ABOUT El Mercado

El Mercado (The Market) is a series of paintings and drawings inspired by the poem "Alheña y Azúmbar" by the Colombian poet Jaime Jaramillo Escobar (b. 1932), also known as X-504. Jaramillo's poem is an ode to Colombian culture and a way of life I have known since childhood. The poet introduces each fruit celebrating its individual qualities and attributing to each a mythology, an idiosyncrasy and a possible associated danger.

Forty days and forty nights, that's how long it takes to digest the flesh of a coconut. A span that is neither too lengthy nor too brief. A hard, green plantain whose skin veers to red is a shade away from being poisonous. But brother, I would not lose too much sleep over it. However, a banana followed by a glass of rum will spell certain death. Nobody had that here. Myself included. And if you eat the seed of the dragon fruit, don't bite it, and if you bite it, don't swallow it, and if you swallow it, beware.
(Quote from "Alheña y Azúmbar ")

El Mercado opened at the Armani boutique on Madison Avenue in New York, November 14, 2011

In this installation, I tell the story of these fruits and grains in my own way. I have displayed within the muralist grid of this two-dimensional market each fruit and grain individually and separately, as fruits are displayed in markets all over the world. I thought of them as small paintings without pretensions. They are familiar and accessible fare of everyday life. Some of these small abstractions are purely surrealist interpretations of imaginary fruit and grain manifesting the magical qualities of nature, creation and the individual soul. The fruits and grains in my paintings also tell a story; a story about their colors and their forms and where these colors and forms have taken me. The series of black and white drawings are surrounded by the color of the other small canvases as black and white are referenced in the prose of the poet and enveloped in the history of my country. By rejecting pure abstraction in El Mercado and embracing a vocabulary of naturalism, I return to the intimacy of time and place of my youth and my Colombian roots and offer the harvest of my imagination to all.

Marta Luz Gutiérrez

El Mercado (The Market) was curated by Evelyn Tompkins Projects,
New York City (www.evelyntompkinsprojects.com)