Tag: Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art

Exhibitions at the Briscoe Western Art Museum

There is still time to experience Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art at the Briscoe. The exhibit runs until Monday, January 18, 2021. Photo: Briscoe Western Art Museum, used with permission.

The Briscoe Western Art Museum is welcoming 2021 with a wide range of exhibitions and programs, celebrating the new year immersed in the art and beauty of the West. The term “Western Art” may suggest cowboys on the range, yet the genre is as expansive as the region itself, showcasing the rugged beauty of the area alongside the diverse people and wildlife who call it home.  The following are the museum’s 2021 exhibitions. (Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2021)

VISUAL VOICES:  Contemporary Chickasaw Art

Through January 18, 2021

The new year opens with the final weeks of a modern view of Native American art that showcases stories of the West far beyond boots and spurs. VISUAL VOICES:  Contemporary Chickasaw Art includes 15 Chickasaw artists and more than 55 artworks, features the artworks of present-day Chickasaw painters, potters, sculptors, metalsmiths, and weavers. In San Antonio on the last stop of its national tour, the exhibition tells a beautiful and compelling contemporary visual story. From oil and watercolor paintings to textiles and metals, glass and bronze, the artworks are unique, intrinsically Southeastern in design and distinctive among contemporary tribal artists. Chickasaw artists featured in the exhibition include San Antonio native Brenda Kingery.

2021 Night of Artists

March 27, 2021 Celebration and Auction

March 28 – May 9, 2021 Public Exhibition and Sale

The Briscoe Western Art Museum’s 2021 Night of Artists Exhibition and Art Sale marks 20 years of celebrating Western Art with an opening event that includes both in-person and virtual celebrations. The Night of Artists includes the viewing and sale of nearly 300 new works of painting, sculpture, and mixed media by 80 of the country’s leading contemporary Western artists. When COVID forced the 2020 in-person event to be cancelled, the museum successfully hosted the Night of Artists sale online. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Night of Artists, the Briscoe will again welcome a virtual audience, as well as host the event in-person, ultimately allowing more art lovers to participate than ever before through the Briscoe’s first-ever hybrid Night of Artists event. The public exhibition and sale will also span in-person and online.

Still in the Saddle:  A New History of the Hollywood Western

May 28 – September 6, 2021

Premiering this summer at the Briscoe Western Art Museum, Still in the Saddle: A New History of the Hollywood Western tells the dramatic story of the Hollywood Western from the late 1960s to the 1980s. Against a historical backdrop of social unrest, political turmoil, economic uncertainty, and generational change, competing cinematic visions of the Old West vied for Americans’ attention within the popular culture of the day. “True Grit,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and “The Outlaw Josey Wales” are just a few of the classic Western films highlighted in this exciting new exhibition organized by the Briscoe. Featuring costumes, props, and dozens of vintage movie posters, Still in the Saddle immerses visitors in the history and artistry of the Western, Hollywood’s greatest genre.

Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo: Photography of the Contemporary Northern Mexican Cowboy

September 16, 2021 – January 17, 2022

Making its United States debut, Vaqueros de la Cruz Del Diablo features celebrated photographer Werner Segarra inviting audiences to peer into the world of the Northern Mexican Vaquero – not as a casual tourist, but as an intimate observer. With almost 40 images that span more than 20 years of the lives of the vaqueros, Segarra reflects a complex contemporary composition of the everyday life of the vaquero. Offering realistic moments of how they view themselves, surrounded by the tools of their trade, intertwined with the realities of their existence, the images detail a legacy that reaches back over generations and is the birthplace of the modern cowboy.

The Briscoe is open Thursday through Monday, 10a.m. – 5p.m. and closed to the public on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Admission is free for children 12 and under and for active-duty members of the military and up to four members of their families. The museum is proud to participate in Museums For All, Blue Star Museums and Bank of America Museums on Us. The Briscoe is located on the south end of the River Walk, near the Arneson River Theatre and La Villita, with convenient parking at the Riverbend Garage directly adjacent to the museum or one of many downtown surface lots. Museum hours, parking and admission details are available online. The museum is operating at reduced capacity with health and safety protocols that require both staff and guests to wear masks. Temperature checks are also conducted upon entry.

Briscoe Western Art Museum’s fall exhibit: Visual Voices: Contemporary Chickasaw Art

Brenda Kingery Pow Wow. Photo: Briscoe Western Art Museum, used with permission.

The Briscoe Western Art Museum is giving everyone a modern view of Native American art and showcasing stories of the West that go far beyond boots and spurs during its fall exhibition, VISUAL VOICES:  Contemporary Chickasaw Art. The traveling exhibition, which includes 15 Chickasaw artists and almost 60 artworks, will be on display at the museum from Friday September 25, 2020, through Monday January 18, 2021. The public was invited to enjoy a first view of the exhibition during its opening reception on Thursday, September 24 and there will also be a virtual curator’s talk on Saturday, September 26. (Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2020)

Featuring the artworks of present-day Chickasaw painters, potters, sculptors, metalsmiths and weavers, the exhibition tells a beautiful and compelling contemporary visual story. From oil and watercolor paintings to textiles and metals, glass and bronze, the artworks are unique, intrinsically Southeastern in design and distinctive among contemporary tribal artists. Chickasaw artists featured in the exhibition include Brenda Kingery, Brent Greenwood, Daniel Worcester, Billy Hensley, Margaret Roach Wheeler, Norma Howard, Maya Stewart, Lisa Hudson, Dustin Mater, Paul C. Moore, Tyra Shackleford, Erin Shaw, Lokosh (Joshua D. Hinson), Joanna Underwood Blackburn and Kristen Dorsey.

Featured in the exhibition, Dustin Mater’s “Cosmic Warrior II”, a 2015 mixed media work that includes acrylic on molded plastic, as well as rabbit fur, deer antler and black lip oyster shell, is the stunning stormtrooper helmet that goes beyond anything George Lucas ever envisioned. And is definitely not a typical Native American headdress.

VISUAL VOICES Virtual Curator’s Talk

Saturday, September 26, 11a.m. – Noon

Join Ryan Badger, the Briscoe’s Curator of Education, and VISUAL VOICES: Contemporary Chickasaw Art curators, Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man and Karen Whitecotton as they discuss VISUAL VOICES. Well-Off-Man, chief curator of the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, and Whitecotton (Citizen Potawatomi), the director of collections at the Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture, will discuss the background of the VISUAL VOICES exhibition as it closes out its national tour at the Briscoe. Tickets are free for museum members and $10 for nonmembers. Briscoe members please RSVP by phone: 210.299.4499 or email: rsvp@briscoemuseum.org.

VISUAL VOICES: Contemporary Chickasaw Art is made possible by a grant provided by the Chickasaw Nation, guidance from the Chickasaw Artist Board and assistance from First Americans Museum. This exhibition is also made possible with funding from Humanities Texas and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the federal CARES Act. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The museum’s health and safety protocols require temperature checks and that both staff and guests wear masks. Additional sanitizing and cleaning protocols are observed throughout the day and both visitor services and the museum store feature plexiglass shields for additional protection.

Museum hours are 10a.m. through 3p.m. seven days a week. The Briscoe is located on the south end of the River Walk, near the Arneson River Theatre and La Villita, with convenient parking at the Riverbend Garage directly adjacent to the museum or one of many downtown surface lots. Museum hours, parking and admission details are available online.