From Here to the Afterlife & Collecting a Master @ AMSET

The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) will exhibit From Here to the Afterlife: Folk Art from the Permanent Collection on view October 2 through December 5, 2021 and Collecting a Master: Carlomagno Pedro Martínez from the John Gaston Fairey Collection of Mexican Folk Art on view October 9, 2021 through March 12, 2023 in the main galleries.

From Here to the Afterlife will feature a selection of artworks from AMSET’s American Folk Art and the John Gaston Fairey Collection of Mexican Folk Art with a focus on objects depicting celebrations, rituals, and day-to-day activities associated with the afterlife. It will feature works from well-known and unknown Mexican and American artists. Death and the celebration of Death are popular themes in folk art, with many artisans depicting traditional cultural practices, such as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Semana Santa (Holy Week), through their artwork. It will run in correlation with Collecting a Master / Coleccionando la obra de un maestro: Carlomagno Pedro Martínez in the John Gaston Fairey Collection of Mexican Folk Art. The exhibition will expand upon a few motifs that are also prevalent in Carlomagno’s work.

Collecting a Master will feature works by artist Carlomagno Pedro Martínez, a Mexican artist and artisan in “barro negro” ceramics from San Bartolo Coyotepec, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He comes from a family of potters in a town noted for the craft. He began molding figures as a child and received artistic training when he was 18. Carlomagno draws his inspiration from the cultural wealth he observes within daily life in Mexico. Although the majority of the pieces he creates are inspired by traditional Oaxacan characters and imagery, he also includes humorous portrayals of present-day personalities and events. His expressiveness and realism distinguish his work. The most reoccurring theme is death and includes festive skeletons, devils, etc. His work has been exhibited in Mexico, the U.S. and Europe and he has been recognized as an artist as well as an artisan. Today, he is also the director of the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca (MEAPO) in his hometown. In 2014, Martínez was awarded Mexico’s National Prize for Arts and Sciences. This exhibition will consist of multimedia work from the John Gaston Fairey Collection of Mexican Folk Art.

For more information, visit www.amset.org or call (409) 832-3432.