On Sept. 19, 2014, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights received national attention for its opening in Winnipeg. On the same day, the Mennonite Heritage Centre Art Gallery quietly launched its own exhibit on human rights.
IDENTIDAD/IDENTITY features three artists with roots in Chile, Argentina and Colombia. These South American countries have each suffered through periods of civil unrest and violence in recent history, affecting the artists and inspiring their work.
Gabriela Agüero, a long-time Winnipeg resident, was a middle-grade student in Argentina during the “dirty war” (1976-1982), when 30,000 people simply disappeared. She says she spent her entire youth in a country where civil liberties were removed. Her exhibited work ranges from a mixed media composition of five panels depicting those dark days to more recent water colour paintings inspired by literary works.
Lucy Riquelme of Chile lived under the harsh dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and even went underground temporarily for safety reasons. After the dictatorship fell, Riquelme found community in a small Anabaptist/Mennonite congregation in Concepción.
She is no stranger to the MHC Gallery. Her work was commissioned for the Gallery’s Just Food exhibit (Nov 20, 2010 to Jan. 15, 2011), which explored the injustice of world food supply systems.
For IDENTIDAD/IDENTITY, Riquelme says she is looking beyond the problems of Latin America to its beauty with love, light and hope. That upbeat perspective is clearly evident in the vivid abstract paintings currently on display. She says the large, square mixed-media paintings were inspired by the Chilean landscape, climate and people, and they consist of symbols drawn from the country’s pre-Hispanic civilizations.
Like Riquelme, Fanny Gómez de Correa’s art looks past the violence of her homeland, Colombia, and focuses on its beauty. Her oil paintings depict lush landscapes.
Gómez de Correa came to her artistic pursuits later in life after finishing a career as a teacher. Anabaptist roots run deep. She attended a residential school run by American Mennonites and is now an active member of Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Teusaquillo, a church deeply engaged with peace and justice work.
IDENTIDAD/IDENTITY is on display at the MHC Gallery until November 22, 2014.
--Posted Oct. 30, 2014
The MHC Gallery exhibit, IDENTIDAD/IDENTITY features three artists with roots in South America. From L to R: Gabriela Agüero (Argentina), Lucy Riquelme (Chile), and Fanny Gómez de Correa (Colombia) stand in front of Riquelme’s mixed media painting, Mapuche’s Kultrún. (Credit: Ray Dirks)
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