Portsmouth’s new McLaughlin-Hills Gallery shows off Mexican artists

Hanging at the new McLaughlin-Hills Gallery are several framed artworks by Esteban Urbieta, who painted directly onto brochures left over from one of his exhibits in Mexico.
“It speaks to the passion he has for painting and the need to practice,” said gallery owner Catherine McLaughlin-Hills. “It speaks to Mexican culture and the need to make do.”
She met the artist while studying Spanish in Oaxaca, Mexico. Though Urbieta has exhibited often in his home country, McLaughlin-Hills said Urbieta still has limited resources. It’s one of the reasons she has decided to help sell Mexican art in downtown Portsmouth.
The gallery opens with a reception on Friday, Dec. 17 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. It’s located in the former ellO gallery space on the newly repaved State Street.
While at Urbieta’s home for warm beer and spicy peanuts, hoping to pick up new art, she saw his painting on brochures that now hang in the gallery along with full-size paintings on canvas or bark.
Some other Mexican artists exhibited here layer pieces of amate bark paper, cut patterns in it with sharp stones, dye it or knot it, creating natural artwork with an indigenous source. Also at the gallery are handmade purses, some recycled from embroidered dresses and others weaved with fragrant sweet grass. There are intricately hand-carved gourds used for drinking mescal or hanging on walls, delicately painted earrings made from Corona beer bottle caps, and skateboard decks transformed into art reminiscent of primitive shields or a fabled animal’s exoskeleton.  
McLaughlin-Hills wants to fill the gallery with rotating exhibits of indigenous and recycled Mexican art with historical and symbolic themes and images, exposing the Seacoast to the peaceful, creative side of this culture that is often overlooked.
“They have taught me so much about patience, humility and, above all, kindness,” she said.
McLaughlin-Hills is a midwife, now for York Hospital and formerly for Portsmouth Hospital. In between these two jobs, in 2004, she worked in the Dominican Republic as part of a project concerned about the high maternal mortality rate. She spoke no Spanish going into it and afterward considered it crucial to learn.
Though not an artist herself, she has a deep appreciation for it, inspired by her mother, who often took her to galleries. She chose to study in Oaxaca, known for its art community, and was immediately smitten with the local culture. She met many artists selling their work on the street or in markets and admired their gentle natures and love of family and tradition.
But the area was in political upheaval. What began as teacher strikes for better pay and more educational resources became, in 2006, a bloody struggle against repressive government in poverty-stricken Oaxaca.
The organizations that joined in the struggle formed the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, known as APPO, and demanded the end of the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Many were killed, including an American journalist, and many more were injured.
McLaughlin-Hills said there were thousands marching in the streets, buses burning and barricades blocking the way in. It was a different scene altogether than those of the beaches depicted on postcards. She knew tourism would drop and local artists would suffer. She asked one artist if he would trust her to bring his work to the United States to sell. He did, and it paid off.
“This is not about me,” McLaughlin-Hills said. “I’m just the vehicle to bring the art here and expose people to part of Mexico that is peaceful and beautiful.”
She plans to return to Mexico a couple of times each year, and the gallery’s inventory will change depending on who she meets in the street. The prices at the gallery range from $5 for hand-painted matchboxes to $4,000 for a large, original painting. She always buys directly from the artists and says she’s doing it for them. “It feels like a calling,” she said.
The gallery will become a stop on Portsmouth’s monthly Art ’Round Town self-guided tour. McLaughlin-Hills also hopes to hold a Day of the Dead celebration in October and use the courtyard behind the gallery for sculptures and outdoor seating in the warmer months.
While most of the artwork is rooted in traditional life and legends of Oaxaca, some of it is contemporary, such as the bright block colors of well-established artist Fernando M. Diaz. Many of the gallery’s paintings seem steeped in symbolism, with images both common and sacred, such as flowers and insects, thin dogs, and fertile corn and women.    
“I’m passionate about art that tells a story and speaks to passion and purpose,” McLaughlin-Hills said.
One of the most powerful images is a woodcut by Fernando Olivera of an angel embracing doves with hundreds of small eyes in the background. McLaughlin-Hills said the title translates to, “I’m filled with memories of those forgotten.”
This year, a new political party was finally voted into the state of Oaxaca.

The McLaughlin-Hills Gallery is located at 110 State St., Portsmouth, 603-319-8306.