By Hannah Lathen/ managing editor
Photos by Kaylee Jensen/The Collegian
Vintage photographs take a comical turn with UFOs and metal body piercings on South Campus as part of The Revival: Surrealism, Fantasy and Folk, an art exhibition by Gerald Lopez through March 2 in the Carillon Gallery.
Lopez is an artist and art instructor at Del Mar College and Texas A&M University in Kingsville. His artwork displayed in the exhibit consists of old photographs he’s collected that he put a twist on with his own painting.
“I found these in junk shops, antique stores,” he said. “People gave me their old family photographs, and I wondered who these people were, what they could do, what they were about, and it interested me.”
Lopez made a majority of the work featured specifically for this show over a few months. He said he finds motivation in various sources including what he teaches in his art history classes, what he reads in a book, what he learns from talking to another artist or simply what is on his mind.
“I do about one a day,” he said. “Every day, my thoughts are different, and they sort of reflect what I am thinking day to day.”
South art assistant professor Joshua Goode said he met Lopez while exhibiting his own artwork in Corpus Christi.
“I met him and saw his work at that time and was immediately impressed, and I have been a fan ever since,” he said. “I have been looking for a way to work with him and share his work with our students and the community.”
Goode said he wants his students to be exposed to a wide variety of ways to create art.
“It is something that takes a lot of understanding to appreciate, but it’s also just beautiful images that are comical. They are fun,” he said. “You can’t help but laugh at them.”
One of his students, Mary Henderson, said she couldn’t pick a favorite piece because each is so unique.
“When you go from one to the next, you’re just like ‘Oh!’ and to the next ‘Oh!’” she said. “It’s like a pleasant surprise every time.”
Henderson said Lopez’ work is hard to forget because of his definitive style.
“I think it is really interesting because it just follows along the ‘take something old and make it new again,’” she said.
The work on display is for sale and prices range between $100 and $450.
“They are all for sale,” Goode said. “The smallest are a hundred bucks. It’s the best deal you’ll ever get for artwork.”
