'Salon de Bellezas' Art Exhibit at TAMIU

Anti-classical themes, intentionally discordant colors, impossible scales, rough brushstrokes, and a consistent sense of humor are in evidence at  Texas A&M International University's Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Gallery with Haydeé Victoria Suescum's exhibit "Salon de Bellezas."

The exhibit opened earlier this month and will be on display through Feb. 23, 2006.

Suescum says she finds provocation for her work in a wide spectrum of popular iconographic sources ranging from her native Panama's picturesque painted buses to hand-made signs for beauty parlors and tire repair shops.

"The artist explores the vernacular culture that the homemade signs and commercial images reflect, as well as the concepts of feminine beauty and machismo that permeate the daily lives of thousands of people who live far removed from the world centers of power. Her paintings reflect a sharp sense of observation and great irony in their interpretation of the everyday, while at the same time revealing a semantic and visual game between vulgar art and tradition art history," wrote Mónica E. Kupfer in the Instituto Italo Latino Americano catalog for the 50th Venice Biennale to describe Suescum's work.

Suescum, a San Antonio resident and adjunct faculty at San Antonio College, has received many honors, awards and recognitions and has exhibited her work in Panama, Peru, Fort Worth and San Antonio. She has also participated in selected group exhibitions in Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Peru, the United States, and Italy.

For more information, please contact Alma Haertlin, assistant professor, at 326.3041, e-mail almah@tamiu.edu or visit offices in CFPA 208A.

Gallery hours of operation are from noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu