Graham Toms & Contemporary Art in SA

The temperatures are rising and you know what that means. It’s time for Contemporary Art Month, that 31-day celebration of San Anto’s vibrant art scene. CAM has been a staple of our cultural landscape since 1985. It was originally formulated as a way to get people out to galleries during the long, slow summertime, and this looks like the last Summer CAM as it gets shifted to more tourist-friendly March next year.

CAM features a wide variety of artists and styles, with more than 100 galleries and business participating. Certainly not everything will be of interest to readers of Missions Unknown, but there are a few gems you may want to drop in to your schedule.

First off is an exhibit and live performance tonight (July 2nd) at the Jump-Start Performance Company by Graham Toms. Toms is an artist/illustrator/animator from Ireland currently living and working in San Antonio. He got his Bachelor’s degree in illustration and animation from the University of Ulster in Belfast and put in many years teaching animation at the Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida. Toms has been working with San Antonio-based Newtek, makers of the indispensable LightWave 3D computer animation program, on their training and education programs. (Certainly you have seen animations created with LightWave, think Battlestar Galactica or the recent feature film Battle for Terra)

Tonight Toms will visually animate Don Quixote live with the help of UIW Art Historian Joseph Bravo and bilingual performance artist Raquel Beechner. Don Quixote (El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha or The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha) by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes was originally published in 1605 and is considered to be one of the most influential pieces of western literature. It has inspired works of art across all media and this show should be a great one to see. Expect tonight’s performance to be somewhat abridged.

The Jump-Start is at 108 Blue Star in the Blue Star Arts Complex in Southtown. The doors will open at 6:00 so you can mingle and check out the art. The show starts at 7:00. Graham Toms’ art will be on display at Jump-Start through July 28th.

If you are interested in finding out more about Graham Toms and his work, check out this great interview at SpinQuad.

Other highlights from the Contemporary Art Month calendar include:

• Texas Draws 1 at the Southwest School of Art & Craft – July 2
• Gregory Alan Johnson – Solo Exhibition at the Southwest School of Art & Craft – July 2
• Con Ajo Y Baroque at the UTSA Satellite Space – July 2
• Mexican Myths & Superstition – Rendon Photography and Fine Art – July 3
• Humanness Thereafter at Gallista Gallery – July 11
• Houston’s Carlos Hernandez “Day of the Dead Rockstars” at SMART Art Project Space – July 11
• Long Hall Gallery 3rd anniversary at the Long Hall Gallery – July 17
• James Cobb and George Schroeder – New Works at the Schroeder Art Gallery – July 18
• Drawing: Impromptu at JACS (jac studio) – July 24

Openings are generally on Thursday or Friday evenings and are often clustered in neighboring venues. Walk around, enjoy the heat, bring a fan. Dates listed are for the show openings but shows are usually on display in the galleries for several weeks. Contact the specific venue to see what their hours are.