Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation is pleased to announce the Ojai Institute exhibition Porfirio Gutiérrez: Continuous Line, Linea Continua, on view June 5 – September 4, 2021. There will be a public opening reception on Saturday June 5, from 5-7pm, the artist will be present.
Recipient of the 2021 Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize, Porfirio Gutiérrez’s solo exhibition, Continuous Line, Linea Continua, is the first for the artist in the region. He is an artist advisor for the upcoming exhibition Cosmovisión Indígena: The Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Contemporary Art at Santa Barbara City College’s Atkinson Gallery, organized with the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation and the Santa Barbara Office of Arts and Culture, part of The Getty Foundation’s 2024 Pacific Standard Time initiative.
Continuous Line, Linea Continua features five new unique textile pieces that will be shown for the first time. Each piece is stretched and framed and intended exclusively to hang on the wall. Some of the pieces feature embroidered embellishments that accentuate the bold lines of his highly minimal and graphic design vocabulary. This will be a very unique opportunity to experience the dynamic intersection of generations of Indigenous knowledge and a contemporary artistic practice. With the surge in popularity of artisan crafts, textiles that were intended traditionally as blankets became understood and used as carpets. Now, Porfirio challenges the traditional use value by again redefining purpose, and expanding upon the fluid tradition of Zapotec textile knowledge.
Gutiérrez is a California-based Zapotec textile artist and natural dyer, born and raised in the richly historic Zapotec textile community of Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up immersed in color and surrounded by the wildness of Oaxaca’s mountains, and by the knowledge of plants for healing and for color. His life’s work has been revitalizing and preserving traditional Zapotec natural dye techniques with a focus on reinterpreting traditional textiles and materials to reflect his distinct creative vision.
Working in both Ventura, California, and Oaxaca, Mexico, Gutiérrez’s art practice maintains his ancestor’s spiritual belief in nature as a living being, sacred and divine. His grounding in Zapotec traditional knowledge manifests in his textiles, reinterpreting the traditional weaving language, subverting and re-imagining the symbols and forms, morphing his textile designs toward the fractal forms and spaces of architecture and the movement he sees in cities and urban environments.
Gutiérrez is a truly American artist, moving freely across the imposed borders between his two countries, as his ancestors and many other Indigenous peoples have done for thousands of years. His designs draw deeply on his experiences of two cultures, moving between the traditional and the modern, but always reliant on the deep knowledge and spiritual dimensions of his work. Gutiérrez’s practice is an offering to the land and celebrates the people who now call this land home.
The story of his art has been told in The New York Times, PBS, and the BBC World Service, London. Gutiérrez has been featured in Vogue Magazine and the Smithsonian’s American Indian Magazine. In 2015, he received the Smithsonian Institution’s Artist in Leadership fellowship award. His work is in the collection of the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, Fomento Cultural Banamex, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American Indian. A selection of Gutiérrez’s dye materials was also documented and added to Harvard Art Museums’ Forbes Pigment Collection, the world-renowned archive of artist materials.
Related events:
Opening Reception: Porfirio Gutiérrez: Continuous Line, Linea Continua – Saturday, June 5, 2021
Free and open to the public. Artist present. Ojai Institute Member Dinner to follow for members at the Founder’s Circle level and above. To learn more about membership please visit: www.cgbfoundation.org/membership.
Art Prize Gala in Two Parts, Part 1 – Saturday, June 26, 2021
Ticketed fundraiser to benefit the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Margaret Bates & Scott Johnson Residence, Ojai, California. Individual tickets start at $150 per person, and tables start at $2,500. Event will feature a Porfirio Gutiérrez Studio Pop-up and a Curated Oaxacan Marketplace.
Artist & Ideas Festival: Cosmovisión Indígena Symposium – July, 2021
Free hybrid virtual and in person three day symposium. Produced in support of the research for the exhibition Cosmovisión Indígena: The Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Contemporary Art at Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, organized with the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation and the Santa Barbara Office of Arts and Culture, part of The Getty Foundation’s 2024 Pacific Standard Time initiative.
Immersive Cultural Experience: Porfirio Gutiérrez Studio – August 7, August 14
Satisfy your wanderlust and immerse yourself in a unique cultural experience at the studio of Porfirio Gutiérrez in Ventura, California. A dynamic workshop and learning laboratory offers the only opportunity outside of visiting Oaxaca, to experience the multigenerational traditional knowledge of the Zapotec people as it pertains to natural pigment dyes and weaving practices. During these half-day experiences at the studio where you will have the opportunity to dip your hands in the dyeing vat and dye your own cochineal wool scarf. You will enjoy a traditional lunch at the studio where you will have the opportunity to try Porfirio’s mother’s recipes, recipes that have not changed much from thousands of years. The highlight of the experience is a natural dye and weaving demonstration and a deep dive into the spiritual dimension in his artistic practice. Cost: $500 per person, space is limited.
Art Prize Gala in Two Parts, Part 2: October 2, 2021
Ticketed fundraiser to benefit the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Jennie Prebor & Fred Fisher Residence, Ojai, California. Individual tickets start at $150 per person, and tables start at $2,500. Event will feature a Porfirio Gutiérrez Studio Pop-up and a Curated Oaxacan Marketplace.