This ain’t grandma’s wall hanging. This is thought-provoking, yawn-obliterating, in-your-face A-R-T. Cutting-edge offerings by young artists are taking over San Antonio’s Contemporary Art Month this July. So don’t just sit there and stare at it. Meet and greet our 10 picks for the hottest artists in town. Click here for complete CAM schedule.
 
Joey Fauerso

Style: Using watercolor and oil painting, animation, video and installation to explore “physical and metaphorical boundaries, the interiority and exteriority of the things, through the use of the figure.” In one of her latest works, “Get Naked,” she painted more than 500 images and animated them along with video footage her father, Paul Fauerso, shot in the 1960s. The process took about eight months and her father also composed music to accompany the visual elements.

Stats: The 31-year-old artist got her BFA in painting from the University of Iowa and her MFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is now a drawing professor at Texas State University. She recently returned from a visual art residency program in Iceland.

Statement: “.‘Get Naked’ explores the relationship between performance and transcendence, as well as the erotic versus the ecstatic,” wrote the artist. “Like a lot of my work, the piece is heavily influenced by my upbringing in a transcendental meditation community in Fairfield, Iowa. In the piece, short, directed performances trigger surreal narrative passages, transporting the figure into unlikely landscapes.”
Spark: She has drawn inspiration for some of her paintings from icebergs and sod dwellings in Iceland.

Showing: Her work will be featured in “Blue Star 23: Playing With Time,” at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, which opens at 6 p.m. on June 26 and runs through Aug. 17. She will also have a joint show, “Joey Fauerso/Michael Velliquette: Binocular Rivalry” at SalaDiaz, which opens at 7 p.m. on June 27 and runs through July 27. (joeyfauerso.com)

Alicia Wagner Calzada | 210SA contributor

John William Keedy

Style: Focusing on digital photography, and occasionally film photography, Keedy has created an emotionally charged series of photos titled “Epithet.” The dual self-portraits depict Keedy’s sometimes stormy relationship with himself.

Stats: Keedy graduated from Trinity University in 2007 with a double major in studio art and psychology. Between photo shoots, the 23-year-old artist works as a studio assistant.

Statement: “(‘Epithet’) kind of tells a narrative of the creation and evolution and eventual destruction of a relationship between two people, but both of the people are myself,” Keedy said. “And the two really kind of developed their own identity within the series of photographs. The narrative doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending. There are times when I look back on them and feel bad that I forever trapped one of the me’s in this somewhat abusive relationship. But, what you gonna do?”

Spark: “I was in a social psychology class at Trinity and probably paying about 20 percent attention,” Keedy said. “So I would hear snippets of social psychology mixed with my doodles and daydreams. And I started thinking about different possibilities of the same identity.

Depending on what situations a person faced, how that would influence the development of their psychological identity and personality and social identity. That idea kind of grew into a study of ..... the multiple pieces that work in harmony and work in conflict at times that kind of come together to form one identity.”

Showing: His work will be featured in “Blue Star 23: Playing With Time,” at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, which opens at 6 p.m. on June 26 and runs through Aug. 17. (johnwilliamkeedy.com)

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Kristy Perez

Style: “I work really in anything that gets the point across,” said the artist who does painting and sculpting. She also uses art to humorously reflect culture. For instance, her sculpture “Love in Return (after Anteros)” consists of a pair of Stacy Adams shoes with mirrors inserted into the tips. The shoes rest on top of a constructed wood box. She said the idea came from the stories she had heard of teenage boys putting mirrors on their shoes to see up girls’ skirts.

Stats: When she’s not making art, she’s working as an assistant at Anne Zanikos Art Conservation. The 37-year-old artist studied sculpture at San Antonio College and also has a small object, a pair of glasses with lace instead of lenses, touring with the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran.

Statement: “I am interested in making work that in some way will speak about the monolith of time as compared to the brevity of our lives,” wrote the artist. “I use memory, cultural and social attachment, humor, and metaphor. I take a minimalist approach and make careful choices about material for meaning.”

Spark: Perez finds inspiration in the ordinary. For her piece “Temptation (Invitation Only),” she gilt a rawhide dog bone with gold leaf. “I like finding these mundane objects and putting gold leaf on it ..... Whenever you cover anything, you automatically talk about the inside,” Perez said. She says the gold leaf and the dog bone together serve as a metaphor for the idea of temptation.

Showing: Her work will be featured at “Exhibit With a Z” at SoHo Wine and Martini Bar, which opens at 8 p.m. on July 11 and runs through Aug. 10. More info.

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Justin Boyd

Style: He describes his medium as “everything,” including digital prints, audio, video, sculpture and “whatever the idea calls for.” He used video recordings in “The Shotgun Series: Greytafair mix” to explore the American road. For that piece, he set up a video recorder in the passenger seat of his car as he drove with music playing. For his “visual mix tapes,” such as the Shotgun Series, he tries “to find that mix of location and song,” or synchronicity, in which a car’s blinker might match up to the music beat.

Stats: Boyd, 34, honed his skills while getting his BFA in sculpture and ceramics at the University of Texas at San Antonio and his MFA in art and integrated media at the California Institute of the Arts. He is a faculty member in UTSA’s new media department and was an Arthouse Texas Prize finalist in 2007.

Statement: “My American Spirit is renewed by long road trips,” wrote the artist. “The highway stripes seem magnetic; keeping the wheels centered pulling the car forward toward the horizon; a true merging of man and machine. The flow is seamless and endless from vista to town; a blend of landscape, atmosphere, wind noise, car sounds, traffic hum and music. Time is the aggregate that holds the car, the sounds and the views together and provides just enough slippage where a person might lose themselves for awhile.”

Spark: Boyd says his most unusual source of inspiration has been the sounds of bathroom fans. Boyd recorded the sounds of the fans in houses and businesses. Then he created a composition and toilet installation around the idea.

Showing: His work will be featured in “Blue Star 23: Playing With Time,” at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, which opens at 6 p.m. on June 26 and runs through Aug. 17.

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Kimberly Garza Campbell

Style: She uses oil paint on birch panel, thread on paper and other forms of mixed media.

For her work “Un Caballo Sin Hombre” she placed a picture of a soldadera, a female soldier who fought in the Mexican Revolution, on a painted birch panel and added five floating white “pearls.” The pearls represent history, the present and what the future will be, Garza Campbell said. The piece speaks to the difficult transition the soldadera faced when putting down her arms and returning to the life of a woman. Garza Campbell said she was going through a divorce at the time she was creating the piece and felt empowered by the imagery. She also does a lot of work with paper or fabrics that is white on white. “I like the challenge of it,” Garza Campbell said. “It’s very clean. It’s even more methodical than the painting. The painting is emotional. It’s easier to get carried away.”

Stats: The 29-year-old artist is also a legal worker for Child Protective Services. She has a BFA in painting from UTSA.

Statement: “Static nothingness can bloom into glorious creation, this is my meditation; the interrelationship of Time and Memory which facilitate the creation and illusion of Culture, Identity, and History are the major themes that are woven into the fabric of my Art,” wrote the artist. “The manifestations of these ideals are expressed in the form of painting and sculptural works.”

Spark: “Water inspires me a lot, flowing water, stagnant water, bodies of water,” Garza Campbell said. “It’s hypnotizing so I stare at it. I think it’s because it captures so much light.”

Showing: Her work will be featured in “RADIANT: Works Inspired by the Lite Brite,” at the Stella Haus Art Space, which will be open 6 to 9 p.m. on July 3 and 4, and by appointment through July 31. (elarteylavida.com)

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Jerry Cabrera

Style: Oil paint on canvas is Cabrera’s preferred medium to explore the “elements of beauty that exist in environments in which they could be easily lost.” For instance, Cabrera did a series of paintings based on the movement and grace of the bullfighter’s cape. Another, the “Haven” series, explores light in different contexts, such as at sunset or during a lunar eclipse.

Stats: Cabrera received his BFA in painting from Texas State University and his MFA in painting from UTSA. The 31-year-old artist now teaches painting and drawing at UTSA.

Statement: “With light comes color, and color denotes life,” wrote the artist. “Light is also associated with knowledge, hope, warmth and energy. In architecture, light is used as an element of design; and if you consider how the architecture of the prison cells limited the amount of light that made its way in, that light becomes more precious to the person in the cell or in solitary confinement. Psychologically, this may have been the only element of hope present in that type of environment. Light is extremely important because it becomes the only source of visual escape from imprisonment and isolation.”

Spark: Cabrera said a few years ago he visited the site of a former concentration camp in Germany. “I was able to experience these deep quiet moments that exist ..... in places where these people had terrible experiences,” said Cabrera. “The work is so minimal,” Cabrera said. “If you’re going to make work that’s universal, the more minimal a body of work is, the more powerful it is because you can communicate with the masses.”

Showing: His work will be featured in the “Arena Art Tour and Wine Tasting” at the AT&T Center, which occurs from 1 to 4 p.m. on July 26. His work will also be shown at the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. (joangronagallery.com/cabrera.htm)

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Adriana Maria Garcia

Style: Garcia tapped into her family history of carpa, or traveling tent show, performances to create a series of eight vibrantly hued paintings using acrylics on canvas. “It’s kind of emotional because it’s based on my family,” Garcia said.

Stats: The 31-year-old artist also freelances as a graphic designer. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Statement: “I wanted to bring to light the different stories I’d heard throughout my childhood,” Garcia said. “I guess this is my way of relating to it.” The stories include how her great-grandmother gave birth right after finishing a performance, how her grandfather’s sister died during a high-wire act, and how the carpa tent was eventually destroyed in a fire. The paintings commemorate her past while relating to the present because they reflect on the fair or unfair treatment of people. “There are obvious underlying (meanings) like ‘the show must go on,’.” Garcia said. By sticking to material that holds meaning to her, she is staying true to her definition of contemporary art. “Contemporary art is whatever mark you make driven by your soul. It’s not governed by any school of thought like Expressionism.”

Spark: Garcia said her work was fueled by her grandfather’s oral history tapes about life as a carpero, or carpa performer.

Showing: Her work will be featured at “Entre la Carpa (Inside the Tent)” at Bihl Haus Arts, which opens 5:30 p.m. on July 25 and runs through Aug. 30.

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Joshua Jennings

Style: For a recent project, Jennings teamed up with friend and fabric artist Laurel Gibson to create drawing and embroidery pieces on cloth napkins, some of which became art pillows. Using pen and marker, Jennings drew elaborate depictions of Paris’ Eiffel Tower and of gypsy figures. Gibson added embroidery to the pieces. “I’m a painter by trade,” Jennings said. “But I think all painters are drawers at some point in their life.” Jennings has also done prints, stickers and installations.

Stats: Jennings, 30, received his BFA in painting from UT-Austin before studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and wrapping up his MFA in painting at UTSA. For his day job, he works as a government contractor on Lackland Air Force Base.

Statement: The artist wrote that his “work is tied together by the combination of classical influences and pop-culture iconography that creates a conversation about the old and the new.” Jennings takes cues from “pop art icons such as Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rosenquist” in order to explore how cultural tradition is changed by “technology, communication and globalization.”

Spark: One of his most unusual sources of inspiration came from gum wrappers imported from Mexico with drawings of duck, lemons and other fruits. He enjoys exploring the way different cultures draw objects.

Showing: Jennings and Gibson’s collaborative work will be shown at “Innovation: A Collaboration,” at Fiber Artspace, which opens 6 p.m. on July 3, and will remain open Fridays noon to 6 p.m. through July 26.

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Dayna De Hoyos

Style: She uses painting and sculpting with an emphasis on found objects to create both abstract and more realistic works. “I like recycling,” said De Hoyos, who has made art from an old cutting board, cardboard, seat cushions and a fallen tree branch. “Usually, I use things that are more meaningful to me,” De Hoyos said. “My grandmother left so much ..... when she died that I’ve been using it in all my work.” De Hoyos has turned garments that belonged to her grandmother into sculpture by balling up an item of clothing and wrapping Plexiglas around it. She also named her gallery/studio Stella Haus Art Space after her Grandmother Stella. De Hoyos said she has about 50 works in progress.

Stats: De Hoyos is an artist, executive curator of Stella Haus Art Space, and is on the board of directors for Blue Star Contemporary Art Center. The 28-year-old is also an assessment coordinator for Alamo Community Colleges. She studied art at San Antonio College and later received her BFA in painting from UTSA.

Statement: “My objective is to incorporate things from occurrences and put them into a concrete form so that I can remember it after the occurrence is past,” De Hoyos said.

Spark: De Hoyos said she gets inspiration from being in the Big Bend area. “I came back from a trip to West Texas and I’m ready to paint for six months. I feel like maybe I lived there in a past life. I almost died there in October. I was in a flash flood for about four or five hours. I think that was a physical manifestation of my connection to that place.”

Showing: A lamp sculpture by the artist will be showing at “RADIANT: Works Inspired by the Lite Brite,” at Stella Haus Art Space, which will be open 6 to 9 p.m. on July 3 and 4, and by appointment through July 31. (daynadehoyos.com)

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Ed Saavedra

Style: When Saavedra says, “Typically, I’m a painter, but I’m not limited to painting,” he really means it. His wild style incorporates mixed media, collaborative work and found objects. For instance, a pencil found at the Beverly Hills Hotel in California became a pivotal piece of his work “Marker’s Remorse #2.” And his singular sense of humor is apparent in the titles he chooses, such as his fertility goddess-esque creation: “Our Lady of the Perpetual Taco-Money Hustle.” “That’s who I am,” Saavedra said. “I think humor is important in general. I like to make fun. In artwork, it’s pretty effective to use humor to get across a layer of truth. You’re disarmed ..... It’s paradoxically giving importance to things by making light of them.”

Stats: The 28-year-old artist is also senior creative co-conspirator at the FL!GHT Gallery.
Statement: “Though figurative painting (more realized, self-conscious versions of the marker portraits I rendered as a toddler) remains my primary compulsion – assemblage/collage and performance silliness provide trusty, diversionary outlets for spontaneous creative bursts,” Saavedra wrote.

Spark: “The most common source of inspiration is lyrics and music,” Saavedra said. But some of his strangest creative flashes have come from found objects like junk mail or items picked up at the Salvation Army. “Where did this come from? What’s its story? Something cheap like that is pretty damn profound,” Saavedra mused.

Showing: His work will be showing at “Hello, Walls.” at FL!GHT Gallery, which opens at 7 p.m. on July 12 and runs through Aug. 4. He will also be taking part in the 4th Annual Dignowity Hill Pushcart Derby on July 26. (myspace.com/edsaavedraart)

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