Opening Reception: 28th Annual El Corazón Exhibition

Reception with the Artists: Saturday, February 4, 2022 (6-8 PM). Featuring live music by Standards Gazette.

The exhibition El Corazón is a well-regarded annual tradition at the Bath House Cultural Center that encourages local and regional visual artists to create unique interpretations of the human heart. This passionate and eclectic exhibition, curated by Dallas artist, Jose Vargas, features a variety of ideas, styles, and concepts inspired by the heart (El Corazón), an important and universal symbol in art.

Jose Vargas has collaborated with the Bath House Cultural Center and other facilities of the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture for decades. El Corazón, one of his most enduring and celebrated exhibitions, has attracted national and international artists. Although the original inspiration for this exhibition was an illustration of a heart pierced by an arrow from the Mexican board game Lotería, it was evident from the beginning that the theme of the exhibition had the power to reveal a multitude of unique perspectives that are stimulated and formed by the image of the heart. It is that abundance of deeply personal points of view and responses to the image of the heart that has given the annual show its persistence and constant appeal. For some artists, the heart represents an overwhelming feeling of passion, love, or despair, and their work replicates, to a degree, the imagery of the lotería picture that captured the curator’s imagination many years ago. Other artists, however, convey other perspectives that are just as deeply felt and poignant, which evoke ideas concerning cultural identity, fantasy, compassion, care, familial unity, religious devotion, and self-exploration. For the curator himself, the symbol of the heart has an intensely significant meaning this year, just a few months after he suffered a heart attack that altered his own mental view on life, health, and art. The demonstration of the seemingly never-ending sources of inspiration for heart-related art might be an indication that the El Corazón exhibition has a long future in the years ahead.

The 28th annual El Corazón exhibition includes artwork by Matthew Arnold, Olga Arredondo Brock, Leticia Arroyo Ortiz, Elizabeth Bentley, Kimberly Bernal, David Blow, Kimberly Bradshaw Meadows, Lindsay Brennan, James Cahalan, Bradley J Cleaver, Jorge Domínguez Cruz, Vanessa Dorado, Dale DuBord, Jeane Elliott Clayton, Jeremie Fletcher Bourcy, Jacque Forsher, Jana Gibson, Erik Gomez, Abigail Gutierrez, Robert Hamilton, Mark Hernandez, Juan J. Hernandez, Jessica Hills, Victoria A. Jackson, Larry Paul Jones, Joanna L La Grone-Headrick, Nancy CH Lawrence, Roxana J. Lucio, Laurie Mahoney, Romulo Martinez, Kerian Massey, Kerian Massey, Simone M. Mayega, Jean McIntosh, Anthony Mikkelson, Margo Miller, Karla Mora Mora, Kelly B. Morris, Diane Pereira, Ernest M Perez, Rocío Ramirez-Landoll, Cat Rigdon, Reyes (Noin) Rivera, Rene Rocha, Katerine Rodriguez, Kimberly Samples, Lee Schwimmer, Sabine Senft, Raul Servin, Jahzlan Smith, Stan Smith, Joaquin Soto, Josselin Soto Cruz, Reid St. John, Pam Stern, T Stone, Elise Techentine, Michelle Torres, Jose Vargas, Stacy Vasquez, Jana Voigt, Liz Wallace, Kat Warwick, Keith Williams, Maggie Wolters, Wendy Woodring, Sharon Zigrossi, and Jessica Zuniga.

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