On Thursday, March 25, 2021, we hosted a virtual opening of our Spring 2021 International Artists-in-Residence exhibitions! The artists lived and worked at Artpace creating new work. During this video, the artists will virtually walk us through their exhibitions.
Spring 2021 International Artists-in-Residence
Adrian Aguilera (Monterrey, Mexico/Austin, TX)
Nazafarin Lotfi (Tucson, AZ/ Chicago, IL/Mashhad, Iran)
Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere (Brooklyn, NY)
Selected by Spring 2021 Guest Curator, Gilbert Vicario
in the co-confluence of the civilizations in the americas, artist Adrian Aguilera investigates the world of invisible laborers and the expanded economies in which they are involved. Aguilera particularly notes how invisible laborers play a large part in the Contemporary Art world, as in one artwork in the exhibition that lists “immigrant skilled labor compensation and floating device” as the medium. Using the Artpace residency as a tool for researching invisible labor in the arts, the exhibition displays Adrain’s findings through video installation, non-conventional prints, and more.
Nazafarin Lotfi’s exhibition, all things that grow, utilizes various mediums, which spark sensations and desires that alter the gallery space. Inspired by gardens in the ancient Iranian plateau, all things that grow features prints, fountains, photographs, and drawings that speak to a utopian image of the world, which is both a tool for liberation and exploitation. Lotfi explains, “…the gardens are relevant alternative spaces for unrealized dreams and possibilities. The utopian imagination they offer can be understood as a tool to fight oppression.”
Twenty-one Silent Stages: A Ballad duo Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere investigates a unique moment when venues around the world have shut down due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Photographs of empty stages and venues around San Antonio project an eerie silence while a flashing neon light in the building lobby, created by Nevarez and Tevere, alternates between the words, “postponed, rescheduled, canceled.” Through this exhibition, the artists process the pandemic’s impact on both a global and personal scale.
The International Artist-in-Residence program is sponsored by the Linda Pace Foundation, the City of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation of the San Antonio Area Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
