Tele; (505)988-1175
http://www.coadycontemporary.co
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Further Information
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Artist Reviews:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Statement for Armando Lopez
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It is a very old tradition to decorate the family altars with products from the harvest such as, corn, chilies, beans, and also figures made out of corn husks or clay. My sculpture work is an updated synthesis of the pre-Colombian custom and the influence of the Catholic religion.
I personally create each piece using traditional Tarascan tribal techniques coupled with my own innovations. Each piece is constructed of natural materials such as corn husk, native grasses, reeds cattails, precious or semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls, and of course, the staple of ancient Meso-American spiritual art, gold in the form of 22-24 karat gold leaf. I wet the corn husks and wrap them around a copper wire armature, building up my images layer by layer.
The faces are painted using egg tempera which I make from natural mineral pigments and egg yolk. I then apply the adornments which might be freshwater pearls, gold leaf or beads, and precious or semi-precious stones.
Many of the altars, angels, figures and retablo settings are woven of Jara (River Willow) and Tules (Cattail).
My paintings are representations of waking and sleeping dreams, ideas, filtered through my indigenous view of Old and New Testament stories and personages. I paint using underpainting and glazing tehdniques of the old European Masters. This brings out a deep luminosity and opens the door that draws the viewer deeper into the visual, political, and psychological interior of each image.
Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions about my work or my processes.
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