Reception
Thursday October 24, 5-7pm
at
Davis Gallery at Shwayder Art Building
University of Denver
2121 East Asbury Avenue
Denver, CO
Josephine Lobato, born in 1936 in San Luis, Colorado, is a nationally recognized colcha embroidery artist.
She lives and works in Westminster. Mi Vida en Colcha is a comprehensive retrospective of the textile art she began creating in 1988.
She is a storyteller, a great-great grandmother, a teacher, a historian, and a retired museum curator and director.
Colcha embroidery came to the San Luis Valley from Northern New Mexico in the 19th Century and has been shaped by revival movements in Colorado and New Mexico into a pictorial narrative artform.
The term colcha refers to the Spanish word for bed covering. In the United States, colcha embroidery refers to a textile that primarily uses the colcha stitch, a couching stitch - the oldest embroidery stitch in the world.
Lobato uses colcha embroidery to depict the stories and folklore of her life and community, keeping their legacy alive with her art.
She honors the Hispanic heritage of Southern Colorado and its connections across regions and generations. As a colcha embroidery teacher, Lobato shared her skills with her family and with people of diverse backgrounds and ages.
For her it was not only the passing on of a traditional craft, but reaching towards integrating the cultures, skills, education, and experiences of an entire community.
Lobato graduated from Mercy High Catholic School in San Luis, and received an Associate of Arts degree from Adams State College. She was married to her husband Eugene Joseph "Buddy" Lobato (1932 - 2022) for 68 years.
She is the mother of eight accomplished children. She had a long career as a curator and director in the San Luis Valley at the Fort Garland Museum and the San Luis Cultural Center.
In 2019 Lobato was awarded the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of her exceptional contribution to American folk and traditional arts.
She is the recipient of a Colorado Heritage Award and a Colorado Council on the Arts Master-Apprentice Fellowship.
She has exhibited at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, The Range in Saguache, The Arvada Center for Arts and Humanities, and in Washington DC, hosted by the NEA.
In Loving Memory of
Michael Curtis Lobato
1980-2024
and
My Mother
Charlotte Payne Lucero
1909 - 1960
Who taught me to sew
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the Lobato family for the loan of their colcha embroideries for Mi Vida en Colcha.
Thank you to my husband Buddy, who was my best critic, and to Carmen Benavente Orrego-Salas for her inspiration.
Thank you to Geoffrey Shamos, Lauren Anuszewski, Alex DeCarli, Alec Garbini, Laurie Vigil, Donald Nease, and the AJL Foundation for their support.
Mi Vida en Colcha is curated by Josephine Lobato in collaboration with Adrienne Garbini, Dr. Suzanne MacAulay, Trent Segura, and the San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project.
San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project
The San Luis Valley Colcha Embroidery Project is a collaboration between HEART of Saguache, The Range in Saguache, Colorado, and artists in the Valley. This project supports exhibitions, workshops, and scholarship.
Josephine Lobato, Mi Vida en Colcha at the University of Denver, 2024
Josephine Lobato, Los Pastores de La Sierra, 2006
Josephine Lobato, Mi Vida en Colcha at the University of Denver, 2024
Josephine Lobato, Rites of Passage, 1998.
Josephine Lobato, Mi Vida en Colcha at the University of Denver, 2024
Josephine Lobato, San Luis Oldest Town in Colorado, 2017.
Josephine Lobato, Mi Vida en Colcha at the University of Denver, 2024