Rockstars

2019 was a fantastic year to highlight local art and design in San Antonio! Below are our top five most viewed articles in 2019.

In November 2019, our M!SA Advisory Panel spoke with local students about their career choices in professions like architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, graphic design, culinary arts, contemporary art, and film. Click the image below to watch and pass this video along to those you know who want to pursue a career in the visual arts!

Taeg Nishimoto is a graduate professor in the College of Architecture, Construction and Planning at UTSA. Originally from Japan, his interests span from all methods of architectural design from the theoretical to the technical. Professor Nishimoto is an impressive resource for UTSA students. As stated on his biography on the UTSA website:

Ten years ago the local painter, Rex Hausmann, had a solo exhibition in New York City and dreamed of one day bringing San Antonio artists back with him to have a group show.

Local artist, Louis Vega Treviño was born and raised in San Antonio. In a time and place where it wasn’t cool to be smart, the young Treviño would sit with his fellow middle school classmates playing chess to pass the time. He was even threatened physically once after winning a chess match against one of his classmates. “That school was rough, but I was a nerd”, he told M!SA, after discussing his shift from Catholic school to a public middle school in the area.

One of San Antonio's newest public parks, Confluence Park, opened in early 2018 with a flood of praise and news coverage spanning across the globe. This praise also extended into a prestigious design award.  In January 2019, Confluence Park won an A.I.A. (American Institute of Architects) 2019 Institute Honor Award for Architecture.

At our recent M!SA Meet Up & Web Launch event, our DJ of choice was local Steven Lee Moya. Specializing in mid-century lounge music, he puts a modern spin on this genre making for a spectacular mix! We recently took a moment to ask this successful musician more about his deep roots in San Antonio and how his career has taken shape.

Named the 5th fastest growing law firm in the nation by Law Firm 500, local Patel | Gaines is on the fast track to the top. Not only do they offer their clients innovative strategies to their commercial real estate challenges, but their new building, due to open in Spring 2018, is a physical manifestation of these innovative strategies as well. After working for several well-established law firms in the nation, Rahul Patel and Grant Gaines found themselves disillusioned by the corporate structure of the law practices in which they worked.

Throughout San Antonio’s 300 year history, “migration” and “immigration” have become terms with which San Antonians are very familiar. They are also terms expressed through the art and experience of local contemporary artist, Naomi Wanjiku Gakunga. Born in Kenya, her work speaks of crossing continents & cultures, of gender & empowerment, of the shifting of materials through time, and of migration to & boundaries on shared spaces.

If you have not had a chance to be a patron of the new La Panaderia downtown off Houston Street, then ándale because you are in for a treat! You may have been to the location off of Broadway, but the location off East Houston Street is special, not only because of the food, but the design and operations as well.