Wax and Wildflowers: International Encaustic Exhibit at SAALM

The International Encaustic Artists Annual Juried Exhibition will be hosted in Texas at the the San Antonio Art League and Museum in June and July of 2023. The theme of the all-encaustic exhibit is Wax and Wildflowers, a tribute to the fabled Davis Wildflower Competition of 1929 when wealthy oilman Edgar B. Davis asked the San Antonio Art League to put out a call to artists all over the world to paint Texas wildflowers. Davis’s vision and the Art League’s efforts attracted accomplished artists from around the world, resulting in SAALM’s distinguished collection of Texas art.

For this new exhibit, SAALM and IEA invited national, international, and regional encaustic artists to interpret the theme of wildflowers using the medium of encaustic wax in any way they wanted – as a call for sustainable plantings, a metaphor for uncultivated nature, an abstract concept, as eco-prints with wax, or any other creative variation.

Dr. William E. Reaves and his wife Linda, gallerists and historians, served as Jurors for this show. Bill Reaves wrote the book Texas Art and a Wildcatter\’s Dream: Edgar B. Davis and the San Antonio Art League. Both Bill and Linda are collectors of early Texas art, helped develop the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art (CASETA) and operated a prominent fine arts gallery in Houston for more than a decade. They selected 50 pieces from 38 artists for the exhibition.