“Ways of Seeing: One Exhibit, Two Spaces,” which features the work of artists and friends Eric Avery, M.D. of San Ygnacio and Sue Coe of New York City, includes treasured gifts shared and built by the two over their 40-year-plus friendship.
Eric Avery M.D.
It is essentially one exhibit housed in two spaces: Sue Coe: Look Through My Eyes. Animal and Human Rights at Texas A&M International University’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts (CFPA) Gallery (through April 19), and Eric Avery, M.D.: Art as Medicine at the Laredo Center for the Arts (LCA) (through May 12) downtown.
The Coe exhibition opens Friday, March 24 with a Gallery Talk from 6 to 8 p.m. at the University’s CFPA.
Sue Coe
A discussion with both artists will be moderated by Kassandra Romero at the Laredo Center for the Arts on Saturday, March 25, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
The Avery exhibit opened March 3 and continues through May 12 with a closing reception at the Laredo Center for the Arts.
“Ways of Seeing: Sue Coe: Look Through My Eyes. Animal and Human Rights” is curated by Romero, a TAMIU art alumni, Laredo artist, and art teacher, and co-curated by Jesse Shaw, TAMIU assistant professor of art, and artist/printmaker, and Eric Avery.
Romero said the paired exhibit sheds light on social issues, yet brings hope through the gifts and correspondence shared throughout the artists’ friendship. Among these gifts are the exhibition’s prints, Sue Coe’s publications, and ephemera detailing their rich correspondence, always with the power to educate each other.
“Coe’s work forces individuals to look at hard truths through their own eyes. Within the graphic drawings of a gruesome reality, Coe shows us unwavering hope for the individual that seeks to act. Avery’s work fuses science and art in healing. Society’s victims of abuse, illness, and marginalization all live on through his compelling art. The shared exhibit provides spaces for the gifts exchanged by two artists while also catalyzing a growing vegan and climate change consciousness — presenting the notion that until humans practice compassion with all living beings, humanity will not know peace,” Romero observed.
Shaw noted that this paired exhibit structure presents a unique art opportunity in Laredo that celebrates the power of friendship.
“Having a shared companion exhibit of this scope and passion in two spaces is historic for the Laredo art scene. In addition, we tend to think of artists as solitary figures immersed in their art. Here however, we see two individuals who are not only bonded by a kind friendship, but are also artist friends who share the knowledge of their craft and medium, and educate each other in the context behind one another’s work,” Shaw explained.
Avery is an artist/printmaker and a retired physician/psychiatrist residing in San Ygnacio. His expertise is in connecting his art with medicine, dissecting issues such as human rights abuses and infectious diseases in his prints. While working at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Avery invited Coe on artist visits sponsored by the Institute for Medical Humanities at UTMB to his AIDS/HIV medical practice, further strengthening both individuals’ friendship and skill in being witnesses. Avery’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and England. Because of his connection to South Texas, he is the next artist in the LCA series focusing on artists from this region. For more, visit DocArt.com.
Sue Coe is a leading social content artist, and animal and human rights activist. Coe moved from London, England to New York City in the 1970s and is now represented by Galerie St. Etienne. Her political drawings, illustrations, and prints have been used in many publications, and her work forms part of many notable collections. Coe creates artwork that captures what she sees and makes it accessible to the world, often as prints and books.
Throughout the friendship of Coe and Avery and the mutual exchange of objects and information to help each other grow in their understanding of human and animal rights, she has gifted Avery over 85 prints and books on view in this exhibition. For more, visit suecoe.org
Sponsors and partners for the “Ways of Seeing” Exhibit include IBC Bank, La Posada Hotel, L&F Distributors, Texas A&M International University, and the Laredo Center for the Arts.
For further information, contact Jesse Shaw at jesse.shaw@tamiu.edu, visit TAMIU’s College of Arts and Sciences, department of Fine and Performing Arts webite at go.tamiu.edu/fpa, or follow the University’s social channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
Information on the Laredo Center for the Arts is available by phone at (956) 725-1715 or online at laredocenter.org
