Publications

Interview with Keerti Pooja

March 2024
Colette Copeland: We discussed your large watercolor composition Collecting Memories which is currently on display at Champa Tree. The invisible boundary between the people who labor and those who consume, as well as the “fruits of the labor” equating to a greater value than that of human toil. You depict this so beautifully with the subversion of scale in the work, with the objects dominant and the people painted in miniature. This also references the history of miniature painting in India. Please expand upon the ideas of borders and boundaries in your work as it relates to community and labor.

Interview with Hiten Noonwal

March 2024
Colette Copeland: I was reading one of your insta posts where you responded to a question about why you spend so much time creating intricate costumes. Your answer pointed to the underlying question of why you create and what role art plays in your life. You speak about the creation process as one of catharsis and healing in a world that does not accept you for who you are due to gendered societal rules. Please share some of your experiences as a young queer person/artist in India.

Interview with Parvathi Nayar

February 2024
Colette Copeland: Water is a central theme in your work. We spoke about how living in a coastal region affects one’s relationship to water and the urgency of the water crisis not only in Chennai but globally. Using a variety of cinematic techniques and narrative strategies, your videos explore the pressing issues of regulating the purchase of water, water pollution and water shortages.

Interview with Manmeet Devgun

February 2024
CC: Your diverse art practice embodies many forms, exploring themes of home, family, honor, sex, pleasure and death. Upon initial glance, one might not recognize the threads that bind these seemingly disparate subjects. As we discussed your various bodies of work, I began to see the overarching connections between your most recent performance questioning the notion of home/what constitutes a home and your earlier work. The idea of claiming space in the world as a female in India is central to your practice over the past two decades. Please share with us your recent performance project and why you decided to return to performance after a self-imposed break of three years.

Durga Puja: The Largest Global Public Art Festival

January 2024
I spent three weeks in Kolkata, India this past October during the frenzied Durga Puja season. Despite Durga Puja’s designation as the largest global public art festival, it’s surprisingly unknown in most of the world. In speaking with those involved with the festival, I heard it referenced as being “bigger than Rio” (presumably the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro). There are aspects of the event that reminded me of the Venice Biennale, such as the site specificity and emphasis on socially engaged themes. There’s also a bit of Vegas spectacle with the light and sound displays, as well as immersive environments with a narrative (think Meow Wolf in the U.S., but outside, in community neighborhoods).

My Fulbright Adventure: The National Institute of Design

January 2024
This article focuses on student work. I spent my first month at my host organization — the National Institute of Design (NID) in Gandhinagar, India, working with photography students in the Master’s program. NID is the most renowned art institution in the country and only selects a handful of students each year.

Traversing Boundaries: Contemporary Female Artists of India, Part 2

January 2024
In part one of this series, I spoke about the Fulbright process and wrote about three artists whose work explores gendered identity. Part two continues the discussion, centering on four more artists’ work that explores diverse aspects of boundaries and borders, utilizing a variety of materials and processes.

Interview with Gopika Nath

December 2023
I first met Gopika Nath the way most people meet these days—online. We were introduced by Fulbrighter alum Kathryn Myers, whose work about artists in India inspired my Fulbright research. As I followed Gopika’s work on Facebook, her writing about daily life, encounters with the natural world and her creative practice resonated with me as a holistic practice committed to self-discovery, innate curiosity with the world and a commitment to healing—oneself as well as the earth. Gopika Nath is a textile and fiber artist as well as writer whose work explores personal histories and the relationship between humanity and nature. She currently lives in Goa. This interview is a result from our afternoon conversation about beach walks, fiber art’s status within the larger art world context and the value of hand-crafted work.

Traversing Boundaries: Contemporary Female Artists of India, Part 1

December 2023 
This is the first in a series of articles that recounts my experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in India. I recently returned from the first of three trips. I spent a month in Ahmedabad/Gandhinager, three weeks in Kolkata, and my last week in Goa.

Durga Puja 2023, Kolkata, India

December 2023
I was fortunate enough to time my 1st Fulbright India trip to coincide with Durga Puja, arguably the largest public art festival in the world. Surprising that it isn’t well known outside of India, despite its long history. The first Durga Puja mentioned in recorded history dates from 1606 and in Kolkata from 1610. For those who are interested in the history of Durga Puja, I recommend the short article linked at the end. Although the festival began as a religious celebration of the Goddess Ma Durga, it has become a celebration of community, art and culture. Durga Puja is now recognized by UNESCO as a world intangible heritage event.

Interview with Moutushi Chakraborty

November 2023
Curator Lina Vincent suggested I contact artist and Amity University Professor Moutushi Chakraborty. After contacting her via social media, (Instagram seems to have replaced business cards completely) I realized we shared another artist connection—Annu Matthew, an Indian American artist who teaches at the University of Rhode Island.

Interview With Riti Sengupta

November 2023
I recently met photographer and artist Riti Sengupta while in Kolkata. She is a graduate of the Masters of Design in Photography program at National Institute of Design where I was recently in residence as a guest faculty member. Her work explores issues of gender, domesticity, identity, and memory. Feeling isolated during the pandemic, Sengupta founded the photo collective Eight Thirty, comprising nine female photographers from across India.

Interview with Jyotsna Siddharth

November 2023
I first met Jyotsna Siddharth in an online performance art class taught by Alicia Framis at The Alternative Art School (TAAS). Since that first class, we have been together in two other classes at TAAS and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her work and the scope of her art and activism practice. I recently met her in person in Delhi, India where she resides and was honored to see her perform The Body as Caste Field at Shrine Gallery.

Invterview with Mallika Das Sutar

November 2023
I recently met Mallika Das Sutar at the artist collective Chander Haat located outside of Kolkata, where she and her family live. In my mind, Chander Haat is an artist utopia, surrounded by lush tropical foliage and spacious art studios. In reality, it takes tremendous dedication as well as money to maintain a collective that functions outside of the mainstream art world. Its mission is to provide a space that inspires freedom without barriers, encouraging interdisciplinary research, creative experimentation and a commitment to community engagement.

Interview with Manjushree

October 2023
I learned about the artist Manjushree from a mutual friend of ours, Lika S. Both artists graduated from Om Dayal Group of Institutions with degrees in architecture. I have met many creative people in India with architecture degrees that do not practice architecture, instead working in another creative field. I even attended a lecture in Ahmedabad given by an architect couple (IG @leewardists), who make comics about architects and architecture, especially the failings of architecture schools and the disenchantment rampant amongst many graduates. But I digress.

Interview with Pooja Bahri

October 2023
I first met Pooja Bahri in an online performance art class with Alicia Framis at The Alternative Art School. (TAAS) Unlike many other online classes or continuing education programs, TAAS students are all serious visual artists. The school’s mission is to build a global community. Pooja and I immediately connected through our shared interest in works surrounding gendered identity and the body. We collaborated on a work together during class and also continued individual performance works focusing on themes of self/selfish/selfless. Fast forward—I find myself in India on a Fulbright Research Award and fly to New Delhi to meet Pooja in person. We spent a fun weekend looking at and discussing art. A meeting of kindred spirits. This interview evolved from our many hours of talking about art and life.

Brain Beans and Suburban Dreams: Meow Wolf’s “The Real Unreal”

August 2023
Like my Glasstire colleagues Jessica Fuentes and William Sarradet, I too went to Meow Wolf Grapevine during its preview days last month. I’m a big fan of multimedia, immersive installations; for immersive sound and light work, Dark Matter in Berlin was one of my favorites. Conversely, Transfix in Las Vegas was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. Billed as the new Burning Man, there was a disconnect between the concept and visuals, and the work didn’t achieve the level of spectacle that viewers expect while in Vegas.

Review: “Don Netzer: The Lethal Beauty of Violence” at PDNB Gallery, Dallas

July 2023
Don Netzer’s color photographic series addresses gun violence in the United States. I first saw a few works from this series in a group exhibition at PDNB Gallery in Dallas this past spring. The experience of viewing an entire room full of large-scale portraits of bullets, or more specifically gun cartridges, stopped me in my tracks. Photographed against a seductive black background with dramatic lighting, the images emphasize the design of the bullet as a killing modus operandi, which is both confounding and unsettling.

Pipilotti Rist & Evita Tezeno: Two Exhibitions of Note on View in Houston

May 2023
Last month, I drove to Houston for the Glasstire Gala and had the opportunity to see a few exhibits, including the Pipilotti Rist installation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and Evita Tezeno at Houston Museum of African American Culture.
I’ve followed Rist’s work for 26 years, since I first saw Ever Is Over All in 1997. The iconic video features a young woman who always reminds me of a badass version of Dorothy from Oz. She walks down the street swinging a large flower/club, breaking car windows, and a female police officer walks by and gives her a nod.

Talking with Roberta “Nina” Hassele, Executive Director of Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio

March 2023
I met Nina Hassele last month while in San Antonio for my Artpace/Glasstire collaborative micro-residency. We immediately connected over art and mutual artist friends. Her passion for art, arts advocacy, and life is contagious, and I could have spoken with her for hours. We decided to continue our conversation over email, talking about the San Antonio art scene and Contemporary Art Month’s upcoming initiatives in March 2023.

Review: “Gabrielle Goliath: Chorus” at the Dallas Contemporary

February 2023
South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s powerful, aural/video installation at the Dallas Contemporary raises awareness about the insidious rape and femicide culture embedded within the country’s patriarchal society. The work features a large projection of the University of Cape Town’s choir, which performs a sonic eulogy in honor of 19-year old university student Uyinene Mrwetyana, who was brutally raped and murdered in 2019.

A Look at Four San Antonio Exhibitions

January 2023
• Best known for his intricately detailed glass marbles, in his current show, Milk at Fl!ght Gallery, Sean Thomas Johnston departs from traditional glass blowing and instead ventures into the conceptual realm of contemporary art.
• Artist Kim Bishop’s work explores family connections and the ties that bind us individually and collectively over time.
• Jesus Treviño’s paintings use family imagery as source material, exploring the artist’s experience growing up on the U.S./Mexico border, as well as themes of displacement and erasure from history.
• Lordy Rodriguez, who was the inaugural resident of Artpace’s program in 1995, returns to exhibit selections of his work involving the language of mapping and grids.

Object Performance: “Three Dollar Bill” at Cluley Projects, Dallas

December 2022
Featuring the work of artist duo Chuck & George (C&G) and Colton James White, Three Dollar Bill utilizes camp and subversive humor to explore themes of high and low culture and queer identity, as well as the deconstruction of cultural norms. I’ve seen many Chuck & George exhibits throughout the years, and in them always feel like I’ve walked into a carnival side show, rich with spectacle and desire. By pairing their work with that of White, a performance artist, the exhibition’s objects take on additional themes of voyeurism and exploring what is unseen or hidden.

I Pick Up My Life: Tammie Rubin at Galleri Urbane, Dallas

November 2022
Through a variety of media and processes, Tammie Rubin’s inaugural exhibition at Galleri Urbane in Dallas explores personal, ancestral, and collective experiences of Black Americans throughout history. Using coded symbols and mapping on sculptural forms and in drawings and installations, the work speaks to the exodus of Black Americans from the south to the north.

Field Kitchen Academy Residency: Changing Context for an Artist Practice

October 2022
This summer, I had the great pleasure to attend my first artist residency at the Field Kitchen Academy, located near Perleberg, Germany at architect Tilman Schall’s 1830’s farmhouse estate, about two hours outside of Berlin. I don’t normally apply to residencies, since I can make my work in my home studio. However, this one caught my attention, due to its unique mission.

Cardboard Fashion: An Interview with Juan Carlos Escobedo

October 2022
I first met Juan Escobedo online after reading his comments on my Sarah Fox “Bad Bunny” article this past May, after the troll Benita Ocasio (fake name) attacked me, my writing and Sarah’s work. Unlike most commenters, Juan used his real name and spoke up for the arts and artists. His courage in speaking out against a powerful art institution made me want to find out more about him and his work. This, eventually, led me to his website and to a series of conversations about his work. Juan was raised along the U.S./Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, El Paso, Texas and the Ciudad Juárez region. His practice stems from his identity as a brown Mexican-American queer male. He received his MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and lives in San Antonio.

A Shared Conversation: Art & Language at the Grace Museum, Abilene

August 2022
While perusing the Grace’s vast collection, curator Judy Deaton discovered many hidden gems, including 13th century illuminated manuscript pages and many artist books and portfolios that had neither previously been shown nor literally seen the light of day. Currently on display at the museum are more than five exhibitions, which together utilize collection works and loans to explore the connection between images and words. The works included span many eras, incorporating diversity in form, process, concept, and intent; they fuse symbols, imagery, and language to create conversations.

Discussing Laura Anderson Barbata’s Costumes & Transdisciplinary Art Practice

July 2022
Laura Anderson Barbata is a Mexican transdisciplinary artist. As I was researching her work, I wondered about her use of “trans” and how the term differed from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary artist. As she explained to me, her work embraces “the concept of transcending borders, not just geographic, but also with her medium and techniques.”

Tangible Advancement: An Interview with Delita Martin

June 2022
Based in Huffman, Texas, artist Delita Martin creates work that reconstructs the identity of Black women through the layering of signs, symbols, and language, from historical to modern times. Her powerful, young, female protagonists project strength and confidence rooted firmly in the present, but also remain connected to their spiritual selves. She received a BFA from Texas Southern University and a MFA from Purdue University. Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Most recently, Martin’s work was shown at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC and welcomed into the Library of Congress.

“This is Ukraine: Defending Freedom” at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice, Italy

June 2022
Bjorn Geldhof, Curator and Director of the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, Ukraine, approached the exhibition This is Ukraine: Defending Freedom from two perspectives. The first part presents works from three artists who continue to live and work in the Ukraine during the current Russian invasion, bombings, and war. The second part presents big name international contemporary artists whose works challenge us to form a collective voice supporting Ukraine. The fact that the exhibit is held in conjunction with this year’s Venice Biennale and housed in a 1310 historical building that focused on charitable work (the Scuola Grande) adds an additional layer of context and meaning to the message of urgency presented in the artists’ works.

10 Works from the Venice Biennale that I Wish the Fort Worth Modern Would Acquire

June 2022
Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the 59th Venice Biennale takes its title, Milk of Dreams, from a children’s book by Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. The book is full of her illustrations of magical and mythical creatures. Alemani uses the text as a point of origin, conversing with artists about envisioning new worlds and new possibilities. The exhibition is divided into three themes — bodies and metamorphosis, the relationship between humans and technology, and the connection between humans and the earth. Given the scale of the exhibition (213 artists from 58 countries) and the fact that Alemani was unable to travel to make studio visits with the artists during the pandemic, it was no doubt a daunting task to create a holistic and cohesive exhibition. I thought it was extremely well curated.

Sarah Fox: “Bad Bunny Gets Lucky” at Erin Cluley Projects

May 2022
Sara Fox’s exhibition at Erin Cluley Projects in Dallas is my first foray back into art viewing since my return from the Venice Biennale a few weeks ago, with my head overflowing from an over-indulgence of art. My first impression is that Fox’s work would fit in beautifully with Biennale curator Cecilia Alemani’s vision. Inspired by Surrealist artist Leonara Carrington’s children’s book The Milk of Dreams, the global exhibition in Venice features many artists whose work incorporates mythical, hybrid creatures who respond to current realities while imagining utopic new worlds.

Welcome — Letitia and Sedrick Huckaby’s Kinfolk House

April 2022
Kinfolk House is the brainchild of Sedrick and Letitia Huckaby. The 100-year-old Ft. Worth home originally belonged to Sedrick’s grandmother, Hallie Beatrice Carpenter, or “Big Momma” as she was fondly known to her friends and family. The refurbished house is now an art gallery and community center channeling the spirit of Big Momma’s philosophy of home, as a place where all are invited to gather and visit. The Huckaby’s desire is that community connection “will craft a patchwork of creativity, power and culture, ensuring that the Kinfolk legacy lives on for generations to come.”

Mapping Time: “Mystic Toolkit” at Artpace, San Antonio

April 2022
New York/Toronto curator Anaïs Castro’s exhibition Mystic Toolkit explores the spiritual practices that inform artists’ work. Within the context of the pandemic, these daily spiritual and secular rituals take on a heightened prominence as strategies for coping, healing and grieving during this time of collective anxiety when the home became a conflicted space — both a sanctuary and a prison. The exhibit features 7 artists — Shanie Tomassini (Montreal), Vanessa Brown (Berlin), Jennifer Ling Datchuk (San Antonio), Rachael Starbuck (Austin), Julian Yi-Zhong Hou (Vernon, Canada), Alicia Adamerovich (Brooklyn), and Erika De Freitas (Toronto).

Andrea Tosten: “Griffe” at Cluley Projects, Dallas

March 2022
Given her training as a calligrapher and bookbinder, it’s unsurprising that Dallas artist Andrea Tosten finds inspiration in literary texts. In her current exhibition at Cluley Projects, Tosten’s work explores her Creole-Jamaican heritage and identity as a Black woman with European and Indigenous roots.
On display are paper quilts referencing five epistolary novels including Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Octavia Butler’s Parable of Sowers, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story and C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. One may wonder what these novels have in common, besides belonging to the epistolary genre (books based on letters or journal entries).

An Interview with Daniel Rios Rodriguez

March 2022
I met with Daniel Rios Rodriguez in early January at his studio in south San Antonio. We discussed his connection and commitment to the land, his family, and painting. His work is well known internationally and nationally, but has not received as much attention in his home state of Texas. Over the last three years, he has had solo exhibitions in Dublin, Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto. He received his BFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2005) and his MFA from the Yale School of Art (2007).

Pennies and Power: an Interview with Artist Jill Magid

February 2022
Jill Magid’s work examines the hierarchies of power — the hidden power structures inherent in our culture. Asking how one gains access to that which is inaccessible, Magid identifies loopholes in these systems, subverting their functions through playful manipulations of the rules. I believe that Magid’s quest to understand these systems on an intimate level and her tenacious persistence is a means to claim power (with a small p). This is what allowed her to convince the Amsterdam police to hire her as a security ornamentation professional to decorate the city’s Police surveillance cameras with rhinestones. (System Azure Security Ornamentation, 2002)

Patty Carroll: Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise at PDNB Gallery, Dallas

February 2022
On first glance at Patty Carroll’s exhibition at PDNB Gallery, I immediately thought of Hal Foster’s 2011 book Design and Crime (and Other Diatribes). In it, Foster states that design encourages narcissism, promoting surface superficiality with a lack of substance. In Carroll’s worlds, the ornately designed scenes subsume the protagonists. She says that the anonymous woman “is both a victim of her obsessions…, as well as the creator” of her circumstances, further explaining that her scenes are loosely inspired by the game of Clue, where players guess the perpetrator, motive and weapon.

Kristen Cochran’s “retrospectator” at TCU’s Moudy Gallery

January 2022
For two weeks, artist Kristen Cochran has transformed Texas Christian University’s Moudy Gallery into an in-situ studio space open to students and the public. The project title cleverly refers to a retrospective with the added connotation of the spectator. I met with Cochran to discuss some of her ideas, works-in-progress and notions of private vs. public space within the gallery context. I’m intrigued by this model within the academic context, as it presents an opportunity to demystify the artist’s process — one that offers art students insight into the life of a professional artist. I wish I had experiences like this during my studies.

Flat, Bright & Bold: The Avery Family Style

January 2022
I was surprised to see the announcement about the Milton Avery exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. While the museum has a commitment to collecting and showing work from the 1940s to the present, most of its major retrospectives over the past years have focused on contemporary artists. Coinciding with the museum’s fifty-year overview of Milton’s work is an exhibition of Sally Michel Avery and March Avery at the Jody Klotz Fine Art Gallery in Abilene. While much has been written about Milton’s work, I was unfamiliar with that of his wife and daughter. In researching their work, I became aware of what has been termed the “Avery style”.

A review: The stars are his bones

January 2022
Originating in Japan, haiku–a deceivingly simple poetic form, does not traditionally employ literary devices like metaphor or symbolism. Rather, it evolved from sensory experiences of inward and outward reflection and observation of the natural world in order to elicit a rich, visual image for the reader. Thus, haiku provides an interesting challenge for pairing with photographs, as photography presents us simultaneously not only with a decisive moment, but also a comprehensive narrative.

Conversation with Filmmaker & Poet Richard Bailey

November 2021
I had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Bailey after the recent release of his 3rd feature film, King Judith. I first met Richard Bailey in 2013 at the Dallas Video Festival through a mutual friend. The following year Bailey and I began collaborating, primarily on performance video projects in which Bailey served as the DP, and also as editor. In 2019, I interviewed him for the premiere of his film A Ship of Human Skin, which has garnered many top international awards at festivals for independent films.

A Return to Performance: Two Events in Dallas

October 2021
While museums and galleries have been open for a while, performing arts venues are just now reopening with limited capacity. I recently had the pleasure of attending two newly reopened events, both of which required proper social distancing and mandatory mask wearing. Like the performances’ other attendees, I was thrilled to experience live art once again. • Negotiating Dialogues – Created by Carmen Menza in collaboration with Mark Menza, Eric Farrar and Joel Olivas • Stronger Than Arms – By Danielle Georgiou and Justin Locklear, Directed by Director Danielle Georgiou, Featuring the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group

Stack for Martha’s Sisters: Dani + Sheilah ReStack at FWCA

October 2021
I met with multimedia visual artists Dani and Sheilah ReStack at TCU’s Fort Worth Contemporary Arts (FWCA) during their fourth day of install of their current show. Dani had fallen off of a ladder the previous day and broken both hands. Despite the stress accompanied by an unexpected accident, limited mobility, pain, and a looming install deadline, both artists were gracious and welcoming.

Jeanine Michna-Bales Revisits the Final Campaign for Women’s Suffrage

September 2021
I first met Jeanine Michna-Bales in 2017, in conjunction with her exhibition and book publication of Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad, and had the pleasure of interviewing her for Glasstire. Michna-Bales’ process is very research-intensive, and her current project, Standing Together: Inez Milholland’s Final Campaign for Women’s Suffrage, is no exception. Originally scheduled for exhibition in 2020, to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of (some) women’s right to vote, the show was postponed due to the pandemic. Her stunning photographs combined with the essays and text from the book provide a personal foray into one women’s remarkable journey.

To Comfort and Consume: Nastassja Swift at Galveston Arts Center

August 2021
Nastassja Swift is a multimedia artist whose layered installation, Caanan: when I read your letter, I feel your voice, on view at Galveston Arts Center (GAC), explores Swift’s personal experience in navigating her brother Caanan’s incarceration. Addressing themes of absence, erasure and the impact of mass incarceration in an intimate, reflective space, the project includes a 40-foot glass-beaded and fabric quilt looped through a steel armature the size of her brother’s cell. Swift is currently at a residency in Cleveland, working on a community youth outreach project.

Promise Me The Earth: Sherry Owens at The Grace Museum, Abilene

July 2021
I first met Sherry Owens when I moved to Dallas a decade ago. She is a whirling dervish of activity — full of passion, ideas, and a daunting work ethic. Her robust laugh immediately puts one at ease, and her enthusiasm for life is contagious.

Four Current Shows in the Panhandle: Linda Blackburn, Michael O’Brien, Steve Parker, and Lynne Mapp Drexler

July 2021
• I was in Abilene a few weeks back viewing Sherry Owen’s exhibition at the Grace Museum for an upcoming profile/interview of her for Glasstire, and had the opportunity to visit Jody Klotz Fine Art Gallery (also Abilene), and the Old Jail Art Center in Albany (about half an hour’s drive).
• Linda Blackburn’s watercolors examine the mythology of the American West. Sourcing film stills from Western movies, she juxtaposes elements and figures to create layered compositions that ask more questions than they answer.
• Michael O’Brien’s exhibition features stunning color portraits of participants in the Fort Griffin Fandangle.
• Steve Parker’s installations include sonic experiences that are activated with viewers’ engagement.

Objects of Aggression: A Conversation with Theresa Newsome

April 2021
Theresa Newsome is a photographer whose work explores the concepts of racial identity, history and gender. She received her MFA from Texas Woman’s University in 2019 and currently teaches at Palo Alto College in San Antonio. We met at Blue Star Contemporary during my Artpace San Antonio/Glasstire writing residency to discuss her solo exhibition Objects of Aggression, which is on view at Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio through May 9.

Abigail Reyes: Aquí se come carne

April 2021
San Salvadoran artist Abigail Reyes’ first U.S. solo exhibition at the Liliana Bloch Gallery, Aquí se come carne (Here we eat meat) sources popular television and real-life stories to reveal misogynist male behavior prevalent in Latin American culture. Text is a dominant visual strategy in her work. She emphasizes how language has been systemically used to control women. Her work is particularly salient in the wake of the U.S. #metoo movement.

“Let My Body Eat the Sun”: A Chat With Christie Blizard

March 2021
I met Christie Blizard earlier this year in San Antonio, during my ArtPace/Glasstire residency. Mutual friend Libby Rowe introduced us and told me I would love Blizard’s work — that it was edgy and weird in the best possible way. She was correct, though it was a vast understatement.

Conversation with Michael Poll

March 2021
I first met you at the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, when you took my critical writing course about Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. I remember I first heard you play a year later at the Amado Recital Hall in Irvine Auditorium as part of your coursework in performance. Tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in music.

I Will Greet the Sun Again: A Conversation With Shirin Neshat

February 2021
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-American artist based in New York. Her retrospective exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, which opens to the public tomorrow, is made up of her acclaimed oeuvre of photography, video and film from the past 30 years. Neshat’s work has been extensively exhibited globally, and she has been awarded many honors including the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”

North Forest Lights at the Crystal Bridges Museum

February 2021
This was my third trip to Crystal Bridges Museum and my second visit to North Forest Lights. Nestled in the Ozark landscape, designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, the museum is surrounded by water, trees, trails, and a sculpture garden. It’s breath-taking. The American art collection is impressive, spanning U.S. history from its inception to contemporary times. Recent acquisitions show a dedication to collecting artists of color, with a strong emphasis on Native American art. As a former Northeasterner, Arkansas previously wasn’t on my radar as an art destination. But with Crystal Bridges, Momentary, and 21c Art Hotel, there is a lot of excellent art to enjoy. With brewpubs and farm to table restaurants like the Preacher’s Son (housed in a former church), it was a special weekend getaway.

An Interview With Andie Flores About Audience, Excess, and Legacy

January 2021
Andie Flores is a visual and performance artist, writer and comedian currently in her second year as a doctoral student in the Mexican American Latinx Studies Program at University of Texas in Austin. She uses humor to explore narratives about surveillance and the brown femme body. Her solo show at Presa House in San Antonio is my first experience with her work. I was drawn to her use of alter egos to explore the current cultural phenomenon of isolation and online identities.

My Glasstire Writing Residency at Artpace San Antonio: Week 2

January 2021
During the pandemic shutdown, the acclaimed artists residency and art venue, Artpace, in San Antonio, has a bit of extra room in its residency space to host an informal writing residency in collaboration with Glasstire. Colette Copeland, a North Texas-based artist, educator, and longtime Glasstire contributor is the current resident of the two-week program. This diary entry is part of a two-part installment about her days in San Antonio; Copeland will also bring us several artist profiles.
Day 5: Last Friday, I got a private tour of Ruby City with its Head of Collections and Communication, Kelly O’Connor, who has worked with the late Linda Pace’s Foundation (and now Ruby City) for 15 years.

My Glasstire Writing Residency at Artpace San Antonio: Week 1

January 2021
During the pandemic shutdown, the acclaimed artists residency and art venue, Artpace, in San Antonio, has a bit of extra room in its residency space to host an informal writing residency in collaboration with Glasstire. Colette Copeland, a North Texas-based artist, educator, and longtime Glasstire contributor is the current resident of the two-week program. This diary entry is part of a two-part installment about her days in San Antonio; Copeland will also bring us several artist profiles.
Day 1: Whenever I’m traveling, whether for business or pleasure (will that ever happen again?), I like to take the first day to walk around the city and get a feel for the culture and vibe.

The lure/allure of the Mermaid

January 2021
Like many young girls, I wanted to grow up and be a mermaid. I thought having a tail and swimming in the sea would be the ultimate superpower. I remember learning about the Weeki Wachee mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida and thinking it would be the coolest job ever. When I finally saw them perform as a young adult, I felt quite sad. The poor women had to spend all day trapped in an overly chlorinated tank, swimming with fake tails, and smiling at gawkers. I wondered how their hair and skin managed to stay in-tact.

Michael Anthony Garcia: Huecos Chuecos I

January 2021
Night. Birds singing. Muted traffic. A masked, bare chested man encased in a window display, illuminated by a single spot light. Framed within a frame by natural fauna. Voluminous white skirted, many empty-pocketed wrap stamped with RAW. A Mexican ballad–a lamentation. The mask drops to the floor. Rib-squeezing bear hugs with a surrogate. The sound of a heartbeat.

Keep Moving! The Drive-Through Experience of “Aurora: Area 3”

Nick Cave at The Momentary

December 2020
When researching vernacular phrases containing the word until, I was surprised to discover that so many of the sayings reference death and dying. Nick Cave’s usage of the exhibition title references the phrase “innocent until proven guilty” or more aptly in the case of American black men and women in the U.S. justice system, “guilty until proven innocent.”

Giovanni Valderas: Grit/Grind

December 2020
Grit and grind are part of the mythic American Dream. But what if that American Dream discriminates against you because of your skin color or country of origin or lack of a voice or invisibility? Giovanni Valderas’ sculptural installation Grit/Grind questions the assumptions of the American Dream and its implications of mobility and freedom. Valderas is best-known for his Casistas Tristes and ¿Quién manda? work that addresses gentrification and awareness about local municipal elections. His work illuminates the displacement and socio-economic disparity that is the reality for immigrant families. Valderas creates sculptures and signs from piñata materials and places them in public spaces to engage communities in dialogue.

The Horse as Witness and Metaphor: A Chat With Deborah Butterfield

Local Art in the Show House: Kips Bay Does Dallas

Diane Durant's “Stories 1986-88”

August 2020
I’ve known Dr. Diane Durant and followed her work for the past 8 years. She is best known for her documentary and text-based photographic series. Although her work is very smart like the artist herself, it is never pretentious or inaccessible. She describes herself as a naked truth story teller. (Disclaimer–I added the naked part. She probably wouldn’t say that about herself, but I’m fairly confident she would appreciate the word play). I wrote about her 2018 exhibit Mental Pictures in which she questioned history and truth with sly nods to theorists Derrida, Saussure and Sontag. In this series, the text-only photographs are printed in the darkroom, allowing viewers to create their own mental imagery. Spare and lush, her prose reflects southern childhood experiences of wonder tinged with disappointment–the power of words to inspire and destroy.

Hansen & Cravens Find Their Way at The MAC, Dallas

Tayeba Begum Lipi & Mahbubur Rahman

June 2020
Ninth and final in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
It was difficult to accept the situation in the beginning. Suddenly, I felt that the entire world was immobilised with all future planning, commitments, and activities either postponed or cancelled. Watching the news channels, we became scared to touch anything, not even trusting our closest associates such as our work assistants, fabricators, friends and family, which was frustrating. We shut down our studios and asked our associates to take leave and stay at home.

Mallika Das Sutar & Bhabotosh Sutar

May 2020
Seventh in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
We had a dream during our student years. We wanted to have an art space for ourselves where we could work together. Since then we started planning to create this art space. Tarun Dey, our mentor and teacher was the one who showed us this dream and he was the one who taught us how to stick to this dream for a long time. Over the years, some of us joined art colleges and after graduation, we immersed ourselves completely into the process of fulfilling our collective dream. Finally, in 2008 we bought a 30,000 sq ft. plot of land in our locality and started building the collective art space which we fondly named ‘Chander Haat’.

Miriam Bloom & Ron Morosan

May 2020
Sixth in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
The quarantine has definitely curtailed what I was working on in my studio in New York City. I had a couple of large canvases that I was just starting, but then Covid hit and everything stopped. We decided to move to our house and studio upstate, which is roomy with two floors and a decent amount of space. I concentrate on drawings and have begun a couple of smaller scale paintings. It’s a challenge to find materials. I’ve been using what I have around the house and improvising with new materials. I like this approach and new ideas are developing, but I feel held back from what I want to do.

Mary Magsamen & Stephan Hillerbrand

May 2020
Fifth in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
We were so excited about this spring! Like so many artists, opportunities come in waves. We had been cultivating, planning and pulling things together for a long time, some of them were years in the making or planning.
Then all of sudden things just stopped.

Francesca Leoni & Davide Mastrangelo

May 2020
Fourth in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
Davide Mastrangelo and I made our first videoart work about ten years ago when I had the measles and the doctor said that I had to stay at home for three weeks. Davide stayed home with me almost the entire time. Its not easy to be confined, but in our case it opened a door to a new way of expressing ourselves. There are many ways of living a quarantine if you are an artist. Some of the artists that I know decided that this would be a time for silence and for this reason they are not making work. We don’t think that way.

An Interview with Hillerbrand + Magsamen About How to Survive the Coronavirus (One Device at a Time)

The Brians a.k.a. Chuck & George

April 2020
Third in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
The truth is, it is just a compounding factor…it has seemed that our world slipped into a surrealist dystopia some time ago. I actually have not made any art since the lock-down. (Ok, I have done bad sketches of participants in online meetings and classes). It happened that our studio mate (a framer) decided to move out. I first told him not to worry, he didn’t have to pay rent for a while, but he was determined. So I embraced the new and exciting ceramics space now available. BJ and I have been working on the studio!

Ryder Richards & Sue Anne Rische

April 2020
Second in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
Mid-March I saw the writing on the wall and decided to move a good chunk of my studio to my home, where it’s now located in the dining room. I have access to all of the things I did before for the most part. The problem is that in a home studio, it can be hard to stay focused with all the chores that need attention, teaching online classes, the refrigerator, the video game console…

Matteo Campulla & Silvia Argiolas

April 2020
First in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are surviving the pandemic times.
When the Italian government imposed the “lockdown”, we were in New York for the week of the contemporary art fairs. At that time, New York had no limitations for people and the news from Italy was worse every day. Our flight for the return to Milan was canceled two days before departure. Fortunately, the airline helped us change our flight by making a stopover in Rome and then arriving in Milan. Upon our return, Milan was completely deserted. This “detachment” from a reality where the virus had not yet changed people’s lives (in my video “the covid-19 spring breakers” you can see the people who crowded The Armory Show, as if nothing was happening in the rest of the world ) to one that forced social distancing and isolation was very alienating.

Focus: Hrair Sarkissian

March 2020
I experienced Hrair Sarkissian’s work at the Ft. Worth Modern on March 2nd, before the world turned upside down. As I write this on March 15th, the last scheduled day of the exhibition, the museum is closed like so many others around the world. For some, the cancellation of major sporting events like NBA, MLB, NCAA, PGA signifies the end of the world as we know it. For me, it is the museums–the places I go for solace and rejuvenation. In only two weeks, my interpretation of Sarkissian’s work shifted, as self-quarantine, WFH, and social distancing become the new norm.

The Privacy World of Sue Anne Rische

Tim Burton

February 2020
Vegas provides a challenging environment for art, overstimulating and desensitizing visitors while overshadowing artworks with the Strip’s cacophony and spectacle. Inspired by his nostalgic childhood memories of Vegas, Burton’s sculptural and digital works administer a welcome respite. His surreal, whimsical characters seem at home, perfectly integrated in the neon boneyard, where all lost neon signs go to die.

Banksy

February 2020
Ironic or savvy that Banksy’s unauthorized exhibition of 70 original works is on display at a fashion mall, where for $30 one can venture into a darkened storefront, view ornately framed Banksy prints– works originally created for the streets, then exit through the gift shop to buy Banksy paraphernalia?

The History House: A Conversation With Nida Bangash

February 2020
Born in Iran and brought up in Pakistan, artist Nida Bangash earned her BFA and MA (with honors) at The College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan, where she taught before relocating to the United States in 2013. An esteemed artist and academic overseas, she gave up her career to move with her husband and family to Dallas, only to start over. As someone who has moved many times and had to start and restart my career, I celebrate her tenacity and perseverance.