“it feels wonderful,” says Carol Hayman, the co-curator of Link & Pin Gallery’s current exhibition, Artistas Sin Fronteras. This group show, which showcases art from several Peruvian artists, is a continuation of work Hayman and her co-curator Nelly Mayhua Mendoza started nearly two decades ago.
“Nelly was here in Austin for the very first show, which was in… 2007, I think,” Hayman says, “so if it's really great that she's back here again in Austin.”
Hayman and Mendoza’s earlier collaborations grew from the sister-city relationship between Austin and Lima, Peru. Back in 2007, Hayman was chair of the Austin-Lima Sister Cities Committee. “And so the committee wanted to do something to share with Lima,” Hayman explains, “and people really have a hard time getting visas to come to the US, so we realized that art can travel where people can't. And so we did a dozen or so exhibitions of art here in Austin and in Lima, where I would take work from Austin down there and bring work from Peru back up here and we would have these joint shows. I did that quite a few times. And then, of course, COVID put an end to travel back and forth. But now we're trying to revive that situation and do more exhibitions of Peruvian art.”
Mendoza, speaking through an interpreter (Bob White, Hayman’s husband), adds “The project is intended to show the art and culture of Peru, from the Inca times to the present, and the various and different aspects of Peruvian culture. We want to let you know something about our past and history.”
“[The art is] really quite varied,” Hayman says. “There's a lot of color to it, and a lot of things that you might think of as being traditional Peruvian. So of course, Machu Picchu is depicted there – we have several versions of that. And other things that are seen as typically Peruvian – we’re showing the costumes that the women wear and the kind of architecture and scenery that you see in Peru. Those are some of the themes of the art. I'm hoping more people will learn about Peruvian culture that they'll come out and see the art and realize that there's so much more to the South than Mexico, that there's a lot more there and that they have a wonderfully rich culture as well."
'Artistas Sin Fronteras' is on display through March 23 at Link & Pin Gallery.
