Artifacts

News and notes from the San Antonio art scene

"Dia De Los Muertos," from Chuck Ramirez' Dinner series, was among the artist's work featured at ARCO International 2004 in Madrid, Spain, February 12-16. (courtesy photo)

Warm Welcomes

San Antonio artist Chuck Ramirez received a very warm reception at ARCO International 2004, this month in Spain. Finesilver Gallery, which represents Ramirez, took prints from the artist's recent Ingredients and new Dinner series to the fair where 200,000 visitors from around the world peruse the latest contemporary art offerings from more than 200 galleries and check in with fellow collectors, curators, and museum directors. ARCO curators Peter Doroshenko, Silvia Karman Cubiña, and Victor Zamudio-Taylor selected the gallery based on Ramirez' Dinner prints, which were featured in one of the Project Rooms.

"`Ramirez' work` was a big hit in Madrid," says Emily Seale, who recently joined gallery staff (and local artists) Michael Velliquette and Andrea Caillouet at Finesilver. Seale completed international auction house Christie's Master's course in art marketing and recently interned at the West Texas Chinati Foundation.

Ramirez' ARCO success comes at a fortuitous time, as Europe's largest art fair joins forces with New York's Armory Show, held in Piers 90 and 92 March 12-15. This year's collaboration comes in the form of ARCO's popular forums for art professionals, but future years will include joint sponsorship of an internationally curated exhibition space.

Artifacts News and notes from the San Antonio art scene

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Another new face to the SA arts community, Darryl Mix, has joined ArtPace as the Director of External Affairs. Mix, who enjoyed the last year as a stay-at-home father, moved to town a year ago from Pasadena, California, where he worked for more than 15 years in the non-profit industry. His background, he says, includes expertise in expanding the constituent base and developing outlying communities, a talent he thinks will transfer well to SA, where the "dynamic of being either inside or outside the loop also applies!"

Feedback Please

Mix has begun a series of morning coffee and information sessions titled, Why Art | Why ArtPace. The free get-togethers, which are designed to tell the public about ArtPace's lesser-known work in schools and the community, promote the higher-profile International Artist-In-Residence program, and solicit community contributions and feedback, are open to the public. ArtPace staff promise to wrap it all up in an hour. "You find people who love your mission," says Mix, commenting on both the coffee klatch series and his new job, "and then you find the thing they can do best for you." Why Art | Why ArtPace will be held from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Tuesday mornings throughout March and April. Call 212-4900 for more information or to reserve coffee, danish, and a seat at the table. •