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Review of "Do You Really Believe That?"

Katherine Deck-Portillo

Updated: Feb 2

When a student in my art history classes provides an interpretation of an artwork we are discussing, my response is always to ask, “Why?” It’s a simple question that challenges students to think deeper into their analysis and practice their communication skills. Pursuing the why also reflects an engagement, curiosity, and pursuit of intellect: these are valued traits in a student. It only makes sense that the art exhibition honoring the late art historian and educator, Francis Colpitt, PhD, was named after her signature line. Curated by Dr. Jennifer Hope Davy, Dr. Sara-Jayne Parsons, Dr. Scott Sherer, Constance Lowe, and Hills Snyder, Do You Really Believe That? honors Colpitt’s legacy by challenging viewers’ notions of art.


The exhibition features archived documents, such as photographs and letters exchanges, from her life. Throughout the space, there are works from 25 artists that Colpitt influenced, specifically from her scholarship on Abstraction and Minimalist contemporary art. The works contain rich colors, sensuous textures, and challenge traditional medium structures. These particular three qualities are best highlighted by the works of Felice Koenig, Yunhee Min, and Jerry Cabrera.

Installation view of Felice Koenig's Double Entrance.
Installation view of Felice Koenig's Double Entrance.

The first work in the gallery space is Felice Koenig’s sculptural painting, Double Embrace. On a circular canvas, Koenig builds up a myriad of colors and paint, and then applies polystyrene to create a shallow, concave surface. The button-like form hypnotizes viewers, beckoning to reach out and experience the bubbly surface. The soft, blending yet variety of color in red and yellows calls for viewers to fall into the work, to fall into the embrace.

Installation view of Yunhee Min's Lminarie Delirium #1.
Installation view of Yunhee Min's Lminarie Delirium #1.

Further into the space is Yunhee Min’s Luminarie Delirium #1, which is her contemporary response to the 1960’s Minimalist art movement. I think of Donald Judd’s objects, specifically the various “box” series, that played with ideas of sculpture, painting, and light. Min’s work utilizes a series of T8 fluorescent lights (I could still read the “Phillips” logo on one) that she paints various blotches on. The work could function “on” or “off,”  exploring the enhancement of color with external or internal light as a way to create tension. 

Installation view of Jerry Cabrera's Alchemy of Light 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Installation view of Jerry Cabrera's Alchemy of Light 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Jerry Cabrera’s protruding, pyramid canvases of color in Alchemy of Light 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, compliment Koenig’s and Min’s work. Where Koenig’s work is an obvious transformation of canvas to sculpture, Cabrera’s approach is subtle. From a distance, these canvases look to be a traditional series of paintings. It’s with closer inspection that viewers notice the pyramid shape of the canvas, the narrow top attached to the wall as the broader base protrudes into the viewer’s space. Cabrera paints all sides of the visible work, so that when light shines on it, the vibrant colors blend and play on the white-walls between each canvas. 

Side profile Jerry Cabrera's installation of Alchemy of Light 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Side profile Jerry Cabrera's installation of Alchemy of Light 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Do You Really Believe That? testifies to Colpitt’s legacy as a teacher and critic. Koenig, Min’s, and Cabrera’s artworks are just three of the many fantastic pieces in the exhibit that confront traditional ideas of art. Dare to enter the space and ask yourself, do you really believe that?


Do You Really Believe That? is on view at the University of Texas San Antonio’s Main Art Gallery through February 28, 2025. Please check their website for gallery hours.

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