In conjunction with FotoFest Biennial 2022: Participating Spaces, UHD’s O’Kane Gallery is featuring artist Kathy Vargas’ “Este Recuerdo/About Memory” Sept. 8 – Oct. 13. The event will include an Opening Reception 5 – 7 p.m. and an Artist’s Talk 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

The exhibition is a survey of photography from the 1970s to present. Vargas, a native and resident of San Antonio, creates multiple-exposure prints that are ethereal and intimate, often incorporating social observations or cues from history, including ancestral ties to Mexico and recognition of pre-Columbian cultures. Using film and a darkroom, the artist’s multi-layered photographs express the idea of simultaneous time, suggesting the fluidity of memory, which has often been described as magic realism.

“Most photographers spend their time looking for ‘good light.’ Some travel thousands of miles to find it. Do any of us think about ‘good darkness?’ said Vargas. “It’s the contrast of shadow that creates ‘good light,’ whether that contrast is physical, spiritual, intellectual, metaphorical, psychological, external, internal, and all the rest. We try to balance our lights and darks, but any balance is fleeting. Then the light changes. Pictures are the record of the light (and darkness) we’ve seen. This is my diary."

The Professor of Art at the University of Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Vargas’ influences include Mel Casa and the Con Safo Group, which opened her eyes to Latinx art. Her career includes an international exhibition record and acquisitions of her art into numerous private and public collections, including the Smithsonian American Museum of Art. Vargas’ touring group exhibitions include “Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation” organized by UCLA’s Wright Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery’s Hospice: “A Photographic Inquiry.”

“Kathy Vargas is a prominent internationally exhibited photographer,” said Mark Cervenka, Professor of Art and Director of the O'Kane Gallery. “Bringing a survey encompassing  50 years of photography to Houston provides an opportunity for our students and the entire Houston community to see the evolution of her photography. Evocative and ethereal, layered with double exposures and hand colored, often abstract, her work retains the intimacy of family portraits and a respectful acknowledgment of lives past. Additionally, her work depicting individuals and the small mementos that mark their lives suggest unique elements of cultural backgrounds and, like UHD, recognizes the value of cultural diversity and a celebrated and equal  presence and voice for all persons.”

The O'Kane Gallery (located in the UHD Welcome Center) is open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday; Noon – 5 p.m. on Saturday and closed University holidays.