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Seven Heavenly Virtues & Seven Deadly Sins Through Jan. 12 Cappy’s, 5011 Broadway luisawheeler.com
The Many Layers of Luisa Wheeler-Price The collage artist explores deadly sins and heavenly virtues in works on display at Cappy’s
uch like her coveted collage art, San Antonio mixed media artist Luisa Wheeler-Price’s life story has many layers. The artist was born in Eagle Pass, though she grew up as a curious and creative child in Piedras Negras, Mexico. By the time she was 5 years old, Wheeler-Price made her first skirt using her grandmother’s sewing machine. “I used to see my grandmother crocheting or sewing dresses and that’s how I learned, just by looking at her,” she says. As years passed, she began drawing and painting, eventually studying photography at University of Texas at San Antonio. Today, her work explores the many facets of her identity as a Latin American woman. Growing up Catholic, she was intrigued by the seven heavenly virtues and the seven deadly sins, both of which inspired two distinct collage collections, on view at Cappy’s in Alamo Heights through Jan. 12. In “Greed,” one of the seven deadly sin collages, a magazine cut-out of Tilda Swinton in a sumptuous swing coat is flanked by brazen diamond jewelry, strappy, sky-high stilettos, and flashy faceted gemstones. Another, titled “Gluttony,” boasts a tower of bloody Marys, glazed donuts, and double-stack hamburgers, with coffee and wine stains incrusted in the image. Wheeler-Price works from her home studio in Castle Hills, where she collects and manipulates her mixed materials, be it recycled magazine pages, bits of
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cardboard or old newspapers. Nature is one of her greatest inspirations, and she frequently uses fallen leaves and found twigs to add texture and dimension to her work. “I think you can find beauty in everything and convert it,” she says. “It all depends on your state of mind, but I think beauty is everywhere.” Twigs and leaves aside, Wheeler-Price also sources natural elements out of her magazine collection, incorporating clippings of bejeweled bees, birds, frogs and butterflies into her finished collages. For the viewer, each one is an invitation to get close to the work and search for meaning within the camouflage. Her latest exhibition at Cappy’s features 20 collages in total. In addition to pieces from the heavenly virtues and deadly sins series, she has a few new portraits on display, including one of her mother, Lupita, made entirely of photographed flowers and magazine fragments. Another of her grandson, Santiago, is constructed out of comic book cut-outs. With every piece, Wheeler-Price shares different facets of herself, from her passion for fashion to her family, her faith and her love of color, which she feels stems from her Mexican heritage. “When I create one of these pieces, it’s sort of like doing poetry,” she says. “You work in layers, yes, but you have to balance everything out and make it a story.”
COURTESY LUISA WHEELER-PRICE
BY SALLIE LEWIS
DECEMBER 2020
10/29/20 4:08 PM
