Review

A review of The New Old San Antonio: Tales from the Little Big Town

Jung Hee Mun, "Heed, Forbearing Grey," graphite, pen and marker on cut paper. Image: photo Darin White, courtesy of the artist, Hausmann Millworks, and b.a.l.m.

Lawrence Arts Center
Lawrence, Kansas
April 29 — June 17, 2011

San Antonio, Texas, artist and mover/shaker Rex Hausmann has been making a name for himself in recent years, showing his work in galleries across the country and internationally. But Hausmann took a break from self-promotion when he began conceiving The New Old San Antonio: Tales From the Little Big Town, an exhibition on display now at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, Kansas.

“I wanted to show the world my friends,” Hausmann says. “I eat lunch with these people every week. We all want to get out there, and this show is about getting out there and seeing what happens.”

Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz, "In the Mirror of your "I" … Mil Mascaras," oil and pastel on canvas. Image: photo, Darin White, courtesy of the artist, Hausmann Millworks, and b.a.l.m.

The New Old San Antonio showcases works by 33 artists who have strong ties to the city of San Antonio. Organizers Rex Hausmann and Darin White chose a group of artists who varied in theme, approach, and level of experience — and then selected pieces that worked together as a whole. The resulting exhibition is a mix of work that paints the city as a diverse and vibrant arts community.

White and Hausmann first began working with each other in 2009, when Hausmann had an installation piece in The White Show, put on by White’s b.a.l.m. artist group at the Signs of Life Gallery in Lawrence. Coming off of a string of showings in major US cities, Hausmann says he was a bit skeptical at first when a friend contacted him insisting that he participate in the exhibition. But when Hausmann arrived to see the exhibition, he was blown away by the quality of the works produced by local artists.

“I was like, ‘Wow, Lawrence, Kansas, is on my map now,” Hausmann says.

In 2010, The White Show traveled to San Antonio and was enthusiastically received by the art patrons and enthusiasts there. Energized by the success of that show, the pair decided to work together again. Hausmann selected a group of artists that he felt represented the Texas city, and White acted as the show’s curator. An artist first and foremost, White says it was challenging to piece the exhibition together.

“It’s a learned art, and I’m trying to learn it,” White says.

White selected the works for the current exhibition with the goal of establishing some form of dialog with the viewers, and one of the themes White found in many of the works was a conversation on identity.

“It (San Antonio) really is like a border town, so there is a dialog of culture, and many of these artists have this dialog: ‘Am I Mexican? Am I American? Who am I?’” White says.

Avi Avalos, installation view in San Antonio of "Campos Soup Cans," 55-gallon drums and paint, 48" x 24" (diameter) each, 2010. Image: courtesy of the artist, Hausmann Millworks, and b.a.l.m.

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Kyle Martin, "Texas Honky Tonks," photograph. Image: courtesy of the aritst, Hausmann Millworks, and b.a.l.m.

That idea is immediately apparent to gallery viewers in Avi Avalos’s Soup Cans, which is positioned just inside the Lawrence Arts Center’s front doors. With a pyramid of 55-gallon drums painted to resemble soup cans, Avalos makes an obvious reference to the American art of Andy Warhol. But these aren’t Campbell’s soup cans, they’re labeled “Campos,” and come in distinctly Mexican varieties such as Barbacoa and Menudo.

White also took care to arrange the pieces in a way that they could interact with each other. A prime example of this is the neighboring of works by Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz and David Almaguer. Both paintings center on images of lucha libre wrestlers, but each conveys a different idea. The Rodriguez-Diaz piece, In the Mirror of Your “I” … Mil Mascaras, pairs a black-and-white image of the famous Mexican wrestler’s masked face with a vivid red background patterned to resemble lace. The painting’s stark contrast of color and massive canvas give the subject a larger-than-life feel. Meanwhile, a few feet away, Almaguer’s The Gun Show portrays a young boy wearing a similar mask and flexing his (very small) muscles at the viewer. The painting’s pastel greens and purples echo the youth of its subject, as its slight imperfections play on the boy’s amateur nature. White says the two paintings are representative of where the artists are in their careers, with the large painting of the famous wrestler coming from the well established Rodriguez-Diaz, and the smaller painting of the young boy coming from Almaguer, who is more of an emerging artist.

David Almaguer, "The Gun Sho," aerosol on panel, 2009. Image: photo, Darin White, courtesy of the artist, Hausmann Millworks, and b.a.l.m.

One of the exhibition’s most attention-grabbing works is one not present in the gallery, however. In a piece titled Make It Look Rich, performance artist Jimmy Kuehnle took to the streets of Lawrence April 29 in a humongous inflatable suit. Kuehnle marched from the Spencer Museum of Art to Lawrence’s downtown area through the crowds gathering for the monthly Final Fridays gallery crawl events, barreling through everything — and everyone — in his way. Kuehnle picked up a group of curious followers as he went along, leading his parade to the Lawrence Arts Center for the opening of The New Old San Antonio.

Jimmy Kuehnle, still from performance of "Make it Look Rich," April 29 in Lawrence, Kansas. Image: photo, courtesy of the artist, Hausmann Millworks, and b.a.l.m.

Note:
The Lawrence Arts Center and Tales from the Little Big Town are open and welcome you during this month's Final Friday events, May 27. You can see more photos from the opening night on b.a.l.m.'s Flickr site. The exhibition includes the work of: David Alcantar
, David Almaguer, 
Arturo Almeida, 
Joseph Alamendares
, Fernando Andrade
, Avi Avalos, 
Kim Bishop
, Rolando Briseño, 
Victoria Campbell, 
Jimmy James Canales, 
Danville Chadbourne, 
Jonathan Cowan
, John Davis
, Bill FitzGibbons, 
Aaron Hans Forland, 
Mark Gelatt
, Larry Graeber, 
Jimmy Kuehnle, 
Marilyn Lanfear
, Jayne Lawrence
, Pedro Lujan
, Kyle Martin
, Jung Hee Mun
, Chuck Ramirez, 
Kevin Rayhons, 
Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz, 
Morgan Santander, 
Ansen Seale, 
Ethel Shipton
, Russell Stephenson, 
Gary Sweeney, 
Louis Vega Treviño
, and Marc Weigand

-re-

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