Frederico Vigil, an artist often referred to as the “Michelangelo of New Mexico,” will exhibit original compositions from Oct. 31-Dec. 1. in the Apex Gallery at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. In 2014 Vigil traveled to Albuquerque, Spain to create a fresco at the Salon De Plenos (city hall). This gallery showing includes work from this landmark sister city project.
Born and raised in Santa Fe, N.M., Frederico Vigil first became involved with the ancient art of fresco painting during an internship in 1984 with Lucienne Bloch and Stephen Pope Dimitroff, who were apprentices to Diego Rivera. Inspired by these and other fresco masters, Vigil has since completed more than two dozen major fresco pieces, including one of the largest concave frescos in the world. Located inside the Torreón at Albuquerque’s National Hispanic Cultural Center, the fresco took nearly ten years to complete and spans 4,000 square feet. Vigil also created the fresco located in Benildus Hall on campus of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Vigil’s exhibitions have extended across the United States, Spain and Mexico. One of his most recent works located at the University of Notre Dame. He has been the recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, an NEA Art Fellowship Award and numerous other awards.
For his exhibition at the Apex Gallery Vigil will show cartoons from his fresco projects. Cartoons (or cartones) are large drawings done to the exact scale of an architectural space. Following an ancient pre-renaissance tradition these drawings were the first step to realizing a narrative which was most often a biblical story.
His public lecture, Thursday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m., will take place off campus at South Dakota Public Broadcasting’s West River Bureau office 415 Main Street. This will be followed on Friday, Nov. 17 with an artist’s reception in the Apex Gallery at SD Mines.