SAM RAWLS ARTS
NOVEMBER 2023
Presahouse Gallery San Antonio, TX
Latent Blatant is a collection of introspective self-portraits that utilize light and darkness to create a visual narrative to explore Rawls's intimate emotions. "Latent Blatant" embodies the dual nature of this artistic practice, deconstructing, reconstructing, and guiding her autobiographical portraiture, which fluctuates between discrete introspection and unrestrained revelations. For Rawls, each brushstroke and meticulously placed dot allows her to blur the boundaries of her personal perception and feelings towards her body image and invites the viewers to peel back the layers beyond the surface to explore the concealed. This exhibition is a visual dialogue of self-acceptance, self-expression, the nuanced depth of personal experience, and the truths about oneself that are often masked and elude words.
FOR HER
MASTER IN FINE ARTS EXHIBITION
ABOUT ME
Sam Rawls (b. 1990, Brownsville, Texas) received her Bachelor's in Fine Arts from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2016 and her Master's in Fine Arts in 2021. Her work centers on feminism and self-love to portray the variety and uniqueness of each female figure to represent that everyone has the right to be comfortable in their skin. Rawls, along with Alexandria Canchola and Monica Lugo, make up the HER.MOSA Collective a South Texas-based muralist group that promotes sisterhood within the Latina culture. She is also the co-creator of the Mujer-Eres exhibition, which brings women artists from diverse backgrounds together to exhibit their work in the Rio Grande Valley annually in March. She has completed a residency with Truchas's De la Casa Residency (2021). Rawls was also one of four Texas women artists invited to present at the National Museum of Women in the Arts Texas National Committee's Spring Artist Talk (2023) at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas.
Sam Rawls
It’s a constant battle between oneself and the external forces that tell women that all their problems will vanish if they look like the ideal woman. My art proves them wrong.