Manuel Reyes was born in Mexico City in 1972. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (National School of Fine Art) in Mexico City. In 2003 he returned to the Mixtec region of northern Oaxaca (where his parents were from), and settled in Yanhuitlán, a small Mixtec village an hour and a half north of Oaxaca City, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Reyes is a painter and sculptor. His clay sculptures range from small pieces to life-size figures. Although relatively young, he is gaining recognition, with international collectors coming to his home and workshop in Yanhuitlán to admire and purchase his works.
Román Andrade Llaguno was born in San Juan del Estado, Etla in1959. He studied at the Taller de Grabado de la Cultura de Oaxaca and at the Taller Libre de la Grafica Oaxaqueña under Juan Alcazar.
Andrade Llaguno lives in San Juan del Estado, Etla with his wife, son and two daughters. He works with gouache on amate paper as well as oils on canvas, creating dreamlike scenes of rural life, and often incorporating his family members into the works.
Andrade Llaguno had had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Mexico, and has shown extensively in group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States and Europe.
Magdalena Pedro Martínez was born in San Bartolo Coyotepec into a talented family of artists working with the traditional black clay for which San Bartolo Coyotepec is known. Her parents, Antonio and Glafira, both began working with clay when they were children; they each have their own style and reputation. Magdalena is particularly known for her exquisite female figures with the traditional costumes and adornments of the seven regions of Oaxaca. She is also a physician, but devotes the majority of her time to her ceramics.
Magdalena has participated in the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market in 2008 and 2010.
Fidel Martínez Martínez was born in San Bartolo Coyotepec in 1970. He lives with his wife and two young children on the outskirts of San Bartolo.
Fidel began working with clay when he was five years old, learning from his father. He began creating miniature figures of animals and traditional dolls from the area.
As he matured, Fidel turned to creating from his imagination and his interests – objects that reflect the culture and life of Oaxaca. His sculptures are notable for their soulful character, the incredible detail, and the expressive anatomy of his human and animal figures.
Although early in his career, Fidel has already established a reputation and is avidly collected. He has participated in several juried exhibitions, and won Second Place in the Concurso Nacional de Nacimientos Nacionales (National Contest of Nativity Scenes), and First Place in the Premio Nacional de la Ceramica (National Prize for Ceramics, the largest ceramics show in Mexico).
Doña Sofía Reyes was born in San Bartolo de Coyotepec in 1920. She began to work with clay when she was 8 years old, taught by her mother. She continues producing traditional pieces of black clay ceramics, and is one of the few who still create works in the older unpolished style, when these pieces had utilitarian uses. It involves a more difficult technique, and is rarely seen today.
Humberto Batista was born on a farm near the ruins of Teotihuacán in 1950. He attended art classes at Escuela de Arte La Esmeralda in Mexico City. He lived in San Francisco, California for several years in his twenties, and then returned to Mexico in 1981, settling in Oaxaca. He is well known for his provocative assemblages, built from an array of natural and cultural artifacts. He is also a successful painter, with his earlier work being mostly figurative; in the last several years evolving into abstract expressions.
Batista has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Mexico, and in California and Santa Fe, New Mexico in the United States. He has also participated in several group exhibitions in Mexico and California.
In 2008 he received a major grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, headquartered in New York.
Enrique Flores González was born in Huitzo, Oaxaca in 1963, and currently resides and has his workshop there. He studied in the School of Fine Arts of the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, the renowned Rufino Tamayo Fine Arts Workshop, and the Free Graphics Workshop of Oaxaca. He also studied personally under Rodolfo Morales in his studio in Coyoacán. He has become an important and recognized artist – producing works of oils, watercolors, lithographs and engravings.
Flores González has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout Mexico, the United States (including Albuquerque, NM), Japan and Spain. He has also participated in many group exhibitions throughout Mexico and in several cities in the United States (including “Sueños de un Pueblo” at the Riva Yares Gallery in Santa Fe, NM in 1995).
In 1998 he opened his own workshop in Huitzo. Built in stages, he now has a well-equipped, modern high-ceiling domed complex. He is known for his generosity and support towards younger artists, offering freely of his time and his studio and equipment. He regularly has several students from the School of Fine Arts studying with him and utilizing his art supplies and equipment.
Claudia Martínez Vargas was born in Mexico City in 1970. She moved to Oaxaca in 1996.
A self-taught artist, Claudia draws upon the rich legacy of altar-making and retablos in Mexican culture. She uses homemade glue and recycled materials such as boxes, labels, candy wrappers, bottles, magazines, strings and buttons to craft her work. Her collages depict cultural images such as saints, skeletons and the Virgin of Guadalupe as well as mini dioramas of social scenes and cultural events.
Her works contain a sense of lightheartedness and often comic elements. She has exhibited her work in Oaxaca, Mexico City, Chicago, Santa Fe, and San Antonio.
Isaac Vásquez García was born in Teotitlán del Valle in 1935. He learned to weave when he was 8 years old, taught by his father. At age 11 he was weaving his own pieces. His early interest in quality weaving and traditional designs caught the eye of the internationally famous Oaxacan artist, Rufino Tamayo. Thus began a 22 year working relationship and friendship, with Isaac executing weavings designed by Tamayo, and Tamayo assisting Isaac in recuperating the knowledge and use of natural dyes for his weavings, and subsequently for Tamayo's paintings.
Isaac then began and continues to exclusively use a broad range or natural, color-fast dyes. His designs typically feature elements from his Zapotec culture and history – geometric designs, serpents, jaguars, scenes of paintings from archaeological sites, etc.
Isaac heads The Bug in the Rug, a family venture with three of his children - Jerónimo, Guadalupe and Isaac, Jr.; all accomplished weavers in their own right. All contribute their own personal designs and styles of weavings in making their individual pieces; all use natural dyes exclusively and share in the preparation of the dyes and the wool and in the demonstrations for visitors to the gallery.
Isaac has participated in shows throughout Mexico and in the United States, in addition to lecturing and participating in cultural exchanges with Navajo weavers in Arizona. These four members of the family have participated in the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe for the past three years.
Sofía Ruiz Lorenzo was born in Teotitlán del Valle in 1977. She began learning to make traditional hand made candles when she was six years old, taught by her grandmother, Josefa Hernández Bautista. When Sofía was 9 years old, her grandmother died. Sofía finished and delivered several orders for candles that were pending, but then her father insisted she stop making candles and attend to her schooling. She did as he wished, but after seven months had passed, she was able to convince him to allow her to resume making candles, and she has continued for the past 20 years.
Sofía carefully follows the traditional way these flowers are made and elaborated. She uses bees wax exclusively for her candles (all are hand dipped) and for all of the adornments. The colors she uses are based on the natural yellow color of the bees wax, and then either bleached in the sun or mixed with natural dyes.
A variety of candles are made, all for presentation in the church. The common ones are made with the yellow bees wax and are adorned with a variety of flowers, birds and sometimes fruits, always with an angel at the bottom of the adornments. The candle signifies the tree of life, and the angel is holding up the tree.
Sofía has participated in the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe for the past two years, as well as having been invited to show her work in Colorado, Texas and England.