Upcoming Exhibition
Upcoming Exhibition
Patrick Martinez, American, born 1980, Jaguar Guardian, 2024, Stucco, neon, mean streak, ceramic, acrylic paint, spray paint, latex house paint, banner tarp, rope, stucco patch, ceramic tile, tile adhesive on panel, 60 × 120 × 5 in. (152.4 × 304.8 × 12.7 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, 2024.12, © Patrick Martinez, Image courtesy of Charlie James Gallery
Found objects, household items, and manufactured goods are often seen in art exhibitions today, but that was not always the case. In 1917, French artist Marcel Duchamp (under the pseudonym R. Mutt) infamously submitted a common urinal as a sculpture titled Fountain to the Society of Independent Artists in New York. The sculpture was rejected for not being “a work of art.” Duchamp’s presentation of an everyday, mass-produced, functional object became known as a “readymade.” His use of prefabricated materials privileged the artist’s ideas and choices, rather than technical skill or labor, and shifted an ordinary object into a new context and significance. Drawn from SAMA’s collection, the works in this gallery reframe the readymade to transform the familiar through acts such as mixing, deconstructing, and repeating. Pushing the readymade beyond Duchamp’s concept, these artists imbue their work with new and layered meanings that explore memory, culture, identity, spirituality, and personal and collective histories.
Patrick Martinez, American, born 1980, Jaguar Guardian, 2024, Stucco, neon, mean streak, ceramic, acrylic paint, spray paint, latex house paint, banner tarp, rope, stucco patch, ceramic tile, tile adhesive on panel, 60 × 120 × 5 in. (152.4 × 304.8 × 12.7 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund, 2024.12, © Patrick Martinez, Image courtesy of Charlie James Gallery
Chuck Ramirez, American, 1962 - 2010, Santa Marcia, 2002, Inkjet print on Somerset Velvet paper, Framed: 25 × 23 in. (63.5 × 58.4 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Bert A. Lies Jr., MD and Rosina Lee Yue, 2012.4.1, © Estate of Chuck Ramirez
Hills Snyder, American, born 1950, Fountain, 2010, Found objects (vintage Lone Star beer can, written and photographic documentation), Beer can with tag: 5 1/2 × 8 1/2 × 2 1/8 in. (14 × 21.6 × 5.4 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of One Kind Favor, 2010.34, © Hills Snyder
Joe Harjo, Muscogee Creek, born 1973, The Only Certain Way: Faith, 2019, 24 Pendleton beach towels, 24 custom memorial flag cases, 78 × 104 × 4 in. (198.1 × 264.2 × 10.2 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with The Brown Foundation Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund and funds provided by Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, Dr. Dacia Napier, Edward E. (Sonny) Collins III, and The Sheerin Family, 2021.3.a-f, © Joe Harjo
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