July set as San Antonio Contemporary Art Month @ SAMA

The San Antonio Museum of Art is delighted to celebrate San Antonio ’s Contemporary Art Month in July with several important new acquisitions, a book signing for Art at our Doorstep (a collaboration between local visual artists and writers) and the return of the highly successful “Artists Conversations” series.

This July will mark the first anniversary of the reinstallation of the SAMA’s Contemporary Collection. Last year, with generous support from Peter M. Holt, Julianna Hawn Holt, and The Holt Foundation, the galleries were given their first face lift in many years. Under the direction of David S. Rubin, The Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art, the carpeting was removed, windows were blocked to provide clean wall space, and objects were organized into logical sections relating to form and content of the art work. Additionally, Rubin prepared short didactic labels for every work on view, using a quotation by the artist and brief curatorial commentary.

For this year’s Contemporary Art Month, Rubin has modified the installation, switching out some objects recently on view with several new acquisitions and many works that have been brought out of storage.

In keeping with the global approach that is becoming a standard for contemporary art collecting at institutions around the country, our newest acquisitions include works by the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and the Peruvian artist Cecilia Paredes, as well as by San Antonio residents James Cobb, Joey Fauerso, Marcia Gygli King, Katie Pell, Gary Sweeney & Bettie Ward.

The acquisition of several new works by San Antonio artists is a wonderful testament to the strength and energy of the dynamic arts scene in our own back yard. Several of the new works are by women artists, many of whom have explored themes of nature. Daytime and nighttime skies are seen respectively in Katie Pell’s "all of the birds will come to you" and Joey Fauerso’s Wide Open Wide (6). Viewers are encouraged to stand in front of Pell’s work to celebrate their lives as they are adored by a host of birds depicted in the drawing. Fauerso’s celestial sky was created during an artist residency in Roswell , New Mexico.

The drawing was also used as a frame in a short video animation, which is on loan and playing alongside the drawing in the Contemporary Galleries. Bettie Ward’s The man with the sunflower hand making love to the woman who’s hair is a river is a “thread drawing”. Based on the artist’s own composition, it was embroidered on fabric under Ward’s supervision by Beatriz Arteaga Aguilar de San Miguel de Allende, Mexico .

Marcia Gygli King’s Cantilever is a mixed-media work from 1980, when the artist was living in the SoHo district of New York City, where she still maintains part-time residency. As a hybrid of painting and sculpture, it is representative of a period in recent art history when artists began breaking down barriers from one medium to the next. Gary Sweeney’s According to a Researcher is a witty, mixed-media word collage. James Cobb’s GratitudeX3 reflects currently significant developments in contemporary art. The imagery was created entirely on a computer and printed in a format known as Giclée, a digital form of printmaking.

For Contemporary Art Month, Rubin will once again interview artists from the collection before an audience. The conversations will take place in the SAMA auditorium on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm throughout July. The schedule is:

July 8 – Bettie Ward
Following this conversation, a book signing for the recently published Art at Our Doorstep will take place in the Great Hall.
July 15 – Vernon Fisher
July 22 – Andrew Young
July 29 – David Zamora Casas

In addition, our community-oriented curator has been invited to serve as guest curator for the annual Contemporary Art Month exhibition at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center . Entitled “Playing with Time”, the exhibition opens June 26 and features 20 San Antonio artists who use time as an element in their art.

For a complete calendar listing of public exhibitions, lectures and other special events open to the public, visit SAMA’s Web site at www.samuseum.org.

Leigh Baldwin
Communications Manager
San Antonio Museum of Art
200 West Jones Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78215
www.samuseum.org