With five art large-format pieces, the abstract artist Virginia Chévez became AGURO Art Gallery’s first exhibitor and, after a series of fortunate events, I had the opportunity to exchange a few words with her.
In the quiet of the gallery, in an atmosphere enriched by high ceilings and classical music, Virginia shared with me that this exhibit is a fraction of a bigger collection comprising 40 large-format pieces. Spectacular! Back in 2018, the artist recounts, the exhibition was called “Azul Tierra” (Earth blue) and wasn’t only on display in the Museo Abstracto Manuel Felguérez (Zacatecas), but created for it. This was, we could say, its first home.
Later, Azul Terra – plus some pieces – was at Galería Casa Lamm for a time. It was at that moment that the name “Pied à Terre” (a French word to refer to “the other house”) came up, conceived when the exhibit moved to Mexico City. Now that the five pieces are in Mérida, Virginia decided to call it Pied à Terre, Mérida; “because it’s coming home.”
“I am very excited about this collection, because it has been in these two beautiful places for abstract art, and today it’s in this city,” shares Virginia Chévez, who is fascinated by Mérida, a city she has visited before.
The Chévez in Pied à Terre, Mérida
Virginia paints with oil on linen, but before she does, she prepares and covers the canvas with a layer of acrylics and, depending on the piece, adds fake gold or silver sheets, among other things. If you sit to take in her art or see them from different angles, you’ll notice the metallic glimmer. Her work is “very symmetrical,” besides being rich in hues, a very important thing for the artist, as it gives depth and richness to the paintings.
In Pied à Terre, Mérida, you’ll see an abundance of blues, fuchsias, oranges, yellows, and grays; always in different brightnesses. Although the pieces can be chaotic at times (without being repelling), Virginia Chévez expresses herself from a divine place, from the spiritual, from her values of goodness and love. When contemplating the pieces, the spectator will find a reflection of themselves; a reading of their own.
Among colors and metallic sheets, and multiple layers, you only need to exchange a few words with your companion to discover different readings of the same art piece. You can spend long hours there; it’s inevitable: the paintings invite you to do so.
Are you looking to visit the exhibit? AGURO will be its Pied à Terre through the end of 2022.
Aguro Art Gallery
FB: AGURO
Mon. – Sun. 8 am – 8 pm
Virginia Chévez
www.virginiachevez.com
IG: @virginia.chevez
Editorial by Olivia Camarena Cervera
Yucatecan communicologist. Your favorite Assistant Editor. Writer, blogger, and bookstagrammer in her spare time. She also experiments with TikTok.
Photography by Olivia Camarena Cervera and Mario Arnal for use in Yucatán Today.
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