The Cuentos Fair Trade initiative is a grassroots social enterprise of the Cuentos Foundation in cooperation with family studio collectives in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico and other traditional craft communities worldwide. Your purchase of these unique art objects directly support these communities and our global collective initiatives. In addition to these objects the Cuentos Fair Trade Shop offers documentary videos, publications, and on special occasions the opportunity to buy art from artists associated with the foundation.

Since its founding in 1998, Cuentos has produced numerous community-based interdisciplinary projects, including its founding global village project, Ritmo del Fuego / Rhythm of Fire - devoted to the art and artisans of Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico. Cuentos maintains a collection of exquisite museum quality copper art from Santa Clara available as a resource base for study and for traveling exhibition. Also available in our shop is the Cuentos’ book and video documentary on Santa Clara del Cobre.

Cuentos Foundation is proud to present new video documentary tryphon: three sounds to accompany the retrospective exhibition opening December 4 at the Brauer Museum of Art. tryphon is available for purchase from Cuentos. A catalogue of the exhibition is available from the Brauer Museum of Art and the Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery

tryphon: three sounds is a candid portrait of the artist Thomas H. Kapsalis (b. 1925) that also provides an intimate glimpse into the history of the Chicago art scene. Drawing upon personal conversations with Kapsalis, the documentary incorporates extensive images spanning his sixty year career, including paintings, sculptures, ephemera, family photos, and archival footage. Kapsalis contributed to the Chicago artist milieu through over fifty years as a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and continues to contribute through his abstract paintings of impeccable resolution and presence.

These modernist-inspired works emanate a sensibility that combines the Bauhaus aesthetic with a Dadaist irony and humor, presented with the modesty and directness of the Midwest. Kapsalis’s art and character exude a hard-won calm tempered through his life experiences, such as his survival as a prisoner of war during World War II.

tryphon was produced by the Cuentos Foundation to accompany the retrospective exhibition “Thomas H. Kapsalis: Artist’s House, Paintings and Sculpture, 1947-2008,” December 4, 2009 - March 21, 2010. This major exhibition celebrating the life and art of this leading abstract Chicago artist was curated by John Corbett & Jim Dempsey and was organized by the Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University.

Cuentos Foundation presents tryphon: three sounds the art of thomas h. kapsalis
Produced and Directed by Michele Feder-Nadoff
The video’s music includes unique recordings - a sound-work by artist, Lou Mallozzi; traditional Greek and Turkish music by Eric Ederer and Andrea Fishman; and flute improvisations by Corkey Siegal and
tryphon’s video editor, Sharon Karp/ Media Monster.

English DVD FORMAT, NTSC ALL, Dolby digital Total running time: 17 minutes ISBN: 978-0-9741171-1-9 [ To purchase using check or money order please email a request: support@cuentosfoundation.org ]	DVD is $20.00 + $5 S&H
	Institutional Price: $50.00 + $5 S&H

 

art building bridges / arte que construye puentes

ART is memory . ART builds bridges . ART is meaning . ART makes sense

 

Cuentos at the Evanston Ethnic Arts Festival promoting our new fair trade initiative, and especially the copper maestros of Santa Clara del Cobre. (July 2009)