Walking into the Studio at Ruby City to see Celia Álvarez Muñoz’s Los Brillantes (“The Brilliant Ones”) felt like stepping onto a crossroads where memory and place converge. Signs within the installation point toward familiar San Antonio streets like Broadway and Culebra, grounding me in different parts of San Antonio.
Celia Álvarez Muñoz is a Chicana artist who was born in El Paso, and currently lives in Arlington. She is best known for her conceptual practice across mediums that capture her bicultural experiences as a Chicana. Los Brillantes includes an array of 18 photographic portraits of Latino artists who were working in San Antonio, Texas, in the early 2000s. The selected portraits are part of Muñoz’s larger 2002 series, Semejantes Personajes/Significant Personages, which contains over 40 total portraits captured by a Holga camera, which is a cheap camera that creates optically-flawed photographs. We see multiple shots of various artists in these photos that juxtapose one another. They carry multiple expressions; some smile as they work, while others go from a more serious expression to a smile from one frame to the next.
Muñoz captures fellow artists as they are, in their studios and in front of their work. These moments feel deeply intimate, inviting viewers to imagine themselves holding the camera, framing the artists in various poses. One portrait depicts César A. Martínez, an active artist in San Antonio, in front of an unfinished painting. Martínez most recently displayed at Ruiz-Healy Art in his second solo show at the gallery in October through November 2024. Having met Martínez recently, I was struck by how Muñoz’s photograph perfectly mirrors his enduring dedication to his craft and the consistency of his personality.
The next artist is also well known in San Antonio to this day. Chuck Ramirez (b. 1962, d. 2010) was known for his Baroque and sensual artworks. Muñoz captures Ramirez in a moment of laughter on our left. The frames move rightward, and he hugs a piñata that resembles Blossom, the fearless leader of the Powerpuff Girls. Ramirez exudes Blossom’s bubbly personality—spirited, bold, and full of life. It is hard to imagine from this photo that such a vibrant presence was lost too soon—Ramirez died in 2010 in a bicycle accident at 48 years old in San Antonio.
Lastly, I was intrigued by the digital holgas of a young Vincent Valdez, who was brought up in San Antonio. He currently lives back and forth between Houston and Los Angeles, with studios in both locations. When Muñoz photographed Valdez, he was an up and coming artist, having completed his Bachelor’s of Fine Art from the Rhode Island School of Design only two years before in 2000. Standing in front of a portrait of himself, Valdez’s gaze shifts from neutral expression to a subtle smirk—a quiet assertion of self-awareness and emerging confidence.
Overall, Celia Álvarez Muñoz’s installation features holga portraits of artists attributed to San Antonio. Through intimate moments, Muñoz captures the vibrancy, personality, and rising potential of these influential figures in a moment of time. Since these photos were taken, the art world has continued to evolve, with many artists moving into new phases of their careers. I invite everyone to experience the lasting legacy of San Antonio’s artists at the Studio, where their contributions continue to resonate.
Los Brillantes is on display at the Studio at Ruby City until January 19, 2025.
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