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Pronounced Wah-hah-ka , it is located in the Southern part of Mexico, surrounded by the Sierra Madre Valley and bordered by the Pacific Ocean. The City of Oaxaca, is an art, architecture and cultural mecca unknown to most. The birthplace of world-known artists such as Rufino Tamayo, its buildings, people and neighborhoods reflect a rich cultural heritage of great beauty and sophistication. Oaxaca features many elaborate churches. One, the Santo Domingo Temple is full of gold: the altars, accessories, windows, and even the walls are covered with gold. Their surroundings are an exotic garden of cactuses, an impressive site when all in bloom. The Spanish style of architecture is merged with local construction needs to create a charming city full of balconies, patios, large wooden doors and narrow cobblestone streets. The metal-rich Monte Alban, today an archeological site, was the home to the pre-Colombian Mixtec and Zapotec empires.

In the Summer, Oaxaca is the host of one of the most impressive cultural festivals in Mexico. Groups from different regions and Indian descendants come together in a display of dance, music and arts. Each group is dressed in their typical clothes, some of them tracing back to many centuries ago. Its a true cultural voyage through ancient times of honored and colorful traditions.

Oaxaca is famous for its fine and cultural arts. The area is the birthplace of the famous Magical Carvings, black ceramic pottery, fine textiles, wood masks and of course, paintings. The abundant natural resources of the area has enabled artists to become self sufficient: Oaxacan carvings are made from the local Nopal wood which highly flexible; the black or their ceramics is found only in this area, the weavings are made of natural fiber from their own sheep and painted with natural dyes, their jewelry is mined from the mineral rich Monte Alban. Many of these arts date back to the times of the Aztecs and other tribes such as the Zapotec. ElCoquiGalleries.com carries works from great artists in these categories.

Tourists from Japan, France, Germany and recently Americans visit the city. If you like art and architecture, you may want to visit Oaxaca during your next vacation.

Born in New York from Puerto Rican parents, Alfonso Arana was raised in the town of San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. He studied art in Mexico at the Atelier de Jose Bardasano, at the Manhattan School of Arts in New York, the Academie Julien and L'Ecole des Beaux of Paris, and post graduate work at the American University in Washington DC. Alfonso always wanted to paint. At age six, he made his first picture, gave it his mother and promised her that he's going to be a famous painter. His father, a business person, was disappointed at his passion for art and disinherited him.

Unfazed, he went on to create his now well-known style of the almond-shaped, hollow yet expressive eyes in a face without a skull and with a slightly oversized body. These beings represent life that transcends real life. He is well known for his use of light, sophisticated and almost transparent colors. The artist defines his style as expressionism and "manerista". The artist explains that his alive and expressive human figures do not have any skulls because they are receptacles of the active things in the world...as is God, nature, life, whatever we want.

Arana's beings are full of expression. Their faces are a temple for the unspoken word: tenderness, sadness, anguish, peace and 'picardia' . These feelings are beautifully manifested through the artist's sensibilities into the canvass.

Alfonso has exhibited his work in Tokyo, Paris, New York, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Hes reputation has been built from Puerto Rico, to Paris where he resides since 1972, and to the world. One of his proudest accomplishments is the creation of Fundacion Alfonso Arana, created in 1986. The foundation brings young art students to exhibit and learn new techniques in Paris. He's proud of this contribution that brings recognition to him as an artist and to his cultural background in Puerto Rico.

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Artists statement (translated)

" My figures have the elements of life and light. That light that invades the body is the spiritual side of these beings and I like painting in that spiritual space. Each figure transcends life beyond real life & I feel the beings come from within me and then I, myself become part of their world. They are real to me, they are my friends."

Enjoy our new authentic Shipibo ceramics from the remote Amazonia region in Peru and fine textiles from Inca traditions also from Peru. Be amazed the introduction of the famous Mata Ortiz pottery. Delight your senses with the works of painter Vivian Jendzio and print artist Manuel Hernandez Acevedo. Visit our Holiday Gifts and Spiritual Arts new pages. Browse through our one-of-a-kind carvings, textiles, masks and jewelry for great artistic gifts for this Holiday Season!

El Coqui Galleries and the The Field Museum of Natural History of Chicago presented The Ancient Artistry of Contemporary Peruvian Artists during the Celebracion event on Thursday, October 4 through Sunday October 7, 2001. The program consisted of a series of lectures and demonstrations by artists visiting for the first time from Peru. From the Andean region, Nilda Callanaupa presented a virtual voyage through the village of Chinchero and their centuries-old weaving traditions. From the remote Amazonia, Miguel Escobar representing Zoyla Escobar, an established Shipibo Indian artist, discussed their natural environments, their ancestral influence in their ceramics art and demonstrate their unique techniques.

ElCoquiGalleries.com is pleased to partner with this prestigious Museum to provide a glimpse at the native arts of fine Peruvian artists for the first time in the U.S.