Last night was an art reception at the Mayor’s Gallery(aka Galería de la Alcaldía) to kick off the weekend of the Cuenca Art Walk 2016. There was a fusion of more than 30 national and  foreign artists who are living in Ecuador represented at the gallery, each with a single piece of their work.  This exhibition stayed up during the entire weekend, so people could come and see the variety of styles and talent as part of the Art Walk (see tomorrow’s blog for more details on the Walk itself). Some of the artists included Jorge Chalco, Alberto Soriano, Garry Kaulitz, Catalina Carrasco, Miguel Illescas, Maité Eusebio, Klever Moscoso, Ali Spence, Janda Grove, Lorena Duca, Ariel Dawi, Santiago Sutton, Cara Venn, Amelia Earl, and of course, Evelyn Johnson.

There was a good turnout, as both Cuencanans and expats came to meet the artists, and the artists could also mingle and catch up among themselves.

1500 copies of the yellow catalog detailing all the artists had been printed, and many people in the crowd had a copy to reference.  You can download an electronic version of the booklet here, if you wish.

Later in the evening, Cara Venn (the organizer of the entire Cuenca Art Walk 2016, shown at the podium upper left), gave a short talk, and then introduced the Ecuadorian folk dancing entertainment.  Meanwhile, outside the beautiful Mayor’s gallery (bottom left), we were having a typical rainy evening.