City Maps

Artists as Map-Makers in New Exhibition at ArtPace
2.5.04

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2004
CONTACT: Trisha Tanner
210.212.4900 x117/ttanner@artpace.org

City Maps
February 5 - April 18, 2004

San Antonio, TX – ArtPace announces City Maps, an exhibition featuring artists Erik Benson (Brooklyn, NY), Janice Caswell (New York, NY), Alex Lopez (San Antonio, TX), and Ruth Root (New York, NY). City Maps presents works that create links between memory, perception, and physicality to convey personal understandings of place. Join the artists in dialogue on April 1, 2004.

About the Artists
Erik Benson's panoramic paintings suggest an urban space where architecture displaces those who use it. Focusing on the way we move through parks and streets, Benson hints at how those spaces exist in memory, and proposes that architecture gives life to us just as we bring life to it. Benson's work has been exhibited at RARE, New York, NY (2003), Finesilver / FYI, San Antonio, TX (2003), and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY (2002).

Janice Caswell connects swarms of colored dots with drawn lines—tracing human (and sometimes animal) movements to create delicate, bird's eye views of how urban space is traversed. Her slight gestures reveal how people use cities in ways that defy careful structural planning. Caswell's work has been shown at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT (2003), Galerie Anne Barrault, Paris, France (2004), and Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY (2003).

Alex Lopez's abstract "snapshots" of suburban infrastructure call attention to zones that are frequently marginalized in portrayals of the city (parking lots, roadways, rivers, streetlights)—mapping what life looks like outside the city center. Lopez has been included in exhibitions at the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2003), the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX (2002), and McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX (1999).

Ruth Root's irregularly shaped paintings resemble the jigsawed districts of many growing cities—bulging here and poking out there. These works bear a strong resemblance to urban mapmaking and are reminders of the segmented way we think about, and experience, urban space. Root's exhibitions include and Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, Italy (2000), Seattle Art Museum, WA (2003, 2002), and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY (2000).

Related Events
ArtTalks 04 | City Maps: April 1, 2004, 6:30-8:30 PM
In an increasingly complex contemporary landscape, perceptions of the city are constantly in flux. City Maps gathers four artists who create innovative "guides" to urban space. Join ArtPace for a discussion about how lived experience and emotion can transform our understandings of place. Artists Erik Benson, Janice Caswell, Alex Lopez, and Ruth Root will participate in a conversation moderated by the exhibition's curator, Kate Green, ArtPace Education and Curatorial Associate. Reception will follow.

ArtTalks is brings artists, critics, curators, and others to San Antonio to engage in lively conversation about contemporary issues. In previous years Painting Out of Bounds and transACTIONS have delved into current practices in painting and interactive artworks, respectively.

¿Como Vives?: Ongoing
Students from Austin Elementary, Fox Tech High School, SAY Sí, and San Anto Cultural Arts will participate in a series of group projects resulting in artwork which will be shared with the artists of City Maps. These works will be on view at the Central Library's Youth Wired space (600 Soledad, San Antonio, TX 78205, 210.207.2500, TTY 210.207.2534). For more information, please contact ArtPace Education and Curatorial Associate, Kate Green.

About ArtPace
ArtPace | San Antonio serves as an advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for the creation of significant art projects. We seek to nurture emerging and established artists and to provide opportunities for inspiration, experimentation, and education. Our programs support the evolution of new ideas in contemporary art and cultivate diverse audiences while providing a forum for ongoing dialogue.

ArtPace is located downtown at 445 N. Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, TX. Free parking is available on the corner of Savings and Flores streets. ArtPace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5 PM, Thursday, 12-8 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org