La madrileña inglesa: Great Masters of Latin American Folk Art

In the middle of a Saturday shopping trip I wandered into Teatro Fernán Gómez, which has been playing host to an enormous exhibition of traditional Latin American art.

Grandes maestros del arte popular de Iberoamérica (Great Masters of Latin American folk art) is on loan from the Mexican Fomento Cultural Banamex, which spent over five years collecting treasures of all shapes and sizes from all over the continent.

Alfonso Castillo Orta, Olla Ecológica, 2000

The exhibition is arranged loosely around materials: from enormous plaster calaveras, tiny ceramic model bullfights and plastic Mexican chicken buses, through to clay, fabric, straw, wood and metal.

Cecilia Vargas, Chivas, 2007

María Luciene da Silva Siqueira, Salida de la Iglesia, 2008

A security guard sidled up to me when I was taking this picture of María Luciene da Silva Sigueira's beautiful clay sculpture of villagers pouring out of a church service. I thought he was going to tell me off for being so snap-happy. But with a big smile on his face, he beckoned me over, and pointed into the heart of the clay scene. "You see?" he said, with childish glee, "the secret lovers, hiding away".

A fruity, smooching couple, hiding in a door frame.

Óscar Soteno Elías, Árbol con escena de nacimiento, 2009

Óscar Soteno Elías in action
(Photo sourced here)

Although my favourites were by far the lifesize calavera sculptures in my first three photos, a hangover from living in Mexico some years ago, I was in awe of Marcelino Eduardo Sánchez Rodríguez's incredible collages made entirely of tiny feathers, painstakingly cut and arranged into historical Mexican scenes.

Marcelino Eduardo Sánchez Rodríguez, Cuadro Bicentario, 2009 (all feathers!)

Manuel Said Breña Martínez, Fiesta del negrito, 2009

The exhibition brings together 450 artists from 22 countries, with over 1,600 works on display. Each room is an enchanting burst of colour, humanity and humour.