He has been called “a visionary,” “a phenomenon,” “a vanguard of modern art,” “a master of assemblage” and an artist who “tears apart reality and puts it back together.” His museum-quality works have been described as powerful, inspirational, mysterious, magical, imaginative, unusual, important, conceptual and surreal. Without a doubt, Ernesto Muñoz Acosta is one of Mexico’s most amazing and significant contemporary artists. His exposition, “El Vuelo de mi Hermano (The Flight of my Brother),” is an incredible, soaring journey through his most intriguing and personal realm. It is on exhibit at Centro Estatal de las Artes Ensenada (CEARTE) from February 26-May 2, 2011.
 
Consisting of 94 paintings, drawings and sculptures, the “El Vuelo de mi Hermano” collection was donated to the Instituto de Cultura de Baja California (ICBC) in July 2007 by Ernesto Muñoz Acosta, who spent a substantial part of his life in Ensenada. A small part of the collection (along with works by David Alfaro Siqueiros from Mexico City’s Museo Soumaya) was featured at the inauguration of CEARTE on July 31, 2007. Because of its considerable size – both in the number of works and in their physical dimensions – “El Vuelo de mi Hermano” is the first time that CEARTE has held a simultaneous one-man show in its lobby and both of its spacious exhibition halls. The exposition is brilliantly curated and museographed by Berta Armas and Jaime Delfín, CEARTE’s Director of Visual & Fine Arts.
 
The majority of the works in the “El Vuelo de mi Hermano” collection are large format, multi-dimensional mixed media works, many consisting of oils and/or acrylics on canvas or wood with textures, photographic collages and found objects. The largest is the 8-foot. x 11.6-foot 1999 “Without Title” wall hanging. Because the works in the “El Vuelo de mi Hermano” exposition span the years from 1954 to 2009, it is possible to visually follow Muñoz Acosta’s growth as an artist.
 
Noting that his paintings are not pre-conceived, Muñoz Acosta describes them as “free-thinking manifestations.” In addition to the objets trouvées whose spirits he wishes to preserve, Muñoz Acosta fills his works with symbolism: birds, flowers, hearts, Mexican flags, fantastic animals, numbers, text, familial photos and religious motifs. One of his most predominant motifs is that of the limón on a string, which relates back to his childhood in the hot Sonora desert. At his school, each child was required to bring a lemon every day in order to enter the classroom; the lemon was a matter of life or death because it could prevent dehydration in the desert. Another of Muñoz Acosta’s popular motifs is the sunny-side-up fried egg, which he says represents life sustenance, this also a reference to his youth on his family ranch in Sonora.
 
In addition to his natural-born artistic talent, Ernesto Muñoz Acosta possesses something special – an innate ability to connect with his viewers, who recognize that Muñoz Acosta puts his “all” into his art: his heart, his mind and his soul. They find it very easy to respond to his aesthetic imagery and its occasional touches of humor and melancholy.
   
The “El Vuelo de mi Hermano (The Flight of my Brother)” collection is on display at CEARTE from February 26-May 2, 2011. Exhibition hours are 8am-8pm Monday-Saturday and 11am-7pm on Sunday. Admission is free. CEARTE offers free English and Spanish guided tours of the exposition by reservation only. For information, call the reception desk at (646)173-4307 or 173-4308, ext. 101 or e-mail  Ensenada’s Centro Estatal de las Artes is located on the corner of Blvd. Costero (Lázaro Cárdenas) and & Av. Club Rotario, opposite the Riviera Cultural Center clock tower.
 

Ernesto Muñoz Acosta autographed his biographical books for the public on March 1 at CEARTE

CEARTE Coordinator Natalia Badan, Ernesto Muñoz Acosta and EnsenadaGazette.com Editor Connie Ellig

Want to learn more about Ernesto Muñoz Acosta? The Instituto de Cultura de Baja California (ICBC) has published “El Vuelo de mi Hermano. Vida y Obra del Maestro Ernesto Muñoz Acosta,” a 12-inch x 12-inch hardback in Spanish. The 262-page book features comments from art critics; a biographical profile and timeline that includes his numerous single and collective expositions in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and most countries in Europe; and full color photos of the 94 works which comprise “El Vuelo de mi Hermano” collection. The first edition book can be purchased for $1000 pesos (approximately $87dlls.) at the CEARTE reception desk. (A limited number of copies personally autographed by Ernesto Muñoz Acosta are available through Jaime Delfín, e-mail)
 
The ICBC also has produced an 82-minute Spanish language documentary DVD, “Vida y Obra Ernesto Muñoz Acosta.” In it Ernesto Muñoz Acosta tells the story of his life and his artistic evolution. He talks about his childhood in Guaymas, Sonora, where he was born in 1932. As young child who made his first drawings in the sand, Muñoz Acosta knew at an early age that his destiny was to become an artist. He discusses his artistic consolidation in Ensenada, where he lived from 1955-1962 (and also during the latter half of the 1990s); his formal studies in Mexico City and Paris during the ‘60s and ‘70s; and his stage in Puerto Vallarta during the early 2000s when he founded the museum that bears his name. The DVD also includes galleries of many of Muñoz Acosta’s paintings as well as comments by Mexican art critics and other distinguished contemporary fine artists. It is available at the CEARTE reception desk for $100 pesos (approximately $8.75dlls.).