DON GREGORIO ANTÓN
Ollin Mecatl: The Measure of Movements
January 14 – March 20, 2008

Artist lecture: Thursday, February 7, 5pm
followed by Gallery Reception, 6:30-8pm

Don Gregorio Antón creates mystical retablos that look like sacred objects. They are intimately small and sit on stands to be viewed individually. Each retablo is one of a kind. Frida Kahlo described retablos as the truest representation of the people’s art. Also called ex votos, they have been part of Mexico’s tradition since the seventeenth century. They were originally hung behind the altars of Catholic churches, and remain a tradition to this day.

Antón uses the visual language of the retablo to create existential tales of human existence that speak of spiritual searching, suffering, hope and despair, life and death. This idea is expressed in the title, Ollin Mecatl, which refers to an Aztec expression for the measure of movements. The artist also translates this as velocity of change. He describes the concept as the “instances of time and tragedy and the reconciliation of hope…the core measurements of things lost and found, evidence of thought and the resulting sum of solitude.”

Antón’s work is likely to provoke a different response in every viewer. The retablos can be appreciated for their mysterious beauty, their haunting narratives, and their intense spirituality. Where we find ourselves in our lives may be where we find ourselves in Antón’s retablos. Antón’s cultural identity is tightly woven into this body of work. In person and through imagery and text of each retablo, he tells of the connectedness he has to his roots in Mexico. The text accompanies the images like melodies half remembered. Some retablos are easy to read, while the writing in others fades into the background. Like diary entry, the text is deeply personal and vulnerable to exposure. As he writes in one of his retablos, “Every word, every image is inked in my blood. Each page burns, consumer & carrier the weight of memory, the weight of life.” 

Hannah Frieser
Director
Light Work

In February Don Gregorio Antón will be leading a workshop on cultural identity. The workshop was made possible through a Chancellor's Feinstone Grant for Multicultural Initiatives, which supports the creation of community through diversity at Syracuse University.

Major exhibitions at Light Work are published in the award winning publication, Contact Sheet, available by subscription or individual order. In addition to the exhibition catalogue for Ollin Mecatl, retablos by Don Gregorio Antón are included in the 2007 Light Work Annual, featuring artists who participated in Light Work's Artist-in-Residence program in 2006. The Annual includes an essay by author John Wood.

Other information on Don Gregorio Antón can be found in the Light Work Online Collection. Additional information and images can be viewed at the artist's website at www.dongregorioanton.com.

Exhibition press release

Don Gregorio Antón's note to students
(Excerpt from gallery handout)

What is important right now is not who I am or why I’ve made these retablos. No, not at all. What matters most to me is present in the hands that hold this page, the eyes that see these words, and in the moments lived by you. Nothing else really matters. Why? Because what you have in your hands is only so much paper and ink, but you, the nature you occupy, are far more important. You are a single event that will never happen again in the history of the world. This is far more meaningful.

Gallery handout (120K pdf)