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Join us for breakfast tacos and an artist-led walkthrough with exhibiting artists, Michael Guerra Foerster and the CAM Perennial curator and artists! Learn more about the artwork, process, and the significance behind the work.

In partnership with Contemporary Art Month, Contemporary at Blue Star will host the 2024 CAM Perennial exhibition, Vernacular Systems, curated by Christopher Blay. Vernacular Systems highlights themes of interconnectivity from personal and globalized perspectives. The artists reflect on the human nature to connect to the world around us–from nature, to family, to work, and the day to day. They also critique histories and systems which thrive on disconnection yet resolve in knowing that even when connection is not visible, there exists networks of systems linking humanity, roots that may unify. Vernacular Systems features San Antonio and Houston artists: Ricky Armendariz, Nela Garzón, Jennifer Battaglia, Juan Carlos Escobedo, Preston Gaines, Raul Rene Gonzalez, Mark Anthony Martinez, Shavon Morris, Marc Newsome, Alán Serna, Monique Sullivan, and Zulma Vega.

 

Michael Guerra Foerster’s solo exhibition, Without a Trace, investigates connection, and touches on ideas of materialism, and the ephemeral. In large part a reaction to capitalistic structures that surround the art world, Foerster freely gifts his work in the hopes of creating genuine connections between the artwork, viewer, and artist. In his exhibition at the Contemporary, Foerster creates an exercise in loss and letting go by creating an interactive installation which will involve the viewer destroying unfired clay sculptures to find a token to carry home.

Please join the Contemporary at Blue Star and Contemporary Art Month for the annual CAM Kick-off on Friday, March 1, 2024. This event is free and open to everyone!

The Contemporary will be premiering two exhibitions: Michael Guerra Foerster‘s exhibition, Without a Trace, and the CAM Perennial exhibition, Vernacular Systems, curated by Christopher Blay and featuring Ricky Armendariz, Nela Garzón, Jennifer Battaglia, Juan Carlos Escobedo, Preston Gaines, Raul Rene Gonzalez, Mark Anthony Martinez, Shavon Morris, Marc Newsome, Alán Serna, Monique Sullivan, and Zulma Vega. 

The Contemporary will also announce the grantees of our Berlin Residency Program for the 2024–2025 cycle.

About Contemporary Art Month

During the month of March in San Antonio, Contemporary Art Month (CAM) provides a platform for the artists communities of San Antonio to share the best it has to offer throughout the entire city. CAM gathers the best of galleries, museums, performing arts spaces, schools, artist studios and various unconventional locations in a single calendar to support and promote events contemporary art events and exhibitions all over the city of San Antonio. Contemporary Art Month is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Join Contemporary at Blue Star for our first exhibition of the new year, Indian Removal Act II: And She Was featuring local artist and recent alumni of our Berlin Residency Program, Joe Harjo. This is the second part of a three-part exhibition series that looks at historical and contemporary issues impacting Native American communities.

 

Indian Removal Act II: And She Was shifts focus to Native women, specifically the stories of Harjo’s family members, to highlight how Christianity has been used as a tool to justify the enslavement or subjugation of non-Christian people and territories.

 

This event is free and open to everyone.

Free and open to the public.

 

Visit Joe Harjo in the studio! Harjo will be featured in a solo exhibition in Contemporary’s main gallery from February 2 to May 5, 2024, titled Indian Removal Act II: And She Was. To prepare for the show, he will be utilizing one of our neighboring spaces, 115 Blue Star, to create many of the artworks on-site. Stop by on First Friday in January for a special open studio visit, where you can view his process and engage with the artist in-person. Save the date for the opening of his exhibition on First Friday, February 2, from 6–9pm!

 

 

On the First Friday of every month, our Blue Star Arts Complex and greater King William Cultural Arts District come alive during our community art walk. Join us for an opportunity to see current exhibitions afterhours and explore the artist studios, galleries, and pop-ups in the neighborhood.

More information on First Friday happenings can be found at on the Blue Star Arts Complex calendar. After 2:00 pm, only paid parking is available in the Blue Star Arts Complex parking lot for $15.

 

On the First Friday of every month, our Blue Star Arts Complex and greater King William Cultural Arts District come alive during our community art walk. Join us for an opportunity to see current exhibitions afterhours and explore the artist studios, galleries, and pop-ups in the neighborhood. More information can be found at on the Blue Star Arts Complex calendar.

 

Join us for the opening of three new solo exhibitions featuring artists Brittany Ham, Adam Schreiber, and Michael Velliquette during First Friday.

Join us for the First Friday opening of Actions for the Earth: Art, Care, and Ecology in the Main Gallery. This traveling exhibition curated by Sharmila Wood for Independent Curators International brings together artists from around that considers kinship, healing, and restorative interventions as artistic practices and strategies to foster a deeper consciousness of our interconnectedness with the Earth.

116 Blue Star

Free and open to the public

Join Contemporary Art Month and the Contemporary for the official opening of our favorite month of the year: CAM! The evening includes a CAM Store Pop-up and screening of CAM’s High School Student Film Festival curated by Sarah Lasley. Food, drinks, and DJ provided on the front steps of the Contemporary.

116 Blue Star

Free and open to the public

Artists Emily Fitzgerald and Molly Sherman present the debut of a continuation of their long-running project People’s Homes investigating expanding notions of “home.” For their exhibition at the Contemporary, Fitzgerald and Sherman interviewed San Antonians living as a part of multi-generational households.