Founded in 2000 by Xavier Tavera and Dougie Padilla, Grupo Soap del Corazón celebrates latino artists and culture and the latinization of Minnesota and the upper midwest of the USA. To date, Grupo Soap has featured the work of over 100 artists, local, regional, and international. Centered around artists/curators/activists Xavier Tavera and Dougie Padilla, Grupo Soap is an ever changing melange of artists, writers, critics, activists.
A native of Mexico City and a resident of Minnesota for over twenty years, co-founder Xavier Tavera has been a professional photographer for 25+ years. His work locates the Mexican diaspora, its people and places, its cultural events and rituals. His work centers on "soul", seeing the most basic humanity in people, their spaces and things. A professor of art at Carleton College, married and the step-father of two, he returns often to Mexico to see family and photograph. (xavier-tavera.com)
Co-founder Dougie Padilla is a life-long resident of Minnesota/ of Norwegian-Mexican-cowboy roots. He is primarily a painter, but he also draws, sculpts, makes prints and ceramics, creates installations and ofrendas, does ritual, writes poetry, and performs. He is also a life-long civil rights and arts activist. He has moved with his lovely wife Susan recently to the college town of Northfield, Minnesota, and also spends much of his time at “dougieland studios” along the shores of the mighty Mississippi. He is a father of two and grandfather of four and is glad to live in this magical but oft problematic world. (dougiepadilla.com)