On January 6, Presa House Gallery will unveil a new exhibit, Sex, Race, Science, featuring works by San Antonio artist Rolando Briseño.
The show highlights over 30 years of Briseño’s work featuring early and never before seen paintings, as well as sculpture, photographic constructions, digital works, and public art.
In a 2015 article about Briseño in the online arts publication, Glasstire, David S. Rubin, artist, writer and a former curator at the San Antonio Museum of Art, writes:
Considering San Antonio to be the most truly Mexican city in the United States, Briseño has committed long-term to raising awareness about San Antonio’s Mexican heritage, and to push the art world to be more inclusive of Latino artists. Although his art is often politically charged, Briseño’s interests lie in the scientific and philosophical realms, as his attacks on social injustice are usually veiled in imagery that explores our relationships to one another and to the cosmos.
Synergetic Scent, 2007 (RolandoBriseno.com)
As Briseño explained in an interview with Texas Public Radio, “I feel that the story of the Mexican American is ignored and has not been told at all. So I feel as a Mexican American artist that it’s my responsibility to tell the story that has not been told.”
Briseño’s works are held in the permanent collections of art institutions and private collections around the world. His most recent work includes public art projects including installations at the Houston Intercontinental Airport, the Austin Convention Center, Trinity University, the Brooklyn Library System, the North White Plains Railroad Station and Metro North, NYC.
Puente de Rippling Shadows, located on the Brooklyn Avenue Bridge Overpass. (Video capture)
In San Antonio, Briseño’s art graces the San Antonio Airport and the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River (see video below). In 1991, he created a sculpture for a tiny island in the San Antonio River which commemorates the Spanish arrival in 1691 and the area’s first Mass. After the sculpture was installed, the spot became a popular place for weddings and is now known as Marriage Island.
Briseño received a BFA and BA from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in New York City in 1979. After graduating from Columbia, he continued to live in New York and has also lived in Italy and Spain.
In 2014, Briseño married his long-time partner, Puerto Rican artist Angel Rodriguez-Díaz, in New York City. The couple, moved to San Antonio in 1994 and live in a Spanish-style commercial building off Fredericksburg Road in Beacon Hill which serves as home and art studio.
Rolando Briseño: Sex, Race Science at the Presa House Gallery, 725 S. Presa. Opening night: January 6, 2017 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. After opening night, the gallery is open by appointment, (210) 973-8947.
