October 8, 2023
by Carlos Ordóñez
The Berlin Bar & Bistro has been showing talented artists for a long time. But this all women show is a first – the range of work is wonderfully staggering: Ana Thiel's hanging sculptures and wearable art in glass and mixed media which has earned her awards in Europe and Mexico; Debra Thompson's "constructions" based art using elements like plaster, cement, pigmentation, even nuts and bolts, to create surprising textures and form; and Wendy Moyer's transformations of traditional handicrafts into art that enriches life through complex work in fabrics, sculpture, glass – virtually any medium.
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Ana Thiel
Ana Thiel's work graces museums and private collections worldwide. She has twice been awarded fellowships from the Mexican Council for the Arts. Her sculpture "Trine" won First Prize at the Latin American Bienal de Arte in Monterrey, Mexico. Her 30-year retrospective "Layers of Being", promoted by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs travelled through Mexico, the US, and various European countries. Author Elizabeth Rosner sees her art "as innocent as rain pooling on stone, as dangerous as the burning of books." Ana is reminding us to love the world -- whatever its existential reality.
Her Industrial Design background drives her output of impactful art, leading workshops, and lecturing on creativity at cultural institutions all over the world.
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Debra Thompson
Debra Thompson's background is in construction. Her work fuses traditional mediums with the unconventional and unexpected. Her artistic "vocabulary" is broad, including elements like an oil-wax medium, ash, sand and chalk to amplify dimension through layering, scraping and carving – techniques unveiling mesmerizing tapestries of hidden layers. Her compositions invite viewers to "get involved" to understand and appreciate subtle complexities of muted color palettes while delighting in the interplay of textures and objects. Conventional objects are imbued with a rejuvenated aesthetic, demanding contemplation, exaltation and even the occasional socio-political message.
Debra's work has been exhibited throughout California and as part of a traveling exhibition in Washington DC, Chicago IL, and Riverside CA. She has also been featured in Casa Europa SMA, MX, in "Sube y Baja" and as a co-exhibitor of "Visionaries."
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Wendy Moyer
Wendy Moyer's work elevates "craft" to fine art, filled with thematic and conversational layers that enrich life and pay homage to ancestral roots and memories. Her creative energy is rooted in the teachings of her mom and grandmothers informing her self-taught sculpturing and fabric manipulation skills. No medium escapes Wendy's imagination – whether manipulating fabric, tatting lace, casting glass, even molding gelatin pill capsules. It's a good bet no artist has ever worked with a pill capsule medium, or if they have, is a copy-cat. Wendy's best known for many works exploring the physical, psychological and emotional impact of breast cancer which she has been through and beat. These works have shown at the Museo de la Mujer in CDMX, at Casa Europa in SMA and are opening at the San Luis Potosi Centenario Arts Center later this month. Recently, Wendy has refocused her creative curiosity to the microcosmic, exploring and transforming imagery found through a microscope into fine art.
