news and notes from the san antonio art scene

Among new shows this First Friday, the Bower Gallery presents “Snowbirds and Streetfights,” a collaborative installation by George Ferrandi of Brooklyn,

 

Snowbirds and Streetfights, 4×6 inches, ink and collage on paper, 2003 New York, and John Orth of Gainesville, Florida. Drawings, paintings, and plaster forms pattern a sort of narrative, a new parable played out by Orth and Ferrandi’s psychotically cute characters. Both artists are alumni of the mysterious “Cloud Seeding Circus of the Performative Object,” a nontraditional sideshow act that traveled through Texas in the not-so-distant past. “Snowbirds and Streetfights” opens with a reception on Friday, June 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. and runs through June 30. The Bower is located at 1114 S. St. Mary’s Street, Building 1, Suite 200. For more information, call the Bower’s Michael Velliquette at 535-3302.

Fiber artist Lucia LaVilla-Havelin presents one-of-a-kind needlepoint pieces on napkins and tea towels in “Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain.” Don’t go prematurely sprouting a heart-shaped applique rash, though; this work is a far cry from your grandma’s needlepoint. LaVilla-Havelin’s work explores the below board and below par antics of our fearless leader in one series entitled “Bushwhacked.” Other pieces explore indigenous issues both at home and abroad. LaVilla-Havelin’s show opens Friday at the RC Gallery at 134 Blue Star and runs through the month. Classical jazz guitarist Richard Diaz de Leon will perform for the opening. For more information, contact RC Gallery’s Rhonda Kuhlman at 222-9404.

The local theater community was buzzing last week when the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center announced that native San Antonian Irma Mayorga has been invited to the highly prestigious Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference in New York City. The conference invites a select group of playwrights to a series of staged readings of their current works in progress, which will be evaluated by a panel of respected theater professionals. Mayorga graduated from MacArthur High School in 1984, earned an MFA in Theatre Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Drama and the Humanities at Stanford University. •

This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2003.