Every year, the U.S. government spends more money than it takes in. In order to fund all that spending, the country takes on debt. Congress has the power to limit how much debt the U.S. takes on. Right now, the debt limit is $31.4 trillion dollars. Once we reach that limit, Congress has a few options so that the government keeps paying its bills: Raise the debt limit, suspend it, or eliminate it entirely. That debate and negotiations are back this season. One thing that is in short supply, but very important for these negotiations, is good information. Shai Akabas, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, knows this well. Right now, he and his team are working on figuring out when exactly the U.S. government could run out of money to pay its obligations — what they've dubbed: the "X Date." Shai is determined to help prevent the U.S. government from blowing past the X Date without a solution. But this year's debt-ceiling negotiations are not going very well. Which is daunting, because if lawmakers don't figure something out, the ramifications for the global economy could be huge. So, how did Shai become the go-to expert at the go-to think tank for debt ceiling information? It started in 2011, back when he and current Chair of the Federal Reserve Jay Powell, armed with a powerpoint and the pressure of a deadline, helped stave off economic disaster. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Thanks to its host venue — a pair of early 20th-century buildings now branded as Proyecto Público Prim — Salon Acme is arguably the only Art Week Mexico City offering in which the environment is a masterpiece in its own right. Designed by architect Manuel Gorozpe and completed in 1906, the structures have been hailed by the blog ArchDaily as “one of the most famous Porfirian sites in Mexico City.” Situated in the burgeoning neighborhood of Colonia Juárez, the stately buildings functioned as residential housing for decades, but eventually fell into disrepair and were ultimately abandoned.
Work by Napoleon Aguilera, installed at Salon Acme
Resurrected in 2013 as a distinctive event space that chiefly caters to Mexico City’s arts community, Proyecto Público Prim boasts the cinematic charm of a crumbling mansion. Each room seems to have more layers of peeling paint and chipped plaster than the next — and the overall vibe can conjure a post-apocalyptic squat with a mysterious past. At times, the works on view at Salon Acme mesh seamlessly with the eroding surroundings. During our visit to Salon Acme’s 10th edition — marketed under the heading “So Fresh It’s Still Wet” — curiosities and wildcards emerged from nearly every corner.
Work by Ezequiel Black, installed at Salon Acme
A mononymous artist billed as Avantgardo installed a tanning bed in a space activated with performances by a singer who impersonated late Mexican pop star José José. Ezequiel Black’s 2022 sculpture La Mazorca elicited ears of corn dressed for an evening at the iconic disco Studio 54. Napoleon Aguilera displayed an array of wildly exaggerated wooden cowboy boots — including a pair named Pointy Margiela, which were accessorized with a cigarette and a condom. Emilia Garcia’s wall installation Pupa was rendered in a swirl of plastic hair clips affixed to a wall. Mandy Cano Villalobos created a Christmas tree-like sculpture covered in trinkets, lollipops and bubblegum. Camila GB constructed a sculptural installation from chains and multicolored underwear and dangled it from the ceiling. And Madeline Jimenez Santil attached synthetic hair to a Roomba robot that cleared all the dust — when it wasn’t bumping into gallery-goers and other artistic oddities.
Beyond the abundance of arty experiments, many creators presented projects that seemed custom-crafted for the eclectic confines of Proyecto Público Prim.
Work by Beth Davila Waldman, installed at Salon Acme
Based between Los Angeles and New York’s Hudson Valley, multidisciplinary artist Beth Davila Waldman fuses elements of photography, painting, and assemblage in installations that bring to mind weathered wheat-pasted posters and advertisements. Selected as part of Salon Acme’s open call, the artist’s 2021 series Divisions (Nos. 5-9) was presented as an arc of mixed-media abstractions — albeit with recognizable clues — that looked in perfect harmony with the similarly speckled surroundings.
Work by Aurora Pellizzi in Jeff Marfa’s installation at Salon Acme
Readily available household cleaning materials — including brooms, feather dusters, and humble yet colorful woven jerga cloth — came to life in Mexico City-based artist Aurora Pellizzi’s exhibit Culebras. Hosted by the West Texas gallery Jeff Marfa in a rustic space beneath a precarious wooden stairwell, her hand-felted sculptural creations nodded to sacred geometry and indigenous fertility, but were chiefly inspired by snakes and the exaggerated puppets used in mojiganga processions. As outlined in the gallery notes, the “Shakespearean caricatures” Pellizzi sought to evoke included the “Court Jester, Hindu Goddess, Bride, Feathered-Serpent Dandy, Street-Style Girl, Diva, and Sloth.”
Work by Javier Sánchez in Proyecto H’s installation at Salon Acme
An imaginative upcycler with a keen interest in sound, audiovisual artist Javier Sánchez creates modernist-leaning assemblages rendered in detritus he scours from the streets of Mexico City. Hosted by Proyecto H — a gallery based between Mexico City and Madrid — Sánchez’s Salon Acme showcase illustrated multiple aspects of his artistic process. In addition to framed assemblages and graphic paintings likened to “translations” based on his scavenged arrangements, the space featured a circular assortment of Sánchez’s source material — weathered bits of salvage that guests were invited to walk across and activate as a DIY sound installation.
Work by Alfredo Gallegos Mena in Saenger Galería’s installation at Salon Acme
Shades of muddy aquamarine and faded turquoise on Proyecto Público Prim’s incredibly textured walls struck up an intriguing conversation with those same hues in the mixed-media work of Mexico City artist Alfredo Gallegos Mena. Employing a wide-ranging approach to materials, Mena uses everything from wood and clay to discarded packaging and found objects in works that resemble mosaics and pixelated graphics alike. Hosted by Mexico City-based Saenger Galería as part of a Salon Acme project curated by Ana Castella, Mena’s solo show took shape in covetable masks and painterly assemblages rendered in pigmented cubes of wax.
Work by El Mundo Inmundo in Can Can Projects’ installation at Salon Acme
To be fair, El Mundo Inmundo collective’s suggestively titled Step Into Our Backroom didn’t complement Proyecto Público Prim’s structural decomposition as eloquently as other offerings — but still stood out easily among the most memorable highlights of this year’s Salon Acme. Presented by Mexico City-based Can Can Projects, the madcap environment brought to mind a mushroom-laced escapade through a secret underground level of a Home Depot. Summed up as a “humorous critique of the labor dynamics that dominate in these spaces,” the plastic-heavy installation took big-box sensibilities to bizarre new heights with a one-of-a-kind sound sculpture (priced at $10,000 USD), synthetic felt collages billed as “Backroom Stars” and bright-orange buckets ideal for “storage, extra seating, a planter, a cooler, an art pedestal … the sky is the limit!”
Click here to see our coverage of the 2023 Zona Maco Art Fair. Click here to see our coverage of the 2023 Material Art Fair.
Jesse Treviño, the renowned San Antonio artist whose work centered Chicano icons and culture, died Monday, February 13, 2023 at the age of 76.
Artist Jesse Treviño stands in front of his nine-story mural titled “The Spirit of Healing” in 2016. Photo: Kathryn Boyd-Batstone / San Antonio Report
Born on December 24, 1946 in Monterrey, Mexico, Mr. Treviño came with his family to the United States and settled in San Antonio’s West Side when he was about four years old. As a young man, Mr. Treviño received a full scholarship to study art at the Art Students League of New York. His time there was cut short when he was drafted in the army to serve in the Vietnam War. Mr. Treviño returned home from Vietnam after being injured in a land mine explosion, which left him with extensive nerve damage. This injury ultimately led to the amputation of his right arm in November 1970.
In 2010, he spoke about his wartime injury to the University of Texas San Antonio’s (UTSA) publication Sombrilla. He recalled that as he lay injured he “started thinking about the guy who sells raspas, and I said to myself, ‘I bet I could make a great painting of him,’ and I started thinking about all the paintings that I had done as a kid and still wanted to do. Here I was in the middle of this rice field, and I was thinking as an artist.”
Jesse Treviño and his mural “Mi Vida” in 1984. Photo by Oscar Williams.
Following his recovery, Mr. Treviño enrolled in San Antonio College, where he learned to paint using his left hand. In 2019, Glasstire contributor Ruben Cordova wrote about Mr. Treviño’s autobiographical mural Mi Vida, which he began painting in 1971. The mural references his wartime experiences and recovery. Mr. Treviño went on to receive a BA in art from Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) and an MFA in painting from UTSA (1978). In 1987, he received the National Hispanic Heritage Award of Artist of the Year, and in 2021 he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Hispanic Hall of Fame.
Abel A. Chávez, President of OLLU, said in a statement, “Jesse Treviño was a beloved artist and friend to OLLU whose legacy reaches around the world. He achieved fame and success but never forgot his West Side roots. OLLU is incredibly proud to count him among our alumni. He will be greatly missed.”
Jesse Treviño, “La Veladora of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Photo: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
Perhaps best known for his iconic La Veladora of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a three-dimensional mosaic at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Mr. Treviño has multiple murals throughout the city of San Antonio, and his work is in prominent collections across the United States. Another beloved and monumental work is The Spirit of Healing, a 93-foot-tall mural on the side of the Christus Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, completed in 1997. Mr. Treviño has three works in the Smithsonian Institute’s collection, including a 1980 print and two large-scale paintings created in 1976 and 1993.
Jesse Treviño, “Los Santos de San Antonio,” 1980, offset print, 21 x 32 inches. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Drs. Harriett and Ricardo Romo, 2019.50.10.
Discussing Mr. Treviño’s significance and legacy, Ruben Cordova told Glasstire, “Jesse Treviño was far and away the most famous artist San Antonio ever produced. His renown greatly transcended the art world: he was the hometown hero par excellence. At the same time, Treviño was an important role model for Chicano artists, from the self-taught artist Adan Hernandez (who quit his day job when he saw Treviño’s paintings) to RISD alumnus Vincent Valdez (who kept a scrapbook of articles about Treviño when he was a child).”
Jesse Treviño at Diabetes Center with his mural in the background, 2017. Photo: Gabriel Quintero Velasquez.
Shortly after Mr. Treviño’s death, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg tweeted about the artist, remarking that his “kindness and courage will live forever in our hearts, as will his works of art that are now icons across the landscape.”
He also added, “Jesse Treviño was an American hero. The wounds of the Vietnam war, which took so many of his friends and neighbors from the Westside of San Antonio, never left him, but he used those scars to bring healing to millions of people.”
Gabrielle Goliath, “Chorus,” 2022, on view at the Dallas Contemporary. Photo: Kevin Todora.
South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s powerful, aural/video installation at the Dallas Contemporary raises awareness about the insidious rape and femicide culture embedded within the country’s patriarchal society. The work features a large projection of the University of Cape Town’s choir, which performs a sonic eulogy in honor of 19-year old university student Uyinene Mrwetyana, who was brutally raped and murdered in 2019.
Singing is a universal form of honoring those who have passed. What makes this performance so unusual and riveting, however, is the absence of song. The 46 choir members collectively hum for 23 minutes. On an opposing screen is another video projection — this one featuring empty bleachers. The absence of human presence in the video signifies the many women, children and LGBTQIA+ individuals who have been murdered in South Africa. On the far wall of the gallery is a list of 680 names of those who have been murdered in South Africa since Mrwetyana’s death.
My first visit to the gallery, I brought my UT Dallas art students. As we entered the darkened space, some students sat on the floor, some stood watching the video, and some walked throughout the space, reading each name on the wall. We stayed for the entire 23 minutes, watching as the choir exited the bleachers. Then we exited the space, sitting outside the gallery in a circle, observing five minutes of silence. We then spoke about the visceral quality of the sound, how it physically vibrated within the space and also our bodies. Most agreed that the most emotional aspect of the work was the magnitude of names on the wall, the fact that so many victims were unidentified and that these names were only a fraction of the actual murders, since many go unreported. Many in the class (myself included) did not realize South Africa was such a dangerous place for women and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Gabrielle Goliath, “Chorus,” 2022, on view at the Dallas Contemporary. Photo: Kevin Todora.
During my second visit, I sat close to the screen, observing the facial expressions of the choir members while listening to their haunting humming. Some maintained somber faces, while others were overcome by emotional distress and anguish. One of the exhibition’s strengths is how Goliath engages the audience through an immersive and intimate experience. As a former warehouse, the Dallas Contemporary is a notoriously cold and sterile environment. It is no small feat that Goliath successfully transformed the space into one that allows for contemplative reflection. The curtained doorway, dim lighting, black painted walls, and benches/seating throughout the gallery encourages viewers to sit and spend time with the work, instead of the typical quick gallery walk-through.
In thinking about how art might be used to raise awareness about social injustice, to memorialize a person or events, and/or as a tool for catharsis, a number of important questions come to mind: What are the ethical considerations in using someone else’s story for personal gain? If the goal is to raise awareness about an overall issue, does the naming of names forever memorialize the person/s as victim/s of violence, thus causing further trauma to their families? What is the risk/benefit that the work might be perceived as exploiting trauma or the consumption of others’ pain for prurient pleasure?
As such, this type of work can be a slippery slope — where good intentions can go awry with public perception. Most recently, Iranian citizens criticized the use of Shirin Neshat’s images by the Berlin Museum, despite the fact that Neshat has been a very vocal and prolific activist denouncing the horrific torture and executions of protesters and women in Iran.
Gabrielle Goliath, “Chorus,” 2022, on view at the Dallas Contemporary. Photo: Kevin Todora.
Goliath successfully avoids these pitfalls through extensive research, collaborations with others, as well as a sensitive and thoughtful installation — one that encourages somber reflection. The Uyinene Mrwetyana family and foundation supported this project; Goliath partnered with a South African nonprofit organization to gather the names of the deceased; and since 2014, her work has consistently addressed the theme of violence against women. Also, the fact that Mrwetyana’s image, as well as images of other victims are not on display, affords them a sense of privacy and dignity.
The work functions on a personal and universal level. Mrwetyana’s story is not unique to South Africa. Women, children and LGBTQIA+ individuals are victimized all over the world. In Texas over the past year, we remember the children and teachers shot at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, as well as the destruction of women’s rights with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The gallery’s wall of names ensures that those who violently lost their lives are remembered. Goliath’s work asks us to bear witness, and also challenges us to bring forth change and hope for the future.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Following a series of transphobic comments by the Harry Potter author, the nation’s top evangelical leaders announced Monday that J.K. Rowling had finally become bigoted enough to make it okay for kids to read about witchcraft. “While I always appreciated Ms. Rowling making the greedy banker…
While TikTok remains the most popular social media platform among today’s youth, many critics accuse the Chinese government of using it as a tool to spy on Americans. The Onion asked several prominent politicians why the app should be banned, and this is what they said.
LAREDO, TX—Explaining that she was more or less content with the life she’d made for herself, a local cat reported Monday that she wasn’t about to waste her time chasing a laser that didn’t want her. “Sure, in my younger years, I’d run all over the place for some laser that clearly had no real interest in me, but at…
OMAHA, NE—Noticing a shift in the winds and a rustling of leaves off in the distance, wizened office sage Frank Cahill whispered “Layoffs a-comin’” Monday as he stared out over the horizon. “Looks like diminishing head counts are coming in fast from headquarters in the East,” said Cahill, pointing to a herd of sales…
A new James Turrell Skyspace installation will debut in southwest Fort Worth later this year. The artist has light-filled installations in dozens of locations across the world, including two Skyspaces in Houston and one in Austin on the University of Texas campus. Notably, Mr. Turrell’s 2003 Tending (Blue) installation at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, has been closed since 2012, when the construction of a nearby building encroached on the viewing space of the work.
Rendering of the interior of James Turrell’s “Keith House Skyspace.”
The Keith Skyspace will be a permanent installation at Keith House, a meeting space in Fort Worth with a two-acre campus that will be available to rent for weddings, private group meetings, and community events. The concept for the space is inspired by traditional Quaker meeting houses. Mr. Turrell is himself a Quaker, and has created works for other meeting houses, including One Accord at Live Oak Friends Meeting in Houston. Construction began on the building in December 2022. The 3,200-square-foot building includes a 40-by-20-foot lobby and a 40-by-40-foot central space, which will be home to the Skyspace. This main space will be able to accommodate up to 120 visitors.
Floor Plan for Keith House in Fort Worth, 2022. Design by Bennett Partners.
Site Plan for Keith House in Fort Worth, 2022. Design by Bennett Partners.
Outside of events, visitors to the space will need a reservation for the artwork’s daily sunrise and sunset viewings. During the viewing sessions, the roof of Keith House will open to reveal the sky, however, if there is inclement weather, the roof will stay closed and a light sequence will be on view. Keith House has noted that an entry fee will be charged for reservations, but has not listed any specific information.
A digital rendering of the exterior of Keith House in Fort Worth. Design by Bennett Partners, 2022.
According to the building’s website, “The building and commissioned artwork are a gift from Meta Alice Keith Bratten (1926–2007) to the people of Fort Worth.” Entrada of Texas, a nonprofit organization established in 2018, will own and operate the house. The organization has plans to continue to add artistic experiences “in unexpected settings” throughout the city.
This my D&D story talking about Asiago and all the times she fought with the rest of the party. Since she was a little chaos gremlin, the players had to keep her away from chaotic items that way she didn't get into *too much* trouble.
A new drug that temporarily paralyzes sperm for more than two hours was found to be 100% effective in preventing pregnancy in lab mice and resulted in no adverse side effects, paving the way for a possible on-demand oral contraceptive for men. What do you think?
According to a new report, Americans’ credit card balances increased by $61 billion to $986 billion in the last quarter of 2022, the highest quarterly growth on record, with the data showing payment delinquencies on the rise as well. What do you think?
GoDaddy said on Friday that its network suffered a multi-year security compromise that allowed unknown attackers to steal company source code, customer and employee login credentials, and install malware that redirected customer websites to malicious sites.
GoDaddy is one of the world’s largest domain registrars, with nearly 21 million customers and revenue in 2022 of almost $4 billion. In a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said that three serious security events starting in 2020 and lasting through 2022 were carried out by the same intruder.
“Based on our investigation, we believe these incidents are part of a multi-year campaign by a sophisticated threat actor group that, among other things, installed malware on our systems and obtained pieces of code related to some services within GoDaddy,” the company stated. The filing said the company’s investigation is ongoing.
In the wake of Republicans across the country passing legislation to ban the performances, The Onion asked conservatives why they oppose drag shows and this is what they said.
PORTLAND, ME—Irked by what he described as unprofessional behavior, local man Cory Morales reportedly gave his UberEats driver a three-star rating Friday for having to pry his order out of the delivery worker’s dead frozen hands. “I specifically said in the directions to leave it outside my door on the porch, and here…
Go to https://athleticgreens.com/agingwheels to get started on your first purchase and receive a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 and 5 travel packs. Thanks to Athletic Greens for sponsoring today's video!
AG1 by Athletic Greens is a comprehensive, nutrition drink engineered to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet and support your body’s nutritional needs across four pillars of health: Gut health, Immune support, Energy and Recovery! It’s packed with 75 vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced ingredients and combines the perfect amount of micronutrients, absorption and taste to jumpstart your daily routine. AG1 is available in the US, Canada, UK and Europe.
“The O’Kane Gallery is honored to host a special selection of artworks from the collection of The Printing Museum in Houston, Texas. The exhibit features a broad sample of printing techniques including woodcuts, engravings, etchings, lithographs, and screen prints created over a span of 500 years from 16th and 17th century genre scenes and religious subjects through six prints by the renowned Houston artist and Texas Southern University educator John Biggers. Other examples include prints by Lucas van Leyden, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Victor Vasarely, and Houston’s Charles Criner.
Founded in 1982 by printmakers Raoul Beasley, Vernon P. Hearn, Don Piercy, and J. V. Burnham, The Printing Museum is dedicated to preserving quality prints and the technologies used to create them. The collection holds prints of historical significance as well as some fine-arts facsimiles, including one of the Gutenberg Bible. The museum seeks to serve as a center for community engagement offering hands-on opportunities for self-expression.
The exhibit foreshadows The Printing Museum’s move to its new location in Houston’s Midtown planned for later this spring. The variety of works additionally supports the beginning of printmaking now offered as a studio course on the UHD campus.”
“Depicting moments of intimacy, the first exhibition of 2023 at Daisha Board Gallery, Ghanaian-born, Dallas-based Mixed-media artist Nii Narku Thompson Why Question, has been constructed on unstretched canvases and burlap. Combining various modes of expression, painted, assembled, and sewn together forming geometrical figures. The result is a dynamic conversation on identity, relationships, and sexuality.
Nii Narku, works in lengthy processes that involve varying degrees of laborious layering of paint on canvasses that, themselves, have been cut and stitched together onto a sustainable material. By adopting these modes of mark making he somehow mimics the complex interactions and social processes. Bathed in saturated hues the figures navigate themselves through a range of intimate roles, they long to be seen. This combined with vibrant backdrops and alluring color combinations makes it difficult to look away. Thompson’s work is a representation of his Ghanaian descent, Queerness, Intergenerational kinship, and Acceptance.”
“Former Core Artist in Residence Emily Joyce (b. 1976) returns to Houston for her seventh solo exhibition with the gallery. In Joyce’s recent symmetrical paintings, she explores hidden systems of nature, the built world, and the cosmos. The paintings are composed of modular and interlocking hexagons, triangles, and concentric circles with special surprise guest appearances by the occasional lily or a bit of gilded text. While in her twenties and fresh out of art school, Joyce worked as a decorative painter, embellishing the walls of mansions and vacation homes. Now, a few decades later, that early training has seeped into her new paintings.
In this recent body of work, you’ll find combinations of faux-bois, gold leafing, spatter painting, stenciling, rag-rolling, marbelizing etc.–sometimes all in one composition. By assigning each technique to its own specific shape on the canvas, Joyce creates an unfolding pattern and off-beat rhythm. The decorative finishes function as sophisticated painting solutions, rather than tromp-l’oeil trickery. Joyce’s presentation includes a site-specific painting onto which other works are hung, a self-referential work that cleverly–and playfully–exemplifies these conceptual underpinnings.”
“EXISTENCIA references both artists’ forms of expression as they relate to the human existence — one on the internal and physical forms of the human figure and the other on the forms that humans create and exist in.
Cuban artist Daniel Rodríguez Collazo’s main interest as a creator is rooted in the observation and analysis of architecture’s powerful connection with the individuals who inhabit it, from its functional to its subjective aspects. In his Resonancias Series, in which the works are created by painting and then carving into drywall, he takes apart and reinterprets lines and planes in a way that allows the viewer to focus on the positive and negative arrangements created by stark contrasts.
Mexican artist Edgardo Kerlegand has always been interested in painting the human figure, and the spiritual and the introspective aspect of his subjects has come to characterize much of his work. His drawings and paintings are as much about self-expression, contemplation and reflection as they are about the image of his subjects. He is influenced in the interplay of color and texture by the mark making of Asian Art, Orthodox Iconography, German Expressionism and Mexican Muralism.”
“Each year, K Space Contemporary sets aside time to highlight the artwork of our members. We are pleased to kick off the new year with the 2023 Members Only exhibition.
South Texas is home to a diverse population of talented artists working in a wide variety of media and styles. Members Only offers a cross-section of artwork created by the artists of our region. Some works celebrate life and art for art’s sake while others deal with personal reflection, social issues and current events. The full exhibition will be available online at www.kspacecontemporary.org.”
The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) has launched an initiative focused on expanding its commitment to Latino art. As part of this expansion, the museum has obtained 5,650 artworks from the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection, and has developed a new curatorial position focused on Latino art.
Ester Hernandez, “Sun Mad” (detail), 1982, screenprint, 26 x 20 inches. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gilberto Cárdenas Collection, Museum Acquisition Fund, 2022
One of the largest private collections of Chicano and Latino art in the world, the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection has been built over six decades. Though the collection includes works in a variety of mediums, a substantial number of pieces are prints created from the 1960s to today. According to a press release from the Blanton, the Cárdenas/Garcia Collection tells “the story of the origins, history, and advancement of the Latino communities in the United States, with the overarching mission of ensuring that these communities’ diverse artistic output is recognized as a foundational component of American society and its culture.”
Dr. Cárdenas, a former sociology professor at UT, and his wife Mrs. Garcia, a retired UT employee who has supported and curated Latino arts programming, said in a statement, “As part of a public research university, providing first-class education to more than 60,000 students, and a Hispanic Serving Institution, the Blanton plays a critical role in the educational and research work of this community. The Cárdenas/Garcia collection at the museum will provide access to Latino art for the student body and faculty for discovery and research, in addition to serving as a resource for the Austin community.”
César A. Martínez, “Untitled,” 1980s – 90s. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gilberto Cárdenas Collection, Museum Acquisition Fund, 2022
Blanton director Simone Wicha commented, “For decades, Dr. Gilberto Cárdenas has supported and championed Latino and Chicano artists, built an important collection, and consistently encouraged museums to feature Latino art. Latino culture is an essential part of U.S. culture, especially here in the Southwest, and our shared commitment to representing and amplifying Latino history and voices through art prompted me to begin this collaboration with Gilberto and Dolores.”
Along with obtaining works from the Cárdenas/Garcia Collection, the Blanton is one of ten museums to receive funding from Advancing Latinx Art in Museums, a new initiative launched collaboratively by the Ford Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Through Advancing Latinx Art in Museums, each institution received $500,000 to support the creation of permanent early and/or mid-career curatorial positions focused on Latinx art. The Blanton will use the funds to support the position for five years as it develops longer-term funding. Other museums awarded this grant include the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; El Museo del Barrio, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan.
Carmen Lomas Garza, “Ofrenda para Antonio Lomas,” 1995, laser cut steel, 58 1/2 x 99 inches. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gilberto Cárdenas Collection, Museum Acquisition Fund, 2022
The Blanton’s new Associate Curator of Latino Art will work to research, document, and exhibit the newly acquired works from the Cárdenas/Garcia Collection. The curator will work closely with the museum’s curator of Latin American art, Vanessa Davidson, as well as with other curatorial staff. Beyond the museum, the new curator will support UT’s Latino Studies program by working with faculty, training Chicano and Latino art historians, and creating educational and exhibition programming.
Dulce Pinzón, “Minerva Valencia, from Puebla, works as a nanny in New York. She sends 400 dollars a week,” from the series, “The Real Story of the Superheroes,” 2005, photographs. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gilberto Cárdenas Collection, gift of Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia, 2023
Additionally, the Blanton has announced it will open two new Latino art gallery spaces in March 2023 with a selection of portraits. The exhibition, titled Cara a Cara / Face to Face: Chicano Portraits from the Gilberto and Dolores Cárdenas Collection, will feature pieces by artists working various mediums ranging from printmaking to digital photography. Ms. Davidson has acknowledged the importance of these new gallery spaces to demonstrate a constant presence of Latino art in the museum.
![[exclamation about how cute your cat is] -> [last 4 digits of your cat's chip ID] -> [your cat's full chip ID] -> [a drawing of your cat] -> [photo of your cat] -> [clone of your cat] -> [your actual cat] -> [my better cat]](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/data_quality.png "[exclamation about how cute your cat is] -> [last 4 digits of your cat's chip ID] -> [your cat's full chip ID] -> [a drawing of your cat] -> [photo of your cat] -> [clone of your cat] -> [your actual cat] -> [my better cat]")
