SAN ANTONIO, TX.- Artpace announced the opening of our Fall 2024 International Artist-in-Residence exhibitions featuring artists Laura Veles Drey (Houston, Texas), Anita Fields (Stillwater, Oklahoma), and Lorena Molina (El Salvador, Central America). These artists were selected by Guest Curator Jami Powell. Powell is the Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, where she also serves as a senior lecturer in the Native American and Indigenous Studies Department. Powell is a citizen of the Osage Nation and holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The three artists have been living at Artpace since late January, creating new work that will be presented at a public opening reception on Thursday, March 20, from 6–9PM. At 6:30PM, the artists will discuss their time at Artpace and their installations in conversation with Guest Curator Jami Powell.
Laura Veles Drey’s Nothing Grows in A Straight Line explores migration, labor, storytelling, and connection to the land through sculptural installations. Using materials like paper ties, plastic bins, and textiles, Drey creates works that reflect hybridity and the intersection of nature and labor. Meadow, a sculpture made from green produce bins, evokes both industrial and natural landscapes. Nearby, paper ties arranged in rows reference the American flag while invoking themes of weaving and harvest. Photographs, poetry, and a soundscape of Drey’s time in Mexico further enrich the exhibition’s narrative. At Artpace, Drey continues her exploration of migration’s impact on race, labor, and geography.
Laura Veles Drey, a Houston-based artist, creates work deeply rooted in personal and collective histories, generational storytelling, and the complexities of identity. Through visual art, writing, and performance, she explores themes of race, class, labor, geography, and economic systems, weaving together narratives of home and belonging.
Her project "Unsettled Space—by Way of Crops" was supported by the Warhol Foundation’s Idea Fund Grant, and she has participated in international residencies, including at the Arquetopia Foundation in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the Poor Farm Experiment Research Residency in Wisconsin. Drey’s work has been exhibited and performed both nationally and internationally, continually pushing the boundaries of how history and identity intersect.
Anita Fields’s exhibition, Where the Light Shines Through, considers the connection between humans and nature from an Indigenous Osage perspective. A central suspended house structure, The Sun Leads You Home, incorporates ancestral markings and represents intergenerational knowledge. When The Elk Created the Earth draws from an Osage origin story, highlighting the elk’s role in shaping the land. Other works reflect on Osage heritage and the effects of colonial disruptions on sacred sites. Using traditional techniques like weaving and embellishment, Fields creates a space for reflection on resilience, identity, and ancestral memory.
Anita Fields, a citizen of the Osage Nation, is a multidisciplinary artist exploring cultural influences at the intersection of balance and chaos. Working with clay, textiles, and installation, Anita creates sculptures that reflect Indigenous traditions and contemporary narratives. Fields's work has been exhibited in major institutions, including the Hood Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Her pieces are also part of collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship and the Anonymous Was a Woman award, Fields's work continues to challenge and inspire.
Lorena Molina’s Artpace exhibition, Cuando el regreso es la cosecha, examines forced migration and the longing for return. Centered on El Salvador, the exhibition envisions an alternate history where families remain united and land is cultivated without fear. The installation invites visitor participation, allowing them to contribute personal objects, plant seeds, and engage with performances and poetry. Molina transforms the gallery into a communal space of remembrance, cultural agency, and belonging.
Lorena Molina is a Salvadoran multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator whose work is deeply rooted in themes of identity, displacement, and community. Forced to migrate to the U.S. after a 12-year civil war, Molina’s practice examines spatial inequalities and the ways marginalized communities struggle to create a sense of belonging. Through photography, video, performance, and installation, she explores relationships as political acts shaped by power and privilege. Her work navigates the margins—places of both deep pain and resilience—where resistance, dreaming, and healing take form.
Molina is the founder of Third Space Gallery, a community-driven space dedicated to supporting BIPOC artists. Her work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, The Kemper Museum in Kansas City, MO, and internationally in Florence, Beijing, and beyond.
