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Posted: 4/26/23

"Eric Avery, M.D.: Art as Medicine" Continues Showing at Laredo Center for the Arts ‘

 

Eric Avery
Eric Avery is a featured artist in "Ways of Seeing: One Exhibit, Two Spaces," which continues at the Laredo Center for the Arts.  

 

While part of a historic shared Laredo exhibit that underscores a remarkable friendship and spanned two art spaces has ended, part of the exhibit remains on view.

The Eric Avery portion, Eric Avery, M.D.: Art as Medicine, part of “Ways of Seeing: One Exhibit, Two Spaces,” continues at the Laredo Center for the Arts (LCA) through May 12, 2023 downtown. The portion with artist Sue Coe, Sue Coe: Look Through My Eyes. Animal and Human Rights was on exhibit at  Texas A&M International University’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts  Gallery March 20 – April 19, 2023.

A closing reception for Eric Avery, M.D.: Art as Medicine is set for Friday, May 12 from 6 – 9 p.m.

Ways of Seeing: Sue Coe: Look Through My Eyes. Animal and Human Rights” was curated by Kassandra Romero, a TAMIU Art alumni, Laredo artist, and art teacher, and co-curated by Jesse Shaw, TAMIU assistant professor of art, and artist/printmaker, and Eric Avery.

Romero said the paired exhibit helped shed light on social issues, yet brought hope through the gifts and correspondence shared throughout the artist’s friendship spanning 40 years. Among these gifts were the exhibition’s prints, Sue Coe’s publications, and ephemera detailing their rich correspondence, always with the power to educate each other.

“Coe’s work forces individuals to look at hard truths through their own eyes. Within the graphic drawings of a gruesome reality, Coe shows us unwavering hope for the individual that seeks to act. Avery’s work fuses science and art in healing. Society’s victims of abuse, illness, and marginalization all live on through his compelling art. The shared exhibit provides spaces for the gifts exchanged by two artists while also catalyzing a growing vegan and climate change consciousness -- presenting the notion that until humans practice compassion with all living beings, humanity will not know peace,” Romero observed.

Shaw noted that this paired exhibit structure presented a unique art opportunity in Laredo that celebrates the power of friendship.

“Having a shared companion exhibit of this scope and passion in two spaces is historic for the Laredo art scene. In addition, we tend to think of artists as solitary figures immersed in their art. Here however, we see two individuals who are not only bonded by a kind friendship, but are also artist friends who share the knowledge of their craft and medium, and educate each other in the context behind one another’s work,” Shaw explained.

About the Artists:

Eric Avery is an artist/printmaker and a retired physician/psychiatrist residing in San Ygnacio, TX. Avery’s expertise is in connecting his art with medicine, dissecting issues such as human rights abuses and infectious diseases in his prints. While working at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Avery invited Coe on artist visits sponsored by the Institute for Medical Humanities at UTMB to his AIDS/HIV medical practice, further strengthening both individuals’ friendship and skill in being witnesses. Avery’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and England. Because of his connection to South Texas, he is the next artist in the LCA series focusing on artists from this region. For more, visit DocArt.com. 

Sue Coe is a leading social content artist, and animal and human rights activist. Coe moved from London, England to New York City in the 1970s and is now represented by Galerie St. Etienne. Her political drawings, illustrations, and prints have been used in many publications, and her work forms part of many notable collections. Coe creates artwork that captures what she sees and makes it accessible to the world, often as prints and books. Throughout their friendship and mutual exchange of objects and information to help each other grow in their understanding of human and animal rights, she has gifted Avery over 85 prints and books on view in this exhibition. For more, visit suecoe.org

Sponsors and partners for the “Ways of Seeing” Exhibit included IBC Bank, La Posada Hotel, L&F Distributors, Texas A&M International University, and the Laredo Center for the Arts.

For more, contact Jesse Shaw at jesse.shaw@tamiu.edu, visit TAMIU’s College of Arts and Sciences, department of Fine and Performing Arts webite at go.tamiu.edu/fpa, or follow the University’s social channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Information on the Laredo Center for the Arts is available by phone at 956.725.1715 or online at laredocenter.org

 

Sue Coe, Artist
Sue Coe's art was featured in "Ways of Seeing: One Exhibit, Two Spaces at the TAMIU Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Gallery.