The Blanton Museum of Art and the UT Department of Art and Art History announce New Residencies for Emerging Latin American Artists

(AUSTIN, TX: January 5, 2009) Mapping Exchange: Artists Residencies Programs at the University of Texas is a new series of annual artists residencies, and is a collaboration between the UT Creative Research Laboratory of the Department of Art and Art History and the Blanton Museum of Art. The program's mission is to stimulate intellectual and cultural dialogue across campus, providing unique opportunities for UT students, faculty and the community at large, to learn, engage and collaborate with visiting international artists from around the world.

Spearheaded by Ursula Davila–Villa, the Blanton's interim curator of Latin American Art, and CRL director Jade Walker, the three residencies of Mapping Exchange foster interdisciplinary programming aimed to enhance student learning and artistic experience through interaction with the selected international artists. Programming includes collaborative exhibitions, artist talks, and cultural events organized with other UTcenters of learning

Iberê Camargo Residency
This program, organized in conjunction with the Iberê Camargo Foundation (Porto Alegre, Brazil), provides an opportunity for the selected emerging artist (who must be living in Brazil) to spend two months at an internationally renowned institution – in this case, UT and The Blanton Museum of Art. (An international jury chosen by the ICF selects the artist.) The visiting artist is invited to Austin for a two–month period (October–November) to engage with university students and faculty, and the local community, and is encouraged to experience the Texas art scene.

Austin–Argentina Residency
This residency culminates with an exhibition of works by both the visiting artist and selected UT– affiliated artists. Titled A Strange Land, this year's exhibition will investigate themes including citizenship, urbanization, borders, and the model of the “map.” It is an exploration of cultural modifications of society and geography, with a focus on issues of displacement, landscapes, and personal histories in a foreign land.

Argentinean Erica Bohm has been selected as this year's AA residency artist. Bohm graduated from the School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredón in 2001 with a specialization in painting. Her work deals with landscape and the different ways in which emotions are conveyed through the idea of landscape. In 2006, her work was exhibited at the Festival de Luz, Centro Cultural Parque Espana, Rosario, Argentina where she won 1st prize, the Lebensohn Foundation Photography Award.

Mexico–Austin Artistic Exchange (MAAE)
This program is headed by the Blanton Museum of Art and is structured as a partnership between two units within the University of Texas–the Mexican Center at LLILAS, and the CRL at the AAH–and the Museo Carrillo Gill in Mexico City. It provides a residency during the month of March for a selected emerging artist living in Mexico. The artist is required to engage with UT students, faculty, and the local community, and explore the Texas art scene. In the fall following the artist's visit to Austin, the Museo Carrillo Gil in Mexico will organize a second program that culminates with an exhibition during the fall of 2009.

This year's selected artist is Diego Perez Garcia. Pérez García began his career as a photojournalist before turning his lens to artistic practices. In his work, García reconstructs myths and legends through a Mexican socio–cultural viewpoint, where myths are valued as a tradition of private and collective events, memories and utopias.

Mapping Exchange: Artists Residency Programs at the University of Texas is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art in collaboration with the Creative Research Lab at the Department of Art and Art History, with the support of the Brazil Center and the Mexican Center at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. The program is supported by the Barbara Duncan Centennial Endowed Lectureship, the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Fine Arts, the Iberê Camargo Foundation (Porto Alegre, Brazil), the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (Mexico City), Proyecto NEXAR (Buenos Aires, Argentina), the Mexican Center And the Brazil Center.