Wild Ruins, Wild Orientations

From the organizers:

“The Exhibition will be on view from July 8–September 30 by appointment and selected dates/times to be posted on the website https://wrwoexhibit.com/ and Instagram @wrwo.exhibit

Megan Solis is excited to announce the upcoming pop-up exhibition, Wild Ruins, Wild Orientations, a group happening featuring artists Justo Cisneros, Andie Flores, Xavier Gilmore, Maps Glover, Richard Moreno, Anthony Rundblade and Megan Solis. The exhibition will host public receptions on Saturday, July 8, and Saturday, September 30.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Located about 30 minutes from San Antonio, this privately owned land hosts an independent residency and exhibition space started by San Antonio artist Megan Solis. Its inaugural exhibition, Wild Ruins, Wild Orientations, questions how art is made and experienced when free from traditional exhibition space, in a land strange and energetically charged. The artists all make work that challenges institutional norms in modes of making and display. They range from performance that blurs gendered pathways, to a composition of uncanny sculpture and sound; effectively opening up portals of blanketed history. Traveling to and from this forgotten soil creates a potential transfiguration for its artists and visitors.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Justo Cisneros (b. 1986, Brownsville, Texas) is a multidisciplinary artist working and living in San Antonio, Texas. Working across mediums and disciplines including installation, assemblage, drawing, video, and A/V, his work explores the spirited convergence between freedom and control. Ritualistic in form; liberation, mortality, and supernatural states are investigated prevalently through decontextualized materials, video, and sound under the guise of carnivalesque aesthetics.

 

Andie Flores (b. 1990, San Antonio, TX) (she/her) is a performance artist in Austin, Texas, who uses embarrassment as a medium for investigating hyper, almost obsessive, visibility in a racialized body. Her work has been shown at Presa House Gallery, The Museum of Human Achievement, Ivester Contemporary, MASS Gallery, Future Front Film Fest, Contrast Film Festival, Fusebox Festival, and The Dallas Latino Cultural Center; and her writing has appeared in fields, Precog, Jezebel, and Remezcla. She was named one of Remezcla’s ‘40 Emerging, Texas-based Artists to Know’ in 2020, and made Glasstire’s ‘Best of 2021’ list. She debuted her first solo stage show, To Get There… You Must Undergo… A Radical Transformation at OUTsider Festival in February 2023

Xavier Gilmore (b. 1987, San Antonio, TX) is an interdisciplinary artist and producer who works in sound, traditional mediums, and collaborative performance. Through his work, he explores ideas on dissent, abstraction, and social topography. He has exhibited regionally and internationally at Artpace, Southwest School of Art, Museo Soumaya, and the McNay, among others. Gilmore holds a BFA from UTSA and studied at School of the Art Institute Chicago, and Universidad de Las Américas Puebla, Cholula, México.

Maps Glover (b.1992, Washington D.C) is a conceptual artist who desires to create and tell new stories through an Afrofuturist lens. These stories weave together the past and the present projecting visions of blackness into the infinite future. He visualizes how time affects behavior, and how observation of behavior alters perspective. Maps have created and performed work at Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building, Transformer DC, and more.

Richard Moreno (b. 1993, Miami, FL) is known for his large-scale sculptures and installations that blend elements of sound and light. He received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Moreno’s artistic ethos draws inspiration from the natural world, weaving together an enchanting tapestry of spirituality and invention. His creations evoke a sense of mysticism, transporting viewers to a realm where ancient wisdom converges with a contemporary interpretation. The artist’s upbringing within the subcultures of black and heavy metal music serves as a rich wellspring of inspiration, infusing his work with a unique blend of energy, rebellion, and cultural nuance. Most recently, Moreno has shown his work at the Elsewhere Museum, Deering Estate, and The Wassaic Project. 

Anthony Rundblade (b.1987, San Antonio, TX)  works and lives in San Antonio, TX. Rundblade’s practice consists of interweaving in sculpture, installation, and print. He earned his BFA with a focus in printmaking from The University of Texas at San Antonio and his MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Texas – Austin. Before entering his MFA candidacy, Rundblade worked as a Studio Technician and Studio Manager at the Artpace Residency Program (2014-2019). In addition, Rundblade has had several solo exhibitions between San Antonio and Austin, including Cloak Dagger Parallel Meridians (2017), Catastrophe Parade (2018), & Nearer Midnight (2019), along with collaborative and group exhibitions like Bush League (2018), Doom & Bloom (2022) and Common Currents (2018).

Megan Solis’ (b. 1990, San Antonio, TX) work splinters and bleeds into drawing, sculpture, video, and performance. Recently obtaining her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Solis strives for a forceful intimacy with her audiences questioning the communal pursuit of happiness. Solis has authored and birthed her heroine, Glory West, a love-sick blonde Texan, who navigates themes of desperation and loneliness creating concerts of unrequited lust, precarious displays of confidence, and self-conscious portraits of love for her fans. Glory West’s odyssey encapsulates a monstrous feminine mystique, holding tightly to both self-inflicted hysteria and hapless horror. Solis has participated in the residency programs of Hello Studio Gallery (San, Antonio, TX) and Arteles (Haukijärvi, Finland). She has exhibited her work throughout Texas such as the Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin, TX), and the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX). Solis has also shown both nationally and internationally including the Freedman Gallery in Reading, PA, and the CICA Museum in South Korea. Most recently, she was invited to perform at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park in Dallas, TX, and Más Allá Gallery in Bogotá, Colombia.”