outsider art + objects | Southside Living + Maker Spaces
March 14 — April 3, 2020 (potential extended closing tbd)
Hnatyshyn’s work explores and questions gender roles within socio-cultural constructs through historical and modern times that span diverse cultures and geographies. She passionately delves into the patterns and hierarchies that have defined and constrained women through her use of vivid color, large-scale painting, hanging objects, sculptural appendages, images of women in everyday scenes and colorful textiles both found & sought. Her work seamlessly integrates contemporary craft and fine art to create a container that invites the viewer to travel inside the work both physically and mentally. She refers to these spaces as “modern simulacra.” Mira’s installations are sensational and tactile worlds where one is transported to places of her own interpretation. She prefers to let the viewer be guided by their imagination rather than explaining her art, to let the work engage people in ways both unintentional and personal.
“Every Girl Wants to Be Queen” is an installation based on an original photograph Mira took while in London at the Tower of London. The juxtaposition of schoolgirls ascending the tower, its violent history and the recent timing of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee struck her, and made her wonder: Does every girl want to be queen? And what kind of queen would she be?
About the Artist
The daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who settled in Maryland, Mira Hnatyshyn relocated to San Antonio as a young mother over two decades ago after living her entire life within 30 miles of her hometown. Balancing motherhood and her art practice she found her place as an artist here in San Antonio and received an M.F.A. in Painting from UTSA. She has shown her work at the McNay Art Museum, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, ArtPace, galleries in New York City and South Korea; and is in the permanent Saatchi Collection of London. This will be her first solo exhibition since 2018 at REM gallery and 2014 at Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum. Mira also teaches at Southwest School of Art.
About outsider art + objects
Outrider is a female/artist centric space focused on work from underrepresented artists + inclusive of all ages, genders, and ethnicities.