For the past two years, the McNay Museum in San Antonio has been hosting South Texas artists. But this year, with the reopening of the renovated Tobin Exhibition Galleries, the “Pop-Up Exhibition” initiative is more enticing. 

A new exhibition, “6 Texas Artists, 8 Summer Days and 1 Cool Museum,” opens Saturday, June 17 and runs through Sunday, June 25. On Sunday, June 18 from 2 to 4 pm, the museum will host a public reception.

Pop-Up Exhibitions may be on view for a shorter time than other art exhibitions, but the artists are just as important. This year, six modern artists present diverse artworks using an array of interesting materials. Five artists call the Alamo city home. The sixth artist is from Austin, about 75 miles north. 

Rene Paul Barilleaux, McNay’s head of curatorial affairs, has selected the works of these regional artists in accordance with the museum’s mission of opening doors and empowering emerging artists. Additionally, visitors will be able to share the artistic vision the handful of artists have of their vibrant, South Texas communities.

Ana Fernandez is an excellent proponent of this vision. The San Antonio landscape artist captures her neighborhood through colorful artworks. Her emphasis is on Latino culture and elements of fantasy and the supernatural.

A fiber artist, teacher and author, Jane Dunnewold’s work reflects unique creativity. She uses antique quilts, originally made of salvaged clothing and other fabric, as sources for new sculptural artworks.

Who can forget the pop culture of the 1950s and 1960s? One element synonymous with the 1960s was the rage for all things psychedelic. Artist Kelly O’Connor became captivated by the imagery. So her artwork evokes iconic characters from magazine ads and popular subjects from the 1950s and 1960s.

Curt Slangal, another San Antonian, focuses on pop-art images, through personal history, nature, spirituality, and graphic arts. He uses vibrant colors to capture family photos, religious iconography, and local flora and fauna in his artworks.

San Antonio painter Andy Villareal has a penchant for bold, vibrant colors. His canvases speak volumes about his interest in Mesoamerican culture and pre-Columbian mythology. His colorful figures beckon more contemplation within their framework.

 
Lone Austin artist, Sally Weber, uses a whole range of mediums to explore the relationships between light and water. She also examines how light occupies space through large-scale color photography.

Although Barilleaux organized the exhibition, it is generously funded by the Elizabeth Huth Coates Exhibition Endowment and the Arthur and Jane Stieren Fund for Exhibitions and the Texas Commission on the Arts. 

The McNay Art Museum was the first Modern Art Museum in Texas. It was founded in 1954 by Ohio native Marion Koogler McNay. The young widow moved to San Antonio from Laredo after the death of her husband, Don McNay, in 1926. After she met and married ophthalmologist Donald T. Atkinson, she purchased her first work of art. 

With the purchase of her first modern oil painting by Mexican artist and muralist, Diego Rivera, the young Marion became an avid art collector. She and her husband commissioned local architects to build a 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion on 23 acres in central San Antonio.

Marion’s marriage to Atkinson lasted 10 years, and upon her divorce, she returned to using the surname of her deceased husband, Don McNay. The opulent mansion, with its lush, serene landscape became today’s McNay Museum.

Following Marion Koogler McNay’s death in 1950, her vast collection of more than 700 works of art, the mansion, and surrounding 23 acres were placed in an endowment so that it would be converted into the first modern art museum in Texas. The McNay opened its doors to the public in 1954.

Since Marion Koogler McNay’s bequest in 1950, the museum has added more than 20,000 works of art, including Medieval and Renaissance. It also holds 19th through 21st century European and American art.

Additionally, the McNay holds post-World War II American art and Southwestern artworks. The Tobin Collection features theater artworks. Visitors see a vast array of artworks in one single museum visit. For hours of operation, visit www.mcnayart.org 

 
Rosie Carbo is the Lifestyles Editor for Wandering Educators, and is a former newspaper reporter whose work has appeared in newspapers and magazines nationwide. Some of those publications include People magazine, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, and San Antonio Express-News. Some of her features were redistributed by The Associated Press early in her career as an award-winning Texas journalist.

All photos courtesy and copyright McNay Museum