SAN ANTONIO, TX.- The McNay Art Museum is spotlighting more than 60 drawings and watercolors in two new exhibitions opening this month: Folk Pop: Victoria Suescum’s Tienditas and Hockney to Warhol: Contemporary Drawings from the Collection.

Folk Pop features bold acrylic drawings on paper by San Antonio-based artist Victoria Suescum, who has long been fascinated with the paintings on the exterior walls of mom and pop shops in San Antonio, Mexico, and her native Panama. These hand-painted signs advertise the goods and services offered and represent a unique visual approach that combines Pop art, hybrid languages, and advertising traditions. Suescum’s Tienditas drawings, created between 2012 and 2020, beautifully capture the colors, textures, scale, and forms of the wall paintings that inspired them. In addition to celebrating family-owned small businesses in minority communities, her work also documents these quickly vanishing works of folk art. The exhibition includes an informal interview with the artist in her studio as well as photographs of the shops where Suescum found her inspiration. Folk Pop: Victoria Suescum’s Tienditas is on view in the Charles Butt Paperworks Gallery through January 10, 2021.

"I feel great satisfaction installing the paintings inspired by humble tienditas in such a dignified space as is the Charles Butt Paperworks Gallery,” said Suescum. “Truly, if we can increase appreciation, love, and understanding for vernacular art which is typically overlooked, we can work towards peace and conflict resolution in this great nation."

Opening August 27, Hockney to Warhol: Contemporary Drawings from the Collection presents watercolors and drawings from the McNay’s Permanent Collection by artists Judith Cottrell, Leonardo Drew, David Hockney, Beth van Hoesen, Yvonne Jacquette, Donald Judd, Leigh Ann Lester, Ken Little, Ed Ruscha, Robert Tiemann, Vincent Valdez, Liz Ward, Andy Warhol, and more. The McNay has long been known for its collection of drawings and watercolors by American modernists, especially those artists who were represented by the great New York art dealer and promoter Alfred Stieglitz. The Museum has also steadily acquired works on paper by artists active during the second half of the 20th and early 21st century. This exhibition is visitors’ first opportunity to see a selection of this little-known strength of the McNay in a single exhibition. Hockney to Warhol: Contemporary Drawings from the Collection is on view in the Lawson Print Gallery through January 3, 2021.

“Victoria’s exhibition beautifully complements Contemporary Drawings which highlights a vibrant and important part of the McNay’s collection and includes many works by her fellow San Antonio artists,” said Lyle W. Williams, Curator of Collections.

Folk Pop: Victoria Suescum’s Tienditas and Hockney to Warhol: Contemporary Drawings from the Collection are organized for the McNay Art Museum by Lyle W. Williams, Curator of Collections. These exhibitions are a program of the Elizabeth Huth Coates Foundation of 1992.