Category: Art gallery news

Actions for the Earth opens at Contemporary at Blue Star

Lhora Amira, IRMANDADE: The Shape of Water in Pindorama, 2018-2020, HD video, single channel sound, film still. Image courtesy of SMAC Gallery, copyright Lhora Amira.

Blue Star Contemporary announces Actions for the Earth: Art, Care & Ecology, an exhibition curated by Sharmila Wood and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI) on view from June 2 through September 3, 2023. Actions for the Earth is a traveling exhibition that considers how artistic practices use kinship, healing, and restorative intervention to foster a deeper consciousness of our interconnectedness with the earth. (Contemporary at Blue Star, 2023)

This exhibition turns to a group of interdisciplinary artists to engage with the overlapping, worldwide crises of our time. Ongoing climate change, entrenched social inequity, and renewed concerns over public health have all underscored the need for approaches that take on global responsibilities while caring for our local environment. For decades, artists have sought to find new antidotes to oppressive structures of power, and promoted greater understanding of the many ways that nature, health, and sustainability are intertwined.

Actions for the Earth presents the work of eighteen intergenerational artists and collectives who place action, instruction, reciprocity, and exchange at the forefront of their practices. By sharing their participatory artistic interventions and healing strategies alongside research in ecology, science, and ancient beliefs, these artists remind us that we are connected within a constellation of living networks, inseparable from the planet and its environments. Artworks on view create space for the honoring of ancestors, foreground the significance of Indigenous knowledges, and engage in speculative imaginings through science fiction and network sciences—organic, digital, and spiritual.

In its curatorial approach, Actions for the Earth acts as a resource for studying our current times. The works on view not only emphasize themes of learning, care, and intimacy, but offer concrete knowledge by inviting the public to participate in actions such as instruction-based meditation and deep listening activities. The life of these works, and the interventions they propose, extends far beyond the scope of the exhibition to engage people in their personal contexts. 

Artists: Ackroyd and Harvey, Lhola Amira, Arahmaiani, Sayan Chanda, Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser), lololol, Ana Mendieta, Zarina Muhammad, Patrina Mununggurr, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Tabita Rezaire, Eric-Paul Riege, Cecilia Vicuña, Katie West, and Zheng Bo

Contemporary at Blue Star presents exhibitions with artists from San Antonio and around the world sharing their global perspectives that encourage understanding, empathy, change, and action, fulfilling our mission to inspire, nurture, and innovate. Like most non-collecting contemporary art spaces, the Contemporary contributes fresh insights and perspectives on larger issues affecting society and culture by highlighting trends, movements, and conversations happening in art. Admission to the Contemporary is always free.

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Dog art walk with artist Hiromi Stringer

The dog walk will be held this Thursday, April 20. Image: Hiromi Stringer, Dog (Germany)19 2022 gouache and sumi ink on oriental paper, 9 ½ x 13 in. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Attention all dog lovers. The Contemporary at Blue Star is hosting a social dog walk on Thursday, April 20, from 5p.m. to 7 p.m. with exhibiting artist Hiromi Stringer. The event is free and open to all dog owners who want to join in on the fun. (Contemporary at Blue Star, 2023)

The walk is through The King William neighborhood and starts with an hour of socializing with fellow dogs and their humans. Local shops, including the SouthPaw Waggery will be in attendance with goodies and swag. Attendees can screen print matching Contemporary bandanas for themselves and their furry friends, or park their dogs at our hosted dog parking station while they explore the exhibitions inside the galleries, such as Hiromi Stringer’s The Dog Show.

At 6 p.m., Hiromi will lead the dog walk through the neighborhood, which will conclude at the Contemporary for a viewing of the exhibition The Dog Show. To participate, complete the registration form. Do not miss out on this exciting event.

About the exhibition:
The Dog Show: Time Traveler Umeyama’s Drawings from the 21st Century, Hiromi Stringer
March 3 – June 4, 2023

Inspired by a chance encounter almost 30 years ago, when artist Hiromi Stringer saw someone walking a Siberian Husky dog on a busy street in Bangkok, Thailand, an incident that made her wonder about globalization and mundane objects in our life.

In The Dog Show, Stringer revisits her ongoing project UmeyamaReports, which chronicles the travels and observations of ShoeiUmeyama, Stringer’s fictional character. Umeyama is a Japanese man from the mid-1800s using time-teleportation to visit today’s modern world. This time, Umeyama reports on a variety of dogs and their owners, making observations, not only on the traits of each breed, but on the mundane objects that connect them with their owners, such as collars, leashes, and bowls, among others. Writings in Japanese—which visitors can translate using Google Translate on their personal devices—offer further insights into Umeyama’s particular point of view. Umeyama’s drawings, artifacts, and observations are displayed in the imagined Umeyama Time Teleportation Museum (UTTM) showcasing Umeyama’s achievements and the legacy of his history as a time traveler. Ink paintings/reports serve as his record of what he observed as he made sense of the modern-day U.S. Stringer’s exhibition and Umeyama’s imaginary findings represent an alternate perspective and reflection on today’s contemporary society.

Drawing on her personal paradigm shift, which included cultural and language differences, Stringer’s work reflects her curiosity about the world in which she lives. Using a micro perspective borrowed from Umeyama’s view, whose base point is Japan 170 years ago, a time when the country was under governmental enforced national isolation.

Stringer sees parallels between one’s process of knowing and living with very limited information about other countries and her own experience in a foreign land. By using Umeyama as a lens, Stringer provides a more objective view of the world while acknowledging her own subjectivity in her works.

Stringer is a 2019 alum of Contemporary’s Berlin Residency Program. During the three months that she lived and worked at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien as a residency awardee, she continued her UTTM work which took on new meaning in a new foreign home. Through her art, Stringer invites viewers to explore the mundane objects of our times and consider how they inform our current existence. Her approach to art is an extension of her curiosity about the broader world, and her latest work offers a unique perspective on globalization that is sure to spark conversations and inspire contemplation.

Contemporary at Blue Star presents DreamWeek Mental Health Workshop

DreamWeek with Mental Health and Identity/Representation Workshop will take place on Thursday, January 19, 2023. Photo: Google

Blue Star Contemporary and Ruby City proudly announce a collaboration for a mental health and identity/representation workshop on Thursday, January 19 from 5p.m. to 7p.m. Mental health therapist and That Gray Zine creator Erica Edmonds will be leading the workshop, which is part of DreamWeek, an annual event in San Antonio that celebrates diversity and promotes dialogue and understanding among different communities. (Blue Star Contemporary, 2023)

During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and express their experiences with the intersections of identity, representation, and mental health through writing or image making. Responses will be shared with the community with a display in front of the Contemporary the weekend of January 20 to 22. Interested participants will also have the opportunity to publish their expressions in an upcoming volume of That Gray Zine.

The workshop is open to all members of the community, the Contemporary at Blue Star and Ruby City believe that understanding and supporting our own and others’ mental health is crucial for building strong, inclusive communities, and both organizations are excited to provide this opportunity for learning and growth.

That Gray Zine, created in 2019 by Erica Edmonds, discusses all things mental health in order to reduce stigma, foster a sense of community, advocacy, validation, and empowerment. Erica Edmonds is a mental health therapist and has a group practice in San Antonio Texas. Inclusivity, intersectionality, social justice, anti-racism, and the decolonization of mental health are important frameworks for how she navigates her group practice and the zine.

Ruby City is a contemporary art center in San Antonio, TX dedicated to providing a space for the city’s thriving creative community to experience works by both local and internationally-acclaimed artists. Envisioned in 2007 by the late collector, philanthropist and artist Linda Pace, Ruby City presents works from the Linda Pace Foundation Collection of more than 1400 paintings, sculptures, installations and video works. The new building, designed by renowned architect Sir David Adjaye OBE, is part of a campus, which also includes Chris Park, a one-acre public green space named in memory of Pace’s son, and Studio, an auxiliary exhibition space which presents curated shows and programming throughout the year.

The Contemporary at Blue Star presents exhibitions with artists from San Antonio and around the world sharing their global perspectives that encourage understanding, empathy, change, and action, fulfilling our mission to inspire, nurture, and innovate. Like most non-collecting contemporary art spaces, the Contemporary contributes fresh insights and perspectives on larger issues affecting society and culture by highlighting trends, movements, and conversations happening in art. Admission to the Contemporary is always free.

Free Family Saturday at the Contemporary at Blue Star

Contemporary at Blue Star presents Free Family Saturday on December 3, 2022. Photo: Contemporary at Blue Star, used with permission.

Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio’s first and longest running contemporary art nonprofit, proudly invites San Antonio families to Family Saturday on December 3 from 1p.m. to 4p.m. During this free event for families and kids of all ages, Red Dot Artists Ashley Perez, Andy and Yvette Benavides, and Ernesto Ibañez will inspire youth to look at and understand contemporary art through fun-filled hands-on activities and art making. Family Saturday is free and open to the public. There will be complimentary food and refreshments. Support for the Contemporary at Blue Star’s Family Saturday is provided by the King William Association. (Contemporary at Blue Star, 2022)

Currently on view at the Contemporary is the Red Dot Show. The exhibition presents and celebrates the work of over 100 San Antonio-based artists, offering the public an opportunity to start or expand their own art collections, with works on sale for a wide variety of tastes and budgets. Proceeds from art sales equally benefit artists and the Contemporary at Blue Star’s year-round exhibitions and expansive, no-cost art education programs, which inspire, nurture, and innovate through contemporary art.

The Contemporary was founded in 1986 for artists, by artists, through a grassroots movement sparked by the cancellation of the first major museum exhibition of contemporary art in San Antonio. Six arts supporters and artists founded Contemporary Art for San Antonio to provide an exhibition venue for artists and the public. With the support of donors and property developers Bernard Lifshutz and Hap Veltman, the founders, artists, and volunteers converted a warehouse into a gallery for the first annual Blue Star Exhibition. Over the years, the Contemporary has grown to include a professional staff, a robust calendar of onsite and offsite exhibitions, community collaborations, creative youth development programs, international exchange opportunities for artists, and public art projects. Formerly known as Blue Star Contemporary, the institution announced its mission-driven new name, graphic identity, and website in 2022. 

Contemporary at Blue Star’s Red Dot Art Sale and Show

The contemporary art organization’s largest annual fundraiser celebrates the work of over 100 artists with works on sale to benefit artists and San Antonio’s home for contemporary art. Photo: Google

Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio’s first and longest running contemporary art nonprofit, proudly announces its 32nd Annual Red Dot Art Sale and Show. The special benefit opening will take place on November 9 from 7p.m. to 10 p.m. The Red Dot Show will then be on view in the Contemporary’s galleries November 11, 2022 through January 8, 2023. (Contemporary at Blue Star, 2022)

The opening night celebration is one of San Antonio’s most beloved contemporary art events, with a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. This gathering of old and new friends has become a mainstay event on the calendar of the city’s creative community. Individual tickets to the Red Dot Art Sale fundraiser are $50. As of today, November 5, tickets are sold out but there are still sponsorship options still available. 

Red Dot presents and celebrates the work of over 100 San Antonio-based artists, offering the public an opportunity to start or expand their own art collections with works on sale for a wide variety of tastes and budgets. Proceeds from art sales equally benefit artists and the Contemporary at Blue Star’s year-round exhibitions and expansive, no-cost art education programs, which inspire, nurture, and innovate through contemporary art.

Sponsorships and artwork sales at Red Dot help raise vital funds for the Contemporary’s exhibitions, art education programs, and outreach initiatives. Sales proceeds from Red Dot artworks are equally shared between the Contemporary and the artists, positively impacting the livelihood of more than 100 San Antonio artists. Beginning on November 9, artworks that are available for purchase can be viewed on the event page or in person during the Red Dot Art Sale fundraiser, a festive gathering for San Antonio’s contemporary art community. 
 
Each year, the Contemporary recognizes honorees whose creative contributions have made a lasting impact on San Antonio’s vibrant art community. In 2022, the Red Dot committee, with its event chairs Cheryl Morrell Armendaríz and Richard “Ricky” Armendariz, and Martha Martinez-Flores and Dr. Mike Flores, have chosen to honor artist Andy Benavides, arts patron and chef Johnny Hernandez, and arts education champion S.M.A.R.T., a nonprofit nurturing creative minds and building community through experiential art education. 

The Contemporary at Blue Star presents exhibitions with artists from San Antonio and around the world sharing their global perspectives that encourage understanding, empathy, change, and action, fulfilling our mission to inspire, nurture, and innovate. Like most non-collecting contemporary art spaces, the Contemporary contributes fresh insights and perspectives on larger issues affecting society and culture by highlighting trends, movements, and conversations happening in art. Admission to the Contemporary is always free.

Three new summer exhibitions at Blue Star Contemporary

Blue Star Contemporary unveils three new summer exhibitions on July 1, 2022. Photo: google

Blue Star Contemporary (BSC), San Antonio’s first and longest- running contemporary art nonprofit, proudly unveils three new summer exhibitions opening to the public on First Friday July 1, 2022 at 6p.m. Andreas Till: De Ami, focuses on the influence of the presence of American troops in artist, Andreas Till’s, hometown Heidelberg, Germany. The Other Side, is a small selection of films by Faezeh Nikoozad, Aki Pao-Chen Chiu, Breech Asher Harani, and Fumiko Kikuchi . Fake Plastic Forest features photographic and lens-based work by France Dubois, Annette Isham, Işık Kaya, and Leigh Merrill. The exhibitions will be on view through October 9, 2022. (Blue Star Contemporary, 2022)

ANDREAS TILL: DE AMI focuses on the influence of the presence of American troops in artist, Andreas Till’s, hometown Heidelberg, Germany and the relationship between Germans and Americans between 1945 and 2013 born out of this presence. His research is based on found material from various archives such as the Rose Library in Atlanta and the Archive of the City of Heidelberg as well as various personal collections. The artist’s personal collection chronicles a lifelong friendship between former editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution, Ralph Emerson McGill and Till’s grandmother Else Volkwein. 

Andreas Till (b. 1984) holds a M.A. in Photographic Studies from the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Germany. In 2010, he received a Fulbright scholarship to the Fine Art Photography and Integrated Media program (M.F.A.) of Ohio University in Athens, OH. He currently lives in Hamburg, Germany where he works as a photo editor.

THE OTHER SIDE brings together a small selection of films referencing ideas of transitions and events that foundationally change someone, i.e., “to be on the other side of something.” Works also allude to ideas of mortality and the spiritual concept of metaphysical selves entering a new plane.

This group of films was selected from Darmstädter Sezession’s 2021 prize shortlist for its collaborative Projection/Projektion grants and screenings programs with BSC. This will be the first screening of these films in San Antonio. 

Featured Films 
Asb by Faezeh Nikoozad 
Translating Erasure by Aki Pao-Chen Chiu
BINTANA (Window) by Breech Asher Harani
I know where you are right now by Fumiko Kikuchi

FAKE PLASTIC FOREST features the work of France Dubois, Annette Isham, Işık Kaya, and Leigh Merrill; contemporary photographers and lens-based artists dealing with themes of artifice, truth and fiction, and the theatricality of our interactions with nature. Collectively these themes relate to ideas of preservation, the transcendent practice of experiencing nature, and seeking representations of nature to process and release intense events and emotions such as fear and grief. Our various relationships with nature are revealing of personal and collective selves. The urgency to reflect on these relationships is ever-present as we globally contend with humanity’s impact on our environment and consider transnational identities. The selected artists can be considered in the context of numerous other female photographers throughout the history of the medium who have used their environments, both natural and human made, as the site/studio where the work is made, and a part of the subject. These artists used the context of vast landscape, forests, and trees as well as fabricated, nature-inspired spaces, as sites and pivotal subjects for addressing themes such as psychology and mysticism.

Blue Star Contemporary, 116 Blue Star, San Antonio, TX 78204

Blue Star Contemporary is an anchoring cultural institution in San Antonio and a destination for residents and tourists alike. Located along the banks of the San Antonio Riverwalk, BSC is a central highlight between the bustle of downtown and the UNESCO World Heritage San Antonio Missions. BSC has remained true to its artist-centric foundation alongside this fiscal and programmatic growth. BSC is San Antonio’s first WAGE-certified organization, committed to transparent and equitable payments to artists for their creative contributions to BSC’s exhibitions and education outreach programs. Through its commitment to artists with a social practice, tuition-free youth arts education programs, and community-centric fundraising, BSC is dedicated to equity and social justice in all its endeavors.

Free Family Saturday at Blue Star Contemporary

Free fun and art making for families at Blue Star Contemporary’s Family Saturday. Photo: google

Blue Star Contemporary (BSC), San Antonio’s first and longest- running contemporary art nonprofit, welcomes the public on Saturday, June 25 for Free Family Saturday. From 1p.m. to 4p.m., families with children of all ages are invited to enjoy free hands-on art making activities, led by artists on view Jenn Hassin, Sarah Sudhoff, and Jill Ewing with Bihl Haus Arts. Also in attendance will be Vicki Johnson, who will be leading a letter writing activity with Operation Gratitude, a nation-wide nonprofit dedicated to providing people across our great country with opportunities for hands-on volunteerism to say ‘thank you’ to our Military, Veterans, and First Responders. (Blue Star Contemporary, 2022)

This free family event focuses on BSC’s current exhibitions and gives families an opportunity to interact with local artists and community organizations. The artworks on view inspire art making that encourages children to look deeply and understand contemporary art better through fun activities. Families are invited to enjoy BSC’s exhibitions as well as complimentary food and refreshments.

On View at Blue Star Contemporary
BSC’s main gallery features Travel Distance, curated by independent curator and interdisciplinary artist Amber Zora. The exhibition features the work of Miridith Campbell (Kiowa), Joe Devera, Claudia Hare, Jenn Hassin, Gina Herrera, Monte Little (Diné), Jessica Putnam–Phillips, Daniel Rios Rodriguez, Renee Romero, and Sarah Sudhoff. The artworks featured represent how veterans and their families have processed, moved through, purged, and reclaimed their experience around military service.

The Learning Lab at BSC presents The Veterans Book Project, a library of books authored collaboratively by artist Monica Haller and dozens of people who have been affected by, and have archives of, the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In their printed format, the books provide a place, or “container,” that slows down and materializes the great quantity of ephemeral image files that live on veterans’ hard drives and in their heads. Each book re-deploys volatile images with the aim of rearticulating and refashioning memories. It stands both independent of and in concert with the larger collection.

These exhibitions coincide with the Blue Star Museums program, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums. Running from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2022, museums across the United States offer free general admission to active-duty military personnel and their families. BSC participates in this program in an effort to say “thank you” to our military community.

Opening on July 1, Andreas Till: De Ami, focuses on the influence of the presence of American troops in artist Andreas Till’s hometown Heidelberg, Germany and the relationship between Germans and Americans between 1945 and 2013 born out of this presence. The Other Side, is a selection of films referencing ideas of transitions and events that foundationally change someone, i.e. “to be on the other side of something.” The video works also allude to ideas of mortality and the spiritual concept of metaphysical selves entering a new plane. The films were selected from Darmstadt Sezession’s 2021 prize shortlist for our collaborative Projection/Projektion grants and screenings program, and feature the work of Faezeh Nikoozad, Aki Pao-Chen Chiu, Breech Asher Harani, and Fumiko Kikuchi. Fake Plastic Forest features the work of France Dubois, Annette Isham, Işık Kaya, and Leigh Merrill, contemporary photographers and lens-based artists dealing with themes of artifice, truth and fiction, and the theatricality of our interactions with nature.

BSC presents exhibitions with artists from San Antonio and around the world sharing their global perspectives that encourage understanding, empathy, change, and action, fulfilling our mission to inspire, nurture, and innovate. Like most non-collecting contemporary art spaces, BSC contributes fresh insight and perspective on larger issues affecting society and culture by highlighting trends, movements, and conversations happening in art.

BSC was founded for artists by artists in 1986 in a grassroots movement sparked by the cancellation of the first major museum exhibition of contemporary art in San Antonio. Six arts supporters and artists founded Contemporary Art for San Antonio to provide an exhibition venue for artists and the public. With the support of a handful of donors and property developers, the founders, artists, and volunteers converted an abandoned warehouse into a gallery for the first annual Blue Star Exhibition. Over the years, BSC has grown to encompass a professional staff, a robust calendar of onsite and offsite exhibitions, community collaborations, creative youth development programs, international exchange opportunities for artists, and public art projects.

Free Family Saturday at Blue Star Contemporary. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Blue Star Contemporary accepting submissions for 2022 Open Call for Artists

There is no application fee to apply and the deadline is March 1, 2022. Photo: Blue Star Contemporary

Blue Star Contemporary (BSC), San Antonio’s first and longest running contemporary art non-profit, is currently accepting applications for their 2022 exhibition cycle. Artists based in Texas, nationally, and internationally are eligible for this open call and are invited to submit a portfolio of their work to be considered for future exhibition opportunities, public programs, and other special projects. Exhibitions in development draw from competitive applicants whose work aligns with BSC’s mission and core values. San Antonio artists founded BSC in 1986 as a space to show their work, thus supporting and exhibiting work by our region’s artists remains a central part of our programming, in addition to working with artists from across the globe. (Blue Star Contemporary, 2022)

Artists should submit a portfolio to give the organization an understanding of the visual and conceptual themes within their practice and their voice as artists. The submission helps BSC identify artists that align with the organization’s creative vision and audiences. Exhibitions are planned approximately two years in advance.

BSC’s values of equity, diversity, and inclusion are foundational to our mission to serve all artists. These values are demonstrated by creating the conditions for an approachable application process, by continuing efforts to support artists of all backgrounds, and by working towards inclusivity and accessibility for applicants. Blue Star Contemporary inspires the creative genius in us all by nurturing artists through innovative contemporary art and fulfills this mission guided by five core values– being artist-centric, forward-thinking, inclusive, educational, exceeding expectations, and surprising visitors. Artists we engage share in these values and conduct themselves with integrity and respect when collaborating with BSC and its staff.

BSC is a W.A.G.E. certified organization. We pay all exhibiting artists an honoraria based on our operating budget and W.A.G.E. guidelines. Artists participating in or leading public programs are also paid an honoraria.

Artists can visit Blue Star Contemporary for more information on eligibility and application guidelines. There is no application fee, deadline to apply Is March 1, 2022. Direct questions regarding the submission process should be directed to Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray, Curator and Exhibitions Manager by phone at jack@bluestarcontemporary.org.

BSC was founded for artists by artists in 1986 in a grassroots movement sparked by the cancellation of the first major museum exhibition of contemporary art in San Antonio. Six arts supporters and artists founded Contemporary Art for San Antonio to provide an exhibition venue for artists and the public. With the support of a handful of donors and property developers, the founders, artists, and volunteers converted an abandoned warehouse into a gallery for the first annual Blue Star Exhibition. Over the years, BSC has grown to encompass a professional staff, a robust calendar of onsite and offsite exhibitions, community collaborations, creative youth development programs, international exchange opportunities for artists, and public art projects.

San Antonio Museum of Art spotlights contemporary artist Wendy Red Star

Wendy Red Star, Indian Summer – Four Seasons, 2006 Archival pigment print on sunset fiber rag, 23 x 26 in. (58.4 x 66cm). Gift of Loren G. Lipson, M.D. Collection of The Newark Museum of Art. Photo: Wendy Red Star, used with permission.

The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) will present a mid-career survey of the work of Portland-based artist Wendy Red Star starting February 11, 2022. The exhibition Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth features forty works drawn from the collection of The Newark Museum of Art and museums across the country and includes photography, textiles, and film and sound installations, produced over a period of fifteen years. At the heart of the exhibition, an immersive video will be screened inside a sweat lodge recreated within the gallery. (San Antonio Museum of Art, 2021)

An enrolled member of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Tribe, Red Star works across disciplines to explore the intersections of Native American ideologies and colonialist structures, both historically and in contemporary society. Drawing on pop culture, conceptual art strategies, and the Crow traditions within which she was raised, Red Star pushes photography in new directions—from self-portraiture to photo-collage and altered historical photographs—to bring to life her unique perspective on American history.

The importance of family, Indigenous roots of feminism, Crow mythology, history of the Montana landscape, and the pageantry of Crow Fest are among the subjects that Red Star brings to life in this exhibition. The artist’s exploration of ancestral Apsáalooke land culminates in the recreation of a sweat lodge. Inside, an immersive 360-degree video is projected onto the interior walls joining imagery from Crow mythology and the Montana landscape. Another large-scale wall installation maps the ancestral lands of Apsáalooke women. To reclaim the matrilineal society disrupted by the reservation system, Red Star contacted women across the country and researched their familial ties to the land. Also included is a powerful series of self-portraits, titled Apsáalooke Feminist, for which Red Star and her daughter Beatrice pose wearing traditional elk-tooth dresses, symbols of Crow womanhood. 

The title A Scratch on the Earth is a translation of the Apsáalooke word Annúkaxua and refers to the period after 1880 when U.S. government policy prioritized keeping Crow people on their reservation. Red Star mines archives to investigate the boundaries of the Crow reservation and how they came to be negotiated throughout the nineteenth century. Growing from the somewhat arbitrary borders that were historically imposed on the Apsáalooke, the exhibition also explores how boundaries between cultural, racial, social, and gender categories have subsequently been reinforced, and how they blur across time and space.

The exhibition was organized by The Newark Museum of Art and curated by Nadiah Rivera Fellah, guest curator, and Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Newark’s Curator of American Art. In San Antonio, it is generously funded by The Ford Foundation, The Betty Stieren Kelso Foundation, and The Brown Foundation, Inc. It is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue published by The Newark Museum of Art. A selection of programs and a symposium featuring the artist will also be offered during the exhibition.

“Red Star’s work engages images and materials that are rich with meaning to initiate vital conversations about identity, culture, and American history. SAMA is thrilled to share this important exhibition with our community.”

Lana Meador, SAMA’s Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival at Hemisfair

Texas artists and groups representing over 200 individual artists will showcase live music, large-scale art installations, film, dance, fine art, theatre, poetry, and fashion at San Antonio’s iconic nighttime celebration of the arts. Photo: Luminaria

On Saturday November 13, the opening ceremonies at 5:30p.m. will kick off the official 2021 Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival, the most prominent arts festival in South Texas. The ceremony will begin with a blessing from the elders of Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, followed by remarks from Yadhira Lozano, Luminaria Executive Director, and Jesse Borrego, 2021 Honorary Curatorial Committee Chair. City of San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Mayor Phil Hardberger, founder of Luminaria, will be onsite as honorary guests. (Luminaria, 2021)

The Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival, a nighttime celebration of the arts, will be held from 6pm to midnight featuring more than 200 individual artists from across Texas, highlighting live music, fine arts, film, digital art, dance, theatre, fashion, poetry, and large-scale art installations.

Casa De Ojos founder and award-winning artist, Fabian Alejandro Diaz, will present a fashion show, “Metamorphosis.” Deanna Arriaga will offer “An Immersive Experience” light show. Justin Parr and Adam Smolensky will present a large, neon sculpture honoring San Antonio’s famed Rose Window. URBAN-15’s performance will feature lasers and a drumming show. Breathe Collective, a BIPOC San-Antonio-based artist collective, will offer creative experiences of reflection and healing through breathing. Austin-based dadaLab will install four lit towers to offer an immersive art, technology and science designing experience.

This festival is free and open to the public and it will be held at Hemisfair, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, and the San Antonio Riverwalk with plenty of outdoor space to socially distance and enjoy the art. Full festival lineup is available online. 

Hemisfair, Luminaria Main Stage
434 S Alamo St.
San Antonio, TX 78205 (between Yanaguana Garden and the Mexican Cultural Institute)

Main Stage at Hemisfair
6p.m. IlaIla Minori
7p.m. Jeremy Kingg/Satara
8p.m. Heartless The Monster
9p.m. Bombasta
10p.m. Los Texmaniacs feat. Flaco Jimenez
11p.m. Pop Pistol

Film Stage at River Walk
6p.m. Film Loop
7p.m. Anna De Luna
7p.m. Film Loop
8:30p.m. URBAN-15
9p.m. Film Loop
9:30p.m. Casa De Ojos
10:30p.m. URBAN-15
11p.m. Film Loop
11:45p.m. End

Market Stage at Convention Center (Merida Plaza)
6p.m. Eddie Vega
6:45p.m. Paula Cortez
7:45p.m. DeAnna Brown
8:45p.m. Ballet Folklórico Sol de San Antonio
9:45p.m. Patricia Vonne