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Studio
Hugo Santana Studio, an interdisciplinary practice based in Austin, Texas, is led by Hugo Santana, who is an artist, designer, spatial thinker, and musician. Hugo holds a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and New Media from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. He is also the founder of Chronicles of an Impossible Voyage, a digital experimental audio platform.
Santana's art work explores intricate themes surrounding borders and the dynamics of visibility and invisibility within labor—an issue of profound political and cultural relevance in our contemporary context.
The studio's architectural approach delves deeply into site-specificity, forging a compelling intersection of architecture, technology, and art.
Artist Statement
Hugo Santana is an architectural designer and multidisciplinary artist who creates time-based performances, installations, videos and sculptures. His work draws from technology , the uncanny, ideas of labor and the production of value in our contemporary capitalist world and the connection between politics and aesthetics. Full of possibilities and nothingness, contradictions and dualities. Hugo create performances, film and sculptures which unite these disparate fields into seamless emotional and conceptual artworks. He seeks new and exciting combinations of these forms that challenge their traditional relationships.
He connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate and subversive visual narratives by weaving fact and fiction together, he highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence.
Exhibitions, Talks & Awards
2023
“The Sleep of Reason: The Fragmented Figure” Group Exhibition Curated by Volker Eisele. The Silos at Sawyer Yards. Houston, TX.
“Austin Studio Tour” Group Exhibition Curated by Todd Jenkins. Atelier 1205. Austin, TX.
2022
"Tales from the Line" MFA Thesis Solo Exhibition. UTSA Main Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX.
New Media Caucus 2022 Judson-Morrissey Excellence in New Media Award Recipient
“College of Liberal and Fine Arts 38th Annual Juried Student Exhibition” Best of Show Wai Ching Lam Art Prize Juror: Carlos Donjuan, Associate Professor of Art at University of Texas at Arlington. UTSA Main Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX.
2021
“Mykolaiv ART Week: CHANGE” Selected Film. “Tales from the Line”. Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
"Being Human Beings" Group Exhibition Curated by Julie Shipp. Collin College Art Gallery. Plano, TX.
“Architecture of the Elsewhere”Curated by Bianca Abdi-Boragi Selected Film. “Tales from the Line”. New York, NY. galleryperchee.com
“Checkerboard Borders: Experimental Film of the Global South” Curated by Masha Vlasova and Sarah Lasley Selected Film. “Tales from the Line”
“CAM Perennial 2021: Here, the rivers run both ways” Curated by Doreen A. Ríos Selected Videos: “Archive for the Unconceivable”and “Uncertain Site” San Antonio, TX. USA
“College of Liberal and Fine Arts 37th Annual Juried Student Exhibition” Best of Show Wai Ching Lam Art Prize Juror: H. Jennings Sheffield, Associate Professor of Art at Baylor University. UTSA Main Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX.
Artist Talk during the Festival of the Arts week at Sacramento State University
2020
“College of Liberal and Fine Arts 36th Annual Juried Student Exhibition” Juror: Dennis Sipiorski, Professor of Art, Ceramics, Southeastern Louisiana University. UTSA Main Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX.
“Dimensional” Exhibition Curated by Buster Graybill, Assistant Professor of Sculpture at UTSA. Dock Space, San Antonio, TX.
2019
“Spatial Relationship” Exhibition Curated by Buster Graybill, Assistant Professor of Sculpture at UTSA. Universal City, TX.
“Stationary .mov’t” Exhibition curated by Francisco Alvarado Araujo and Chris Wicker. TCU Fine Arts building. Fort Worth, TX.