The art of negotiation

On Oct. 31, the Art Gallery at Rusteberg Hall on the Brownsville campus opened its doors for the third exhibition of the semester, “Minding the Gaps,” by San Antonio artist David Alcantar.

The show consists of 16 two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces and it will run until Nov. 22.

Pieces such as “Competing Interests” (acrylic on panel) also has been created on a 3-D wood piece titled “Everyday Dealings Occurring Simultaneously Everyday.”

Gallery Director Alejandro Macias said it is interesting to see the 2-D work transitioning into 3-D.

“I am very curious as to, he has a very interesting color palette in his work, to see it kind of transitioning into 3-D work,” Macias said.  “There is a table that is consistent in his 2-D work.”

Through the 16 pieces, the viewer may be able to see the “negotiation behavior” Alcantar mentioned in an Oct. 23 article in The Rider.

“Negotiating is an activity that all humans do,” Alcantar said. “Regardless of anything about us, all of us offer and acquire interests as a means of survival and thriving. Many of us are not aware, however, of the extent that we negotiate. We are even less aware of how we are negotiating.”

 “The work addresses the narrative impact resulting from everyday choices that are made, the contexts in which negotiations take place and the power structures involved, and the reality of multiple interests influencing the decisions or negotiations at hand,” Alcantar wrote in his artist statement.

Art studio senior Claudia Rodriguez said she enjoys going to the art openings because artists from outside of South Texas come to exhibit their different bodies of work.

“It is interesting to look at everyone’s perspective,” Rodriguez said. “I actually like all the pieces because I feel like each one is different from the other one.”

Admission to the exhibit is free.

For more information, visit www.utrgv.edu/school-of-art/gallery/art-gallery-rusteberg-hall/index.htm.