Barbara Felix, The Glorious Way She Moves
Exhibition • March 6–April 7, 2023
Gallery hours
Saturday Mar 11, 11am-3pm
Saturday Mar 18, 11am-3pm
Saturday Mar 25, 11am-3pm
Friday, Mar 31, 6–9pm
Saturday Apr 1, 11am-6pm (Lockhart Sip & Stroll festival)
Curated by Raul Rene Gonzalez
Audio Stories
The visual pieces in this exhibit are accompanied by audio. Women whose portraits are featured share stories about their lives and how they feel about dance and movement. Featuring spoken word by Andrea Vocab Sanderson and selected clips from Glory Jones, Shelby Hilliard, Nanako Pastol, Sarah (Foxsar) Fox and Andrea Vocab.
Listen to the 8 minute audio here:
Longer versions of the stories can be accessed on Soundcloud.
Artist’s Statement
The Glorious Way She Moves explores the fullness and depth of the female form from youthful innocence to glorious maturity. As a multi-racial and cultural artist, I strive to address inaccurate, misplaced labels put upon cultures, race and the feminine gender. These interpretive portraits illustrate the exuberance and individuality of each muse I celebrate and emphasize the remarkable features and characteristics of women in every phase of womanhood. Through their poise and spirit, they pay homage to the legacy of generations of women who came before them. Symbolically, these portraits exemplify the self-esteem women exude as they move through their lives and the world.
The large scale format brings the women I portray into a magnified view that recognizes their magnificence as multi-faceted human beings. In my process, I video record each woman dancing, then jump to the film’s individual frames, using them to help me expose and capture my subjects’ unique character and individuality. During their dance, I specifically look for physical and expressive nuances my subjects demonstrate, then use these individual signature movements to reveal each subjects’ aesthetic. By doing this I experience a connection to their beauty without stereotyping. It is that connection I share in my work.
About the Artist
Barbara Felix is a San Antonio native and contemporary figurative artist. She received her BFA in Graphic Communication at Texas State University in 1991, where her TSU coursework fired her love of the human figure and inspired her long pursuit to work as an artist. Felix began taking community classes at the Southwest School of Art, San Antonio in 2006. After receiving a Best of Show award in 2007 at the All-Student exhibition she began a more dedicated pursuit of art, receiving a Certificate in Drawing, Painting and Printmaking in 2013.
Felix’ ongoing series of works include: Bailando con Mi Misma (Dancing with My Self), The Color of Women, and The Glorious Way She Moves. Body movement, body language, facial expression and relationships and identity are common themes she explores in her work. She received a 1st place award at the Round Rock Arts [Re]Imagine Exhibition in 2019 for her portrait of Thelma and Barbara, and recently her work was showcased in The Billboard Creative’s We the People billboard exhibition in Los Angeles, CA. She is self-taught in animation, video and audio editing. Her animation and performance videos have been screened in festivals and exhibitions across the United States and internationally.
Felix is actively engaged in her community, as an executive board member of Contemporary Art Month (CAM); and an active member of both San Antonio Ethnic Art Society (SAEAS) and Gentileschi Aegis Gallery Association (GAGA). She has curated exhibitions for the Bijou Cinema Theater (2017-2019), Slab Cinema Arthouse (2022), and the City of San Antonio Department of Art & Culture (2022/2023). She has recently early retired from corporate graphic design in 2022, to pursue her artistic passions full time.