SDCCD : Four International Women Artists To Be Featured At Mesa Gallery

Press release from San Diego Community College District:

August 20, 2021

The Mesa Gallery will feature the exhibit Ludicrous Tales: A Topsy Turvy Quartet with Paintings by
Gloria Muriel, sculptures by Aida Valencia and a collaborative ceramic installation
by Beliz Iristay and Irene de Watteville with an open house reception from 11 a.m.
to 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 26, 2021.

The open house will be all day to accommodate social distancing. Refreshments will
be outdoors and masks are required. Artist Gloria Muriel will be at the gallery from noon
to 4 p.m. creating small drawings, which will be available for purchase for under
$100. 

Register in advance for the Open House

The exhibition will be on view from August 24 - September 23, 2021. The exhibit was
originally set up for March 2020, but has been on hold due to the pandemic. 

In the exhibition Ludicrous Tales: A Topsy Turvy Quartet four international artists
residing in our region create an enchanted environment. The luscious paintings of
Gloria Muriel pair beautifully with a succulent ceramic banquet by Beliz Iristay and Irene de Watteville and wondrous mosaic trees by Aida Valencia. Visitors are invited into a space dripping in decadence and more than a dash of
whimsy as magical creatures and fantastic beasts break bread.

The gallery is at the San Diego Mesa College Fine Arts Building, first floor.7250 Mesa College DriveEnter campus through Marlesta/Genesee into Lot 1.Free parking is available in student spots.Gallery Hours: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and ThursdaysClosed Mondays, Fridays, weekends and school holidays.For gallery info call: (619) 388-2829

Beliz Iristay and Irene de Watteville are both ceramic artists, from Turkey and France
respectively. In 2019, the pair collaborated in a provocative and ludicrous sculptural
feast. In this joint installation, each artist showcases their strengths; Iristay
has extraordinary mold-making expertise and de Watteville a keen interest in detailed
brushwork and intricately sculpted clay. Both share a joy for cooking and the use
of blue in their work; the traditional blue in Iznik tiles from the Ottoman Empire
and the classic French blue glaze. Their piece-de-resistance is a tall ceramic centerpiece;
a stacked concoction of playful polychrome tiers created by both artists. Humor, sensuality,
and passion permeate the surreal installation transforming the gallery into a place
for communion and exchange.

Gloria Mulriel’s vibrant murals of fairy-tale characters can be seen on urban walls
around San Diego. Her canvases and drawings pulsate with dazzling colors, fluid sinewy
lines, and mysterious iconography; inquisitive faces with wide-set eyes emerge and
peek out from lush backgrounds woven from leaves and flowers. Muriel’s subjects emerge
from her imagination and are based on the artist’s experiences and emotional states
of mind. These young girls, mermaids, and nymphs honor the power of the Feminine and
women’s spiritual connection to Nature. For this exhibition, Muriel utilized the brilliant
cobalt, ultramarine, and turquoise blues of traditional Talavera ceramics in florid
symmetrical compositions to respond to Iristay and de Watteville’s porcelain pieces.

Standing in the midst of the gallery, metal tree sculptures by Aida Valencia are adorned
with flowers and birds in multi-hued mosaics. The colorful forest of shiny cutouts
titled Nature Response is part of a larger series called Fragmentada.

This press release was produced by San Diego Community College District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.