Mexican artist exhibits in Belize City
Along with the Image factory, the Mexican Cultural Centre on the Newtown Barracks is one of the few places in Belize with a near constant stream of art exhibitions. The latest show to open at the centre features the works of a Mexican painter and News 5’s Jacqueline Woods dropped by to check out his style.
Arturo Trejo, Mexican Ambassador to Belize
“We try to catch whatever we can with really good collaboration which we have with the Cultural Institute of the Government of the State of Quintana Roo, which is a neighbour of Belize. They offered us this exhibition and we said yes immediately. This is something that shows one of the greatest Mexican artists, and which is a very good example of what is this type of Mexicana art. And art which express the roots of Mexican culture.”
Jacquline Woods, Reporting
The artist, Francisco Toledo, is a well-known Mexican painter, whose drawings are easily recognisable as his pieces portray the relationship between humans and animals.
Arturo Trejo
“He is very original in his form of expression. In his work, you see a certain dichotomy between two worlds, the human and the animal world, mainly insects in the animal world. You can see, frogs, crickets, rabbits, which is not an insect, but the rabbit comes in different paintings. He is very original, you can identify his paintings immediately. He is somebody who expresses in a very characteristic way and that’s what makes him a good artist I think.”
Some of Toledo’s pieces are aggressive, but the paintings are not designed to offend anyone. Rather, the exhibit represents the artist’s emotions about situations he experienced as a child in his homeland, Juchitan, Oaxaca.
Arturo Trejo
“His grandfather was a shoemaker, a shoemaker in a place where many people, who still now don’t wear shoes; sixty years ago even more. He had the vision to work this dichotomy, the haves and the haves not. People who were wearing shoes and people who were not wearing shoes. Those who were not wearing shoes had a certain aggression and resentment towards those who had.”
Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
The exhibition is open to the general public and will remain on display until November sixteenth.
