Toro Mata in Adams Morgan Offers Multifaceted Approach
by Rachel Ray
As he sipped from a glass of merlot in the Toro Mata gallery in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, 30-something urban developer Neil Takemoto opined, “In this global economy, to compete venues have to be multidimensional. You can’t just have a bar and restaurant. It has to be a series of unique experiences and events—like live music, gallery receptions, performances.”
Takemoto along with other gallery goers were enjoying an “indigenous cubism” exhibit while munching from a table loaded with Peruvian goodies, such as dried banana chips, an addictive dip of pureed black olives and mayo, mini pita pockets stuffed with chicken and cream sauce, and a sauce made from feta cheese, chiles and eggs eaten with large kernels of Peruvian corn on toothpick skewers.
This multidimensional venue is the site of an October happy hour at the gallery, orchestrated by its co-owner, Hector Zarate, who completely agrees with Takemoto’s opinion of giving art viewers a multifaceted experience. The happy hours here have met with increasing success at the gallery’s most recent location in Adams Morgan,
Although the gallery is certainly multifunctional, there can be no mistaking that it is all about Peru, which is the main focus of all the works in the collection. Toro Mata started at a stand in Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market eight years ago and has been moved twice as profits and inventory continue to increase. For years, Zarate and his business partner, James Nixon, looked all over the Washington area for the right new space and discovered that rents were equally high everywhere. After making a firm decision to relocate to Northwest, they gave Adams Morgan a try.
Zarate, a Peruvian native, thinks of himself as a bridge between U.S. and Peruvian cultures. Catering to a clientele that he describes as a “great mixture” of locals and weekend tourists, he said that Adams Morgan has the strongest international flair of any neighborhood in Washington.
The happy hours are held on the open second level of Toro Mata’s intimate space. With its warm hardwood floors, 20-foot pressed-tin ceiling, wooden staircase, soft white walls and art gallery lighting, the space seems perfect for Toro Mata’s eclectic Peruvian collection. That collection, ranging in price from about $14 to $2,000, includes pottery, painted glass mirrors, oil paintings, watercolors, crosses, alpaca fur wall hangings, alpaca sweaters, hand-carved leather furniture and a variety of accessories.
Zarate and Nixon take individual trips several times a year to Peru to meet with artists and craftsmen—some of whom they have worked with from the beginning of their business—to examine the quality of their work and buy and order pieces for the gallery. During one such trip, Zarate became acquainted with the work of José Portocarrero Millones, a 66-year-old native of Arequipa, Peru, whose indigenous cubism paintings are currently on display at Toro Mata.
Portocarrero’s paintings depict indigenous Peruvians without any faces or even heads. Instead, a fedora-style hat represents the head. In each of the exhibit’s 18 paintings, all of the poncho-clad figures are gathered together outdoors in circular formations as if in prayer or meditation. The vividly colored ponchos are not softly draped around the figures as the garment would naturally fall, but are painted in sharp angles. In fact, one figure looks like a box with a hat on top. Portocarrero describes this technique as being “of Arequipa” and states that it “focuses on the fusion of bolder colors against soft lines and silhouettes.”
Some of the figures appear to be threading wool—a common activity in Arequipa—while others have pieces of pottery at their feet. According to Zarate, Portocarrero likes to depict people in his paintings but refuses to give them faces because he wants the viewer to come up with a unique interpretation.
“If there’s no face, there can be multiple interpretations of the figure,” Zarate said. And, perhaps, this is the key to what is so appealing about Portocarrero’s style of indigenous cubism. Gazing at these very modern renderings of the human figure, one really does wonder who these people are, and their private downward gazes only intensify that aura of mystery.
Portocarrero’s paintings will be shown in the Toro Mata gallery through the holiday season, and there will be two more happy hours before the end of the year, each featuring different artists. Those attending should not worry about a repeat menu: Zarate’s friends and mother help him prepare the Peruvian cuisine, and as he noted, “The food of Peru is so much, so diverse, that different food is really not an issue.”
Rachel Ray is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.
José Portocarrero Millones: Indigenous Cubism
through the end of December
Toro Mata gallery
2410 18th St., NW
For more information, please call (202) 232-3890 or visit www.toromata.com.
