Ireri Topete, one of the best known local artists, has made inroads into painting and engraving and received various awards and international recognitions level for her work. She is currently a FONCA artistic career grant holder, and has had expositions in Mexico and abroad. Her work has been in museums, galleries, embassies and public spaces in Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Guanajuato and outside the country in Serbia, the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Australia. She is a teacher at the municipal engraving workshop La Raya, where she has held residencies and workshops with outstanding international artists such as Nunik Sauret. Ireri is a member of the newly inaugurated Office of Cultural Projects (OPC) of Puerto Vallarta.
Fernando Sanchez is an artist whose innate talent has allowed him to successfully engage in painting, engraving and ceramics; he is also a great chef. He was a FONCA fellow as a young creator. He was a winner of the Sotheby’s grant for engraving from the Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca in 1999, and has represented the country in exhibitions in various museums, galleries and public spaces in Milwaukee, Highland Park, New York, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, the Canary Islands, Lisbon, as well as Mexican cities such as Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Merida and Puerto Vallarta. Sanchez is the founder of the Red Octopus (El Pulpo Rojo) visual arts workshop and also a member of the Office of Cultural Projects (OPC) of Puerto Vallarta.
Sergio Lugo is a graduate of the Visual Arts program of studies at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) and a professor at the CUC local campus of the UdeG. Lugo has won important state awards and is a prolific artist who delves into mixed techniques with paper such as collage, as well as into work with two hands to exercise both sides of the brain. His work is varied and colorful, although at times it can reflect a complex state of inner reality beset by multiple and strange imaginings. He likes to work with a large format and triptychs.
Petru Voichescu Born in Romania and residing between Montreal and Puerto Vallarta, this graphic artist has come to enrich the local engravings scene with his spectacular monotypes. His production is realized mainly in the Workshops La Raya and La Marea, managed by Marcela Bernal, under the tutelage of the renowned printer Sergio Gutierrez, better known as The Namesake (El Tocayo). Petru exhibits permanently in galleries in Montreal and in Galería Ambos in Puerto Vallarta. His work is part of the Peter Gray Museum’s collection of the CUC on the local Campus of the UdeG.
Pedro Tello Self-taught artist from El Mosco in the Jalisco highlands, residing in Puerto Vallarta for more than 35 years. Tello has created successfully in the media of painting, engraving, photography and sculpture. To the astonishment of many, he photographically documented the existence of otters in the Cuale River. His work Origin and Destination is part of the sculptural corridor of the seafront promenade and he has recently developed a new technique of engraving on developed photographic paper, making lines with a pointed gouge to give shades that go from black, ochre, gold and vermilion to white for coloring the «Tellographs» as he has called them. Tello sets up under the bridge on the Isla Cuale every afternoon from 4 to 9 pm.
Yésika Félix A graduate of the prestigious San Carlos Academy in Mexico City, Yesika has focused on photography and more recently on engraving. Her work is part of the collection of the Museum of the Americas in Denver. From the texture of tree trunks to scars on the earth, Yesika has captured the micro and macro cosmos with her lens. Her work has been seen in many countries, most notably the United States, Canada and Portugal. She manages the Cuale Photography Workshop and teaches the arts at the Regional High School of Puerto Vallarta. She is part of La Malagua group and an enthusiastic promoter of photography as a medium of expression among young people.
