"Leisure Lines"

Widely exhibited in galleries throughout Texas and beyond, artist and educator Buster Graybill has likened his multimedia practice — which combines sculpture, installation, video, photography and works one might mistake for paintings — to “an all-terrain vehicle to traverse the rural landscape and reconnect with often-overlooked places.” Currently an assistant professor at UTSA, Graybill often transforms outdoorsy materials (the sort one might find in a garage, at a campsite, or maybe in the aisles of Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World) into peculiar constructions — some bursting with inner tubes, others riddled with archery arrows or filled with corn to function as sculptural hog feeders. While its name might elicit thoughts of an above-average bus company, Graybill’s new exhibition “Leisure Lines” brings the familiar and nostalgic polypropylene webbing used for folding beach chairs into the realm of contemporary art, exemplifying his tendency to “fluctuate between the conflicting vernaculars of country grammar and art speak.” In the Southwest School of Art’s adjacent gallery, Chris Engman’s “Prospect and Refuge” comprises photographs that serve as “documentations of the artist’s sculptures, interventions, and installations” as well as “records of actions and elaborate processes.”