Media Advisory:
Window Works: Ethel Shipton
05.31.06
Media Contact: Libby D. Tilley
t 210 212 4900 x122
f 210 212 4990
ltilley@artpace.org
www.artpace.org
WHAT
On an ongoing basis Artpace organizes projects for its busy, downtown windows on N. Main Avenue, activating the art viewing experience from the sidewalk level. The program demonstrates Artpace?commitment to extending the dialogue about contemporary art beyond traditional gallery spaces, and in this spirit, Artpace organizes WindowWorks projects beyond its own building, and deeper into downtown with several projects in the windows of the Stuart Building at 306 E. Houston St.
WHO
Whether making a mark on paper, a sculpture for the gallery wall, or an intervention in the public realm, San Antonio-based Ethel Shipton consistently challenges context and draws on the power of the unexpected. In one ongoing series, Shipton upholsters basketball hoops, skateboards, baseballs, and axes with color vinyl, boldly feminizing traditionally masculine objects to comment on our highly gendered landscape. A project commissioned in 2004 considered the art and non-art visitors to a newly built San Antonio bus station. Shipton tinted its windows blue, yellow, red, and green, and applied the words Grace, Listen, Talk, and Forward, evocative gestures encouraging interaction between the station?strangers.
Shipton?WindowWorks project will engage the multiple audiences of Artpace?windows on Main Avenue and at Houston Street: museum visitors, nearby high school students, office workers, and downtown drivers. Critically reflecting on the increased speed of life, the piece will feature red vinyl letters reading WHERE ARE WE GOING superimposed over a drawn highway scene. The work is a poignant reminder to slow down and consider both the journey and the goal.
Ethel Shipton lives and works in San Antonio. She has exhibited throughout Texas, with solo shows at Sala Diaz Gallery, San Antonio, and Women and Their Work, Austin. Recent group exhibitions include Piecework, Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, TX; Drawing in San Antonio, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; and Big as Texas, Diverseworks, Houston, TX.
WHEN
June 15 ?ptember 10, 2006
WHERE
Artpace San Antonio - 445 N. Main Avenue
Stuart Building - 306 E. Houston St.
CONTACT
Libby D. Tilley, Artpace (ltilley@artpace.org) – 210 212 4900
445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org
© 2006 Artpace San Antonio