SAN ANTONIO, TX.- Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio’s first and longest running contemporary art nonprofit, is presenting four new exhibitions. Presented in the Main Gallery is Please Form a Straight Line, featuring the work of Jamal Cyrus, Maggie Evans, Benjamin Jones, Yuge Zhou, Frances Lightbound, Mark Menjivar, Jingjing Lin, and Jorge Villarreal. In Gallery 4, Theresa Newsome presents a photographic series in Objects of Aggression; In the Middle Gallery, Ryan Takaba presents his site-specific installation A Relationship with Flight; and the Project Space Gallery features The Sanctuary City Project, a social practice project of artists Sergio De La Torre and Chris Treggiari.

“While distinct from each other, these four exhibitions engage viewers with themes very much present in today’s discourse,” said Mary Heathcott, BSC’s Executive Director. “Recently, our reality has been disrupted, challenged, and confronted like never before. At BSC, we believe in presenting artworks that are thought-provoking and a reflection of our society’s current state of mind. We are committed to creating an environment in which artists and the community can explore difficult and challenging issues while respectfully exploring diverse points of view, thus creating opportunities for exchanges from which individuals come away inspired and challenged.”




The exhibitions will remain on view through May 9, 2021. BSC will present a series of thought-provoking and engaging programs for online and in-person audiences throughout the run of the exhibitions.

PLEASE FORM A STRAIGHT LINE
Please Form a Straight Line is a group exhibition including works by Jamal Cyrus, Maggie Evans, Benjamin Jones, Frances Lightbound, Jingjing Lin, Mark Menjivar, Jorge Villarreal and Yuge Zhou. This timely, diverse and innovative exhibition explores themes of collectivity, municipality, property, architecture, and the control and regulation of bodies. These themes intersect where they prompt viewers to consider how society is physically and existentially designed. The exhibition acts as a mirror to our current realities and a vehicle to process these experiences. The title calls to mind a range of events, from lining up in primary school, to waiting at the DMV, to more recent 6-foot safety zones and concepts around orderly or acceptable protest. The works suggest the social contracts to which we subscribe and builds a conversation around civic and social roles as individuals belonging to a greater whole.

THERESA NEWSOME: OBJECTS OF AGGRESSION
This solo exhibition features a recent and ongoing body of work by Theresa Newsome entitled Objects. The photographs reflect upon the murder of unarmed Black men in the United States, either by police brutality or unchecked racism. The objects depicted in this series portray the everyday objects that have become iconographic; and in a sense, played a pivotal role in the victims’ murders. In creating these images, Newsome frames how baffling it is that these objects were seemingly integral as reasons for the violence that transpired. Through this body of work, Newsome also confronts the ongoing fear Black women specifically live with of losing the boys and men in their lives. In the artist’s case, it is a constant worry for her brother’s life, in addition to other loved ones and community members. Newsome questions how the worth of these objects and the alleged offenses of the victims equate to the worth of a human life.

RYAN TAKABA: A RELATIONSHIP WITH FLIGHT
Takaba’s installation at BSC expands on his investigations from his Berlin Residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien and his ongoing research on death rite rituals. The private altar consists of three elements – fresh flowers, the burning of incense, and the lighting of candles – the materials of which are utilized in this work. The sphere is in the form of a balloon lifting ash. The cube is in the form of a kite sailing with flowers. The wax piece is in the form of a melting parachute. All three of these forms move and respond to the airflow in the room, the temperature, the objects’ energy, and the viewers presence – the fourth element of the installation. Takaba’s work creates an intersection between physics and metaphysics, calling on the viewer to be aware to the physical space they occupy and their effects, and perhaps our spiritual existence with references to human mortality and unseen forces.