Fri, May 8
4:00 pm	to	6:00 pm

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Just back from New York, and I must say I agree with Holland Cotter that it’s enlightening to see the Met’s “The Pictures Generation” show alongside the New Museum’s “The Generational: Younger than Jesus.” I also agree with him that the former is a much stronger and more carefully curated group of work than the latter. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s quite right to say that the “generational parallels are so many as to be worrisome. Has new art come no further than this? Is it still tilling fields all but farmed out in the past?”

One reason to question this reductive view of current appropriation-driven art is articulated well in an article by Jan Verwoert published a couple of years ago in Art & Research. In it, Verwoert makes a distinction between the appropriation art that was produced in the 1970s and ’80s (see “Untitled (Nixon)” by Paul McMahon above), and another kind of work that emerged in the 1990s. The younger group of artists employ similar strategies as their predecessors, but with different implications. The basic premise is that during the Cold War history had frozen due to a superpower stalemate, and artists such as Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman analyzed culture through the lense of a detachment from history. In the ’90s the movement of history sprang to life again, and the act of appropriation became something more like the act of invocation: “To utter words for the sake of analysis already means to put these words to work. You cannot test a spell. To utter it is to put it into effect.” Artists had to wrestle with the ghosts of the past (a “multiplicity of histories”) as well as the life of the moment, as they dealt with a quickly evolving relationship to history and its connections to the present.

It seems to me that since 2001, this sense of living in a web of histories has only accelerated: from September 11 to Obama, China’s waxing cultural influence to the perpetually imminent collapse of Pakistan, commentators are stumbling over themselves to declare the dawn of new era after new era. It has the urgency of the 1960s, even if the cultural shifts are of a different nature. The ’60s produced a large body of art — both Pop and Conceptual — which resisted metaphor and was later synthesized by the ’70s “pictures generation” artists. But at the same time that this work resisted metaphor, it simultaneously helped open up space for a reinvigoration of metaphor and symbolism, a space that was filled by artists from Kenneth Anger to Martin Luther King (see “” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop“). Our moment now is different from the ’60s in many ways, but I think we are seeing a similar opening for a resurgence of the poetic, largely lacking from the artwork of “the pictures generation.”

So while I found the pieces at the New Museum generally stale and incoherent (see “Deep Breathing” by Cao Fei above), it’s not because the artists are simply rehashing  Barbara Kruger or Jack Goldstein. It’s because the artists in the show generally don’t meet the poetic demands of the moment. They’re caught, unable to take the extra-historical viewpoint of their ’70s counterparts, but unwilling to make the poetic commitments of earlier artists. That’s not to say that other young artists aren’t invoking the past with an incantatory symbolization: it’s just not apparent in the vast majority of the pieces in “Younger than Jesus.”

Aaron Curry’s sculptures and prints (see “Cosmic Knot #2″ above) at Michael Werner wove found material and invocation of modernist artworks together in a way that revealed, in the words of Bruce Hainley, “an artist who wishes to make thrilling rather than pernicious the attempt to wrest from the global barrage something inappropriable, irreducible, and questioning, which acknowledges what comes before it, culturally, and from where it arrives without merely desecrating it.” I sense in Hainley’s words (which come from the catalog for the show) a suggestion of the kind of invocation Verwoert proposes. Curry’s show is a thriller, raising the spectre of modernism dwelling somewhere in the water of our reservoirs — not as a chilling memory, but as a living ghost prepared to inhabit our fields, our livestock, our bodies.

UPDATE: This interview with Bruce High Quality Foundation in Art in America seems too pertinent not to add here. From the discussion of Sept 11 as their “creation myth” to the invocation of multiple histories, there are a lot of parallels between this post and the interview. Although I visited the Bruce High Quality studio during my trip, their recent show had just come down, so I missed their new work both in the gallery and in the studio — otherwise they may have made it into the original post.

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Sat, May 23
8:00 pm	to	11:00 pm

Our final show with Richie Budd will be May 23rd – FREE BYOB

Body:

This party will be Richie’s last show with us. He is moving in June. We will be providing a keg of beer, bubbles, fog and trippy lights and a solid night of the most kick-ass local music in San Antonio. If you think the last part of that statement is incorrect, show up and be proven wrong. Pygmaeus will be joining us and it will be pretty much non-stop rock and roll from like 8ish until 11. It’s totally FREE, BYOB situation, keg, ALL AGES. Ask us if you want directions. It’s on the Northwest side of town. It’s Saturday May 23rd. Come celebrate with us.

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Tue, May 5
4:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

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Fri, May 8
6:00 pm	to	9:00 pm

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Sat, May 16
11:00 am	to	1:00 pm

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Thu, May 7
7:00 pm	to	11:00 pm

Savor the Arts

A moveable feast, Savor the Arts is a delicious and fun look at the annual All-School Exhibition, a juried show of the best student, faculty and guest work held each spring in the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries on the Navarro Campus.

Patrons enjoy food donated by a wide variety of San Antonio’s best restaurants and caterers, live music and the opportunity to be the first to purchase works of art in the All-School Exhibition.

First-time patrons also obtain a complimentary one-year Family Membership, and proceeds benefit the Young Artist Programs.

The eighth annual friendraiser event to benefit
The Young Artists Program

Thursday, May 7, 2009
7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Navarro Campus

Complimentary libations plus culinary creations
by some of San Antonio’s finest chefs!

MUSIC
DJ JJ Lopez

ART
The SSAC’s Juried and Invitational All-School Exhibition
in the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries
offers for sale over 75 works of art by faculty, students and
friends of the school.

TICKETS
$55 per person, $80 per person or $125 per person

All attendees at the $55 level receive a Family Membership for one year
All attendees at the $80 level receive a Patron Membership, and
those at the $125 level receive a Bronze Angel Membership.

RSVP
Please call Stephanie Peché Canales at
ext. 306

$2,500 CHEF D’ CUISINE SPONSORS

$1,000 GOURMET SPONSORS
Krause Family Foundation
James G. Lifshutz

Special Thanks to:
Kim Burke and Joe Baker
The Gambrinus Company

Alamo Beer Company

Bin 555/The Lodge Restaurant of Castle Hills

Columbia Culinary Team

Cool Café

Madhatters Tea House & Café

Mangos at El Tropicano Hotel

Neiman Marcus Mariposa Restaurant

Orderup

Page Barteau Catering

Paloma Blanca/Vela Wine Bar

Paloma River Walk

Patty Lou’s Restaurant

Picante Grill

Sweet Designs Bake Shop

Tiago’s Cabo Grill

True Flavors Catering

Tycoon Flats

Twin Sisters Bakery & Café

Ricky A. Garza
Libby D. Tilley
Co-Chairs

Kimberly and Tom Archer
Cynthia and Taylor Collins
Paula Cox
Debra and Terive Duperier
Courtney and Brad Duphorne
Carra Garza
Jerry L. Gore
Charles Haile and Joyce Janota
Anne and Paul Krause
Ana Montoya
Cynthia Muñoz
Brad Parman
Caroline and Robert Schupbach
Josie and Frates Seeligson
Rob Simons
Suzanne Taranto
Jose Vega

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Sat, May 2
3:00 pm	to	5:00 pm

Six Years Later Unit B gallery May 2 – May 2, 2009 “Six Years Later reunites artists and friends Matt Hanner and Stephen Lapthisophon for a second time at Unit B. Both artists originally exhibited Autumn Almanac (2003), a collaborative mixed-media installation that was shown at Unit B in its Chicago years.”

Unit B gallery http://www.unitbgallery.com/ 500 Stieren San Antonio, TX 78210

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Fri, May 1
8:00 pm	to	11:59 pm

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Thu, May 14
6:30 pm	to	8:00 pm

Opening Reception and Walk-Thru: Jonathan Monk: Rew-shay Hood Project
Join us on opening night of the 09.2 Hudson (Show)Room exhibition debuting a new body of work by Berlin-based British artist Jonathan Monk. He has transformed Ed Ruscha’s celebrated photographs of gasoline stations from the early 1960s into a series of painted hoods taken from muscle cars made in the same year as Ruscha’s original pictures. Gallery walk-thru with the artist at 7pm. On view through September 6.

WindowWorks: Mimi Kato
Peruse the Main Avenue windows from outdoors or step inside for an art experience! Mimi Kato creates computer-generated self-portraits and animations informed by the folk tales she heard as a child. By photographing herself dressed in costume with animal masks, she explores the implications of her dual heritage. On view through September 20.

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Sat, May 9
7:00 pm	to	10:00 pm

Suburban Fragments – John Davis @ FL!GHT Gallery

Second Saturday

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Sat, May 2
2:00 pm	to	3:00 pm

Conception/Realization: James Hetherington Recent Works
Bihl Haus Arts
Gallery talk Saturday, May 2, 2 pm
Through May 16.
“Although he began his career as a painter, in recent years James Hetherington has primarily exhibited sculpture. He has said that while continuing to investigate abstract formal issues, he has moved his focus more and more toward public sculpture. By contrast, the current exhibition highlights two-dimensional works that contribute to the conceptualization and realization of the larger public commissions and includes artist’s documents, sketches and maquettes for those works.”

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Fri, May 1
6:00 pm	to	10:00 pm

Kelly O’Connor’s “Magnetic Fields” with Jan Tipps and Jonathan Mergele at Joan Grona

REM Gallery Blue Star Arts Complex, 120 Blue Star, No. 1, . “Past Imperfect,” prints, wall relief and sculpture by Dennis Olsen. 6-9 p.m. opening reception.

ArteReyes Studios Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo St., No. 104J, . “Figments,” works by Karl Frey. 7-10 p.m. opening reception.

Cactus Bra Space Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo St., No. 106C, 210) 226-6688. “Wall Works,” sculptures by Gregory Elliot. 6-9 p.m. opening reception.

El Sol Studios 936 S. Alamo St., . “Enmascarados IV: Homage to Lucha Libre,” paintings, drawings, photos, mixed media, prints, sculpture and video by more than a dozen artists. 6-11 p.m. opening reception with live music by Xemilla.

Hildebrand Art Gallery 735 W. Hildebrand Ave., . “San Juan,” by G. Hallmark; “Changes of Fortune” and “Cowboy Church” by Bradley Schmehl; “Three Hands and a Hound,” by G. Harvey; “Cactus Patch” by Zeke.

San Angel Folk Art Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo St., No. 110, . “Beep Beep Robot Show,” recycled/found-item works. 5-7 p.m. opening reception.

SAY Sí Central 1518 S. Alamo St., . “On the Threshold,” Senior Thesis Exhibit featuring paintings, photography, film projects and a video installation. 6-9 p.m. opening reception.

Stonemetal Press Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo St., No. 104, . “Hand-Pulled Prints XIV International Exhibition,” prints from artists around the world. Reception and gallery talk is 6-8 p.m. Thursday.

Rex Hausmann: Revisitation Blue Star Contemporary Art Center Opens Thursday, Apr. 30, 6-8 pm Through June 14. “Constructed for Blue Star, Revisitation is currently Rex Hausmann’s largest and most ambitious work-to-date. A wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-ceiling riot of thought and colour inspired by The Last Supper, this maximalist tableaux represents the artist as both circus ringleader and its own human cannon ball. Whether it is Leonardo da Vinci or Jacopo Basano, Mary Beth Edelson or David La Chapelle, Andy Warhol or Damien Hirst, mom or dad, collaborator or artist– there is more than one arm reaching across Rex Hausmann’s table.”

Kelly O’Connor: Magnetic Fields Joan Grona Gallery Opens Thursday, Apr. 30, 6-9 pm Through June 26. Using images from the more nostalgic and melancholic era of Disney, O’Connor’s collages harken back to her childhood, while disguising her adult experiences and fantasies.

Cornelia White Swann: Entre Los Dos UTSA Satellite Space Opens Thursday, Apr. 30, 6-9 pm & Friday, May 1, 6-9 pm Through May 24. UTSA is hosting Cornelia White Swann’s MFA Thesis Exhibit, featuring her new paintings on paper. These bold and glossy works and definitely worth a look!

Carlos Daniel Donjuan: Tierra Nueva UTSA Satellite Space Opens Thursday, Apr. 30, 6-9 pm & Friday, May 1, 6-9 pm Through May 24. “Donjuan’s paintings explore the tension between his Mexican roots and American cultures that he has experienced since moving to this country.”

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