Rocky Mountain News (CO)
MUSEO PROVIDES SHOWCASE FOR LUCERO'S CHALLENGE TO VIEWER
By Mary Voelz
June 9, 1996 Section: Spotlight Page: 6D
Copyright (c) 1996 Rocky Mountain News

In its short life, the Museo de las Americas has given viewers the drama of evocative tributes to the dead, and the rare opportunity to see fine works by Latin American female artists.

The museum has brought the region a captivating modern interpretation of the meso-American ball game made of precious metals and hard-as-nails rubber, and the broad sweep of artist Emanuel Martinez's exploration of the joys and conflict of the Chicano experience.On a tight budget, this ever-changing storefront on Santa Fe Drive has worked to find the best of a realm of art that speaks to this region - and all of its people. This fall, that includes paintings by Miguel Camarena centered on the culture of Mexico's resilient Tarahumara people.

Now, though, the place is filled with warriors and madonnas, knights and heads split apart as if struck by lightning - the museum's latest move to acquit the part of its mission that includes presenting works by area artists.

Not quite surreal, not quite real, this is what artist Stevon Lucero calls meta-realism, his personal shorthand for the words metaphysical, fantastic and realism.

That's as good an explanation as any, since a jumble of words seems a natural parallel to the jumble of thoughts and emotions let loose by a tour through Lucero's show. The dozens of pieces of meta-realism, on view through July 20, dominate a show that includes some examples of Lucero's own examination of his heritage.

The Museo chose to feature Lucero, director Jose Aguayo said, as a sort of contrast to the Martinez retrospective last summer, a show fierce with pride and prejudice. Martinez's stylized depictions of everything that goes into the Chicano heritage draws heavily on cultures that came before.

Yet Lucero, in his push to not be pigeonholed, as he puts it, cannot leave some of the mythology and symbolism behind. Religion and spirituality are woven through the fabric of his work like the most persistent magic realism, even as the figures melt into a Dali-esque wash.

Lucero, who has been painting for more than 25 years, has shown in venues all over town, including an odd back-room show at Fish Head Soup a few months ago that was more a tease than an experience. (Probably more familiar to museum-goers here is his 1992 mural of the Tlateloloco Market done for the 1992 ``Aztec: The World of Moctezuma'' show at the Denver Museum of Natural History.)

At the Museo, Lucero bares his soul, just as he would like viewers to bare theirs.

``The spiritual is there, and the heritage is there,'' he said recently, describing the type of material he'll address in a talk June 18 at the Museo.

``What is meta-realism and why is meta-realism. I take the definition apart so people can relate to it. ''
Which helps, especially when Lucero talks obliquely about how his style began. Like many people, he remembers where he was when President Kennedy was shot. It was junior high school, and he watched reactions of the people around him.

``I saw wispy strands hanging off of people, the most on people who were the most distressed.''

Perhaps that's what makes his art so disturbing, so difficult to handle. To the mystical comic-book flatness - what are some of these creatures, anyway? - he adds hearts and tears, cracked skulls and a load of psychological baggage. It can get under your skin, even as you question the logic and the meaning of the work. The emotion cannot be compressed.

``Visual over idea,'' he calls it, and for such a large exhibition, that brief description works best.

(Note from Stevon - She got that wrong. What I said was "idea over visual")

INFOBOX If you go Stevon Lucero's works are on view through July 20 at the Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive. He will speak on the show at 7 p.m. June 18.
For admission information and reservations, call 571-4401.
Stevon Lucero's centerpiece 1987 oil Sleeper's Dilemma.  Silent Warrior