Churchill grad finally sees work shown in S.A.

Artist Aaron Curry, who grew up in San Antonio and now lives in Los Angeles, always makes it a point to stop by the McNay Art Museum whenever he’s in town.

For the next year, those visits will include checking in on his own work.

Curry’s exhibit “Headroom” is on display in the museum’s AT&T Lobby. It includes a sculpture that seems to have sprung to life from a platform below it that roils with doodle-like imagery that mimics the threedimensional form.

This marks the first time the Churchill High School grad has shown his work in his hometown.

“This was a dream come true,” said Curry during a quick visit last week. “Ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of having work here. I visited the McNay when I was in high school, and I had my first date with my wife at the McNay.”

Any time that he and his wife, Jennifer Chbeir, visit the city, they visit the

McNay.

“We grew up coming here,” Chbeir said. “It was the first museum we had both been to together, so we thought (exhibiting there) was a big dream.

“It’s great, because our families are both here, so people can see what he

does.”

Curry, 47, is the eighth artist in the past decade to take center stage in the museum’s airy entrance. He decided to cover not only the wall behind the reception desk — a section that includes an abstract painting on a square of deep black that evokes gazing into space — but also to fill the space just inside the front door. The works are visible through the front window, giving off a playful, inviting energy.

“I like this idea of thinking about what is reality what is not,” Curry said. “‘The Wizard of Oz’ is something I use as an example. Reality in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is black, white and concrete. And what we think about drawing is it’s the idea of something. And then when something takes physical form, it becomes something else that you experience.”

René Paul Barilleaux, the museum’s head of curatorial affairs, has wanted to spotlight Curry’s work for a while.

“I saw the work for the first time in Miami several years ago and was really intrigued by the way it brought together this whole environmental kind of approach with sculpture, with roots in modern art, in popular culture, all these things, and there was such energy in there,” Barilleaux said. “That really appealed to me.”

During one of Curry’s treks to the museum while his work was being installed, a group of children stopped to chat with him about it.

“It was great because kids see things — it was almost like looking at the clouds and seeing forms in them. One of them was like, ‘What is the dragon in there?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know,’” he said, laughing. “I didn’t want to say that’s not a dragon.

“I work in a visual language. I’m not a writer. I make visual things. And, like anything, people bring associations to stuff. No matter where you’re from, different cultures bring different things. So I like to leave it open. There’s sometimes, where I’ll be a little bit more directed, but I’m not one to tell someone how to read my work. It’s not my thing.”

Curry has shown his work in well-regarded spaces across the country, including commissions from Lincoln Center in New York. But showing his work here is special.

“I had a couple of shows at the Nasher (Sculpture Center) in Dallas, I did a residency in Marfa at the Ballroom and had a show there,” he said. “But I haven’t had anything in San Antonio, so it’s really nice.

“This is a magical museum. It’s such a beautiful place.”

Photos by Tom Reel / Staff photographer Aaron Curry stands in front of his exhibit “Headroom” in the AT&T Lobby of the McNay Art Museum. It is the first time the San Antonio native has shown his work in his hometown.

Curry’s aluminum sculpture “Little Bang” includes a pink neon-lit shape that mirrors those in the other pieces and juts from the whale-shaped center.

Of the McNay Art Museum, Curry said: “This is a magical museum. It’s such a beautiful place.”