Artpace International
Artists-in-Residence present
New Works Now
Alex de Leon, Katrina Moorhead,
Katie Pell, Juan Miguel Ramos,
Lordy Rodriguez
May 10–September 9, 2012
445 N. Main Avenue
San Antonio, Texas 78205
Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce the unveiling of its New Works Now exhibition in the Hudson (Show)Room, featuring new works by former International Artists-in-Residence from Texas: Alex de Leon (1996), Katrina Moorhead (2005), Katie Pell (2006), Juan Miguel Ramos (2002), and Lordy Rodriguez (2001). The exhibition opened on May 10 and will be on view through September 9, 2012. Following its closing at Artpace, New Works Now will travel to the Dikeou Collection in Denver, Colorado.
Inspired by the importance of place and its relationship to identity and culture, each artist reflects on the significance of his or her surroundings. The exhibition considers universal and specific aspects of an environment and contemplates how truth and fiction mix in memory, while affecting a sense of nostalgia for remembered locales.
Alex de Leon was born in Edinburg, Texas, in 1959. He received his BFA in Printmaking from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1983, before establishing his studio in San Antonio. He has exhibited extensively across Texas and elsewhere in the United States, in individual and group exhibitions, and has also contributed design for film and television. His rhythmic patterns of repeating images, often featuring symbols of contemporary folk culture, are hand-painted and rendered through the visual language of printmaking.
Katrina Moorhead was born in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, in 1971, and currently lives in Texas, where she works as the Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Houston. She received her BA and MA degrees from the Edinburgh College of Art in the United Kingdom. Her elegant and delicate drawings, installations, and sculpture showcase seemingly ordinary and often hidden objects and experiences, casting the familiar in a new light.
Katie Pell was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1965. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 1987. She has lived in San Antonio, Texas, since 1995, and currently teaches at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her drawings, sculpture, and installations confront issues of gender, class, cultural identity, and race, often utilizing humor and whimsy. Memory, dreams, pop culture, and fantasy characterize the imagery in her work.
Juan Miguel Ramos received his BFA and MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 1993, the artist, photographer, and musician co-founded San Anto Cultural Arts, a West Side learning space that promotes and encourages organic and cultural self-expression. He currently teaches at the International Academy of Design & Technology in San Antonio, his hometown. His work documents the people, places, and layers of Mexican-American culture in South Texas communities.
Lordy Rodriguez was born in Quezon City in the Philippines in 1974, and grew up in Louisiana and Texas. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and his MFA from Stanford University; he currently resides in the Bay Area in California. Inspired by frequent family road trips taken across country to visit relatives, his colorful work—primarily drawn in pen and ink—manipulates the language of cartography into abstract compositions of invented regions and places.
Upcoming International Artists-in-Residence
Artpace will welcome its new International Artists-in-Residence to San Antonio on May 22. Artists Leslie Hewitt (New York, New York), Jacco Olivier (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and Mike Osborne (Austin, Texas) were selected by guest curator Sarah Lewis, independent curator and historian at Yale University. Their International Artists-in-Residence exhibition opens at Artpace on July 12 and will be on view through September 23, 2012.
Artpace San Antonio serves as an international laboratory for the creation and advancement of contemporary art. Every year, Artpace invites nine artists to conceive and create pivotal art projects through its International Artist-in-Residence program, providing them with unparalleled resources that allow them to take time, take risks, and unveil new ideas. Each two-month residency is composed of one artist from Texas, one from elsewhere in the United States, and one from abroad. Artists are given a materials budget, a weekly living stipend, an apartment, and studio/exhibition space, as well as fully equipped wood, metal, and computer facilities, complete with technical and administrative support. A residency is followed by a two-month exhibition of the artists’ projects. All artwork made during each residency belongs to the artist. Residents are encouraged to share their ideas and become involved with the San Antonio and Texas art communities.
*Image above:
Juan Miguel Ramos, Yo Vendo Unos Ojos Negros, 2012. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.
