Sing, Don't Cry: Artist Angie Quintanilla Coates presents her first solo exhibit
Her artwork represents Mexican positivism amid tragedies and difficult times through vibrant, colourful paintings
Artwork by visual artist Angie Quintanilla Coates. (Submitted)
“Cielito Lindo,” or “Lovely Sweet One” in English, is considered an alternative anthem for Mexicans.
It is the song that rescue volunteers sang as they searched through collapsed buildings for survivors of a Sept. 19, 2017 earthquake in Mexico City. The song also serves as an auditory representation of national optimism that is maintained even in the most difficult moments.
For visual artist Angie Quintanilla Coates, representing the meaning of the song and the Mexican essence helped her connect with her roots.
Quintanilla Coates arrived in Canada 22 years ago in search of better opportunities, never thinking that painting would bring her happiness and longing for her homeland.
“Since I started painting, I used vibrant colours, but for a moment I wanted to fit in with the Canadians and stop using them,” Quintanilla Coates says.
“In Mexico, the houses have vibrant colours, everything is more colourful. Here the environment is perceived as grey, and when people saw my paintings, they couldn’t understand why I used those colours. Now I know that this is part of me and I want to transmit it to people through my art.”
Presented by the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre (VLACC) and facilitated by Miret Rodriguez, Sing, Don’t Cry marks the first solo exhibition for Quintanilla Coates. Her artwork will be displayed from Oct. 11 to 19 at THIS Gallery in Vancouver.
The exhibit focuses on the boldness and purity of colour and geometric forms, but in “combinations that offer a more subtle aesthetic,” according to the VLACC’s website.
Admission to the exhibit is free, and Quintanilla Coates says there will be surprises for attendees that she has prepared herself.
VLACC coordinated the dates with the gallery so that the presentation would take place during Latin Heritage Month in Canada, meaning the artist’s work will serve as a cultural reference not only from Mexico but from all over Latin America.
“I hope that attendees will take a break from their lives, that they will be filled with visual dopamine and leave happy, that they will understand Mexican optimism as a form of survival in the face of adversity, and forget about stress for a moment,” Quintanilla Coates says.
For tickets to the exhibition and to learn more about Quintanilla Coates’s work, visit www.angieqcoates.com/sing-dont-cry.
