Blue Star Contemporary (BSC), San Antonio’s first and longest-running contemporary art nonprofit, announces the opening of its first summer 2021 exhibition, The Sitter, opening to the public on Thursday June 3, 2021. (Blue Star Contemporary, 2021)

The Sitter features works by artists using contemporary portrait painting and figuration to build narratives and generate conversation around the subjects’ actions, experiences, or identities. The exhibition highlights how contemporary artists expand their definition of portrait painting and how they can activate the figure through paintings, drawings, and photography. The sitters or subjects transcend the role of model or muse and are sometimes collaborators or activators, giving access to broader contexts and unraveling complicated stories.

The exhibition, curated by BSC’s Curator and Exhibitions Manager, Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray, features the work of La Vaughn Belle, Suzette Bross, Ruth Leonela Buentello, Carmen Cartiness Johnson, Madison Cowles Serna, Natan Dvir, Sarah Fox, LaToya Hobbs, Loc Huynh, David Johnson and Philip Matthews, Zora Murff, Cruz Ortiz.

For the first time at Blue Star Contemporary, The Sitter is accompanied by an interactive app featuring an in-depth look at the exhibition through gallery texts, visitor prompts, and information aimed at giving visitors a broader context to engage with the works of art. The newly launched app is free to download and available at the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

“As our community heals and feels ready to venture out, we are thrilled Blue Star Contemporary stands strong and ready to be a place for inspiration and enjoyment of contemporary art. We had long planned to launch an interactive app to accompany our exhibitions, and now seems like the perfect time to launch a digital component that enhances the visitor experience on-site and provides an opportunity to revisit and reflect on the art once back home.” – Mary Heathcott, Executive Director.

Opening later in the summer on July 1 are new exhibitions featuring the work of three distinctive artists. Doerte Weber presents weavings reflecting on COVID-19, everyday life during the pandemic, and climate issues. Joanna Keane Lopez is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blurs boundaries between contemporary sculpture and architecture through the medium of adobe mud. Her BSC presentation will include a newly commissioned sculptural work. Terran Last Gun presents an exhibition of ledger drawings, a form which rose to prominence among Native American artists in the mid-1800s and continues today. All of BSC’s summer exhibitions will be on view through September 5, 2021.

Blue Star Contemporary’s exhibitions are supported in part by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Terran Last Gun’s exhibition was made possible in part by First Peoples Fund.

Blue Star Contemporary (BSC) is the first and longest-running nonprofit space for contemporary art in San Antonio, Texas. Founded by artists and grown from a grassroots art exhibition in 1986, BSC arose from the need to provide a platform for the work and ideas of contemporary artists.

As an artist-centric, educational, forward-thinking, inclusive institution that strives to exceed expectations, BSC welcomes 30,000 residents and cultural tourists each year to experience contemporary art through its exhibitions, public art projects, and education programs. In 2016, BSC became the only San Antonio arts organization to be W.A.G.E.-certified, solidifying its commitment to fair compensation of artists and creative professionals.