OCTOBER 29, 2020 — UTSA’s Main Art Gallery is hosting its first exhibition—since the pandemic caused campus closures in the spring—with the work of master of fine arts candidate and multimedia artist Susie Lopera. The exhibit, Roots and Feathers, open through November 7, allows the university and the community an opportunity to experience art firsthand inside a gallery space once again.
Attendees can view Lopera’s sculptures, stop animation and other videos that aim to let viewers escape from the everyday. Through her surreal juxtapositions, Lopera explores poetic metaphor in which two things are reduced to one.
“To me, the focus on the finite is about more than an escape into memories,” said Lopera. It allows me to experience a sense of transcendence as I think about being part of the larger universal flow of time and cause and effect.”
Roots and Feathers offers recurring motifs, including birds (usually owls), feet and human faces. Lopera uses these symbols with very specific purposes. For example, feet and shoes represent being grounded and metaphorical footprints of experience. Birds and wings signify upward movement, aspirations and dreams.
In diverse media that often brings together representational human and animal imagery, Lopera reminds her viewers that our daily activities and expectations live alongside memories, mysteries and fantasies.
“Lopera takes her viewers beyond the safe borders of the familiar and out of our usual coordinates with our feet on the ground to encourage us all to take wing and explore other dimensions of thought and imagination,” said Scott Sherer, professor of art and director of the UTSA Main Art Gallery.
Born in Medellin, Colombia, and migrating during childhood to the U.S., this Latina artist specifically chooses materials for their ability to convey meaning. For example, clay facilitates the creation of stylized objects that underscores some of the humor in life. While the medium of video allows her to manipulate the dimensions of space and time through stop-motion animation. In this process, Lopera also plays with story structure and linear and nonlinear narratives, to create a world with its own rules separate from reality. When the work is combined, she shows how our minds can reconstruct a memory.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
This event will acknowledge graduating seniors from the McNair Scholars program at UTSA before inducting the new cohort of scholars into the program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140), Main CampusAt this memorable celebration, UTSA graduates will be introduced one-by-one to cross the stage and accept their doctoral degrees.
Arts Building Recital Hall, Main CampusRoadrunner Walk is an event for graduating students to have a memorable walk on campus to celebrate an important milestone and their achievements. Graduates will walk along the Paseo while being celebrated by the UTSA community, friends, and family members.
Student Union Paseo, Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.Celebrate the accomplishments of Alvarez College of Business, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St.The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.