June 9 - August 6, 2010
June 9 - August 6, 2010
A biennial juried exhibition featuring the work of artists living and working - or with roots/ raĂces - in South and West Texas.
This book has been published in conjuction with the juried exhibition, New Art/Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2010, UTSA Art Gallery | The University of Texas at San Antonio Department of Art and Art History One UTSA Circle San Antonio, Texas, 78249 http://art.utsa.edu Jurors | Malaquias Montoya and Valerie Cassel Oliver Scott A. Sherer, PhD, Gallery Director Photography | Courtesy of the artists Design | Cornelia W. Swann Š 2010 UTSA Art Gallery The University of Texas at San Antonio All rights reserved. Copyright of all artwork depicted remains with the artists. This exhibition is sponsored in part by Texas Commission on the Arts: Arts Respond Grant and Arts Create Grant; Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992; President Ricardo Romo and Dr. Harriett Romo; Dean Dan Gelo, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Professor Gregory Elliott, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History
Artists
Table of Contents Statements i. University President President Ricardo Romo ii Department Chair Gregory Elliott iii Gallery Director Scott Sherer iv Jurors Malaquias Montoya Valerie Cassel Oliver
12 13 14 12 13
Susannah Mira Juan de Dios Mora Ann Marie Nafziger Abel Oritz-Acosta James R. Pace
13 12 13 14 12
12 13 14 12
Patrick Page-Sutter Brian Row Efrain Salinas Marina I. Salinas Kasey Short
13 14 12 13 14
Monica Ellis Tom Hollenback Juan Juarez Mat Kubo Gerald Lopez
13 14 12 13 14
Andrew Leo Stansbury Alison Starr Will Templin Andy Villareal Merrie Wright
12 13 14 12 13
Andrew W. Martin Arielle Mason Clay McClure Samantha Medellin Lupe Mendoza
12 12 13 14 12
Ricky Armendariz Grace Barraza-Vega Jessica Battes Christie Blizard Susan Budge Jimmy James Canales David Zamora Casas Francisco Enrique Delgado Joseph Duarte Melissa Edwards
Art has been changing since its inception thousands of years ago. With the technological revolution and globalization, the process of change has advanced significantly. Images can be created rapidly and transported across the world in seconds. By day and by night, images can reach remote regions devoid of books, libraries and museums. While a new generation of artists can access millions of images in a relatively short time span, the availability of artistic creations in such different forms and shapes often drives the new distribution wave. Mass media reminds us that globalization drives the new world of markets and finance, yet we are still learning about how it impacts art and culture. In New Art/Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2010, some artists reinterpret traditional culture, while others create new forms of old traditions. A modern lowrider clings to a mythical past. Material objects are rearranged to confront common patterns. Sturdy materials are shaped to reflect motion. A bright canvas challenges us to reconsider shapes and angles. We want to see images in black and white, but somehow, that is not possible. There is sophistication to simplicity and commonality. These artists have challenged us to think creatively, to look deeply, and to question first impressions. Thus, the artists have succeeded and their success merits serious review.
Ricardo Romo, President The University of Texas at San Antonio i
It is a great honor to be able to comment on the second iteration of our biennial competitive exhibition project, New Art/ Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2010. I joined the faculty of UTSA as the Chairperson of the Department of Art and Art History in August of 2008, just in time to see the first exhibition of Arte Nuevo. I was immediately impressed with the quality and variety of the works in the gallery. I am happy to see that for this second round the selected works continue to live up to the high standard set in the first year. The current exhibition encompasses a broad scope of some of the most engaging works of art produced in South and West Texas. Our jurors had a difficult task of choosing 51 works by 35 artists, selected from over 500 submissions. Malaquias Montoya is well known for his politically inspired images of injustice and brutality, and he also served as the Visiting Artist during the spring 2010 semester contributing to the addition and incorporation of serigraphy into printmaking curriculum and studio facility. Valerie Cassel Oliver, Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, has organized numerous exhibitions, written countless articles and is the leading voice in contemporary art. New Art/Arte Nuevo demonstrates the ongoing commitment of our Department and the University to engage and support the arts at all levels, not only within our university and city, but also throughout the state of Texas and beyond. I would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Scott Sherer, Art Historian and Director of the UTSA Art Gallery, who conceived of this biennial exhibition and continues to remain committed to the project. Additionally, three other individuals deserve significant credit for their contributions to this project. Laura Crist, Gallery Coordinator, for the UTSA Art Gallery who diligently organizes all details from initial plans to opening reception and final wrap-up. Cornelia Swann, Graphic Designer, for her work in advertising, promotion and catalog design. John Hooper earns note for his excellent service as our Gallery Preparator, with skill and professionalism in mounting and lighting the exhibit. Gregory Elliott, Professor Chair, Department of Art and Art History ii
The UTSA Art Gallery is proud to have organized New Art/Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2010 to showcase the creativity of artists living, working, or with roots/raíces in South and West Texas. A great diversity of critical, cultural, and aesthetic concerns enliven the daily life and artistic endeavors across the region’s rural areas, small towns, suburban developments, and large cities. The success of the first year is matched by this second biennial exhibition. This year’s competition demonstrated the great depth of creativity among artists of the region. Their works target an inspiring range of the regional and artistic to the abstract and universal. The exhibition is intended to meet the University’s mission to encourage creative activity and to serve multiple academic and public audiences. Professionally and personally, I would like to thank Malaquias Montoya and Valerie Cassel Oliver for the engagement, spirit, and care with which they tackled the difficult task of selecting works for the exhibition. Their individual creativity and their commitments as cultural activists is exemplary of the potential for the arts to encourage reflection, change, and new exploration. New Art/Arte Nuevo: San Antonio 2010 is made possible with the generous support of grants from Texas Commission on the Arts; The Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992; President Ricardo Romo and Dr. Harriett Romo; Dean Dan Gelo of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts; and Professor Gregory Elliott, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History. The hard work and good humor of Laura Crist, Cornelia Swann, and John Hooper, have made tackling large tasks and small details seem effortless.
Scott A. Sherer, PhD Director, UTSA Art Gallery Assiociate Professor of Art History Department of Art and Art History
iii
Juried exhibitions pose a myriad of challenges. In this particular instance, working within the framework of an open call and a mandate to determine among numerous submissions, those works that would embody what could be determined as new art from the region, was quite the task. As daunting as it first appeared, the process was made all the more tenable through our partnership as jurors, the directives and parameters of this exhibition as provided and, the incredible talent of those artists from the state and the region, who submitted works for our consideration. Making the determination as to which artists and works would be featured in this exhibition was, nonetheless, a process. Narrowing the selection gradually evolved from easy to extremely difficult as we moved from round to round. Given the limitations of space and the mandate on the table, we were mindful to select not only what we considered forward thinking, solid and substantial works that were not only representative of new talent, but of artists willing to stretch the boundaries of painting, photography, sculpture, drawing and new media. While many of these works may not fit neatly into specified disciplines, they do capture the momentum of what is happening in the landscape of contemporary art. We stand sure footed in our acknowledgment that the works presented in this exhibition and catalogue represent the best and the brightest talent of those participating and in essence, the concept of the exhibition – New Art/Arte Nuevo. We hope that this exhibition generates excitement and dialogue. Good exhibitions are supposed to do this and we hope that this exhibition hits its mark. We would like to thank Scott Sherer for inviting us to participate as jurors in the second installment of New Art/Arte Nuevo at UTSA. Thanks also to Laura Crist for her tireless work in keeping the mechanics of the exhibit moving easily. Last, but not least, to the many artists who submitted work, we thank you for substantiating that great talent is everywhere.
Valerie Cassel Oliver Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston iv
Malaquias Montoya Artist, Professor Emeritus Chicana/o Studies and Art, University of California, Davis
Ricky Armendariz
San Antonio, Texas
Ya me voy a therapy (detail below), acrylic and oil on carved birch plywood, 36” x 48” x 1.5”, 2009
Being born in El Paso, Texas, which borders Las Cruces, New Mexico and Juarez, Mexico, I was saturated by a mix of romanticism for the American landscape and the result is the hybridization of Mexican, American, and indigenous cultures. Images that have cultural, biographical and historical lineage are carved into the surface of the painting. Text, in the form of original song lyrics, are carved and/or added to the titles to draw further connection to a Western aesthetic and the tradition of Tejano and country music. The aesthetic combination of Western imagery coupled with contemporary and art historical influences are a foundation in Armendariz’s work.
01
Grace Barraza-Vega
Corpus Christi, Texas
El Vato Louie, oil on canvas, 30� x 40�, 2007
My works are records of my life: memories of my childhood, places I have visited, and people I have met and loved. I record these events on canvas, wood, tin and other surfaces in various media. I am a product of the Mestizo culture, and my imagery is loaded with figures of indigenous, women, workers, religious icons and daily activities. I like to use vibrant colors in my work and the application I use is thick and bold. I look at various masters that I feel have similar emotions and dreams that I have, such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and other Mexican painters. I am also inspired by the technique some of the European painters used in their art. Among the masters, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse are two of my favorite ones. I feel blessed to be able to execute my ideas and compelled to honor the people who lived, worked and died to make my life easier. My heritage is very rich in history and I will never run out of ideas to use in my work. Presently, customs and values are evolving, so while I am here, I will try to record as much information as I can. 01
Jessica Battes
San Antonio, Texas
Honeycomb Lidded Bowl (above), white stoneware; soda-fired, 5” x 6” x 6”, 2009 Honeycomb Bowl (below), white stoneware; soda-fired, 6” x 7” x 8”, 2009
My work is about the investigation of elements of design, including form, color texture, and scale. The final results of combining these elements are functional pieces of art. I draw inspiration from naturally occurring organic forms including grass, pollen, coral, seashells, bark, rock formations and plant life, as well as human physiology. I imagine my pots being born from the earth, each originating from its own unique ecosystems. Soda firing is my preferred firing technique because of the bright colors and variation in the glazes. The light clay body allows the glazes to come to life and show brightly. The dramatic texture adds movement to my pots, inviting the viewer to engage tactilely with a piece. I believe that well-designed ceramic art can add beauty to daily life while serving a functional purpose.
01
Christie Blizard
San Antonio, Texas
Challenger Mouth, video, (details below, color, sound), 02:56 min., 2009
Compelled with ideas of reverb, compression, and information loops, I document my life through the reconfiguration of my work. I am interested in the fusion of high and low technology and disparte aesthetics, including pixels, 1980’s video games, 17th century Dutch genre painting, Non-objective Abstraction, and Navajo rug designs. For the past three years, I have been engrossed in a series of works within my studio, primarily focusing on painting, drawing, and video. Much of this is now becoming recapitulated in a series of paintings that document these and other traces of behavior, in a seemingly elliptical cycle. I am also currently studying the violin and creative writing, to further open the circumference of my feedback trail. Through these changes in form and media, I intend to capture the spaces between ideas that emphasize that each piece is part of a larger and continuous whole. This can be compared to a transition from a major chord to a minor one, and I view this as being similar to John Cage.
01
San Antonio, Texas
Susan Budge Blue Anima (left), ceramic, 77” x 16” x 14”, 2009 Eros, ceramic (right), 52” x 23” x 9”, 2009
Touching clay for the first time was my epiphany. The physical, sensual, direct qualities of this material have challenged me for the past thirtythree years. While the majority of my work has been abstract, there have been periods interspersed with figurative and narrative series. When my life was in trauma and turmoil, my work served as catharsis. Amphora urns and abstract forms exploded with images of demons, angels, and numerous self portraits accompanied by excessive stream of consciousness text. When my emotional life is stable, my work has no need of imagery or text. My preferred method of creating is to work in a spontaneous manner as an attempt to capture information from my subconscious. In the studio I will begin building a form with no real image of how the final piece will look. As the form grows, a direction is determined and decisions are made in response to the form that evolves. The end result is a surprise. It’s as if I allow the forms to create themselves. I delight in discovering the surprise most of the time. If the result I get after opening the kiln door of a glaze firing is not a good one, the form will be re-fired until the end results enhance the form. My interest in mythology, illusions and psychology all inspire my work. When in a period of introspection, my work is quiet and contemplative. My work is now turning back to the sensual and mysterious, celebrating the unknown, cherishing the moment and waiting for the surprises. 01
Jimmy James Canales
San Antonio, Texas
Electro Cueva Sonidos (right), performance, video (color, sound), 02:26 min., 2009 Mariachi Nalgas (below), performance, video (color, sound), 02:56 min., 2009
My work is inspired by my own Tecjano identity. The term Tecjano comes from the prefix of “technology” and the root word “Tejano” to create a word that references the past but moves towards the future. I take commodified Mexican and Mexican American cultural identifiers and remix them, personalizing them to produce metaphors of my own life. Through my work I show my relationship with my Tejano cultura and pop culture.
01
David Zamora Casas
San Antonio, Texas
Don Castro E.B. Esquire, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 50” x 50”, 2008
My autobiographical work is informed by having lived most of my life in the US/Mexico borderlands of “Tejaztlan.” From the “Double Spirit”/Twin Spirit, Joto/Gay, Chicano/Mexican American communities, I present a layered manifestation of painting/texts, installation, and performance with an eclectic consideration of modern day experiences. My “reality base” in my work comes from a refusal to be marginalized by mainstream society, exhibition venues, and conservative university systems. These paintings are a forum to engage the viewer in difficult but undeniable issues. Family, same-sex unions, ethnicity, nationality, homophobia, and the afterlife are deeply rooted and inspirational drives.
01
Francisco Enrique Delgado
El Paso, Texas
Sickario #2, oil on wood, plastic, 36” x 36” x 36”, 2009
As a “Fronterizo” artist, I believe in making visible the struggles and celebrating the successes of immigrant communities in the United States. My artwork reflects the culture on the United States and Mexico Border, and through the use of satire and dark humor he is committed to speak against laws and policies that attack these under-represented immigrant communities. My message transcends race and social class perimeters and unites communities in a language of universal truth.
01
Joseph Duarte
San Antonio, Texas
PTSD, wood and video animation (detail below, color, sound), continuous loop, 19” x 18” x 22”, 2008
Recently, I have been working with various materials including found objects, video and sound. I am influenced by my experiences with the war in Iraq. While serving as an infantry Marine on the frontline, I began to consider the reasons for our involvement and the affects it has on two cultures. I observed the toll war has on people physically and psychologically. Creating work based on my experiences in Iraq is also an effective way for me to deal with my own inner conflicts.
01
Melissa Edwards
Lubbock, Texas
West Texas Road, drawing with digital print, 13” x 19”, 2009
My earliest recollection of being “creative,” as my mother always said, was when I made paper dolls. This is usually a normal childhood pastime for little girls, but I chose to further the plain white dolls into more colorful creations by cutting up the lovely dresses that were just hanging around in my mother’s closet. I did receive the attention but not the admiration that I was hoping for. I was given fabric thereafter to create my dolls. As I got older, I found that everything I saw, be it clothes, shoes, pictures, jewelry, etc., could be embellished to make it better. This eventually led into making things for others who admired these things. The biggest problem with this was I was really slow at completing these projects. I would have to charge an outrageous price to recoup the cost. I knew I had to find something that would not take so long to complete. The summer after the eighth grade, my best friend and I got part-time jobs to finance our new hobby. Photography! We dressed up as different characters and carefully choreographed every shot. We would cash our paychecks and buy as much film as we could. It was gone all too quickly. This began my fascination with photography, which has continued to this day. I find that I am drawn to still life photography and shooting not only family and friends but anonymous people unaware of my presence. During my life journey I have discovered other areas of art that I would not have considered. Book making and cyanotypes are two of these areas that I plan to merge with my photography. 01
Monica Ellis
Roswell, Georgia
Untitled No. Fork, crochet thread and fork, 12� x 12�, 2010
My current work both explores and exploits the complex division I feel exists within my self through two distinct, but related bodies of work. One body of work attempts to resolve the conflict between my individual and cultural identities, whereas the other relishes in their struggle to coexist. The pieces executed in yarn and string are meditative works that deal with the sublime. They attempt to resolve my fascination and obsession with the romantic appeal of M theory (a parent of string theory that maintains everything is connected) with the disjointed nature of my identity and relationships. The more representational pieces in my second body of work comment on and mostly satirize my Catholic upbringing and Hispanic identity. In response to who I consider myself to be, independent from the religious institution and the cultural classification, this work does not attempt to reconcile anything but exists more as light-hearted, ironic commentary.
01
Tom Hollenback
Menomonie, Wisconson
Volumetric paintings, cast acrylic paint, wood, 4.75” x 7” x 4”.5”, 2009
In a series of works that has been slowly developing over the past several years, I have been examining the interstices of painting and sculpture with what I term volumetric paintings – works that fulfill a basic definition of many paintings: paint applied to a support structure. Conceptually, these pieces function as the depictions of the volumes of the containers that gave the pigments their forms as well as the material for viewers to conceptually construct the stated subjects incorporating their own filters and biases. These works could also exist completely within the domain of sculptural objects. Acrylic paint is cast, often with bits and pieces of the wood casting form left attached, and integrated with the wood support structure.
01
Syracuse, New York
Juan Juarez Virginia Kegger (top), altered photograph/iridescent powder on photo rag matte paper, 24” x 32”, 2006-2007 Flex Haze (bottom), altered photograph/iridescent powder on photo rag matte paper, 24” x 32”, 2006-2007
The Gun Show is a series of altered photographs of young white men unabashedly displaying their bodies on social networking websites. My intention is to underscore performative masculine gender identity through online pedestrian photography. The original photographs record life within college dorm rooms, on suburban lawns, during all night parties, and other tribal male gatherings. A common motif is the symbolic physical gesture of bicep flexing for the camera. Linda Williams coined the term “onscenity” to describe the public way in which we use contemporary modes of mass communication to openly display bodies, pleasures, and acts that were o nce thought of as obscene (Porn Studies, 2004). Anonymity on the Internet allows ordinary individuals to flaunt themselves onstage in a suggestive manner; it permits participants to insert an exaggerated identity into the perpetual image recycling on the World Wide Web. The photographs collected online go through extensive alteration that isolates the main image emphasizing the latent humor and violence in the posturing. Portions of the original background remain as a way to quote the random nature of pedestrian photography.
01
Mat Kubo
San Antonio, Texas
(family) Portraits 1 (below), archival print, 8” x 10”, 2009 (family) Portraits 2 (top left), archival print, 8” x 10”, 2009 (family) Portraits 6 (bottom left), archival print, 8” x 10”, 2009 Not pictured: (family) Portraits 3, archival print, 8” x 10”, 2009
For this series, I approached people at different malls and asked them to join me in a “family” portrait. I explained that I have no family in the area and needed stand-ins for family members. I offered lunch on a few occasions, and a print of the portrait that would be taken of us. The results were mixed: most people turned me down, wished me luck, and went on with their day. A few people took my offer. We showed up at the JCPenney portrait studio and were photographed as a family, in typical department store backgrounds and poses. In our short-term relationships, I relinquished control of the portraits to the photographers and participants. The third party behind the camera determined our movements, gestures, and proximity to each other. There were occasions where the participant took control of the shot, dictating our poses and expressions. The situations were ridiculous on the surface, but also warm and engaging. I pulled people out of their normal routine and expectations, and asked a favor of them. Together we shared a new experience, one that neither of the parties could have predicted. 01
Gerald Lopez
Corpus Christi, Texas
Loteria Lucha Libre (left), pastel on paper, 24” x 18”, 2009 The Goddess of Safe Love (center), pastel on paper, 24” x 18”, 2010 Thunderbird (right), pastel on paper, 18” x 24”, 2009
My environment plays an integral part in the development of my work. People, places and things from everyday life provide a rich source from which to draw on. Friends, popular culture, current events, social commentary and Hispanic culture highlight some of the topics I examine. The cast of characters I use in my work confront everyday issues with a twist from my imagination. My aim is to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
01
Andrew W. Martin
Lubbock, Texas
flow chart, acrylic, colored pencil, graphite pencil and found object on wood, 35.5” x 24” x 3”, 2008
This group of drawings, paintings, and constructions are based on ideas about connection and division as a fundamental response to the surroundings where I live in the wide open spaces of the South Plains. I initially set out to revisit some of the stereotypical images of the “West,” such as barbed wire fences, telephone poles, and windmills, and consider them from the point of view of either “connectors” or “dividers,” or paradoxically, both. Wires became a frequent subject, both in the form of electrical power lines and telephone lines, which have brought people and places “together,” but also in the form of fence lines, which have been a way to divide up the land and carry implications of ownership and control. In developing these pieces, I maintained a strategy from previous work in which I was making illusionistic drawings of the odds and ends of imagery found around my studio, clustered together as though taped or pinned to the wall. In the new works, masking tape evolved into a metaphorical equivalent to the wire in the landscape and a more obvious connector/divider for visual compositions. The images result from a largely improvisational method, suggesting a temporary quality and perhaps only a momentary connectedness within an overall process of saving or discarding. The “wall” itself becomes a metaphor for a mental surface upon which bits and pieces of information are gathered, the place where they are sorted and held, and where sense and meaningful order is attempted. 01
Arielle Masson
Houston, Texas
Mad as a Hatter, oil on canvas on board, 48” x 48”, 2008
The future is not what it used to be. My latest work comes out of a constellation of ideas around landscape painting. The paintings depict for the most part hybrid landscapes, weaving abstract patterns with realistic natural and urban airplane and satellite viewpoints. Various types of constructions and modern architecture are often included and function as metaphors for the technological world in which we live in. I am interested in the very fabric that constitutes reality, and how nature and culture alike could be perceived as arbitrary mental constructions. The fracture within the continuum of the landscape suggests that reality is just a weave of multidimensional timelines, of quantum energies made visible. These paintings are part of a series entitled Cloudbuster Series. A “Cloudbuster”, as Wilhem Reich designed it, is a device targeted specifically toward zones of nefarious energies or dead orgone energy for the purpose of clearing them, like the ones emanating from industrial sites or nuclear plants. The cloudbuster holds the promise of healing the planet.
01
Clay McClure
San Antonio, Texas
Colonial Mitosis, wood, antique chair, 72� x 36� x 48�, 2010
My new work began as a question. Is anything ever the same after it has been broken? Not just physically or financially broken, but emotionally and spiritually wounded. With that in mind, I have created hybrid forms based on used and antique chairs that explore the idea of attaining normalcy after damage, as well as exploring the evolution of identity with age. Used furniture is a natural choice because of its relationship to the human form (chairs have legs, backs, arms, and seats), but it is not the physical relationship with furniture that I find so appealing. For me, weathered furniture is an elegant metaphor for the human condition. Over time, a chair shows its age (scratches, dents, patinas, repairs) and starts to creak and groan with fatigue. With age and repetition, chairs assume the identity of their use - the old rocking chair in the corner, the dusty dining room chair or the weathered patio chair. When cutting and grafting parts of furniture together, words like solitude, family and healing come to mind. The result is hybrid furniture that aspires to be that younger version of itself while proudly wearing the scars of a life lived.
01
Samantha Medellin
San Antonio, Texas
1730 grueling moments (detail inset), burnt wood, 12�x 16� x 150�, 2009
1,730 grueling moments is a physical manifestation of an emotional struggle that preceded to exhaust my life. I created this sculpture to represent the timeframe in my life that reflected a continuous harsh emotional state within myself produced by regret, sorrow, and uncertainty that I have endeavored solely. It represents a potential growth within myself, having no definite beginning or end. It has the potential to be both positive and negative in its physical aspects. It can continue on into something more if it chooses, but it also can be content in its current state or simply cease to exist.
01
Lupe Mendoza
San Antonio, Texas
Uncanny Familiarity #15, archival ink jet print, 24” x 73”, 2010
Uncanny Familiarities is an interpretation of the act of reconstructing memory by overlapping non-specific, seemingly mundane images that transition through isolated locations referencing time and creating an interrupted narrative. This imagery is influenced by the ambiguity of memory. I am most intrigued by the mind’s inability to control how we consciously or subconsciously retain and recall past experience. The sequences are created with the use of a Holga camera, which allows for control in overlapping or extension of the spatial distance between negatives. Using these camera controls, I create a visual representation of the disjunctive space of memory. The construction of the imagery begins with commonplaces, which are simultaneously familiar and everyday. Trees, buildings, windows, doorways, a glance at a puddle reflecting an image begin to reference or evoke a moment that has passed or can be recalled from a past experience. Overlapping and repetitive placement of the subjects within the composition of images begins to create scenes, in which unrelated events or details unexpectedly become restructured.
Susannah Mira
El Paso, Texas
Multipack, industrial rolls of fusible interfacing, 1 diameter each (varies), 2010
My work is interdisciplinary in nature, primarily drawing on sculpture and architecture. Developed out of materials that I collected from an abandoned textile industry warehouse in downtown El Paso, in Multipack, I painstakingly re-rolled nearly 100 industrial rolls of fusible interfacing, creating miniature architectural forms. With this work, I speak to the idea that we can make new models for reality out of the vestiges of broken systems – in this case the troubled border garment industry. In essence, my work suggests that art can come from the environment we’ve created, which in turn contrasts humanmade surroundings and systems with what we inherited from the natural world. Here I want to make the point that there are a wealth of ways to re-imagine and shape our relationship to habitat, and that it’s our responsibility to do so.
01
Juan de Dios Mora
San Antonio, Texas
Asuncion del Imigrante (detail inset), linocut, 30” x 22”, 2009 Not pictured: Rapto del Emigrante, linocut, 26” x 20”, 2009
I try to blend my hybrid Mexican culture and American experiences into a single entity. I do this by focusing on my experiences living on the border and the economic and cultural issues that I encountered as a part of that experience. I also combine the memories and experiences I have from when I lived in Mexico, with the ones that I have had living here in the United States. I often make use of double meanings. I strive to convey the nuances of beauty, courage, and dignity that represent my culture and ethnicity. I draw upon all of these experiences as I attempt to create a representation of what an immigrant has to deal with facing current border and social issues. I try to visualize the fears, fantasies, and dreams of an immigrant in a pleasant or dramatic manner and then I put them into a representational image. I create a narrative with fictional characters and portray a message related to Mexican American culture. I hope for the viewer to perceive the issues I am addressing by intertwining traditions and stereotypes, so that the images may create an awareness of the circumstances affecting immigrants and Mexican American people on the border of the United States and Mexico. 01
Ann Marie Nafziger
Marfa, Texas
Implosion, acrylic on canvas, 72� x 84�, 2008
Fragments of spectacular visual moments of beauty, collected in the form of recorded evidence, notes, field samples, drawings, and memory pile up into a somewhat familiar but not quite recognizable landscape or macro-view of the world. Each of these cutaways, like discarded scraps extracted from their place of origin, is re-combined into a new aggregate: a wobbly ecosystem of interdependency, structured upon provisional architecture, wonky perspective, spatial disorder and cognitive dissonance. References to the waxing and waning of urbanism and its grappling with the restrictions or parameters of its specific environs; cycles of expansion and collapse witnessed in the natural world (sometimes violent, disruptive or dramatic and other times quiet, reflective or overlooked) as well as our relationship to an estrangement from this world; ideas of the transcendent in both nature and art; and dramatic, yet overlooked everyday visual phenomena all stake out territory in this new landscape. While continuing to make paintings on canvas, I have in the past two years begun exploring other means of production by using common, everyday materials and methods (spray paint, plastic, stencils, thumbtacks, newspaper, etc.) alongside more traditional art materials and tools, infusing the work with a sense of deliberate practicality and scrappiness. In the same way that exploiting a dirty or florescent palette subverts natural imagery with a dose of artifice; working directly on walls in temporary installations and making use of overlooked corners or non-gallery spaces further allows a provisional or make-it-work attitude in both the creation and experience of a piece. 01
Abel Ortiz-Acosta
Uvalde, Texas
Offsides (bottom, detail), electronic football game converted to Rio Grande River with Mexican and Border Patrol figures, 18” x 36” x 3”, 2008
My work has been inspired by my interested in bi-cultural aesthetics as an approach to a more universal theme of globalization and the clash and blending of cultures. Part of this clash and blending occurs daily on the US-Mexican border and I see myself as a witness to these events while documenting them through my art. A good example of the clash the occurs along the border is the sole sculpture, Offisides. The found object is an old electronic football game converted to the US-Mexican border. The football players (plastic figures) are also converted to border patrol agents in dark green and Mexican immigrants dressed in white with sombreros. The sculpture is kinetic and when turned on, it makes a loud noise and the surface vibrates, making the figures chase each other across the Rio Grande river (the border).
01
James R. Pace
Tyler, Texas
Political Buoy, mixed media, 77� x 72�, 2008
Emblem of Dissent Employing mechanisms of cultural archetype and human physiology. A Cultural Alarm Warning of the dangers of mainstream submission, and the subsequent loss of liberties. Propaganda Pivoting off political posters and nationalistic banners promoting belief in the cause. Contextual Truth Contextual variables determine the ultimate interpretation. Formula for Awareness Individual + bureaucracy + social agreement = mainstream < tolerance.
Patrick Page-Sutter
Natalia, Texas
Shit Goat (left, inset detail), goat droppings, epoxy resin, 48” x 12” x 36”, 2008 Prize Goat (below), foam, rosette ribbons, 48” x 12” x 36”, 2010
This body of work deals with the boundary between humans and animals, which is informed by my lifelong practice as a dairy goat breeder. By utilizing these past experiences in goat husbandry as a base of knowledge, my intent is to manipulate the viewer’s perspective and awareness of goats. Through a process of fragmentation, re-contextualization, and a questioning of the boundary between humans and animals, my goal is to present the viewer with a perspective of the goat that is unknown. These works are an attempt to explore and create different representations of goats based on aspects common to all forms of animal husbandry such as registration, production, and waste. The purpose is to prompt viewers to question their own relationship with animals, and how animal husbandry can impact the way individuals interact with animals and animal products.
01
Brian Row
San Marcos, Texas
The Remainder (left), clayboard, hydrocal, thorns, pasta, ink, 4.25” x 9” x 9”, 2008 Too Stoned To Talk (right), clayboard, hydrocal, stones, paint, wire, 4.25” x 9” x 9”, 2008
My interests are in the human condition. The works are symbolic representations of the world in which we live and interact. A paradoxical detachment resides in the structure of the pieces, but this detachment is relative to the highly charged content.
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Efrain Salinas
McAllen, Texas
El Muro 2 (left), photograph, 20” x 20”, 2009 El Muro 32 (center), photograph, 20” x 20”, 2010 El Muro 51 (right), photograph, 20” x 20”, 2010
I have crossed the borderline between Hidalgo and Reynosa nearly every day for many years. With deep sadness, I have witnessed the creation of the border wall, separating these two countries in a time when the rest of the modernized world seems to be hard at work to destroy these kinds of barriers. However, the wall is not solely a physical entity, it also stands as a psychological symbol between these two neighboring countries. The Border Wall is a perfect embodiment of irony as it does not address the cause of the problem; rather, it increases existing socio-economic and political tensions between the two countries. Through this body of work, I portray the wall as a beautiful aesthetical composition of a disgraceful affair. This is conveyed in my photographs by a radiance from a soothing sunset, artificial lights, or a mystical fog given to this lamentable structure.
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Marina I. Salinas Raíces Abandonadas 1 (top), photography, 18” x 12”, 2008 Raíces Abandonadas 5 (center), photography, 18” x 12”, 2008 Raíces Abandonadas 6 (bottom), photography, 18” x 12”, 2008
As a teenager who studied in Mexico and the United States, my traditional views and customs were challenged since my early years. In my adult life I have come to realize that I am a border woman caught between two worlds. I consciously recognize that I cannot completely abandon my roots, family, traditions, or culture. We border girls are very different compared to women confined exclusively either to the Mexican or American culture. We are somewhat isolated, creating our own culture, customs, beliefs, and traditions. Some of us metamorphose into strange human beings. Others go back resolutely to the traditional Mexican ways. A final few acquire exuberant traits from both cultures. Nonetheless, it takes a while to acknowledge this metamorphosis and to find ones place within this hybrid society. In these photographs I have attempted to capture the abandonment of my ancestor’s homes. They left their land, culture and mores to assimilate into the American Dream. There is a realistic sensation of their aura, past existence, and abandoned life captured in a stagnated and deteriorated exposure. A dialogue is opened to raise the questions about the depth of their recognition and the extent of their omnipresence in the United States in a limited existence, nonexistence or simply as fragment manipulated in a continuous furtive life in a surrogate country.
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McAllen, Texas
Kasey Short
San Marcos, Texas
Exorbitance, mixed media on canvas, 36” x 72”, 2010
As a young boy, I grew up in a small town in West Texas. Life was ordinary, simple, and fun. From what I remember it was like being on a giant playground. At the age of 11, I was forced to move to the city and take on a new understanding of the world around me. The city was a more complicated place than the small town I was familiar with. It was full of strangers, highly developed architecture and overwhelming technological advancements. Large architectural and industrious spaces were integrated with nature’s creations that created illusions that I couldn’t understand. As I walk the streets, I am intrigued by the physical nature of modern society. This series of work confronts the sophistication of human methods, communication and interaction. My paintings are transformations of elements taken from urban landscape that become isolated from their original context. Taken out of context, these objects and their functions become metaphors for human experience. My works are simultaneously images of modern city life and records of expressive, internalized experience. 01
Andrew Leo Stansbury
San Antonio, Texas
Le Rock #24, stoneware (ceramic), 11.5” x 8,5” x 12”, 2010
I daydream of peculiar forms and inconsistent shapes made out of clay. I log each one into a journal, in part to help remind me what I’m unable to make and to help me remember and comprehend what is occurring in my subconscious. It’s my ceramic idea book. I am a potter by trade and because of this I form all my sculptural vessels on the wheel. My current series of Le Roc differ from my normal vessels in the regard that I never intended them to be functional. Granted, they did start off as large evenly thrown vases, but I have altered and squashed their tight formal shapes into interesting organic messes. These are not traditionally glazed; instead, a combination of frits and colorants are applied to glazes that have been altered with other ingredients such as salt, causing them to bubble and burst. It’s my newfound approach to glaze alchemy that I’m finding the most interesting aspect to my handwork, one that I will continue to explore with my dreamlike forms and shapes.
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Alison Starr
Dallas , Texas
Support HDPE Thank You (detail inset), shopping cart, plastic shopping bags, thread, 40â&#x20AC;? x 23â&#x20AC;? x 40â&#x20AC;?, 2009-2010
I am fascinated by the tension that exists between natural objects and the overabundance of those that are manmade, especially as it is revealed in the imprint we leave on everything around us. My early pieces contrasted productionline redundancy and inflexibility with the organic nature and fragility of slip-cast porcelain. Recent work incorporates more mundane, discarded materials to address the conflict I feel over making work while minimizing my own impact in the world: I find redemption in collecting plastic shopping bags and laminating them into a fabric for my constructions. In the repetitive process of making multiples, I find a space for meditation, and in turn, create one for the viewer who will contemplate the subtle evolution (or is it de-evolution?) in the progression from the natural to the hand-made to the manufactured.
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Will Templin
San Antonio, Texas
Funeral, oil on canvas, 48â&#x20AC;? x 96â&#x20AC;?, 2004
Each of the paintings in Denial: Reflections on New Orleans, 2004-2010, represents a long view of a particularly steep era of societal decline for the city of New Orleans. In true keeping with New Orleans traditions, none of the paintings are somber, dull, or dark. If anything the color, composition, and size lures you into the beautiful chaos of a people living on the edge. Every painting documents the allegories for failure of a city enamored with the past and no eye to the future, there is only now.
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Andy Villarreal
San Antonio, Texas
Picasso’s Jaguar Devoured the Human Head (right), oil on canvas, 48” x 60”, 2009 Warriors Going Off to War (left), oil on canvas, 48” x 60”, 2009
My background as a North American, a Texan and a Hispanic male forms my aesthetics. Personal experiences and trips to the East and West coasts, the Southwest, Mexico, the Yucatan and Europe enrich the themes in my work. The Mexican culture is a major source of inspiration to me and has become more prominent in my work over the past fifteen years. The intensity of my work derives from my pride and feelings towards my culture. Indigenous cultures are also a driving force in my work. My work crosses cultures, portrays the human condition, the struggles, the harmony, the social injustice, and the celebration of life. Ongoing themes in my work combine history, mythology, and religion, past and present, real and contrived. The details of life, sex, violence, and humor join to enrich scenes of both normal and unusual activities. My work emphasizes this intense social and cultural content as well as formal and contemporary aesthetic elements. My work includes various architectural elements including signs and symbols from ancient civilizations. Viewers are invited to share my cultural experiences and draw their own interpretations.
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Merrie Wright Decaying Swallow (top), ceramic sculpture and digital photography, 9” x 6.5” x 8” (sculpture), 24” x 34” (photo), 2008 Reserved Parking Squirrel (bottom), ceramic sculpture and digital photography, 15” x 6” x 10” (sculpture), 24” x 24” (photo), 2010
Urban Wildlife is a portrait of the animals struggle for survival and adaptation, and more acutely, portrays the connection or disconnection between ourselves and our environment. This work explores wildlife’s relationship to the urban landscape through ceramic sculpture and digital photographs, which serve as a documentation of the work in the context they were created for. The idea of camouflage, a means of concealment or disguise that creates the effect of being part of the natural surroundings, is the basis for color and surface texture selections of this work. Brown and gray - the familiar colors of wildlife camouflage found in North America - are replaced with “urban camouflage;” a myriad of manufactured colors and references to materials found in the urban landscape. The intense order of manufactured objects that construct our urban environments - conglomerations of concreted, brick, steel, power lines, telephone poles, and billboards- and the chaos natures constant fluctuation - especially the process of decay that soon overtakes the newly contrived landscape - is symbolic of the continuation and persistence of nature and serves as the inspiration for surface choices. The new camouflages created for each animal are both visually beautiful and environmentally disturbing, creating animals that are eerily in sync with their surroundings. The photographs serve as a reminder of adaptability amidst an evolving artificial landscape. 01
Tyler, Texas