August 12, 2017

Altered States was an exhibition featuring recent work by Dallas-based artist, Elaine Pawlowicz.  

In this series, Pawlowicz paints portraits of intoxicating plants. The style of her work is a type of magical realism where space is flat with an idiosyncratic perspective, and with images that are swallowed up by neon colored fields. Symbolically, she is exploring the condition and temperament of the human mind and the effects of how a small amount of venom (or corruption) creates abnormal states of tension.

Of this work, Pawlowicz writes: “ Fundamental beliefs and attitudes are greatly influenced by the people we allow into our lives. These people are some of the most powerful factors in determining who we become and what we accomplish in our lives. Cultural toxicity can enigmatically and invisibly spread contaminating our thoughts and actions. I explore this toxicity through my plant portraits which are seductive and fanciful yet fatal.

These portraits metaphorically alter or plant seductive seeds, spawning the growth of potentially dangerous ideology in our society. Alter means ‘to change’, to modify and to adapt to a new purpose. Conversely, alter means creating essential differences slowly amounting to a loss of identity. Some people choose to live a life of escapism where the ultimate goal is to avoid spending time with ourselves and other human beings. Facebook, TV, email, video games, drugs, and alcohol lower our need for meaningful thought and relationships. This intoxication becomes an easy escape and reduces our ability to create a society of mindfulness, personal responsibility and hope for a peaceful existence.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elaine Pawlowicz received her BFA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and her MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993. She continued to live and work as an artist in Chicago for 15 years until moving back to Dallas with her husband and two children now ages 11 and 13. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. In 2005 she completed an installation of 12 large scale paintings commissioned by the City of Chicago for Oriole Park Library. She has been awarded several artist residencies in Wyoming, Montana, Newfoundland, Iceland, New Zealand, Portugal, Kentucky and Ireland. Pawlowicz has taught college level art for almost two decades including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Dayton, and currently serves as an Associate Professor of Art at University of North Texas. Her paintings are speckled with tiny characters that
are swallowed up by neon color fields. The style is a type of magical realism. The space is flat with an idiosyncratic perspective. These highly personalized narratives are slightly ambiguous and peculiarly lighthearted.

July 08, 2017

In this series of watercolor and colored pencil drawings, Fritts explores the connection between emotions and human experience through portraiture. Each piece focuses on an individual’s contemplative, yet seemingly apathetic facial expressions to symbolize those moments and feelings in our lives that we usually take for granted, but that are an important aspect of the human experience.

Fritts is interested in the idea that individuals tend to reflect on their lives and punctuate their experience in extremes; thinking of the extremely happy, the extremely sad, the extremely terrible, and often ignoring or forgetting the all of the moments in between. In Being, Fritts seeks to understand and acknowledge the fact that we are more than just happy and sad and that we are more than just the present moment. Humans simultaneously experience what has already happened and what is currently happening. Experiences do not leave, but continue to build.  

About her work, the artist writes, “My work is meant to be a reminder and a tool of reflection. We hear sayings like “live in the moment,” “enjoy the little things,” and other similar sentiments that seem to often conflict one another -- telling us to focus on the present and not live in the past, or to enjoy small moments but ultimately remember the big moments that made you who you are. With this in mind, we forget what it really means to be human and we forget that each and every moment we experience contributes to who we are. Life isn’t always exciting. Life isn’t always completely terrible.  But, many are uncomfortable with accepting the fact that that is just life, making it difficult for them to just be. I hope my work encourages the audience to reflect on how they view themselves: the good, the bad, and the in-between. I hope to encourage viewers to accept their human-ness, flaws and all, and to understand that it is acceptable to simply just be.”

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Press Release

May 13, 2017

This series came after the end of a chapter in the artist’s life and during a time of reflection and cleansing of the heart and soul. Robles used her own hands as models to show the variety of feelings, thoughts and emotions that flooded her head during that time.

“Such a change can often feel as if you are losing limbs or that you are losing a piece of yourself, but the flowers symbolize the growth that takes place during this transition. These transformative times can both inspire and torture you. Thoughts of pain, helplessness, anger, and plain heartache seep into your daily routine. From this, came these images.” -- Jessica Robles

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born and raised in Visalia, California, Jessica Robles studied fine art at the College of the Sequoias. She then went on to receive her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from Northern Illinois University, both with an emphasis in printmaking. She is now an adjunct art instructor at the College of the Sequoias and teaches printmaking at California State University Fresno.

Robles’ work is a compilation of thoughts, ideas, memories and meaningful objects that she holds on to and brings to life in her prints and drawings. The work often hints at a sense of wit, sensitivity, and sometimes an overbearing sadness which in the end creates a beautifully haunting image.

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Artist's Website: www.jessicarobles.com

March 11, 2017

Dreams Are for Those Who Sleep, featured recent works on paper by San Antonio-based artist, Jose Fidel Sotelo.

These large-scale graphite drawings are a departure from the intimate, primarily black-and-white drawings Sotelo is best known for.  In this body of work, Sotelo continues to explore the meditative quality of repetitive symbolic imagery, but on a larger scale and in a more subtle tonal palette. This aesthetic shift imbues the work with an ethereal feeling, and the scale of the work envelops the viewer in Sotelo’s nocturnal world. Based on his experience of dreaming and insomnia, these autobiographical dreamscapes combine imagery from Aztec mythology and memories of the first stages of existence of a Mexican American family.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST 

Jose Fidel Sotelo has been active in the arts since 2005. He started his studies in design and photography in 2004. A year later he was moved to start painting. Sotelo considers himself a self-taught artist, but his paintings carry a lot of influence from his studies in design - using patterns and symmetry to express his relationship with the seen and unseen world and his experiences. In more recent years his work has moved from colorful paintings to black and white illustrations, prints, and drawings. As Sotelo’s art moves through its process, one thing that continues to hold true throughout its stages, is his effort to bring together the ancient symbols of his Mexican ancestors, the natural world, and the beauty of the mundane things from everyday life.

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www.instagram.com/josesoteloart

February 11, 2017

In a continuation of Esparza’s work with cotton, Lucre was comprised of approximately 250 pieces of handmade cotton paper money, various found objects, and graphite drawings. The focus of this installation is the fiber itself, the hands it passes through, and the money that passes in all directions. 

“The cash flow goes down the hierarchy of the company and into the hands of the workers only to be recirculated back into the the economic flow. It’s ironic that the very money being circulated is made primarily out of the fiber being picked. The installment of the cotton money pieces is meant to represent this directional, stigmatic flow and transformation of the cotton fiber. This surge is occasionally interrupted by various artworks and found objects that are meant to steer the thought process to issues surrounding cotton such as legal matters, provision of labor, and of course the human element.” 

- Jenelle Esparza

ABOUT THE ARTIST 
Jenelle Esparza is a photographer originally from Corpus Christi, Texas. Though primarily a photographer, Esparza also works in multi-media installation and creates abstract photo-based pieces. She received her BFA in photography from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2010 and continues to exhibit annually. She was recently awarded the 2015 NALAC (Nat’l Association of Latino Arts and Culture) Artist Grant for her project ‘El Color de la Obra’ on Latinos in the South Texas cotton industry. She has exhibited nationally and currently manages her photography studio working for local artists and arts organizations.

Artist's Website: www.jenelleesparza.com

January 14, 2017

Acidwinzip's digital collages are inspired by nostalgia, Internet culture, Religion, and Art History and are comprised of computer-generated images and other elements, cut and pasted onto a digital canvas. The work is mostly a humorous take on modern internet consumer culture, our obsession with nostalgia and the internet persona. It explores the contrast of traditional art -vs- modern computer-generated art and remixing the two to create something new. 

This series of digital collages was developed over the past year and was primarily made for online viewing through the artist’s Instagram feed. This exhibition is the first time the collages will be displayed off-line and the artist, who until now has remained anonymous, will reveal her identity for the first time. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST 

Acidwinzip is a multimedia project developed by artist Ursula Zavala with works in digital and video art. Acidwinzip began November 2015 as a personal Instagram art project. She has remained mostly anonymous up until this point in an attempt to let her work to speak for itself and obtain its own identity or “persona.”

She has worked on numerous art collaborations with other digital artists who share her vision for internet-inspired art. She recently made the shift to video and has created animated versions of her usually static images, sometimes adding music submitted by musicians.

Zavala was born and raised in San Antonio’s South Side. She studied Fine Arts at San Antonio College and Our Lady of the Lake University. She currently works as the second half of a local freelance company called VLH Illustration + Design. She is available for commissions and artists collaborations. 

December 10, 2016

“I created these pieces in response to a personal loss nearly a year ago to the date of this opening. They represent the continual re-imagining of my life, and the way we try to fill holes within ourselves and others in order to pull ourselves back together. We compartmentalize, organize, and re-file memories until they fit within boxes, that can be safely stored away, rarely to be recovered. We cover those boxes in beautiful things to hide any lingering loss or depth of feeling. 

I have taken functional ceramic vessels and warped them through a variety of techniques to make them ultimately useless, yet beautiful. I wanted these objects to show the way that we as a society hide our grief in plain sight. We are all coping with something, we are all collectively going through motions. We are all trying to be something.” -- Elyse Grams

ABOUT THE ARTIST 
Elyse Grams is a San Antonio based artist whose work explores qualities of femininity in conjunction with the ideas of functionality and uselessness. She approaches these ideas through a variety of mediums; clay, fiber, metal, and wood, using the form of a vessel as a springboard for these ideas. This work was the initial exploration of functionality and its many meanings and metaphors.

She will receive her Bachelors of Fine Arts with a concentration in Ceramics from the University of Texas at San Antonio in May of 2017. There, Elyse serves as Public Relations for Clay Fusion UTSA’s ceramic club on campus. In 2016 she was awarded first place in the Annual Juried Student exhibition. Elyse expects to continue her education in a Post-Baccalaureate program or a Masters of Fine Arts program within the next few years. 

November 12, 2016

"Crux is a documentation of the the internal world of the psyche in the moments of upheaval. When I came across the the word crux, meaning, the core, or essence of something resonated with me. I knew that was the impetus of what my current paintings' theme had been revealing. While I created them I was battling my internal morass with the need to reconcile changes that had transpired within and without. Life’s trials and struggles produce alchemical reactions that forever transmute the self. In Crux, I longed to capture the beautifully chaotic process of transformation at the pivotal moment as it transpires, or in the wake of its aftermath. This mysterious process is depicted in the feminine embodiment with symbols from the natural world to reveal what is simmering beneath the surface of consciousness. At times devastatingly emotional, at other times existentially retrospective, these are the introspective journeys within that are seldom seen."

ABOUT THE ARTIST 

Kat Shevchenko was born in San Antonio, Texas. She studied illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA and painting at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2006 she ventured to Austria to study the Old Master’s/mixed technique of painting with oils over egg tempera under paintings. Guided by surrealistic automatism she continues to explore experimental approaches utilizing traditional oil painting techniques driven by inspiration from the natural world, dreams and life experiences which are interwoven into a personal mythology that has influences ranging across the spectrum from the Renaissance, surrealism, and symbolism and at times infuses a delicate touch of dark humor.

November 12, 2016

Smith uses methods of action painting and collage to create an immersive environment in which symbols and mark-making express the layers of self-worth within the language of contemporary art such as painting, video, and installation. She is a self-professed Maximalist. 

"Crippling self-doubt offset by the need to create and share images makes a curious cocktail. There is a constant war anthem in the head of some artists. There is no pretty bow to wrap and deliver the flaws. Agoraphobic early morning sessions of wild mark making and late night impulses to record mundane processes form the curvature of the week. Let’s ignore the platitudes and face the mess. I’m the mess and my work is the mess. Let me adorn it for you to make it easier to look at."

Accompanying the installation at Provenance Gallery, during the month of October, is an interactive web-based performance located at adornthemess.persona.co.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jen Frost Smith grew up in central Texas and attended college at the University of Texas at Austin where she studied Trans-Media and Sculpture. After completing her BFA she moved to Baltimore, MD to study at the Maryland Institute College of Art and completed her MFA in Photographic and Electronic Media. She has exhibited work nationally including, Austin Museum of Digital Art, Co-Lab, Transmodern Festival, Museum of Human Achievement, Current Gallery, Freight Gallery and most recently, Pink Box Collective. She currently lives and works in San Antonio, TX, and is Co-Director and Resident Artist at Clamp Light Studios & Gallery.