Beginning Friday, May 13 Clamp Light Studios & Gallery will host Allegories – Crowns - Maidens, a three-person exhibition curated by Raul Rene Gonzalez featuring Alisa Sikelianos-Carter (upstate New York), Lanecia Rouse Tinsley (Houston and Virginia), and Symone Martinez (San Antonio). The exhibition will run May 13 - June 4 with an opening reception on Friday, May 13, 6pm-9pm.

The exhibition will include an installation of 111 framed drawings by Symone Martinez, works from Alisa Sikelianos-Carter’s Crown series, and new collages by Lanecia Rouse Tinsley.  This will be Tinsley and Sikelianos-Carter’s first exhibitions in San Antonio and Symone’s second series of 111 maiden drawings completed in the past year.

About the Artists:

Alisa Sikelianos-Carter is a mixed-media painter from upstate New York. Inspired by traditionally Black hairstyles, Sikelianos-Carter uses web and catalog-sourced images to construct new archetypes. Through her exploration of opulent, luminescent materials she is creating a mythology that is centered on Black resistance and utilizes the body as a sight of alchemy and divinity.

Sikelianos-Carter asserts that Black features are a manifestation of a sacred and divine technology that has served as a means of survival, both physically and metaphysically. She envisions a cosmically bountiful world that celebrates and pays homage to ancestral majesty, power, and aesthetics.

Lanecia Rouse Tinsley is a multidisciplinary artist who splits time between Houston, TX, and Richmond, VA. Her portfolio includes a range of abstract painting, photography, teaching, writing, speaking, and curatorial projects for various non-profit organizations.

Lanecia creates work that focuses on the stories that we are born into and not-yet-formed possibilities, through the creative arrangement of various materials in ways that point viewers towards newer, “otherwise” horizons for imagining whole and meaningful lives.  A lot of her work is the product of contemplative and intuitive abstract mixed-media practices, and is informed by poetry/literature, sociopolitical realities, history, theology, aesthetics, and personal and collective memory.

Symone Martinez is a self-taught illustrator based in San Antonio Texas. A wife and mother of two kids she is known for her graphic and detail-patterned illustrations surrounding themes of women, mental health, and pop culture.  In 2021, Symone was a featured artist at the Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival. She has exhibited at Bihl Haus Arts, The Ecumenical Center, Hausmann Millworks, Southtown Art Gallery, and the San Antonio Credit Human South Town.

Symone will be installing a new series of 111 drawings titled Blue Maidens.  Each of the illustrations depicts the mental health struggles that women experience in their daily lives. The theme of blue is used throughout the series to symbolizes wisdom, depth of understanding, depression, and the depths of the human psyche. Blue stands for serenity, rather than passion, and it’s the color of all that’s constant and unchanging.

Symone Martinez recently completed her first series of 111 drawings titled Red Marina, which was featured at Hemisfair Plaza in the 2021 Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival. This will be her second series of 111 framed drawings completed in the past year.

WHAT:                                   Allegories – Crowns - Maidens

WHEN:                                   May 13 – June 4, 2022

OPENING RECEPTION:    Friday, May 13, 6-9pm

WHERE:                                Clamp Light Studios & Gallery

1704 Blanco Road, Ste. 104 | San Antonio, TX 78212

COST:                                                Free

MORE INFO: email clamplightstudios@gmail.com, or Call 210-987-7276