Andrei Renteria: 2666
November 11 - December 03,2022
From Spellerberg Projects:
"Artist’s Statement:
Recently, I’ve been trying to understand how “participant observation” can be used to understand and describe the set of contingencies played upon family members, who are desperate to find their missing loved ones. By forming collectives, they attempt to pressure the Mexican government into helping them investigate, locate, and excavate mass grave sites, maintained mostly by powerful drug cartels. I envision myself as a reportage artist, who “carries back” stories and situations confronted along the U.S.- Mexico border, where I grew up. My approach to the material is experimental and incorporates drawing, painting, lithography, sculpture, assemblage, and installation. I use these media as a powerful forum to investigate how to address and embody weighty subject matter beyond international borders. I aim to induce a social collaborative experience with the viewer, referring to the relationship of the body to the object and the sense of exploitation or power. Ambitiously, I am trying to destabilize the border between artist, artwork, and audience—analogous to the socio-political border.
About the Artist:
Andrei Renteria is a multidisciplinary artist wandering about the U.S.-Mexico Frontera. His experimental approach to material and research provides a powerful forum from which to investigate how to address and embody weighty subject matter (including torture and violence) beyond international borders. His work focuses on recurrences of discrimination, persecution, unlawful imprisonment, and other human rights abuses along the region. Renteria earned his BFA from Sul Ross State University in 2010 and his MFA at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2015. His work has been exhibited at Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Houston’s Holocaust Museum, and the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, TX. He is a 2019 George and Eliza A. Gardner Howard Foundation Fellow in Painting and a recipient of the 2018-2019 Blue Star’s Contemporary Berlin Residency hosted by Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.
About the Curator:
Raul Rene Gonzalez is a Multi-Disciplinary Artist, Airbnb Superhost, and Director, Curator, and Resident Artist at Clamp Light Studios & Gallery. Gonzalez earned his M.F.A. in Art from the University of Texas San Antonio and a B.F.A. in Painting from the University of Houston, Magna Cum Laude. Born in 1981, Gonzalez is a Houston-native but now lives in San Antonio with his wife and two daughters. Gonzalez has been featured in Glasstire, Southwest Contemporary Vol. 5, Create! Magazine, The San Antonio Express-News, and the upcoming New American Paintings No. 162: West Issue. In 2021 he was selected as San Antonio Museum of Art’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence and was named San Antonio Art League & Museum’s 2021 Artist of the Year. Gonzalez’s work is included in multiple permanent collections, including The National Museum of Mexican Art, The National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, The McNay Art Museum, Benson Latin American Collection, Capital One, and The City of San Antonio.
About Spellerberg Projects
Spellerberg Projects (est. 2016) presents exhibitions and public programs featuring local, national, and international artists. This non-commercial gallery and artist-run DIY space are affiliated with Spellerberg Associates, a digital strategy consultancy serving clients in arts and culture."
Reception: December 03, 2022 | 6-9 pm
Spellerberg Projects
103 S Main St
Lockhart, Texas 78644
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