Galería Olinala, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Galeria Olinala, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Galeria Olinala in Puerto Vallarta opened its doors in 1978 with the intention of exhibiting art and objects from Mexico’s rich indigenous heritage. Olinala is the name of a mountainous Nahuatl village in north eastern Guerrero with a rich lacquer tradition and use of dance masks. The gallery was the first place in town to show lacquer ware from Olinala and Huichol art from the Sierra Madre mountains of Jalisco. Today both of these art forms have suffered from mass commercialization and for the most part have acquired a souvenir quality.
Therefore, for the past 14 years, the focus of the gallery has been on vintage dance masks from villages around Mexico, outsider art, found objects, and rural antiques. Most of the things we collect were not made with a commercial end in mind and reflect a deep human touch. Masks are made for ethnographic utilitarian purposes as well as old pottery, ladders, doors, boats, etc. The collection has an unusual ambience to it and the objects can transform ordinary common living spaces.
Galeria Olinala has always existed in the same old two story space on Lazaro Cardenas street in la colonia Emiliano Zapata near the Cuale river and in fact was the first business on the street. The building with its old walls, tile roof, and hand hewn wooden beams is a perfect house for what we collect.
The gallery was featured in the September 2005 Architectural Digest under the Discovery by Designers section by request of Ron Mann. We are interested in the primitive essence that is at the core of Mexico and how it remains vital in the contemporary world.
www.galeriaolinala.com