Mystic Toolkit

From Artpace:

“Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce our first exhibition of 2022: Mystic Toolkit, curated by writer and Artpace Curatorial Residence alumna Anaïs Castro. On view in the Hudson Showroom, Mystic Toolkit brings together the work of seven artists working across a variety of mediums ranging from sculpture, painting, photography, and performance to celebrate daily rituals of coping, healing, and grieving that have become indispensable in recent times. Artpace is currently closed to the public due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, but the exhibition is available through our online gallery at artpace.org.

The first iteration of Mystic Toolkit was presented in January 2020 at Stewart Hall Art Gallery in Pointe-Claire (Quebec), a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to life as we knew it. The exhibition was informed by the spiritual renaissance of the late 2010s and meant to shed light on the potential that lies therein to influence the practice of working artists. Two years later, Mystic Toolkit picks up that conversation again. Castro told Artpace:

“The exhibition conceptualizes the home as a sanctuary, a place of recollection and refuge. Our home is at once a haven of comfort and self-care, but during lockdown, it has also held us captive… Despite the variety approaches, all of the artists participating in Mystic Toolkit attempt to navigate through what is unquestionably one of the most disruptive crises in modern history via a genuine recognition of the mysterious forces that orchestrate the world.””