Press Release: Regina Vater

05.15.99

THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

New Works: 99.2

Laura Aguilar, ROSEMEAD, CA

Mona Hatoum, LONDON, ENGLAND

Regina Vater, AUSTIN, TX

Exhibition: June 11, 1999 ?ly 18, 1999

Opening: Thursday, June 10, 1999, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artists' Dialogue: Friday, June 11, 1999 at 6:30 PM

ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art | San Antonio presents New Works:
99.2, a series of installations by the current participants of our International Artist-in-
Residence Program. An opening celebration will take place on Thursday, June 10, and
the following evening, Laura Cottingham, a New York-based art critic, will moderate an
artists' dialogue.

Regina Vater

Metaphysics and the cultural traditions of her Brazilian roots have been the primary
subjects of Regina Vater's long career. Since the 1970s, Vater has produced a wide range
of installation art, drawing inspiration from mythological themes related to indigenous
and Yoruba Brazil, especially with regard to notions of time. Her explorations of sacred
and ritualistic practices merge with her personal and social histories in works that
incorporate visual poetry, found objects and media to convey a universal sense of
healing. Vater's contributions to and investigations of Brazilian culture have been
significant and widely recognized.

At ArtPace, Vater presents an installation of new works in a variety of media,
including video installation, sculpture and artist books and prints. In this body of work
she employs a wide range of materials, including neon, video, hair, honey, shells,
furniture and popcorn, and references a diversity of sources. Also working in several
scales, she has divided the gallery space into a series of rooms, each housing a different
individual piece. The installation combines unexpected materials with poetic, mysterious
narratives, leaving the viewers to contemplate their relationship to natural, cultural and
metaphysical realms.

Regina Vater was born in 1943 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and studied architecture at
the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Currently, she lives and works in
Austin, TX. Since the 1960s, Vater has exhibited her work widely throughout Brazil and
the U.S., including solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janiero, Brazil;
the Museum of Brazilian Art, Sao Paulo; Pinacoteca do Estado, Sao Paulo, Brazil; the
Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (formerly the Huntington Art Gallery) at The University
of Texas at Austin; Donnell Library, New York; Southeast Museum of Photography,
Daytona Beach, FL; Mexic-Arte, Austin, TX; and Women and Their Work, Austin, TX.
She has participated in a large number of group exhibitions, including shows at the
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; San Diego Museum of Art, CA; The Clocktower
Gallery/P.S. 1, New York; Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore; National
Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and the National Royal Museum,
Antwerp, Belgium. Her work has been included in international festivals and biennials,
notably the 1988 Texas Triennial; the 1981 Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil; the 1976 Venice
Biennale, Italy; and the 1967 Paris Biennial, France.

Vater was selected by: Dan Cameron, Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, Amada Cruz, Kellie
Jones, Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Nancy Rubins

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