For more than a decade, T Fuller Fine Art gallery has been ardently committed to exhibiting remarkable works of the finest contemporary artists of the Americas. Located in the heart of the cultural center of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the gallery's spare and urbane setting is uniquely inviting. The gallery has collaborated with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to place into their permanent collection important work of several artists who have exhibited with the gallery.
Manuel Morales
Luis Manuel Morales Gamez is one of Mexico’s premier ceramic artists. Although Morales has achieved a worldwide audience, his roots are in Tzintzuntzan, the small mountain community of his birth near Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacán. His ceramics are rooted in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage, in the complex and profound reflection of the natural world around him and in the day-to-day life of his home village.  |
Tzintzuntzan, which means the place of hummingbirds, is the ancient capital of the Tarascan Empire. This region has for many centuries been the center of many types of ceramic artesanías. The Patzcuaro region where Morales’ family has engaged in ceramic production for several generations is well-known for the diverse quality and uniqueness of its pottery using techniques that range from purely pre-Colombian to colonial Spanish methods and from functional cookware to complex gallery pieces. Manuel Morales’ work is the quintessential museum-quality work to emerge from this region. In Tzintzuntzan, Morales can be found near some of the oldest olive trees in the New World which flank an old outbuilding of the church that serves as his workshop. There he creates lead-free high-fire glaze ware decorated with skillfully designed adaptations of ancient Purepecha symbols. Morales’ extremely complex three-dimensional work is crafted on a non-electric wheel and fired in a gas kiln. His more modern but extremely time-consuming approach differs markedly from the old-style approach of other ceramicists, especially the work produced by his great grandmother who was one of the most recognized figures in the development of the current artistic expressions for which this region is known. The high volcanic peaks, lakes, wildlife and other environmental elements also figure prominently in Morales’ expressions of this region. Morales’ ceramics are widely recognized nationally, regionally and internationally. He has been honored with numerous prizes and awards throughout the state of Michoacán and Mexico. His work has been featured in exhibits in Europe and the U.S. and is part of the permanent collections in established museums in Mexico, the U.S., and Europe. |