San Antonio gives weekly alternative media little to be proud of these days. The SA Current tried to cover up its fatuous reporting with an Eighties inspired graphic re-design but it looks like things are just getting pickled. I wrote a Letter to the Editor, Elaine Wolff, last month for her derogatory and vapid review of the Olmos Famous Show at Galeria Ortiz [Curated by Franco Mondini-Ruiz]. You can’t read it because there is no archival search engine on SA Current’s sparkling new website. Although Wolff posted the letter on her blog, she never published it in the print version.

Wolff is under some serious heat for her dubious coverage of one Mikal Watts and her husband’s deep pockets that connect the local weekly editor to a Texas lawyer’s run for Senate. Did I mention her husband, Michael Westheimer, is a Zoning Commissioner? I’m still working on this story but you can read the Express-News [read Aug. 23 post] and local muckraker, Barbara Gonzalez coverage of the ongoing discussion. In the meantime, I wanted to get things started after I waited a few weeks for possible publication of my letter. I am posting Wolff’s response in tandem. In addition, Wolff just fired news staff writer Kelly Dailey. Fellow writer Dave Maas just left the paper a few weeks ago to work for a weekly in Santa Fe after serious contentions over Wolff’s delayed disclosure.

More news later this week…
Here’s the letter and her response for the Olmos Famous Review:

Letter to the Editor,

Elaine, your recent review of the Olmos Famous group show contains inappropriate and demeaning content. Most importantly, you flippantly and deliberately insulted one of the most accomplished artists in San Antonio by referring to Franco Mondini Ruiz in this improvident manner> “…the artist swished among the crowd like a fairy godmother waving a VIP wand.” You are so clever. He’s gay and that’s a demographic to really dwell on, isn’t it? Never mind the fact that he won the Rome Prize and exhibited in the 2000 Whitney Biennial. Let’s see if your audience would be so condoning of the same tone for a black artist if you said “…the artist danced around as if in a colorful minstrel performance.” Your proclivity to derogate a kind friend and his curatorial endeavors certainly sets the tone for your publication to continuously set low standards in San Antonio.
How apropos is it that your Art Capades column was titled, “Olmos Being There?” Perhaps the icing on the cupcake lies in your dismissal of Alejandro Diaz’s artwork in New York City. You found his work unacceptable based on the perusal of a glossy, New York Magazine. Next time, don’t write about a show if you haven’t seen the installation in person. It’s the equivalent of writing a movie review based on the abstract and press kit that you get through the postal service.

Michelle Valdez

Elaine Wolff’s response:

Hi, Michelle.

I appreciate your comments as a fellow critic, but I think you misread the article, and took my comments regarding Franco out of context. I don’t think referring to someone as a fairy godmother is demeaning — he is like a fairy godmother, both to the public and to many young local artists. I’ve been a consistent champion of Franco’s work, mentioning often in print that he won the Rome Prize, writing about his influence on SA’s contemporary art scene through Infinito Botanica, and heavily complimenting High Pink (which is brilliant and appeared in the Best of SA that year).
I did not say that Alejandro’s work was bad, but drew a parallel between how, in my opinion, it appeared out of context in the magazine (glossy it is, but a good one nonetheless) and out of context in the Olmos Famous show. As I have been in the past, I was complimentary of Alejandro’s body of work, but I believe it needs more context than either the magazine photo or the Olmos Famous show gave it. It’s the opposite of a “dismissal.”
Elaine
Is it possible that most grown men enjoy being described as fairy godmothers? Doubtful.

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