The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) is starting 2026 with a treasure trove of new acquisitions. The downtown museum says the new pieces will significantly enhance its contemporary, Latin American, and ancient Mediterranean collections.
Among the additions is a gift of more than 60 works on paper by Latin American and Latine artists from Drs. Ricardo and Harriett Romo. The donation spans photography, lithography, screenprint, and linocut, featuring major 20th-century Mexican artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Carlos Mérida, and Francisco Toledo, alongside contemporary figures including Carmen Lomas Garza, Patssi Valdez, Juan de Dios Mora, and Vincent Valdez.
SAMA also received 103 Mexican textiles and weaving tools from Dr. Jill Vexler, much of it collected during her field research in Nahua communities in Puebla in the 1970s and 1980s. The group includes children’s clothing, everyday garments, menswear, and festive dress, as well as historical pieces collected by Vexler’s mother, Esther Scharlack Vexler. The textiles are accompanied by extensive documentation of techniques and makers.
SAMA’s photography collection is expanding with 104 images gifted by Marie Brenner and Ernest Pomerantz. The donation includes works by American photographers Herb Snitzer and Erika Stone, vintage Vietnam War press photographs by Pulitzer Prize winner Horst Faas, and Associated Press wirephotos tied to key moments of the last decade’s history.
This 18th century Peruvian chest features embossed leather and iron fittings.Photo courtesy of San Antonio Museum of Art
Ancient art was bestowed by Chris Karcher and Karen Keach. The 16 Egyptian objects, collected in the early 20th century by Egyptologist Keith C. Seele, include a stone fragment of a royal portrait dating to approximately 747–656 BC, a travertine offering stand from around 2686–2181 BC, and additional stone and clay vessels.
Rounding out the recent acquisitions are two early experimental works by artist Larry Bell, donated by Michael W. Rabkin and Chip Tom, and newly acquired pieces by contemporary artists Frieda Toranzo Jaeger and César Rangel Ramos. Toranzo Jaeger is known for paintings that interweave Indigenous embroidery traditions, Northern Renaissance religious imagery, and Mexican muralism. Rangel Ramos draws from Catholicism, Mesoamerican belief systems, and Greco-Roman ideas, using a technique he calls “albigraphy,” which combines friction and fluid on a fixed surface.
“We are thrilled to add more than two hundred objects to our collection with these new acquisitions, with an emphasis on our Latin American and contemporary collections,” said Emily Ballew Neff, PhD, The Kelso Director at SAMA, via a release. “I also want to thank our generous donors and the curatorial team for shepherding these acquisitions, in support of our goal to continually grow and diversify our collections with works that hold the stories of global cultures across time.”
The newly acquired works will be integrated into SAMA’s permanent collection and future exhibitions, continuing the museum’s ongoing effort to reflect a wide spectrum of artistic traditions and histories.
Reverend Raymond A. Callies is among the San Antonio icons depicted on the mural.Photo courtesy of City of San Antonio Arts & Culture