The name looks simple enough — Art 21 Studio — although the description below it, “Ateliers & studios, showroom, bronze foundry,” hints at something more complex. The setting is also hard to categorize. The handful of rambling buildings and tree-shaded open spaces are strewn with parts of large sculptures and located in a semi-rural area just north of Guadalajara.
Indeed, Art 21 Studio is hard to describe, says its patriarch Francisco Quiroz, who oversees things with his wife, Swedish sculptor and painter Ingrid Mattsson, and their son Eduardo.
The elder Quiroz gave a serene smile as he swung open the wide entrance gate, while the occasional car or bus whizzed by inches away. He ushered guests first to a rustic yet sophisticated gallery, where an impressive painting and sculpture exhibit belied the jumbled ambiance of the compound.
“We’re more a foundation than a business,” Quiroz explained. And more dedicated to work than to appearances, the humble look of the space chimed in. “We try to break even. We might struggle a year or more to cast something. Some pieces we do are exceptionally difficult.”
Sculptors of major pieces come to Art 21 Studio, he says, because “in many other foundries — in California, for example — they don’t like casting big pieces. They only want to do small pieces, which are more profitable.”
U.S. bronze sculptor Dale Evers, is one of the approximately 300 artists whom Quiroz and family count among their clients. Evers contacted Quiroz about seven years ago and now describes Art 21 Studio in terms that hint at the complex role of the organization.
Quiroz, who began his professional life as a chemical engineer, has obviously morphed into a technical and spiritual guide for sculptors. Besides mentoring them with his mature sensibilities, he mostly deals with materials, which can range from bronze, of course, to acrylic resin, painted glass and more. His son Eduardo gets more involved in casting while his wife Ingrid dedicates herself to the museography of the gallery.
“She used to teach English,” Eduardo says, which helps explain why all three speak excellent English — very necessary for international clients.
“We deal with about 300 artists,” Francisco Quiroz continued, including some from Europe, Korea and other places outside Mexico. Many are well known, such as Chilean sculptor Marcos Pizarro, who just completed a huge bronze horse at the studio that was then installed outdoors in Mexico City. “We have 13 employees here, so we make a team to support the artist in whatever they need.”
In Evers’ case, that support has included mold-making, model making, casting, welding, moral support and housing in a small residence in the back of the compound. “Some artists come for a month and never leave this place the whole time,” said Eduardo Quiroz.
“Dale is the resident sculptor at an open-air sculpture garden called Sculpterra in the Sonoma Valley,” Francisco Quiroz explains.
Evers has been visiting Art 21 Studio recently to oversee different stages of a sculpture that will be installed at Sculpterra and that later, if Quiroz’s plans go as hoped, it will be cast again for the University of Guadalajara.
“Completing that stage of the project could take anywhere from one to ten years,” said Eduardo. The Quirozes will try to shepherd the project to completion, but it is not a sure thing, since they work with institutions such as Mexican governments and universities, and such organizations move slowly. “Normally, sculptures are reproduced several times,” the elder Quiroz noted parenthetically.
He goes outside to look at an early version of Evers’ sculpture, which is only a few feet high and is set in a patio with other works. He taps it with his fingers several times.
“Casting this was not so easy. Not everyone can do it. The figure is hollow and the outer layer is thin. That’s the hard part.”
Evers is set to return to Art 21 Studio in January to check the start of the casting of the large version, which is headed for California.