Press Release: Franco Mondini Ruiz

08.15.96

THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

NEW WORKS: 96.3

Esko MŠnnikkš OULU, FINLAND

Xu Bing - New York, NEW YORK

Franco Mondini Ruiz - SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Exhibition: September 13 - October 13

The International Artist-in-Residence Program sponsored by ArtPace, A Foundation
for Contemporary Art | San Antonio presents New Works: 96.3, a series of three
installations by artists living and working at ArtPace. Esko MŠnnikkš, Xu Bing, and
Franco Mondini Ruiz were selected by Maaretta Jaukkuri, Chief Curator of the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, for the annual exhibition at ArtPace organized
by a guest curator.

Franco Mondini Ruiz

Mondini Ruiz lives in San Antonio, where he was born in 1961. Retiring from a
successful career as a lawyer only a few years ago, Mondini Ruiz is currently the owner
of Infinito Botanica and Gift Shop, where the original botanica's merchandise is
supplemented by Mexican and precolumbian artifacts, thrift store merchandise and
artworks by himself and others in Texas and Mexico. In Infinito Botanica at
ArtPace, Mondini Ruiz presents a varied array of botanical candles and medicines,
knickknacks and trinkets, candies and food, and original works of art. Displayed on slabs
and pedestals, the objects are offered for sale to gallery visitors. As a Latino artist
inspired by the diversity of San Antonio, South Texas, and Mexico, Mondini Ruiz
challenges our assumptions about high and low art, dominant culture and the Other, and
elitism and inclusiveness.

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