Downtown Campus sculpture creates unique setting

(Sept. 11, 2003)--"Labyrinth Gateway," a sculpture at the UTSA Downtown Campus, was installed last summer on the corner of Durango Boulevard and South Pecos-La Trinidad Street.

The suspended metal labyrinth designed by Lewis de Soto is surrounded by trellises planted with flowering jasmine. The complete project incorporates quotations from renowned poet Tomas Rivera on surrounding benches and a walkway.

The Tomas Rivera Center for Student Success is named after the poet who also was a UTSA administrator in the 1970s. The center provides services including academic advising, learning assistance and supplemental instruction.

In the top photo, a look through the metal sculpture provides an unusual view of the sky. In the lower photo, the labyrinth has the appearance of an extraterrestial object making a landing.

A professor of art at San Francisco State University, de Soto is well known for creating poetic and complex environments that combine Western European, Buddhist and Native American philosophies to provoke participatory viewing.

De Soto has created numerous public art projects as an individual artist and design team member including works for the San Francisco Municipal Courthouse; San Francisco International Airport; Skyharbor International Airport, Phoenix; Sand Point Naval Station, Seattle; and the Sony Corporation Regional Headquarters, San Jose, Calif.

He has presented solo exhibitions and installation projects at the Bill Maynes Gallery, New York; the List Visual Art Center, MIT; the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; ArtPace/A Foundation for Contemporary Art, San Antonio; Des Moines Art Center and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.

For more information about UTSA public art, contact Connie Lowe, UTSA associate professor of art and art history, at 210-458-4389.