Arts

Gallery celebrates Mexico's history

As Tate Modern's exhibition of works by celebrated Mexican artist Frida Kahlo draws to a close, the University Gallery will acknowledge her female contemporaries this month.

Kahlo's Contemporaries, which has opened at the Gallery this week brings together work by women artists active in post-revolutionary Mexico. It celebrates and explores their chosen methods of expressing their national identity.

Dawn Ades, curator of the exhibition, explained: 'The 1930s, 1940s and 1950s were very exciting decades in Mexico's history and at that time there was a surge to create a Mexican identity through art. Men tended towards the dominant art form of the time, muralism, but women were largely excluded from this. Instead, the women of Mexico turned to the world of popular culture: markets and festivals, the circus and urban shrines, toys and masks. The world that they knew so well was their inspiration.'

'The work of these women was also heavily influenced by artists travelling to Mexico from Europe who brought with them surrealist art. Kahlo's Contemporaries will explore this particularly rich aspect of cultural hybridity in the visual arts which continues to be of relevance today.'

Detail from Alegoria del Trabajo by María Izquierdo, 1936. Picture courtesy of Museoblaisten.com

Kahlo's Contemporaries includes works by a number of Mexican artists as well as by European artists who painted in Mexico. Five of the works on show have been loaned to the University by galleries in Mexico and most have never been seen in the UK before.

Kahlo's Contemporaries will be at the University Gallery, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, from 3 October to 4 November. Admission is free and opening times are as follows: Monday to Friday 11am to 5pm, Saturday 1pm to 4.30pm.

Thrills at the theatre

Audiences at the Lakeside Theatre will be treated to two exciting plays this month, one set in the aftermath of war torn Italy, and the second an exploration of what we try to tell each other and what we choose to hide.

The Little World of Don Camillo, presented by Mike Maran Productions, focuses on Don Camillo, the parish priest in a small Italian town, and his rival Peppone, the communist mayor. They represent two poles of Italian life, the Catholic Church and the Communist Party, and will do anything to get one over on each other. But, their public show of hostility conceals a deeper collaboration to defend a value more important than their respective ideologies, their shared humanity.

The Little World of Don Camillo will be at the Lakeside Theatre on 19 October

Don Camillo has an original score, written and performed live on stage by Colin Steele on trumpet and Martin Green on accordion. It will be at the Lakeside Theatre on 19 October at 7.30pm.

On 26 October ChoppedLogic presents its first production, Paramour which has been touring the country since January 2005.

In Paramour two performers and several characters circle around one another, and around their subject, searching for something. ChoppedLogic explores play, text and scenography, with continuous writing and improvisation taking place throughout the creative process. Their performances are explorations of shared and private space which range from the deeply personal to the flamboyantly public.

For further details about performances at the Lakeside Theatre, see www.essex.ac.uk/arts.