On display at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Ray Mart°n Abeyta's "Cuentos y Encuentros," is a kaleidoscope of cultures, stories, painting techniques and life experiences that shapes Abeyta's work.
The show's title translates to "stories and encounters," and Abeyta, an Espa§ola native, said it was inspired by the mestizo - racially mixed - images he was surrounded by in his childhood. Local artists created the religious images he saw as a boy using models that originated in Europe and traveled through Mexico before arriving in northern New Mexico. During the centuries this journey took, people along the way added their own cultural symbols.
Abeyta, who now lives in Brooklyn, said he tries to bring the process of change he sees in mestizo art to his own work, "to capture my sense of being Mexicano, being in New York and being in the 21st century."
Abeyta combines elements of 18th and 19th century Spanish-colonial paintings with images from contemporary culture. He said when he studied painting at UNM in the early 1980s, he worked in an abstract-expressionist style. He said he wanted to learn every style and taught himself traditional methods that passed from the Italian Renaissance to Latin American mestizo painters.
Comparing learning to paint with learning to drive, Abeyta said, "I wanted to learn to drive really well so I could be reckless later. To get stuck in one method is death."
Kristina Perea, assistant curator at the center, said when the artist painted his triptych "Las Tres," he started with an image from a late 17th-century Bolivian painting that is considered the pinnacle of mestizo art by art historians.
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"Ray takes that pinnacle of mestizo painting and copies it, but he gives the virgin and child different skin colors," Perea said. "Basically he is saying, 'Race doesn't matter. We are all the same people.' He makes these differences in a divine thing. The virgin is white. She is also black. She is also brown."
Abeyta's symbolism is not obvious and few viewers will understand some references to Aztec myth and northern New Mexican folktales, but Abeyta said this doesn't matter. He said once the paintings leave his studio, people will bring their own stories to the work and that has always happened to art.
"One day's important symbolism is tomorrow's forgotten language," he said.
Abeyta's masterful combination of styles is not jarring. In "Rosario de besos" Abeyta combines an 18th-century image of a nun with blue flames inspired by the airbrush work on lowriders. A vignette of a masked Mexican wrestler hovers in an upper corner representing shame, while a shiny red lowrider represents pride. These elements are flawlessly combined to create a cohesive whole.
Perea said in some paintings, Abeyta combines elements that don't blend in an obvious way because he wants to create tension. Other times, he uses his skill to combine elements in smooth cohesion.
"Cuentos y Encuentros" will be at the National Hispanic Cultural Center at 1701 4th St. until April 25, 2004.
