Contemporary Art Month has arrived
Wipe that furrow from your sweaty brow, art troopers. Contemporary Art Month has arrived and, as usual, it is scheduled like Paris Hilton, but with oh-so-much more class and a little less self-importance. Comprehensive listings of openings, special film screenings, and musical events can be found in the Current's calendar and on the official CAM website, camsanantonio.org. Following are a few of the Current's recommendations for the first week of this annual celebration of San Antonio's visual culture. But pace yourself, troopers, and don't forget the sunscreen, water (for the whiskey), and aspirin, because this is just the beginning of a stellar month.
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| Austin artist Andy Coolquit, whose work is shown above, is featured at Three Walls in the Blue Star Arts Complex during July. |
Video art is well-represented in CAM 2005 by Karen Mahaffy's installation at Sala Diaz `see Art Capades, page 17`, which builds on smart elaborations of the still-life genre by artists such as Sam Taylor-Wood.
Video installations will also be part of Austin artist Andy Coolquit's show at Three Walls in the Blue Star Arts Complex, opening June 30. Coolquit has drawn the attention of some of the state's most adventurous curators for several years now in part because his work fuses Marcel Duchamp's and Andy Warhol's legacies into current commentary.
Risa Puleo returns with Civil Disobedience, a series of public interventions on Sundays in July and on July 4. Sign up to receive advance e-mail notification by joining the official CAM mailing list at camsanantonio.org, and make art history.
Richie Budd, the artist who UTSA instructor Ken Little credits with more-or-less inventing glue-gun sculpture, joins Jimmy Kuehnle - known for riding his bike sculptures from UTSA to Blue Star and art points inbetween on First Fridays - and Brian Jobe for Siamese Triplets, opening June 30 at UTSA Satellite Space.
Finally, what would CAM be without a hit parade? Art Institute of Chicago President Anthony Jones curated the Blue Star 20, opening June 30 at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center (don't miss the official CAM party, sponsored by the Current, that evening) and culled from the work of artists who participated in previous annual Blue Star CAM exhibitions.
FLiGHT Gallery in the Blue Star Silos draws from a shorter, but edgier, history for This is where you belong, I'm going to get mine someday. The show, which opens July 1, will feature FLiGHT's 22 "Best of SA" artists. •
By Elaine Wolff
