Window Works
Brown Style
September 20 > December 30, 2012 

ABOUT THE ARTIST COLLECTIVE
Más Rudas is comprised of four artists: painter Ruth Buentello, textile artist Sarah Castillo, filmmaker Kristin Gamez, and photographer Mari Hernandez. The collective formed in 2009 with Our Debut, an exhibition based on the idea of producing a feminist art show with a Chicana point of view. In 2010, Más Rudas created Homegirls, the resulting exhibition of a one-week residency at Slanguage in Los Angeles, California. The group has exhibited at Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, and was featured in the spring 2012 issue of the Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. The artists maintain their individual studio practices while working and exhibiting together as a collective, as each of their separate artistic practices informs and ignites the other.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Brown Style is a multimedia installation presenting the people, places, and events embedded in Más Rudas’ Chicana upbringing. The exhibition traces the artists’ childhood experiences and route into the art world. A collage of sculpture, text, photography, painting, and other items of material culture represents the memories that have led them to their collective practice and anchor the group.

Facing Main Street, enlarged prints of the artists’ baby photos line the windows and welcome the community to look inside. Outside, the sounds of cicadas and cheerful popular music from the 1950s and 1960s linger in the air. Inside, the gallery space is gently framed by sky blue walls with clouds, city buildings, and vintage family photos. The warm lighting, antique floral print wallpaper, and textiles transform the gallery into a safe, inviting, home-like haven. However, upon closer inspection, the work details darker experiences of anxieties in adulthood.

Brown Style exalts Más Rudas’ perspective as Chicana artists in San Antonio, championing their cultural upbringing and roots that shape their contemporary artistic practice. They assert that “many artists resist the term Chicana in fear of being pigeonholed and excluded from the art world. We feel that our Chicana identity does not hinder or limit us.”

Inspiration for the title Brown Style comes from: Márez, Curtis. “Brown: The Politics of Working-Class Chicano Style.” Social Text. 48 (1996): pp. 109 -132

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Presented in Artpace San Antonio’s Main Avenue windows, Window Works projects activate the art-viewing experience from the street level, extending the dialogue about contemporary art beyond traditional gallery spaces. This exhibition is supported in part by The Cultural Collaborative, a division of the City of San Antonio’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

Image credit: Photo by Wendi Kimura

Part of the students’ time at Artpace is spent participating in a hands-on creative activity. As you can see, 12.1 HSR artist Tony Feher’s blue painters tape was their inspiration today. As Feher says, his art was developed at quite an early age; everything he knows now, he learned in first grade. Check out the future artists we had on hand today.

Image credits: Photos by Marjory Newman

I learned that an artist put tape on a window for decoration because the window had broken but they replaced with a clear glass and that’s how he got the idea.

The students also learned about Artpace’s International Artist-in-Residency program during their tour. Here’s the students summary of our signature program, second-grade style:

I learned that an artist can make anything they want and I learned that [every] two months the artist has two months and then the artist goes home and another artist comes and works for two months.

Click the image on the right to read the full version of the student’s reflections. If you need a translation from second-grade speak, let us know!

Image credits: (Top) Tony Feher, Thomas Hoving, 2012. Detail. Photo by Todd Johnson; (middle) Second grade students tour Artpace’s 12.1 Hudson (Show)Room exhibition; (bottom) A student shares thoughts about the work of Tony Feher, Judith Cottrell, and the IAIR program at Artpace

At Artpace, today’s artists are setting the foundation for tomorrow. Through our residency, exhibition, and education programs, the future is defined by creative culture, whether we’re nurturing the career of an emerging talent or engaging our youth audiences in conversations about contemporary art.

On Saturday, April 14, we will give you a glimpse into a fantastical world where art is the future at our annual fundraising gala, with signature cocktails, exquisite cuisine, and the most notorious dance party of the season, all set amidst new exhibitions by 2012 International Artists-in-Residence Adam Pendleton, James Sham, and Florian Slotawa, as well as Hudson (Show)Room artist Tony Feher and Window Works artist Judith Cottrell.

Special thanks to media sponsor Texas Monthly.

This evening, Robinson will be working it at cactus bra SPACE, where he will debut his newest sculpture. Her name is Maryanne, and you can learn more about her (and Riley) here. The opening reception is from 6-8pm tonight, with a First Friday reception from 6-9pm tomorrow night.

In fact, there are a LOT of openings and happenings this evening, as Contemporary Art Month kicks off in San Antonio. Check out the CAM calendar for events and details.

Image credit: Riley Robinson, Maryanne, 2012

Eighth grade students in the Semester Program at Irving Academy are also learning about the intersection of art and technology—they have already built pinhole cameras out of juice boxes, and are now building cameras from more than 40 parts! On Irving’s tour of Artpace last Tuesday, February 21, students thought about what it meant for Cottrell to tell a machine to make her marks. One student thought it was better for the artist to do the drawing, because she was free to pick up her hand and move to another area of the window—unlike the limited machine. Other students noticed that the machine wasn’t perfect, and pointed out a wayward line. (In one window pane, there is evidence of when the drawing machine had a mind of its own.)

Back inside the Window Works gallery, which is the back side of Cottrell’s work, students considered other features of Mr. Drew and In the Window. They talked about the warm, cozy, butter-yellow curtains lining the window behind the artist’s first machine-made drawing of a cat. They listened to the marker’s consistent, soothing creaks as the machine moved it in tight loops across the glass. Sounds like a creaking rocking chair? Or the first notes of a cicada? On their Artpace tour, students discovered ambiguity in art—and perhaps pondered how special it is that an artist can make machine act… human.

Want to be a part of In the Window? Friend Drawbot in the Window on Facebook and learn how to submit a picture to be considered for one of the images drawn by Mr. Drew in Cottrell’s In the Window.

Image credits: (Top) Judith Cottrell, In the Window, 2012. Detail. Photo by Todd Johnson. (Bottom) Behind the scenes of Cottrell’s Window Works installation at Artpace. Photo by Todd Johnson

On Thursday, March 1, the winner will be honored in a coronation ceremony at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, with this handmade crown—“Functional on the outside, glamorous on the inside, and fantastic all around!”—designed by artist (and IAIR 99.3 resident) Chris Sauter.

Artpace will continue the festivities the following day with a special edition of Taco Friday: CAM Kickoff. Celebrate with us and our Taco Truck-in-Residence, which pulls up to the courtyard at noon and takes lunch orders until 2pm (cash only). We will also have 10-minute Tours of our exhibitions at 12:30 & 1pm, and a super fun taco-making creative project with local artist Kimberly Aubuchon. And music! We will have awesome music, featuring DJ Steven Lee Moya. (You and your dancing feet may know him as the resident DJ at Artpace Alliance vendor Ocho at The Havana.)

And maybe… just maybe… if we’re lucky, the newly crowned Miss CAM Antonio will grace us with her royal presence at Taco Friday, beginning his or her reign with all the beauty and tacos befitting a true queen.

Image credit: Photo by Chris Sauter

“I want to encourage new approaches to ‘making’ a drawing with students,” explains Cottrell. Participants will have the opportunity to work with the artist and engage in an interactive gallery visit, hands-on activities and creative projects, and colleague discussions—what’s more, the workshop is worth four Professional Continuing Education (CPE) credits.

There is a $30 fee for this Teacher Workshop, which runs from 10am to 2pm and includes lunch. Space is limited, so register by February 22; call 210.212.4900 or email education@artpace.org. Come with your thoughts open to contemporary art and leave with innovative ideas ready for your classroom.

Image credit: Judith Cottrell, In the Window, 2012. Installation view. Photo courtesy of the artist

Cottrell’s own drawing style integrates several layers, often different media, built up over an extended period of time. After explaining her 12.1 In the Window installation at Artpace, Cottrell guided our teens through the process of making their own multi-layered drawings. Taping techniques, watercolor washes, and image transfers set the perfect stage for their low-tech drawing machines to complete their works.

One young artist learned to embrace spontaneity is his art, commenting, “Do what ya feel like, when concerning art, don’t plan.” We love that everyone was able to enjoy the unexpected results and creative combinations that could be made with the techniques Cottrell shared, and can’t wait to hear what the robots are off to create next.

Teachers, your chance to learn how to incorporate this type of technology into your classrooms will happen on Saturday, February 25, when Cottrell presents Teacher Workshop: Drawn to Technology.

Image credit: A low-tech drawing machine in action! Photo by Kaela Hoskings