Artists present works from the heart

From Staff Reports

Art enthusiasts packed into the opening night reception this past weekend for the 28th annual El Corazón exhibition at the Bath House Cultural Center. The show is a well-regarded tradition that encourages local and regional visual artists to create unique interpretations of the human heart. This passionate and eclectic exhibition, curated by Dallas artist Jose Vargas, features a variety of ideas, styles, and concepts inspired by the heart (El Corazón), an important and universal symbol in art.

Jose Vargas has collaborated with the Bath House Cultural Center and other facilities of the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture for decades. El Corazón, one of his most enduring and celebrated exhibitions, has attracted national and international artists. Although the original inspiration for this exhibition was an illustration of a heart pierced by an arrow from the Mexican board game Lotería, it was evident from the beginning that the theme of the exhibition had the power to reveal a multitude of unique perspectives that are stimulated and formed by the image of the heart. 

It is that abundance of deeply personal points of view and responses to the image of the heart that has given the annual show its persistence and constant appeal. For some artists, the heart represents an overwhelming feeling of passion, love or despair, and their work replicates, to a degree, the imagery of the lotería picture that captured the curator’s imagination many years ago. 

Other artists, however, convey other perspectives that are just as deeply felt and poignant, which evoke ideas concerning cultural identity, fantasy, compassion, care, familial unity, religious devotion and self-exploration. For the curator himself, the symbol of the heart has an intensely significant meaning this year, just a few months after he suffered a heart attack that altered his own mental view on life, health and art. The demonstration of the seemingly never-ending sources of inspiration for heart-related art might be an indication that the El Corazón exhibition has a long future in the years ahead.

The Bath House is located at 521 E. Lawther Dr. in Dallas. The show is free and open to the public during regular business hours and runs through March 4. Call 214-670-8723 for more information.

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