Show Preview | Night of Artists

San Antonio, TX

Briscoe Western Art Museum, March 23-May 6

Kim Wiggins, The Texians, oil, 30 x 40.

Kim Wiggins, The Texians, oil, 30 x 40.

This story was featured in the March 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

Michael Duchemin, president and CEO of the Briscoe Western Art Museum, seeks to build a new community of western art lovers in San Antonio. This month, the museum hosts its 17th annual Night of Artists Exhibition and Sale, which features new events designed to inspire interest in and excitement for the art world. “San Antonio and South Texas in general have a lot of capacity to be the natural market for collecting western art,” Duchemin says. “All the ingredients are here, but there hasn’t been enough done to encourage people to participate in it.” 

The main exhibition and sale returns as usual, featuring more than 260 works by 75 western artists from across the country, including painting, sculpture, and mixed-media works. Opening weekend begins on Friday, March 23, with the new Briscoe Collectors Summit. The full-day educational
symposium is designed to help develop and encourage both seasoned and new collectors in the art market. The morning session focuses on how the market is changing, while the afternoon session addresses the generational shift to a younger collector group and the strategies they need to move forward in their collecting journey. Each session features a panel made up of artists, collectors, museum professionals, and auction coordinators. Artist Kim Wiggins is participating in the panel for the morning session. “The Collectors Summit provides an open and exciting setting to explore many of the powerful issues in our art world,” he says. “It really shows the creativity and effort Briscoe is putting into it because they are willing to try some unique things to enhance that education.”

On Friday night, artists and collectors come together again for an exhibition preview, as well as an Artist Awards Dinner & Live Auction. This small auction is also new this year and features over 20 works by artists in the show. Artists were asked to create work specifically for the live auction. Duchemin says that in the past, ballot boxes were stuffed for some of the more popular works, and they would be sold to one collector by the luck of the draw. “Now, all of those people interested in a specific artist or painting will have the chance to pay a premium price for what they want,” he says. Artists featured in both the auction and the main sale include Martin Grelle, Z.S. Liang, Logan Maxwell Hagege, C. Michael Dudash, and Greg Beecham. The main exhibition opens on Saturday, March 24, with an artists’ reception and the “Luck of the Draw” sale.

Wiggins says he is excited to return to the event with his work THE TEXIANS, which directly relates to the location of San Antonio. The piece features a scene from the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, in which Wiggins’ relative fought and died. “I’m honored to have the piece exhibited only a short distance away from this sacred site,” he says. “I feel it pays homage to my own family as well as this pivotal aspect of American history.” The exhibition remains on display through May 6 with unsold pieces still for sale. —Mackenzie McCreary

contact information
210.299.4499
www.briscoemuseum.org

This story was featured in the March 2018 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art March 2018 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

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