Mike Ruiz, artist, sculpture and curatorial committee member for our Juan R. Fuentes Gallery, has finally completed this gorgeous tribute to the pre-Colombian Mayans. Ruiz explained that his original idea was to showcase replicas he had created of “Maya Bas-Reliefs from Yaxchilan and Mexico, and the full-figured glyphs from Copan, Honduras.” And that as the project evolved he thought it would be more interesting to create a “Corbelled Maya Arch” to frame the pieces.
“My hope is and was for it to be a tribute to the artistic and architectural genius and ingenuity of the ancient people of the Americas,” Ruiz said, adding, “In spirit, it represents all of the wonderful ancient cultures of Latin America.”
Ruiz also stressed that the project would not have been possible without the help of his colleague Rick Rodrigues, as well as contractor Dustin McGahan and McGahan’s assistant Jose.