Contemporary Art Writing: A San Antonio Primer with Isabel Alexander Servantez
Saturday, April 11, 2026
12–2pm
Join the Contemporary for a professional development workshop! Artists and community members are invited to join art historian and curator Isabel Alexander Servantez III for an engaging workshop on the foundations of contemporary art writing. Isabel will share motivations, resources, and tools that local writers can use to help document and celebrate the art and cultural history of the Alamo City.
The session will begin with an overview of Isabel’s own experiences writing about art throughout his career, highlighting the impact that thoughtful arts writing can have on artists and on the historical record of a community. Participants will then explore strategies for reviewing exhibitions, both locally and nationally, with practical guidance on basic writing instructions, strategies, and resources designed to empower San Antonio writers to capture the stories that matter most to them.
Image Gallery
Isabel Alexander Servantez III is a San Antonio born and based art historian and curator. He holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and criticism from The University of Texas at San Antonio where he studied under the acclaimed Chicano printmaker, Malaquias Montoya. Isabel earned his master’s degree in modern and contemporary art history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he focused on Chicana/o/x art and wrote his thesis on the art and writing of Malaquias and Lezlie Salkowitz-Montoya.
Isabel has written for a variety of publications including Glasstire, Tragaluz: A Borderland Journal of Arts and Culture, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The McNay Art Museum, Unfilteredsa, and Albright University’s Freedman Gallery. In 2020 Isabel held the prestigious title of Semmes Foundation Intern in Museum Studies at the McNay Art Museum. During that internship Isabel co-curated the nationally recognized exhibition, The Art of SA Eats / Sabor a San Antonio, with Edward Hayes, director of the El Paso Museum of Art.
Isabel has held curatorial roles at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, and the AltaMed Art Collection in Los Angeles. His curation focuses on platforming underrepresented groups and championing team members to best realize art in community.
In 2025 Isabel began the La Lucha Sigue Chicana/o/x Art History Book Club, which meets monthly at Interloper Gallery. Isabel recently began writing a book about Chicana/o/x art in San Antonio.