Sandra Brewster

Lullaby of Birdland

May 2, 2024 – June 8, 2024

Sandra Brewster

Lullaby of Birdland

May 2 – June 8, 2024

Opening reception: Thursday, May 2nd from 5 – 8 pm

In Conversation: Sandra Brewster & Betty Julian. Saturday, May 25th, 2 pm, please RSVP

The first nightclub in San Antonio, Texas, The Keyhole, provided a venue to jazz and blues greats from the 1940s to the 1960s. As the first integrated club, performers and revellers enhanced the community around them while breaking social and legal barriers that dictated place and belonging. Band leader Don Albert brought his way of living from New Orleans to San Antonio challenging segregation laws throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s; instilling a new way of being.

During a recent residency at Artpace San Antonio I created Black Coffee, It Might As Well Be Spring, Street of Dreams and Don’t Worry About Me – all works under the title Lullaby of Birdland. These pieces depict people I encountered along the River Walk and in the various city streets. Simply being in a space and taking in the surroundings, I aligned these folks with the titles of Sarah Vaughan expressing desire and ways of being. Sarah Vaughan was one of the few women artists who performed at The Keyhole. I enjoyed times at dusk when the sounds of birds, called Grackles, would fill the air as they gathered in trees. “They are either applauded for their audaciousness or cursed for their persistence in nocturnal singing or in the defense of their territory.” I am attracted to the freedom of flight that birds embody.

I consider these panels a beginning to a closer investigation of my photo-based gel transfers. When I create my large wall works, I benefit from being up close and “personal” to examine the imperfect details of their surfaces – creases, cracks, tears, and areas where ink is absent. When I position myself so near they almost appear as landscapes from an aerial view. Leaning into the unpredictable and imperfect nature of the process, I enjoy revealing the underlaying of paint that is, in other areas, covered with medium and ink. I start to play with the grid, at times shifting whole sections or crushing paper, therefore imagery, from one end. I continue to incorporate colour to bring attention to the core of who is being depicted, to convey a narrative, even if subtle.

These unintentional and intentional actions that I play with add to the embedded nature that landscape and place can have on being. It makes us one with our surroundings, a part of the whole, an undeniable existence.

Also incorporated in Lullaby are works depicting urban landscapes of Toronto, Georgetown Guyana, New York, and London. This pieced together intergenerational mix of people working, traveling, standing in line, dancing are entangled to present individual stories that may have relationships with each other despite location.

During a recent trip to Georgetown, I took a long walk along the sea wall. In its entirety, the sea wall is 280 miles long and constructed of concrete and steel. The seawall looms large in Guyanese storytelling and is a physical barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the people. Its function is both personal and practical; it creates community and protects the city from the threat of flooding. This Jewel brings people together.

Featured Image: Detail of Sandra Brewster, It Might As Well Be Spring, 2023, acrylic, photo-based gel transfer on wood panel, 84″ x 48″ x 2″

Photography credit to Toni Hafkensheid.