Ireri Topete - Stone Rivers Underneath the Brush
Chatting with Ireri Topete is like chatting with Puerto Vallarta’s new artistic side. She was born on this land thirty-seven years ago and always knew what she wanted to do: to paint which she carried out with determination, even though life had some byways prepared for her before arriving at what she is today.
She summarizes her curriculum in the following way: "Graduated from the School of Plastic Arts of the University of Guadalajara. Participated in workshops for Engraving and Painting  in Mexico and Cuba, having diverse teachers such as Takeo Kobayashi, Daniel Manzano, Carlos del Toro and Nunik Sauret, to mention a few.” She forms part of the Group La Malagua. In addition she participated in 15 individual exhibitions and more than 80 shared exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Holland and Japan. In 2001 she won the prize Vallarta in Painting, in 2005 the National Engraving Prize El Quijote of the Foundation Cervantina. She teaches the Painting workshop at the Cuale Cultural Center."
This brief summary does not say anything about incidents during Junior High school, where she demonstrated that she had decided to follow the path of art: "I studied at the School of Plastic Arts of the University of Guadalajara, and although I met people of great importance for me, such as Alfonso Lara, my goals were set on places far away from this state. I returned to Vallarta almost by accident where, thanks to Scholarships of the State Council for Culture and Arts from the State Government I got involved in the Cuale workshops." Ireri never thought that she herself would be the instructor of the workshops but thanks to her the Municipal Painting Workshop saw its first colors shortly after Ireri’s arrival.
The creator assures that "it has been a long process.” At her last exhibition she presented "Stone Rivers" her most recent works enclosing the charm of rocks of the traditional Cuale River. It was a job she had pending for quite some time which now emerges with its own life, granting an enchantment seldom captured with such sensitivity. "It was motivated by my surroundings, I followed the flow and the combination of elements offered me a lot as an artist and I closed a cycle. It was then that I remembered the following phrase: true sensitivity of an artist begins when the swirl of a tree and the bark of water is discovered."
Being in love with graphics, Ireri Topete traveled for 2 years to the state of Guanajuato, where she met and had the opportunity to interact with Paco Patlan, dean of the University of Guanajuato and Nunik Sauret, who taught her to produce works with international standards of quality. This  girl from Vallarta also joined the great format of graphic production of the Festival Cervantino, known all over the world, a task that offered her a unique experience. Humbly the painter acknowledges that "there can be no doubt that this type of interactions gives you an impulse." For her this art represents an inherent sensitivity and the need to express her self. Constant components of her work include natural surroundings, human figures, dream world images and figurative art. She defines herself as a "post modern protector.”
Another facet of Ireri emerged a few months ago when she began to organize exhibitions, but soon realized that this was not for her. “I stopped working on my own pieces in order to exhibit works from other artists and even though I don’t dismiss the possibility of another exhibition at my place for very special events, I had to find a balance.”
At present Ireri Topete is preparing to travel together with Sergio Martinez, Fernando Sanchez and Yesika Felix (known as La Malagua group) to the city of Chicago in the United States in April, in order to teach graphic workshops and to give lectures. In addition she will start a project of wooden engraving using a Japanese technique.
The Fragility of Appearance.
Stone Rivers...
"River, which river? The one that runs through my body, the one that I carry in my blood, the one that turns into nostalgia. Nostalgia? Yes, nostalgia leads us to the roots and delivers us to the ocean.
River and stone. This is what this Port is made of. There is a place that determines the proximity towards intimate order, a soft contemplation which slowly penetrates matter. It is the starting point for taking us up the river and to the innermost river.
There are guardians; sediments are being born together with the tracks left behind by the water’s journey, a light for all nations.
With this series Ireri is putting herself in that place, her body is another guardian for the torrent to pass by, and the painting is an extension of her being, whose obligation it is to look for the answer to those questions formulated some time ago.
These pieces display a search of identity, clear as well as fluent, caressing the stone on its path, and is reflected by color. What are we made of, if not of these stones? We come from there upstream, from up those mountains and this color belongs to us.
Ireri finds that moment where chaos and order coexist, reason and emotions producing color, in order to take possession of it afterwards in the name of everybody.
There is a compulsive character in the paintings looking for beauty which cannot be calmed down by appearance. One blink causes us to look, taking us along to the innermost river, seeing us in the natural mirror of the surroundings. It is here where the pieces achieve their purpose of building a connecting place which comes from one reality and opens the doors for us to another reality.
The pieces especially have an invoking power, result of the search of a collective consciousness which can be recognized by its elements. There is a rescue mission through the search of beauty and aesthetic pleasure. An obsession for emblems where we recognize that the author speaks for the place where her people live.
Valeria Arellano Da silva. |
Silvia Alvarez
E-mail: silvialvarezb@yahoo.com.mx
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