Weekend Workshop

Dyed and Painted Picnic Blankets with Celeste

EVENT UPDATE: This workshop is currently full and the waitlist is now open.

Join Mexico City-based artist duo Celeste (María Fernanda Camarena and Gabriel Rosas Alemán) for a special two-day workshop at the Art School at Laguna Gloria, during which participants will make their own hand-dyed and painted picnic blankets. Celeste’s artwork is currently on view at the Jones Center in the exhibition HOST: Celeste.

You’ll make your blanket with materials specially selected by Celeste, using the techniques of dyeing and painting as a starting point. Students will work directly with the artists, experimenting with material, form, and color to explore a range of topics such as collaborative practice, symbols, and storytelling. This two-day weekend workshop is designed to inspire an environment of exchange and inquiry, and is organized in conjunction with Celeste’s temporary installation at Laguna Gloria, Manta de Cielo.

But that’s not all! You’ll be invited back to Laguna Gloria the evening of Thursday, May 18 to put your blanket to good use during the sister event, Manta de Cielo: A Community Picnic & Conversation with Celeste, hosted by curator Robin K. Williams. During this festive picnic you’ll enjoy artist talks, special musical performances, and complimentary drinks–all while sitting on your very own creation. Find out more here.

Joining Celeste is Macarena Hernandez, an editor, curator, and cultural manager who will provide additional context and insight into the dynamics of collaborative practice.

All supplies will be provided. Please wear appropriate clothes for an art studio (dress for mess!). Closed-toe shoes are recommended. While lunch is not provided, you are welcome to order from our on-site café, Spread & Co. (click to see the menu), or bring your own.

About the Facilitators

Celeste is an artist duo based in Mexico City formed by María Fernanda Camarena (b. Guadalajara, 1988) and Gabriel Rosas Alemán (b. Mexico City, 1983). The artists’ collaborative practice centers on explorations of archetypal images and the creation of spaces that are both physical and social. Their largescale, dyed and painted fabric installations employ a distinctive warm color palette and respond to architectural environments while incorporating abstracted images, such as extended hands and empty vessels, that speak to the personal and collective unconscious.

Macarena Hernandez Estrada is an art historian, cultural manager and Mexican editor. She is co-founder and public program manager of Aeromoto, a library specializing in art and independent editions in Mexico City, along with co-founders Maru Calva, Mauricio Marcin and Jerónimo Rüedi. She is currently the co-curator of the Festival Poesía en Voz Alta 2023, at Casa del Lago UNAM. In 2020, she co-curated an online version of the same festival, entitled The Language that Vibrates Before the Word, (UNAM, 2021) with Cinthya García Leyva. She currently participates as co-editor with Renata Cervetto (AR) and Miguel A. López (PE), of the second volume of Agítese antes de usar: Artistic, educational and social displacements in Latin America (Temblores / Fundación Jumex / PAC / CIAC, 2023). Additionally, she is the editorial coordinator of the first catalog of the Mexican artist Marcela Armas, entitled Looking with Mountain Eyes (MACG/ Museo de Arte de Guanajuato, 2023). She is currently editing a publication by the Japanese artist Aki Onda (UNAM, 2023) and she has coordinated the catalog of the Mexican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, 2022, Hasta que los cantos sprout (forthcoming, 2023).