Ruiz-Healy Art, which operates galleries in San Antonio and New York City, announced last week that four artists the gallery represents, including the late Katie Pell, have had works acquired by museums in New York, Massachusetts, and San Antonio. Patssi Valdez’s Scattered goes to Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; Alejandro Diaz’s Kinderholdingeinrichtung, McAllen, TX was acquired by the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts; and three works by Ethel Shipton, Rough Road and Mask, Wrong Way and Mask, and Turn Around and Mask will go to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. The McNay has also acquired the late Katie Pell’s sculpture Charm and Weight.
Ethel Shipton, Turn Around, 2015-2020. Signed and editioned (lower right), screenprint from the Roadwork Ahead Series, 11 x 18.” Edition of 10. One of three works acquired by the McNay.
In a Glasstire review of Shipton’s work in 2019, Hill Snyder writes, “So how is the print different than just seeing the sign while driving? — the difference lies in the action of the artist — seeing the metaphoric potential of the sign, photographing it, manipulating the photograph as a screen print and hanging it in a gallery — this process brings the meanings at rest in the sign to attention. Pretty much the role of any artist anytime, anywhere, but this bare bones description of the dynamic at play is so central to Shipton’s way, that it bears stating — not so much because it’s obvious, but because the obvious so often goes unnoticed. And this is the heart of her work.”
Katie Pell, Charm and Weight, 2008. Various woods and paint, 19′ x 33′. Photo credit: Shaune Kolber
A publication by Women & Their Work for Pell’s 2008 solo exhibition in the Austin space shares some insight about Charm and Weight:
“In Charm and Weight, twenty giant links cascade from floor to ceiling. An array of objects — the Hindu elephant-god Ganesha, a sailboat, a bare foot, a swallow, a breast milagro, and a hand of Fatima — all dangle from the chain. In her own words, Pell described this disparate array of objects as her ‘version of international cultural assemblage.'”
Patssi Valdez, Scattered, Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA, 1987. Collaged self portrait, Kodalith transfer Screen Print, 36 x 24.” Edition of 54.
Alejandro Diaz, Kinderholdingeinrichtung,McAllen, TX, 2018. Acrylic and mylar on canvas.
For more information about the artists, please visit Ruiz-Healy Art’s website here.
