Centro San Antonio is excited to announce the latest Art Everywhere installation: The Plein Air Exhibit. The Plein Air Exhibit will feature 20 artists who truly believe in the transformative power of art in the public realm. The exhibit will run the length of the Kress Building located at the 300 Block of E. Houston St, utilizing vacant storefront windows to add vibrancy to downtown San Antonio.
“The Plein Air Exhibit,” a crowdsourced exhibition, began in response to COVID-19 to alleviate some of the hardships brought onto the art community by the pandemic. During the pandemic, art non-profits and artists were suffering, limiting their sources of income and exposure. To help the community understand the impact that the arts make on our community, Centro and CAUSA (Culture and Arts United for San Antonio) teamed up to invite San Antonio artists to submit original artworks to be installed on business facades across downtown San Antonio. This open call titled “Power of Art in the Public Realm” took place in 2021 and received submissions from all over San Antonio.
“The Plein Air exhibit is another way we’re celebrating our local artists and the stories they share through their art,” says Andi Rodriguez, Centro’s Vice President of Cultural Placemaking. “Having your art installed in the public realm is quite powerful for an artist – it creates a dialogue between the artist and the community.”
The goal of the open call was to select ten artists whose work would be transformed into large-scale 2D artworks. However, with so many outstanding submissions, the open call committee, made up of local art non-profit professionals, decided to honor 20 additional artists in this outdoor exhibition and provided honorariums to each selected artist. Two out of the ten large-scale projects have been installed at The Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Regency Garage and can be enjoyed from Losoya Street.
The exhibition features a wide variety of art ranging from photography, painting, wood carving, sculpture, etc. This intentional decision to include a range of media is to increase the public’s exposure to a wide variety of art and offered exposure for artists not typically known for public art.
The installation was completed on March 30th, 2022 and is ready for the public to view.
Centro’s Art Everywhere Project was established in April of 2020. As a turnkey art program for the business community, Art Everywhere produces and installs art on public-facing private property to create vibrancy, support artists and help reinforce downtown as an important cultural hub.
To learn more about Centro’s Art Everywhere Initiative, visit centrosanantonio.org/art-everywhere/
