Artist presentation by Xilam Balam Ybarra rescheduled

BEMIDJI, MN -- Watermark Art Center will host a presentation and demo on Saturday, March 23 featuring Minneapolis artist Xilam Balam Ybarra. This presentation was previously published for March 1, but had to be rescheduled due to weather concerns.

Ybarra is one of the artists currently featured in Watermark’s exhibit, Madwewe – It Is Heard. This exhibit focuses on the ways in which we hear culture – through songs, words, sounds and more. Ybarra has multiple handcrafted clay flutes in the exhibit.

On March 23 at 11 a.m., Ybarra and his wife, Rebekah, will introduce the flutes in a traditional manner and share about their significance in the Mayan culture. The presentation will involve both discussion and playing of the flutes. Following this, Ybarra will do a demonstration on how to make traditional clay flutes.

Xilam Balam Ybarra (b. San Antonio, Texas) is an emerging interdisciplinary contemporary visual artist and music producer whose work is a fusion of Pre-Columbian Indigenous art forms and contemporary hip-hop and graphic arts. He is a 2018 Mcknight Ceramics Fellow. He works in a variety of mediums including music, ceramics, painting, screenprinting, stone carving, and epigraphy. Ybarra has performed across the country and in Mexico, producing, exhibiting and teaching locally. He is a co-founder of Electric Machete Studios, a Latinx art & music production house.

Watermark Art Center is a nonprofit art center dedicated to encouraging the growth and development of art. They are located at 505 Bemidji Ave N, downtown Bemidji.