San Antonians are in for a treat this month, with artistic opportunities and celebrations around every corner. Fotoseptiembre exhibits continue, and Ruby City celebrates its first birthday, while SAMA rings in its 40th. The Holocaust Memorial Museum reopens, an LGBTQ-friendly art installation at Hopscotch offers a mind-opening experience, and contemporary photography honors the Mexican cowboy at the Briscoe.
Ruby City
“Isaac Julien: Western Union: Small Boats” and “Margarita Cabrera: The Craft of Resistance.” Now through Spring 2022.
In celebration of its first birthday, Ruby City is showcasing two new installations featuring works in diverse media that delve into ideas of migration and geographic movement. In the multiscreen installation Western Union: Small Boats, British multimedia artist Isaac Julien chronicles the global history of African migration and diaspora, examining both the geopolitical debate around immigration and its unique impact on the individual. Margarita Cabrera’s installation, The Craft of Resistance, is comprised of 1,500 copper monarch butterflies, representing perseverance and the persistence of immigrant communities. Together, the exhibitions aim to spark a dialogue around the global immigration climate.
San Antonio Museum of Art
“40 Years, 40 Stories: Treasures and New Discoveries in SAMA’s Collections.” October 16 through January 2, 2022.
To honor the museum’s 40th anniversary, the San Antonio Museum of Art is highlighting unique works in its own collection. With nearly 30,000 works of art from around the world that reflect a broad range of human experience, these SAMA treasures hold tales of cultures, communities, and history. “40 Years, 40 Stories” brings together a selection of artworks that have not recently been on display and shares their fascinating stories.
Briscoe Western Art Museum
“Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo: Contemporary Photography of the Northern Mexican Cowboy.” Now through January 24, 2022.
Werner Segarra’s Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo invites audiences to peer into the world of the Northern Mexican vaquero — not as a casual tourist, but as an intimate observer. Featuring more than 20 years of images of vaqueros, this project reflects a complex contemporary composition of the everyday life. Realistic moments of how they view themselves, surrounded by the tools of their trade, intertwine with the realities of their existence — family, religion, tradition, culture, work, and animals — reflecting a legacy that reaches back over generations and is the birthplace of the modern cowboy.
Hopscotch Gallery
“Gaze.” Currently on exhibit.
Hopscotch presents a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign to create an LGBTQ-friendly art installation that transports guests into a world that encourages them to see beyond their own experience and into a future that embraces love and acceptance for all. “Gaze” features rainbow colors that shine through designs etched into acrylic panels illuminated by an array of LED lights. The subtly shifting colors make for an ever-changing and layered experience that mirrors the ever-changing exterior world.
Holocaust Memorial Museum
“The Holocaust Learn & Remember: Isolation.” Reopening October 4.
While “Learn & Remember” is an online exhibit that delves into the many layers of isolation and the long-term effects that continue to affect survivors decades after the Holocaust, visitors can now view an array of powerful in-person exhibits again. In America 1933-45: Response to the Holocaust traces American reaction and involvement in events unfolding in Europe. The Czech Memorial Scroll is a torah scroll that was copied onto parchment by a pious scribe in 1830 and removed from a synagogue in Slany, Czechoslovakia. And Times of Betrayal and Defiance follows the story of one man who risked his life to help his Jewish employers after the Nazi occupation in France, and how he was betrayed by those closest to him.
The Carver Cultural Community Center
“Sylvia Benitez: Hiding Places.” Now through October 21.
A nationally recognized installation artist and painter, Sylvia Benitez has shown her sculptural and painting installations in numerous museums, at sculpture parks, and in galleries throughout the United States. The Carver is currently featuring Benitez’s all-new landscape portraits “of amalgams of memories to share — to find peace, to grow hope, to restore, to enter, to give distance from sadness from the burden of our time.” Benitez is inspired by nature, unmarred by modern footprints.
Ruiz-Healy Art
“Four Visions: Carrington, Limas, Salcido, West.” Now through October 30.
In conjunction with Fotoseptiembre USA International Photography Festival, this exhibit features work by four guest artists: Rahm Carrington, Carlos Limas, Joel Salcido, and Tito West. Using film and digital photography, the artists capture the landscapes, traditions, and architecture of the United States, Latin America, and East Africa.
Art Gallery Prudencia
“Kim Collins and Mary James: Two Women, Two Views.” Now through November 6.
While photographers show us the real world as it actually appears, artists show us their interpretations of that same world, but, of course, these interpretations can be dramatically different depending on the artist. “Two Women, Two Views” explores these differences by comparing the varying views of the world by artists Kim Collins and Mary James. Their unique interpretations of their subject give us an invaluable and instructive insight into the artistic process, and into the differing ways that the artist looks at the world.
The Michael and Noémi Neidorff Art Gallery
“Mari Hernandez: Figments of Truth.” Now through November 6.
Figments of Truth is a Fotoseptiembre installation that addresses the history of photographic portraiture. Mari Hernandez’s monumental and suspended self-portraits provoke questions about representation, likeness, and the complexity of unfolding narratives. Hernandez is a San Antonio multidisciplinary artist who alters her identity and physical appearance through the use of makeup, prosthetics, wigs, costumes, and props. Through these narratives, she then reinterprets histories and proposes new ones. Elements of performance distinguish her work from other modes of photography.
Kim Collins' Hot Salsa is part of the "Two Women, Two Views" exhibition at Art Gallery Prudencia.
