Local Palette

The Mojo Show

Various Artists

Alternate Current Art Space

Showing through November

The word “mojo” derives from the African KiKongo word mooyo, meaning
“spiritual spark,” “force” or “soul.” The Friday the 13th opening of Alternate
Current’s Mojo exhibit set the tone for what the gallery and exhibit are
all about: young, untested artists given free rein to explore the spark, the
soul of art as imagery, media, performance, life force.

The show of some 35 artists — many of them getting their first gallery
exposure — is completely unjudged and uncensored. Gallery owners Susan Maynard
and David Pratt included everyone who walked in off the street and wanted to
enter their stuff. “Who knows what you can do for these artists — what they
might become — by simply telling them, `Yes.'” says Maynard.

Indeed, some of the content crowding the wall and floor space is intriguing,
possibly promising. Scott Stevens’ oils of “The Man Who Couldn’t Get a Tan,”
and “Nazi & Slicko,” depict gritty figures in cartoonish Chicago urban-punk
style. Recent Oklahoma transplant Steven Schwake’s hauntingly vivid “Invisible
Self Portrait” and “Highway Man” use strong draftsmanship and color palette,
pulling a metaphysical futurist image to resound on the viewer’s
subconscious.

Terrence R. Pomponio’s “Electro — Mystic Machine” sculptures are meticulously
crafted from archaic electro–mechanical contraptions that pull viewers into an
H.G. Wells mad scientist’s time warp of light, sight, sound, and movement.
Wally Vogel’s post apocalyptic, melt-down television set exposes a wasteland of
blown circuit boards, transistors, fuses, severed wires, and fizzled
connections, all illuminated by two eerily iridescent, twisted coils of neon —
the last living elements in this pile of electrical jetsam.

Collage and Sculpture Jamie Fraser and Peter Velasquez
At 2×4 Art Galaxy

Showing through November

Vogel’s post apocalyptic TV society artifact takes a turn to the dark side at
2×4. In sculptor Peter Velasquez’ “Heel, Sit, Roll Over,” a TV monitor, mounted
atop a menacing, rusted metal combine, is fed by a noxious gas tank, tubes,
gauges, and meters. Like the head of a terminator machine that won’t die, the
screen flickers perpetually behind its single mission statment:”KILL!”

In a Velasquez mixed media series, the diabolical black-framed contraptions
look like racial purification and genetic engineering devices unearthed from
secret laboratories and arsenals of Nazi Germany.

On a lighter note, Jamie Fraser explores Dorothy and the land of Oz in more
variations than a Kansas microdot dream could conjure. An endless array of
mixed media camp, including toys, trinkets, melted-down tin cans, happy-face
buttons, and magic slipper ink stamps — labeled with convention center
stick-on name tags — portrays Oz as social commentary. As Dorothy said upon
waking with a bump on the head, “Some parts of it weren’t very nice, but most
of it was beautiful!”

ASMP Photo Exhibit Group Show
At Capitol Camera

Showing through December 1

When does photography make the transition from documentation to fine art? You
decide. The photo exhibit from members of the American Society of Magazine
Photographers’ Austin/San Antonio Chapter shows the broad diversity the medium
can deliver.

Some of the photos are familiar from publications you’ve read. But to see a
clean, full-sized print, isolated on glossy paper in mat and frame, brings home
the technical and visual artistry you miss in the pulp, surrounded by all those
distracting words.

Predictably, cowboys, politicians, and musicians are oft-repeated subjects.
Michael O’Brien hangs a portrait of Grey Ghost he shot for National
Geographic magazine. Scott Hill features a shot of Omar Dykes at his
howling best. Burton Wilson’s offering is a portrait of the late Frank Zappa.
Max Crace selected a shot of Keith Richards.

Architectural photographer Paul Bardagjy’s photo of a San Antonio office
interior looks like an abstract painting — all geometric shapes and color
values — while Mary and Richard Cooke’s emulsion transfer of a female portrait
has the soft, semi-transparent look of a watercolor. — Cory Walton