After walking up the restored concrete stairs of a nearly hundred-year-old building, visitors are absorbed into Artpace’s featured pieces. Here, their eyes are overwhelmed by a large white room completely filled with contemporary prints, each displaying intriguing subject matters and having gone through complex printing processes.
Earlier this year, Artpace held its Spring 2015 Hudson (Show) Room opening, “Hare & Hound Press + Artpace: The Art of Collaboration,” a retrospective of Artpace’s partnership with Hare & Hound Press, and commemoration of Artpace’s 20th anniversary.
Some of these pieces cause viewers to stand back and reflect on the prints’ simplistic compositions ,while others have viewers peering in close to try to grasp every meticulously placed line.
Since Linda Pace founded Artpace in 1995, it has served as a residency program for contemporary artists. Three times a year, Artpace houses regional, national and international artists for six-to-eight weeks. After the artists finish their residency, the artwork they created is exhibited. Since opening, Artpace has housed and exhibited the works of over 200 artists.
A collaborative fine art printmaking studio in San Antonio, Hare & Hound Press was founded in 1993 by Janet Flohr and is currently co-run with Gary Nicholas. The company is passionate about producing high quality print editions and works on paper.
For the past seventeen years, Hare & Hound Press has collaborated with Artpace’s residency program and exhibiting artists. In 1997, it made a photogravure print for Artpace’s exhibiting artist Kent Rush, and in 1999, Hare & Hound Press worked with residency artists Arturo Herrera and Isaac Julien. Today, Hare & Hound Press has worked with 33 of Artpace’s artists, producing a total of 58 exhibitions.
The printer’s proofs of these editions are currently being exhibited in Artpace’s Hudson (Show) Room. The exhibition displays the talent and innovation of the artists who have worked with Artpace and the technical skills and professionalism of Hare & Hound Press. The exhibition includes works from San Antonio natives Jesse Amado, Dario Robleto and Vincent Valdez as well as the works of many others from Texas, the U.S. and around the world.
This exhibition was made possible by a generous gift from Hare & Hound Press to the Linda Pace Foundation. The gift increased the Linda Pace Foundation’s art collection from 620 pieces to approximately 800 pieces. Although it is independent from Artpace, the Linda Pace Foundation was also founded by Linda Pace to assist in the funding of contemporary artists and art organizations.
On March 19, Artpace also had its Spring 2015 Artist-In-Residency opening. Guest curator Cesar Garcia selected three progressive contemporary artists for the Spring 2015 Residency Program: Autumn Knight from Houston, Texas; Henry Taylor from Los Angeles, California; and Oscar Murillo from La Paila, Columbia and London, England. These artists use different mediums, including performance, installation and video art as well as painting and sculpture, to express ideas on topics like cultural identity, consumerism and modern society and more. The Artist-In-Residency exhibition will be open to the public until May 17.
Artpace and its staff is avid support for the contemporary art scene in San Antonio. In addition to their openings, each year Artpace holds a handful of events that work to inform and educate the public about contemporary art. Artpace’s annual events, like Chalk-It-Up and Family Day, bring the community together and strive to fulfill San Antonio’s need for a place to discuss and create art. A list of events can be found on their website artpace.org.
“Hare & Hound Press + Artpace: The Art of Collaboration” will be open through May 17, 2015. Located on the corner of N. Main Avenue and Savings Street in downtown San Antonio. Artpace is free and open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
