Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

The annual Fotoseptiembre festival was mostly an online affair last year but the 2021 version, which officially opens on Sept. 1, will have quite a few exhibits at brick-and-mortar venues in San Antonio, the Hill Country and San Marcos, in addition to a robust online presence.

“We were surprised by how many people wanted to have exhibits in physical, 3-D galleries,” said festival founder and photo artist Michael Mehl. “People clearly need to reaffirm that they are still here and want to connect with others as an affirmation of normal life. That’s kind of energizing.”

About 20 such venues are involved, said Mehl, including An Arte Gallery, Trinity University, Magical Realism Studio, St. Mary’s University, Un Grito Gallery, Brick at Blue Star, the Witte Museum, Bear & Ink, Slab Cinema Arthouse, Studio Comfort Texas in Comfort, UNAM, and the Wittliff Collections in San Marcos. Each show is independently curated and most plan to have traditional opening-night parties.

What you’ll find online in the SAFOTO Web Galleries are the monographs curated by Mehl himself, as well as Fotoseptiembre USA Online Galleries, a section started in 2020 to allow more artists to present their work during the festival. Unlike the SAFOTO Web Galleries, which showcase artists invited by the fest’s organizers, the other online galleries are open to submissions by artists themselves.

Featured in the prestigious invitational section this year are Taiwanese photographer, Yang Shun-Fa and Japanese photographer Mami Kiyoshi, who collaborated with Cecile Laly from Paris, France. Yang’s photography focuses on a series of houses and other human-made structures submerged partially in water, making them inhabitable and useless. Called “The Submerged Beauty of Formosa,” the project as a whole is a sad commentary on how humans relate to nature. Overdraft of groundwaters and the rising sea level have stranded those houses in the ocean. They look forlorn, fragile and wasted. The images may also be interpreted as symbolic representations of what is happening to his entire island-country.

Kiyoshi is also dealing with the theme of something precious disappearing, but the loss, in this case, is cultural rather than physical and threatening. In 2018, she paired up with Laly, a specialist in Japanese culture who studied the art of Japanese kite-making, and the two women traveled around Japan to photograph the remaining kite workshops. Unlike Yang’s melancholy images, Kiyoshi’s are bright and “active.”

So how does Mehl make his selections either for the invitational or other online galleries?

“What’s important is the execution of a body or work,” he said. “The concepts may be something that we like or dislike, but the magic is in the effort, and the consistency of having a well-put-together project where all the parts are coherent with the chosen theme.”

Naturally, he applied the same approach in accepting the submissions for the other online galleries that he did not curate. Featured in this section are: Brazilian artist and educator Guilherme Bergamini, whose work addresses the neglectful approach to education in his country with images of dilapidated classrooms and other school interiors; well-known San Antonio camera whiz Al Rendon who took pictures of COVID patients, and Fiona Lansing whose camera focuses on flowers and bugs in a special way.

Other artists in that group are Tracey Maurer, The Light Catchers Society, and Mehl himself, the creator “Event Horizon,” his striking images of “the universe being sucked into a black hole.” Ominous as this sounds, the images are visually appealing and the entire presentation is “well executed.” 

As for what is being shown in galleries all over town, Mehl could not comment much before seeing the exhibits. They will be officially opening today and throughout the week. He pointed out, however that women have been a real force behind many projects both as artists and gallerists/presenters.

The first exhibition to open was “San Antonio: Perspectives from the Sky” featuring the work of Gabriel Chavez Zeckua, which opened in late August at UNAM. Other shows to explore: a group exhibit planned for the Slab Cinema Arthouse; Hayfer Brea’s “Nothing to Say” at Un Grito Gallery; the Liliana Story’s “Cuentos de Cuba” at AnArte Gallerry , and “Love Her Wild” by Ciel Evans  at the Studio Comfort Texas. The latter was especially praised by Mehl. Evans is a biologist/photographer who “explores the interface of nature, play, and the powerful feminine that arises from the wisdom and innocence of youth,” says the show’s poster.  
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For more info and complete show listing go to https://fotoseptiembreusa.com