Mel Casas: Iconic Reality

Ruiz-Healy Art's Mel Casas: Iconic Reality, features a body of work not shown together previously.  Selected Humanscapes will be juxtaposed with his more painterly applications (the artist later used a brushless application, where he poured paint directly on the canvas), mixing intimate and smaller works that really demonstrate the artist's fixation on beauty and sensuality, with his grander-scaled political paintings, providing a well-rounded view of the artists oeuvre under one roof. In the words of Carlos Francisco Jackson, "Ruiz-Healy Art's exhibition of Mel Casa's work provides a window into his broad and impactful practice of challenging borders that create metaphorical, physical, and ideological divergences."

Mel Casas (1929 - 2014) was an artist of national and international renown. He was also an educator and cofounder of the San Antonio Artist Collective Con Safo⁠—considered by many to be one of the most significant Chicano Art groups of the 60s and 70s. In regards to the future of Chicano art, Casas is quoted for the landmark exhibition, Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA), that his wishes were to make "Chicano art relevant to everyone." Casas constructed a diagram outlining his vision to balance the "national art criteria" with Chicano Art and Regional Art in attempts to make Chicano art more accessible and "relevant to EVERYONE: AN ICONIC REALITY"

Public opening reception: Wednesday, October 18, 2017 | 6:00 - 8:00 pm

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