City Maps

02.05.04

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2004

CONTACT: Trisha Tanner

210.212.4900 x117/ttanner@artpace.org

City Maps

February 5 - April 18, 2004

San Antonio, TX rtPace announces City Maps, an exhibition featuring artists Erik
Benson (Brooklyn, NY), Janice Caswell (New York, NY), Alex Lopez (San Antonio,
TX), and Ruth Root (New York, NY). City Maps presents works that create links
between memory, perception, and physicality to convey personal understandings of
place. Join the artists in dialogue on April 1, 2004.

About the Artists

Erik Benson's panoramic paintings suggest an urban space where architecture displaces
those who use it. Focusing on the way we move through parks and streets, Benson hints
at how those spaces exist in memory, and proposes that architecture gives life to us just
as we bring life to it. Benson's work has been exhibited at RARE, New York, NY (2003),
Finesilver / FYI, San Antonio, TX (2003), and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY
(2002).

Janice Caswell connects swarms of colored dots with drawn lines?cing human
(and sometimes animal) movements to create delicate, bird's eye views of how urban
space is traversed. Her slight gestures reveal how people use cities in ways that defy
careful structural planning. Caswell's work has been shown at the Aldrich Museum of
Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT (2003), Galerie Anne Barrault, Paris, France (2004),
and Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY (2003).

Alex Lopez's abstract "snapshots" of suburban infrastructure call attention to zones
that are frequently marginalized in portrayals of the city (parking lots, roadways, rivers,
streetlights)?ping what life looks like outside the city center. Lopez has been
included in exhibitions at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2003), the McNay Art
Museum, San Antonio, TX (2002), and McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX
(1999).

Ruth Root's irregularly shaped paintings resemble the jigsawed districts of many
growing cities?ging here and poking out there. These works bear a strong
resemblance to urban mapmaking and are reminders of the segmented way we think
about, and experience, urban space. Root's exhibitions include and Galleria Franco
Noero, Turin, Italy (2000), Seattle Art Museum, WA (2003, 2002), and P.S. 1
Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY (2000).

Related Events

ArtTalks 04 | City Maps: April 1, 2004, 6:30-8:30 PM

In an increasingly complex contemporary landscape, perceptions of the city are
constantly in flux. City Maps gathers four artists who create innovative "guides" to urban
space. Join ArtPace for a discussion about how lived experience and emotion can
transform our understandings of place. Artists Erik Benson, Janice Caswell, Alex Lopez,
and Ruth Root will participate in a conversation moderated by the exhibition's curator,
Kate Green, ArtPace Education and Curatorial Associate. Reception will follow.

ArtTalks is brings artists, critics, curators, and others to San Antonio to engage in
lively conversation about contemporary issues. In previous years Painting Out of Bounds
and transACTIONS have delved into current practices in painting and interactive
artworks, respectively.

omo Vives?: Ongoing

Students from Austin Elementary, Fox Tech High School, SAY S’, and San Anto
Cultural Arts will participate in a series of group projects resulting in artwork which will
be shared with the artists of City Maps. These works will be on view at the Central
Library's Youth Wired space (600 Soledad, San Antonio, TX 78205, 210.207.2500, TTY
210.207.2534). For more information, please contact ArtPace Education and Curatorial
Associate, Kate Green.

About ArtPace

ArtPace | San Antonio serves as an advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for
the creation of significant art projects. We seek to nurture emerging and established
artists and to provide opportunities for inspiration, experimentation, and education. Our
programs support the evolution of new ideas in contemporary art and cultivate diverse
audiences while providing a forum for ongoing dialogue.

ArtPace is located downtown at 445 N. Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin
streets, San Antonio, TX. Free parking is available on the corner of Savings and Flores
streets. ArtPace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5 PM, Thursday,
12-8 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org