On Thursday, Dec. 6, the Hal Marcus Gallery will open its inaugural Latina Arte exhibition, the longest exhibition ever held at the gallery, featuring the artwork of several local Latina artists.

Hal Marcus, the gallery’s owner, who has been a professional artist for 50 years, came up with the idea of Latina Arte within a day.

“We wanted to do something that we hadn’t done before and we wanted to do something that was relevant to the community,” Marcus said. “Latina Arte are all women and to go with the women’s movement, it’s very relevant.”

The exhibition will feature paintings and sculptures of nine different local artists, with different styles and themes in their artwork and backgrounds.

Carmen Navar is one of the artists and is a current UTEP student working on a degree in painting with a bachelor’s in design.

“For me, it was very interesting, the question that I was asked when I was interviewed was, ‘What does Latina mean?’ and I said it tied to the culture as if I am a Latina artist, but the word is beyond Latina. It’s a universal theme,” Navar said.

“My themes have always been the female figure and the internal landscape, so I focus a lot on the eyes. What I learned at UTEP was what do you have to say in the 21st century and for me, it was how to bring the love and the femaleness into the 21st century,” she added.

Another artist is Isabel Olivares, a current computer science major that designs one of the university’s web pages.

“I like to communicate with people through my paintings, I usually try to focus on the story behind each painting. I like to connect with people through emotions, my paintings are part abstract, some part realism,” Olivares said.

Martha Arzabala is a retired design engineer and has been an artist since 2010. She is also currently preparing some paintings for other exhibitions outside of the city.

“You will see great paintings coming up pretty soon regarding the immigration issues and what’s going on politically right now, because we tend to put that expression into a painting or sculptures,” Arzabala said. “I think it’s the time for great art right now, because of the drama we have all around.”

Another artist is Chihuahuan native Teresa Fernández, who used to be a fashion designer and found her love for teaching and art when her daughters’ school asked her to teach a two-month course. She currently has her own studio called CreArte at 7815 Helen of Troy Drive.

“Now with this show, I am fusing my fashion design career into sculptures and dress sculptures, I call them Mis Damas, My Ladies,” Fernández said.

Fernández also did a one-piece clay figure for the show, experimenting with a variety of materials in the process.

The exhibition kicks off on Thursday, Dec. 6 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will run from Dec. 6, 2018 to Feb. 28, 2019.

The gallery is located at 1308 N. Oregon St.