A Culture of Vertical Investigations, an Exhibition of Art by San Antonio artist Joan Fabian

The COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for visual artist Joan Fabian to become reflective about her past and her future. This led to her asking many questions, “When we go through a challenge, we investigate what we desire: a place to be safe in, where we live a better life. How does one make a home where there is turmoil and destruction?”

Rather than being weighed down by the pandemic’s loneliness, Fabian honored the places she traveled to, exploring and painting what it meant to her. From living in Pakistan to the Netherlands, the artist had a unique ritual when arriving at a new location, “The ritual, so to speak, is the acknowledgment of the lives that lived in the home I inhabit. I may find letters, history, and other traces of the former inhabitants.”

Joan Fabian’s art materializes from a lifelong search for belonging and what defines “home” in a multicultural world. Fabian’s mother was seven years old when she arrived in America from a small village in Slovakia on the RMS Olympic, the older sister ship of the Titanic. Bravely armed by this experience, her mother instilled in the Fabian family the ability to adapt to different cultures. A variety of factors have influenced Fabian, but it is her time in Chicago’s “Little Village” neighborhood that stands out, “We grew accustomed to the influx of the cultures of Mexico in addition to Eastern Slavic Europeans such as ourselves, and I became fascinated by culture and how others live.” Despite being surrounded by various communities, all having their traditions and languages, Fabian finds that art is her language to investigate these unfamiliar worlds, “I put myself in places that brought me kinship with diverse cultures with appreciation.”

This project was made possible with the generous support of the
City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture Individual Artist Grant.