Patricia Mejía Contreras (July 7, 1958 – April 20, 2007) was a Mexican sculptor and graphic artist whose work was recognized with membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.

Life

Mejía was born in Uruapan,

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

and had her first experiences with art at a regional school. Later, she enrolled in Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" in 1977, then at the Taller de Fundición Artística of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBA), where she studied from 1982-1983. She died in Mexico City at the age of 48.

Career

Mejía began her career by moving to Mexico City to study and collaborating as an illustrator with the cultural supplement of the newspaper El Nacional as well as in the illustration department of the newspaper El Universal. She also worked in art restoration with the Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público and the Centro de Conservación de Obras Artísticas of INBA. In particular she worked with the collections from the Museo Nacional de la Estampa, the Taller de Gráfica Popular, the Academia de Artes and works done by Manual Manilla and

José Guadalupe Posada José Guadalupe Posada Aguilar (2 February 1852 – 20 January 1913) was a Mexican political lithographer who used relief printing to produce popular illustrations. His work has influenced numerous Latin American artists and cartoonists becaus ...

. She also worked on the documentation and restoration of works by Pablo O'Higgins. She participated in numerous collective exhibitions during her career, but had only six individual ones, the last being ''Atrás la obscuridad sigo el vuelo del Ave Fénix'' at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, into which she was inducted in 2000. In 2001, she founded the sculpting workshop called ''La Nave de los Desarraigados'', dedicated to the creation of sculptures in bronze, aluminum, marble, basalt, sandstone and wood.

Artistry

The study of the human figure is a constant in her work showing the influence of artists such as

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

, Raphael and

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

. However, her work recomposes their classic styles and is more Expressionistic. Faces often show primitive emotions and hand positions also indicate attitude and situations, generally a moment captured in a scene.

References

1958 births 2007 deaths Mexican women artists Mexican sculptors Mexican printmakers Artists from Michoacán People from Uruapan 20th-century sculptors 20th-century Mexican women artists Women printmakers 20th-century printmakers {{Mexico-sculptor-stub