Hidden treasures trace the history of Artpace in San Antonio – San Antonio Express-News

More than 400 artists have worked at Artpace over the past 25 years, but only a handful have left tangible traces of the work they did in the building.

The artists that come through the lauded residency program typically create installations that are on display for just a few months. But some leave things behind that can be seen outside of the galleries if you have permission to roam around and know where to look.

Riley Robinson knows where to look.

Robinson, who became the director of Artpace in 2018 and has worked for it through most of its history, agreed to show off the buildings offbeat hidden treasures on a tour that included the galleries, offices, restrooms and the three apartments where artists live during their residencies.

He even pointed out the reminders left behind from the buildings time as a Hudson car dealership and a Firestone tire shop, including a tire rack tucked high overhead in a space that now is used for lectures and workshops, and a drain in the floor in a space where cars were once washed.

Theres also a Hudson hubcap hanging on the wall at the top of the stairs, but thats not a leftover from the Hudson days: I like to tell everybody we found the Hudson hubcap while we were renovating the building, but we actually got it from a hubcap dealer on Austin Highway, he said.

A bit of a history of the buildings transformation into an art center can be found in the restrooms, where Ansen Seales black-and-white photographs of what it looked like before hang on the walls.

The other artwork scattered throughout the building, which opened to the public in 1995, provides thumbnail illustrations of some of the work that has been created there over the years.

So does a shelf behind the desk in Robinsons office. It holds a hodgepodge of small pieces, gifts and mementos from artists who have come through.

Theyre little bits and pieces of ephemera I dont know if theyre really artwork or not, he said.

The shelf includes a painted 2-by-4 covered in string left behind by sculptor Leonardo Drew, a ceramic plate made by the late Katie Pell and a gag gift of a breath spray claiming to help folks understand modern art.

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Theres also an oversized key It looks like a cartoon, Robinson said that is one of 10 he had made as part of the installation that Regina Jos Galindo created during her 2008 residency. For the piece, she locked herself, her husband and her baby into a jail cell in the gallery.

Shes a conceptual artist and doesnt usually end up with an object other than the record of the show. So I was like, Hey, Regina, lets go ahead and make a copy of the key, Robinson recalled. So that is a copy of the jail cell key. This is what a real jail cell key looks like.

A framed light switch plate hangs above working light switches on the wall beside the door. Beyond documentation, its all that is left of Kim Jones 2003 installation Flatland Wars, which depicted battle scenes. The plate is covered in tiny, detailed pencil drawings, as were the walls of the gallery.

When the exhibit closed, Jones told Robinson to just paint over the mural. Robinson got his OK to keep the light plate.

So I took it off the wall and saved it, and this is whats left over, he said. Its part of Artpace.

Another part lies under the floor of that wing of the building. As Artpace founder Linda Pace recounts in her book Dreaming Red: Creating ArtPace, artist Paula Santiagos 1996 residency coincided with the construction of that area. Santiago inserted works of art bits of plaster casts and clippings of her hair into the wet concrete foundation of the directors office.

Robinson noted that there is no sign documenting the pieces presence.

For a long time, other works affixed throughout the building didnt have labels, either. That changed starting with the two small urethane balls that Elizabeth McGrath left embedded in the ceiling, an extension of please watch your step, the installation she created during her 1996 residency. The balls can be seen by looking up in the first floor atrium.

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Were not a collecting institution, but theyve been there a long time, Robinson said. About six or seven years ago, I said its time to own it. So we finally put a label on it. So were claiming it as artwork. I wrote her and told her, Youre the longest exhibiting artist in Artpace.

Theres also a label for Waddle and Daub, a piece suggesting two vessels, one nestled inside the other, that was embedded into the wall just below the stairs by Lily Cox-Richard during her 2016 residency.

And theres a label for a single window pane on the landing between the first and second floors thats coated in delicate silver leaf, a call-back to Rebecca Hollands 2000 residency. The artist painstakingly covered the ceiling of her space with silver leaf, creating a glowing effect. She left behind the window pane as a gift to Artpace.

The original work is still there, too, Robinson said: When she left, it was time to bring the next artist in, we just painted the ceiling over. Theres a layer of silver there; you just cant see it.

A few works upstairs rarely are seen by anyone other than artists and staff, since theyre in areas not accessible to the public. One can be found on the windows of the cozy apartment where Tony Feher stayed during an Artpace stint in 2012. Feher, who died in 2016, typically worked with everyday materials, including the strips of blue tape he used to cover three panes of glass with geometric patterns.

If you know Tony Fehers work, this is a signature blue tape piece, Robinson said. Im not taking this down.

Another hidden work is a series of window panes with small holes drilled into them. Theyre what remains of Rivane Neuenschwanders 2001 piece Omission Points, for which she drilled those holes all the way around the gallery.

I saved em, Robinson said.

Hes also left up a single clay bird in a room just off the Main Space, the downstairs gallery that faces the street. It was part of a collection of birds that Kate Terrell created for an installation about 10 years ago. At the end of the exhibition, Robinson said, we took em down, gave the birds back. But then we noticed we missed one. And its been hanging ever since.

The bird, the silver leaf and all the other pieces left serve as a reminder of Artpaces history, Robinson said, as well as a reminder that the building itself is a catalyst for new work.

Its an envelope that lets people do what they do best, he said.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN

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Hidden treasures trace the history of Artpace in San Antonio - San Antonio Express-News