Kestenbaum Art Studios

San Miguel de Allende

Mai Onno - Painter in San Miguel de Allende

Mai Onno with all her soul in her paintings. The consequence of a creator that her full artistic maturity shows the wisdom of being. With the strength of feeling and the power of reason, Mai molds into her images the immaterial fluid of her daily living. The absolute spreads, the opposites can live together. The cries of black oils and red unmerciful textures followed by yellow rounding's, drops of life wandering among the lighted wings of the birds. Mai, free from the structured intention of showing a sole concept, points out with her artwork the nakedness of her soul. each painting is a half open door to her sacrarium. Deep inside the pleasure cuts, turns painful, and grabs glares of solace. Franz Kafka believed that books should be axes that could cut the iced sea that we carry inside. Mai Onno makes out of her painting a stiletto that pierces the heart.

Lothar Kestenbaum

Lothar Kestenbaum, holder of the Chair in Sculpture at the Instituto de Bellas Artes for many years, was, arguably, the finest sculptor ever to have worked in San Miguel de Allende. His sculptures in bronze and marble have been exhibited to acclaim in Europe and the Americas. His works are important parts of collections in Germany, England, Canada, the United States and Mexico. As Michelangelo, he could see the form in the substance with wich he worked. With great attention to shape, texture, patina, his artistic sensibility and technical virtuosity led him to produce art that opens windows on the very soul.

David Kestenbaum - Sculptor in San Miguel de Allende

For me, sculpture is a part of daily life because my father, Lothar K. was a sculptor; I began fooling around with clay and wax early on. My early doodling in wax were cast in bronze as part of my father’s sprue systems. I got a kick out of this even though I was carving wood and stone as a kid, my father tried to make sure I followed a different career path. During my adolescence I continued carving wood with great determination, I wanted it to handle like clay. At the same time I asked my mother, a painter and teacher, to show me how to draw realistically. When my first pencil drawings started to look like the things I was depicting, I got a kick out of this. From this point on I entered and felt a sort of smug about what I could do, I was around 18 to 19 years old. What turned my point of view upside down was art school. With the pretext of studying art history, I began a process of experimentation with a as many media as I could get my hands on. My most bizarre effort was assembling a life-size mannequin out of wood, which then went through many transformation until I then gave to a friend who is a jeweler who proceeded to remove one of the index fingers and hung it on his studio wall. Eventually I did obtain a degree in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin. However, by this time I was far more involved in making large wood block prints and carvings in stone and wood in the Texas Hill country. One of the most deciding influences on my career was a visit to the Penland School in North Carolina where I worked in the blacksmithing shop and observed the different shops in action. I was most impressed by the fact that some shops like the glass blowing studio functioned at night, as well as you could live there and share the communal dinning hall. Because of this I developed my own version of a studio shop-living accommodation project in which I and one or more practicing sculptors could work. Already in college I began to think that running a small foundry would supplement my income, so, after my father’s death in 1995, I set about moving his foundry, located at the back of his studio, to a more appropriate site in the community of San Miguel Viejo. A rural community 10 minute drive from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. After 6 years of development I’ve succeeded in establishing a well equipped metal working facility in which I can handle 4 to 5 foot bronze pieces as well as life-size steel constructions. Over the years I’ve produced a great number of student pieces, the works of several professional sculptors, as well as my own works. As I work in foundry I periodically take time out to work on wood and stone projects, which usually take 2 to 3 years to complete. During my student years I was exposed to some of the more contemporary trends in art, but since I inherited the tools and techniques of a traditional sculptor, I have decided to follow that route for now. I believe that the handling of materials such as wood, stone, metals, linseed oil, and even plastics can be very spiritually rewarding both for the artist and the spectator. As a teacher I have introduced people of all ages to new materials and for the most part, have been rewarded by being part of the discovery of new solutions. In essence, I am interested in the process of art making and its social function. My own work is usually going in different direction at the same time, yet this ¨not knowing¨ later resolves itself in different pieces that bring incongruities together. Currently I have a site specific-environmental project under way with which viewers can interact on a physical as well as intellectual manner.