Yarn Painting Workshop with Rafael Cilau Valadez

Join Indigenous Mexican artist Rafael Cilau Valadez for a free workshop to unpick the subtleties and techniques of yarn-painting. Participants will be able to try this cultural craft, where yarn is pressed into wax plates to create traditional designs. 

Date: Friday June 10, 2016, 1pm - 4pm

Venue: Australian Tapestry Workshop, 262-266 Park St, South Melbourne

Cost: Free, all materials provided. 

Bookings essential. There are 20 places available. Please let us know ASAP if you cannnot attend, and we can give your place to someone else. 

Rafael Cilau Valadez is a guest of RMIT iAIR through the Mexican Indigenous residency arts exchange -- a partnership made possible by the generous support of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Mexican Embassy in Australia.

Rafael Cilau Valadez is the son of renowned Huichol yarn painter Mariano Valadez and anthropologist Susana Valadez. Coming from Nayarit in Central west of Mexico, Cilau a fifth generation Master Yarn Painting artist has been surrounded by master Huichol artists since childhood. He has done over 90 exhibits in North America, over 30 exhibits in Europe, and 5 in Asia. Now he is becoming a recognized traditional Wixarika medicine man (Marakame), but also travels the world exhibiting, lecturing, and demonstrating the Huicholart of yarn painting, his tradition and symbols. Artist of the year 2015, at Hollywood forever. His work has been featured at the United Nations, at the Museum of International Folk Art, and at events sponsored by National Geographic, Mexico, Riviera Nayarit, Don Julio, and universities like KSU and Harvard.