Opening Reception - Painting God’s House: The Folk Baroque Churches of Mexico

Carolyn Brown has photographed ancient architecture since 1980 when her work was showcased in two books on Egypt. In search of ancient material closer to home, she traveled and photographed over a ten year period to create in 2000 a blockbuster exhibition, Sacred Space: Man and the Divine in Mexico, Guatemala and Southwestern United States.

The artist feels that the vibrant color of Mexico often finds vivid expression in the old colonial churches and missions that grace almost every town and village across that country, In this new exhibition, Ms. Brown brings the vibrancy of Mexican folk architecture to life in a sequence of exquisite and stunning images. Her special focus is on the multi-hued, tiled and painted church fronts from the central Mexican regions of Puebla and Queretaro, where vernacular traditions of colorful church decoration continue to thrive.

Puebla was the cultural and artistic capital of colonial Mexico. Starting in the mid-1600s this city avidly embraced the newly imported baroque forms from Spain and Europe, but with a colorful and imaginative flair rooted in ornate stucco work and painted tiles—distinctive local specialties beloved of Pueblan designers and artisans—that immediately identifies itself to the viewer as barroco poblano. Ms. Brown’s images range from the glittering tiled churches of the city of Puebla and its surroundings to the painted folkloric facades of smaller towns in the region.

The second group of photographs, from Queretaro, document five unique missions with sculpted polychrome facades nestled in the remote subtropical valleys of the Sierra Gorda de Queretaro. Founded by Junipero Serra, the apostle of Texas and California, all five of these spectacular churches have recently been restored to their original magnificence.

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