The Russell Hills Rogers Gallery, located at the UTSA Southwest Campus, showcases the artworks of students in the Masters of Fine Arts program from April 25 to May 10. The exhibition features artists Samantha Altamirano, Isaac Grigar, Bri McDonald and Claribel Olivas. The gallery is free and open to the public from Thursday to Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The gallery’s artworks comment on destruction, becoming and legacy. The mediums range from performance art to paintings on the gallery’s walls.
Grigar’s “Hail- Bile of a Dying Empire” — part of his 20-piece collection, “In A Zombie Empire” — sits in the back corner of the exhibit. The piece, completed using oil, acrylic and enamel paint on tarp, invokes the imagery of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollock. Drops of paint demonstrate the degrading nature of a civilization. A star on the left reads “Spare Me,” highlighting an empire’s nature to disregard the individual and focus on the larger system. Throughout “In A Zombie Empire,” Grigar comments on the fascist nature of human history, with imagery taken from wartime efforts, such as the Star of David and the peace symbol derived from Britain’s attempts at nuclear disarmament.
Altamirano takes a familial approach to legacy by including pictures, letters and invitations from family in the Rio Grande Valley. Altamirano’s installation pieces include a dining table, part of “Remnants,” “In Another Life” and “As We See It,” and a wooden shack titled “A Fractured Inheritance.”
The dining table positions a traditionally intimate space for communion among family and friends as a nexus of memory. A small ceramic house sits in the middle of the table, with photographs of ancestors and relatives positioned asymmetrically. The ceramic house is bleak and closed, leaving viewers struggling to see inside.
“A Fractured Inheritance” features a larger house painted white, pink, purple and blue with leaves sprinkled in and around the structure. The split-open house invites onlookers to venture inside the desolate space with haphazardly painted walls. Walking into the space, one hears the echoes of leaves crunching, a reminder of the piece’s isolation. The house’s barrenness contrasts the dining table’s closed off yet lively nature.
The exhibit will be on display until May 10, with a reception being held on May 9 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Marcus W Clarke’s “Feast Day” is on display off-campus at the Dock Space Gallery Annex, located at 107 Lone Star Blvd. Clarke will have a reception on May 10 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. His work will be on display from May 9 to May 27 and can be accessed by appointment.
