Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

The San Antonio Art League and Museum – SAALM – is inaugurating the new year with an interesting exhibit of 3-D art, featuring the work of 38 Texas artists, including a number of San Antonians. Titled “Texas Dimensional- Fine Art in Three Dimensions,” the show was curated by the husband-and-wife team, Andre and Virginia Bally, who are themselves 3-D artists.

Most people will think of 3-D art as traditional sculpture in stone and bronze, but traditional sculpture is not part of this exhibit.

So how do the Ballys define 3-D art in this show? We asked.

“Today we have technical advances, that allow us to create three-dimensionally much easier in all media – glass, wood, clay, paper, metal. So, our definition of 3-D is anything that’s not flat on the wall,” said Andre.

Indeed, there are no flat pieces in SAALM’s galleries, although many do hang on the walls. Right in the first room, visitors will encounter a fiber sculpture, a clay mask, some abstract compositions and a free-standing piece that looks like a medieval armor. Created by Joe Haden and named, “Saturday Night,” it is constructed from found objects, airport luggage zipper pulls, stainless steel, piano hammers and vintage gas nozzle. Combinations of this kind are found elsewhere in the show as well. Porcelain, sea shells, stones, wax, resin, bone, canvas, wood, sculpted hot glass, are all used by artists in this exhibit to create their eye-catching creations. In one case, the artist, Sherry Tseng Hill, even lists “multilingual newspaper” as one of her materials. Variety is the name of the game here, throughout the show.

One of the goals of the curators was to expose the destroy the generally held perception that fine art has to be two-dimensional. According to them, 3-D work is too often relegated to the realm of “craft” and as such it is perceived to be less valuable than “art” understood as paintings.

“We know so many talented people who work in a range of media and we wanted to present that work as fine art, “said Virginia Bally, whose art is also included in the exhibit, as is her husband’s.

‘Virginia and I are basically ceramicists; we work with clay,” said Andre. “Traditional clay work is utilitarian, functional – a beautiful bowl for our salad, and that sort of thing. But now we can take it further. There’s nothing wrong with craft but it is often relegated to lesser status. Somebody may splash colors on canvas and it’s $6000 and I spend three months making a clay sculpture that’s valued at $300. So, we want to show people how much skill is required to make these pieces.”

In 2015, the Ballys sponsored and curated their first 3-D exhibition at Centro Cultural Aztlan, also here in San Antonio, on Fredericksburg Rd. They are excited about having this second opportunity at SAALM.

The idea for the SAALM exhibit was born several years ago, said the organization’s vice president, Lyn Belisle, who, at the time was the Art League’s president. Then the pandemic hit and plans changed.

“We started talking about it again about six months ago, said Belisle. “I thought it would be a great idea. We have never had guest curators before at the Art League. So, we talked about it with Claudia Langford (the current president) and we agreed that this would be a neat concept. Collaborations have always worked well for us. I knew about the great job that Andre and Virginia did at Centro Aztlan when they first came into the area from Houston. So, they had the idea for a show at the Art League and I had the same idea, too. It’s been terrific to work with them as curatorial professionals.”

Belisle also pointed out that whenever the Ballys come to town or get involved with an organization, they bring new ideas with them (beyond the exhibit itself). “When they were showing at the Gallery 195 in Boerne, they suggested dinners at the gallery, and art walks. As members of the Pottery Guild, they supported the Empty Bowls event, which was already a big event in Houston, and became bigger in San Antonio because of them. They are very community-involved,” she explained.

As for the current SAALM exhibit, Belisle, who is an artist herself, expressed great satisfaction with the choice of participating artists, including names known nationally. These artists agreed to participate because of Andy and Virginia, she noted.

“The other important thing about this show is that it opens the conversation about objects as fine art,” added Belisle. “What makes a bowl craft or art? While that debate is not going to be settled by this exhibit, it is certainly going to be discussed.”

The exhibit is also likely to attract the attention of arts media beyond San Antonio, said Belisle.

“I think what’s unique about Virginia and me is that 99% of our work is collaborative,” noted Andre. “We both touch every piece of work we create.”

He proceeded to explain how the Archway Gallery in Houston wanted to show Virginia’s work one time but she could not accept the invitation, since all the work is by both of them working in tandem. Fortunately, the gallery accepted them as a team and other galleries have done the same since.

Together and separately, they have participated in many gallery-shows, festivals and competitions and won multiple awards and honors.

So, are they aiming at a purely aesthetic impact or do they want to communicate meaning with their creations?

“As an artist, you always want to get a reaction,” said Andre. “It can be a good reaction or a bad one but you want a reaction of some kind. When we are approaching these pieces, my approach is always from the technical side, because I like new technologies, I like working with the tools and solving the problems. Virginia’s expertise is in design and color. When we work on independent pieces, my pieces are always black-and-white while Virginia’s pieces are filled with color, bright, exciting color.”

Unfortunately, few American museums have shown an interest in assembling a collection of contemporary American 3-D art. They cite Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, as an exception, though they would like to change that “craft” into “3-D Art.” They have several pieces in that collection.
And both contributed to the Arbol De La Vida, the beautiful tree-like sculpture at Mission Espada that’s adorned with 700 clay sculptures.
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Texas Dimensional- Fine Art in Three Dimensions, opens Sunday, Jan. 8; stays on view through Feb. 17, 2023; SAALM, 130 King William St., 78204; Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.; Closed Sunday-Monday; free admission; www.saalm.org) (Photos by Jasmina Wellinghoff)