RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 10.10.25 PORCELAIN AND PAINT AT CENTRO CULTURAL AZTLAN

A Latino Exhibit of Porcelain and Paint at Centro Cultural Aztlan

Gricelda Corpus Nill’s new porcelain sculpture exhibition,  “El Vuelo de la Monarca” at Centro Cultural Aztlan in San Antonio, explores themes related to Latino history, identity, and spirit tied to the San Antonio community. Her work is deeply rooted in her Mexican and Texas cultural heritage, drawing inspiration from the rich traditions and histories of both communities. The forms are robust, earthy, and commanding, inviting the viewer to engage emotionally.

Gricelda was born in Mexicali, across the U.S. border from Calexico, California.  She met her husband, Mark Nill, while visiting Calexico. After their marriage, she moved to La Jolla, California to join Mark, who studied health sciences at UC San Diego. After completing his dental studies, Mark joined the Air Force and was stationed in England. In  England, Gricelda visited a ceramic factory near her home with a friend.  That visit and her introduction to clay creations transformed her life.

After seeing the exciting art pieces at the ceramic factory, Gricelda began her studies of clay art at Huntingdonshire College near Cambridge, England.  Her intensive determination to learn more about this art form has included a year at the University of New Mexico in Portales and a total of eight additional years at the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts, UTSA, and Northwest Vista College in San Antonio to perfect her skills in creating clay and porcelain objects.

Ceramic art is a complex and intricate process.  She learned early on that sculpting begins with choosing good clay, a decision based on what the artist desires to create in terms of texture, color, and firing requirements. Gricelda has worked with earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain, with each suited for different designs and structures. She begins with a rough drawing of the proposed art piece. With her idea in mind, she then creates her sculpture by shaping clay through hand-building methods such as pinching, coiling, and slab construction.

Gricelda generally forms her figures or objects by hand, often refining details as the clay dries to a leather-hard stage. Once fully dry, the work undergoes its first “bisque” firing in a kiln, transforming it into a strong yet porous ceramic. Glazes are then applied for color and finish, followed by a second, higher-temperature glaze firing that fuses the surface and vitrifies the clay. Her work is recognized for her attention to surface detail, use of vibrant color, and dynamic, tactile qualities.  She frequently employs naturalistic motifs and indigenous-inspired iconography, connecting personal narrative to broader community themes.

Gricelda began exhibiting 20 years ago when she entered a juried show in Clovis, New Mexico.  In 2006, she moved with her family to San Antonio and won awards at the Guadalupe Cultural Art Center, the Arts Festival in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the San Antonio Art League. Her first solo show in 2007 came about through the efforts of Malena Gonzalez-Cid, the Director of the Centro Cultural Aztlan.

The art magazine critic at Glasstire noted: “The detail of her pieces is extraordinary, as she flawlessly surrounds her very convincing bigger-than-life renditions of human-like creatures, with an abundance of meticulously formed, glazed and fired details such as flowers, butterflies, shells, branches, environments, and many other details to complete her visual narrative.”

Gricelda has been part of group exhibitions that recognize women artists,  and her work contributes to conversations around gender, cultural identity, and social issues within the Latino artistic community.  At the Centro Cultural Aztlan,  her sculptures are considered an inspiration, and she is recognized as a meticulous and imposing artist.  Gricelda is active in the local art scene and participates in exhibits that celebrate cultural heritage and artistic expression within the Latino community.

The second artist featured at the Centro Cultural Aztlan Gallery,  Raul Servin, draws upon his memory of Mexico in multiple landscapes.  He is also influenced by physical existence, or what he considers reality. He has an infatuation for nopales [cacti]. Several of his landscape paintings place nopales front and center with high mountain ranges in the background, common to the interior of Mexico that he remembers from his youth.

As a teen, Servin enrolled in art classes offered through the Mexican government’s sponsored Instituto Nacional Bellas Artes,  a program to encourage the development of young artists throughout the country. Servin excelled in the fine arts program, and at age sixteen, he began exhibiting his artwork. The following year, he became a founding member of a local art organization known as El Jardin de Arte de Acapulco. Servin took art seriously. He enrolled in Pre-Colombian art classes and served as an art instructor at a local junior high school.

Servin’s first major career break came in the late 1960s when he landed a job in Acapulco painting the performance stage for the Voladores de Papantla [Known outside of Mexico as the Flying Indians]. The Mexican company that hired him also had a contract to build and decorate the stage at the new HemisFair68 in San Antonio.  In the Spring of 1968, Servin traveled with the Acapulco company to San Antonio.  A series of events during his stay in San Antonio dramatically altered his artistic career.

Mexico was one of the few Central and Latin American countries engaged in HemisFair. The Mexican government’s participation included sponsorship of the Voladores, Mexican musicians, and folkloric dancers. By the end of HemisFair in the fall of 1968, Servin had applied his decorative art skills to assist most of Mexico’s exhibitors.

Servin managed to stay on in San Antonio, and, in the late 1980s, he enrolled in art classes at  San Antonio Community College, studying primarily with art professors  Felipe Reyes and Mel Casas.  Servin developed greater artistic skills, and over the next forty years, he exhibited his art with the Joe Lopez Gallista Gallery, Centro Cultural Aztlan,  and other venues.

Servin’s training under San Antonio art professors Reyes and Casas guided him in the application of color and encouraged him to pay close attention to line and depth. He also credits both professors for giving him important insights about the Chicano struggle in Texas and beyond. These insights led him to paint as a social and political activist.  For the past fifty years, he has been a major contributor to the Mexican and Chicano art community of San Antonio.

A large number of Servin’s paintings incorporate calaveras [skulls]  and human skeletons as both a tribute to the early 20th-century Mexican master, José Guadalupe Posada, and Posada’s interpretation of identity and class. Servin explained that the recurring images of calaveras in his work are an “effort to erase prejudice of race, color, nationality, and gender, making everybody equal.”

His landscapes at the Centro Cultural Aztlan feature small paintings as well as several large panoramas showing the large boulders and towering mountains of central Mexico.  Some scenes include small, obscure images of figures working, carrying heavy loads, or following small mountain foottrails. Others cast filtered moonlight or rays of sunrise across dark, verdant mountains. Surrounded by Servin’s multiple landscapes, the viewer can imagine being in rural, central Mexico, among amazing vistas.

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Copyright 2025 by Ricardo Romo. All image credits as indicated above.