Lucia Maya’s artwork is not shocking in its subject matter, nor does it contain the distasteful imagery that characterize the work of so many contemporary artists.
Yet in Maya’s explanation that covers a wall at the entrance to her show at Guadalajara’s Ex Convento del Carmen, the painter practically apologizes to that part of her public that was saddened, she writes, at the idea that “I have abandoned painting, drawing, and the themes proper to my style.”
The disappointment centers around Maya’s recent foray into digital work — it “disconcerts many,” she says.Indeed, one viewer at her show, entitled “Private Deaths Public Resurrections” (Muertes Privadas Resurrecciones Publicas) dismissed Maya’s digital work, which fills two rooms on the Ex Convento’s second floor, as “sus cochinadas en Photoshop” [her filthy work using Photoshop]. Perhaps that is why the first floor of the Ex Convento is filled with Maya’s work done in the traditional media of oil painting and drawing.
Although born in 1953 on Catalina Island off the coast of California, Maya came to Guadalajara at the age of 4, and established herself here with studies at the University of Guadalajara and a debut exhibit at the Degollado Theater. She has also shown at the prestigious University of Guadalajara’s Museo de las Artes.
Maya later studied art in Madrid and has shown in Portland, Oregon, and Puerto Rico, but Guadalajara apparently claims her as a hometown girl by slapping her on the wrist with its characteristic conservatism.
Certain themes appear over and over in Maya’s work at the Ex Convento, including in her digital work. Women, beautiful and solitary, float in the oceans and air of her dreamlike worlds, along with paper boats, uprooted trees (sometimes burning) and solitary animals, such as dogs, birds and pigs. Her strokes, whether painted or drawn, are so fine as to be almost invisible, while her work retains sharp contrasts and edges. Her oil paintings, some very large, appear to have been evenly sprayed with lacquer, and are impeccably assembled, suggesting a craftsmanship and ability for detail that surely serve her well in her Photoshop adventures.
“Mundos Privadas Resurrecciones Publicas” shows at the Ex Convento del Carmen until February 3. Av. Juarez 638, two blocks east of Federalismo. Tel. (33) 3030-1385. No fee to enter. Tuesday to Saturday noon to 8:30 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Mondays.