Events This Weekend in San Antonio

Live Music
Nothing says “sophisticated, cosmopolitan outing” like an event with “coldcock” in the title. With 21 bands on the bill, it’s probably best not to go expecting long sets full of deep psychedelic jams. Topping the bill are The Recasts, who also organized the show 2106077007

Live Music
Straight outta H-town, DJ Marcus Starkist — tuna jokes not included with the cover charge — is bringing the boom bap for a night of untz-untz-untz. He only wears one earphone in his promo picture, so you know the man is a serious EDM practitioner. (210) 995-7229; (210) (FAX)

Special Events
What’s more idyllic than a late-October trip to the Pearl Farmers Market? Butterflies and lots of them, you say? The fourth-annual festival hosted by the Texas Butterfly Ranch promises to include everything you know and love about these flying creatures while supplying surprising facts you might now have known. The event will feature gardening workshops for pollination, a parade, dancing and, of course, live butterflies. Over 700 monarchs were tagged at last year’s festival, and three of them have since been found in Mexico. The best part, though? Butterfly costumes are encouraged. (210) 212-7260 (FAX); (210)

Art
As it prepares for what promises to be a memorable 25th anniversary in 2020, Artpace is thoughtfully looking back at its infancy — a period guided by its founder, the late artist, collector and philanthropist Linda Pace. Following in the same reflective vein as the 2018 group show “Then and Now,” which brought together works by local Artpace residency alumni Ken Little, Kathy Vargas, Constance Lowe and Ángel Rodríguez Díaz, the influential institution’s latest offerings turn back the clock to celebrate the work of two somewhat unsung artists whose connections to the organization extend back to the start of its residency program. Installed in the street-level Main Space in an arrangement that’s sure to spark the curiosity of passersby, a capsule collection of pieces created by former San Antonio resident Elizabeth McGrath is anchored by Broken, a conceptual sculpture she created during her 1996 Artpace residency. Comprised of a weathered wooden chair enveloped in crocheted silk that stretches to the ceiling like a spider’s web, it’s flanked by unrelated but equally curious sculptures — an organic-looking object pieced together from found wood and Bondo putty, and a snakelike coil fashioned from what appears to be a stuffed floral bedsheet. Behaving almost as conversation prompts for anyone who happens upon them in Artpace’s Main Avenue windows, these odd experiments with materials hard and soft may suggest alternate streams of discourse when viewers learn that McGrath long ago shifted her professional focus from art to psychotherapy. Delivering a poppier, punchier counterpoint to this blast from the past, the work of late Alamo City legend Alex de León lines walls and cases upstairs in Artpace’s Hudson Showroom. Like McGrath, de León represented San Antonio as an International Artist-in-Residence in 1996 and both participated in Artpace’s London Studio Program in 1995, but the similarities seem to end there — and this pairing of exhibitions makes no pretense of connection outside of space and time. An Edinburg native who studied printmaking at Kansas City Art Institute, de León left bold marks on San Antonio from the 1980s until his passing in 2012. Although ceramics emerged as his strong suit and his signature style got pegged as folk art, he didn’t consider himself a ceramicist or a folk artist. In true pop fashion, his work often relied on the repetition of popular imagery and landed on local T-shirts and Hollywood film sets alike. Assembled from a number of local collections, his new self-titled exhibition looks and feels like a tight retrospective for a pioneer of the San Antonio aesthetic. Beyond a playful, even cheery color palette that adorns everything from expertly rendered enamel paintings on steel to functional clay vessels and covetable shot glasses, de León’s pieces are tied together with a visual vocabulary punctuated by police cars, hearses, skulls, beer cans, cigarette packs and steaks on the grill. Although the subject matter is often immediately funny, the pieces’ titles paint a clearer picture of his sharp sense of humor: the 1995 painting Surprized Anything Gets Done As Much As He Drinks depicts a mess of tools, car parts and empty beer bottles scattered around a garage; and a classic pink convertible is parked amid a storm of cigarette butts, booze bottles, martini glasses and musical instruments in the 1997 ceramic bowl She Shoulda Tooka Cab. While it may look like the odd man out, a small cardboard house perched in a corner is taken from the body of work that inspired Artpace Executive Director Riley Robinson to revisit de León’s work in a contemporary context. Taken from his 2004-era “Welcome Home Series,” the ramshackle sculpture was built from materials de León purchased from down-and-out individuals: signs emblazoned with pleas such as “Homeless and Hungry. Please Help If You Can,” “Mother of Three Struggling From Earlier Layoff. Need Help Please” and “Homeless Vet. Please Help. God Bless You. (210) 212-4900

Art
“Listening to Berlin,” Ethel Shipton’s latest show at Ruiz-Healy Art, captures the sights and sounds of Germany’s capital city. Shipton, who was selected for Blue Star Contemporary’s three month residency at Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 2018, draws from her trip in a series of prints, mixed-media works and interactive sculpture. A city rich in history and culture, Berlin has much to offer the traveling artist. While there, Shipton took interest in the vast graffiti culture and street art Berlin has become known for. “I started taking pictures of the graffiti, and the graffiti took me to look at other parts of the city that were interesting to me,” Shipton said in a statement. Among the highlights in this show is a sculptural piece where gallery visitors can sit and listen to the sounds of the city. Like much of Shipton’s work, “Listening to Berlin” focuses on bringing passing, everyday objects into sharp focus during moments of contemplation. In an era filled with constant distractions, Shipton’s work gives viewers permission to truly engage their surroundings. (210) 804-2219

Art
The trinity of politics, environment and healthcare might make you want to keep flipping pages, but rather than recapping another fruitless debate, we’re simply previewing a group of Blue Star Contemporary (BSC) exhibitions that speak to the troubled world we live in. One of two BSC Berlin Residency alumni in the bunch, artist and Texas State University professor Joey Fauerso is known for pensive animations, atmospheric portraits, amusing “drawing battles” and plenty in between. You may have even driven past her Canopy, a verdant, bird-filled mural she painted on the Fulton Avenue railroad underpass with assistance from Agnes Cotton Academy students. In recent years, Fauerso’s projects have braved tougher territory. Initiated in 2017, during her three-month residency at Berlin’s Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Fauerso’s ongoing project “You Destroy Every Special Thing I Make (We Fall to Pieces)” employs a graphic, black-and-white palette to address the chaotic political climate and the uncertain future awaiting her two young sons. Billed as the continuation of her investigation into culture, gender, family and humor, her “Teardowns” takes over Blue Star’s Main Gallery with a mélange of sculpture, video and a 50-foot mural inspired by the wallpaper in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. Throughout the exhibition’s run, Fauerso will erode her mural as a performative commentary on “the destructive and restorative nature of humanity.” A fellow BSC Berlin Residency alum who holds degrees in biology, painting and printmaking, Margaret Craig describes her new exhibition “Sea Islands” as “a contemplation on the ways we affect the plants and animals around us, and how we may be affected by them.” Informed in part by her experiences in Berlin — where she collected sea-bound detritus on walks through the city streets — her solo show in Blue Star’s Middle Gallery presents upcycled plastic sculptures as imaginative creatures that “might one day populate the ocean as trash.” A Japanese artist specializing in kinetic work, Tsuyoshi Anzai tackles the human condition in “Healthy Machines,” an installation housed in BSC’s snug Gallery 4. Posing questions of wellness, ability and imperfection, Anzai’s work appears colorful and playful on the outside but in fact stems from brain surgery that left the artist with epilepsy. If all of the above leaves you longing for a bit of escapism, head for BSC’s Project Space, where Austin-based OK Mountain co-founder Sterling Allen and San Antonio’s own Larry Graeber join forces for “Formal Proof,” a two-man exhibition without much of an agenda beyond the interplay of odd sculptures that often begin with “physical and image-based debris gathered from various sources.” The opening reception will take place on October 4th from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. and will be free. (210) 227-6960

Special Events, Live Music
Come out Friday, October 18th to VIBES Event Center for their MASQUERAGE 2019! Cost for entry will be $10, or $8 with Masks / Costumes.