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The Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, located between the Fox Fine Arts building and the Sun Bowl, will be hosting an opening reception to their yearly fall exhibition. This year’s exhibition will showcase Irish artist Brian Maguire’s “Scenes of Absence,” a cross–border collaboration dubbed “Both Sides of the River,” and a unique ceramics collaboration titled “Total Collapse: Clay in Contemporary Past,” curated by Andres Payan-Estrada. 

The opening reception will take place at 5 p.m.  Thursday, Sept. 26. The event will feature a cash bar and a live performance by Armando Cortes. Exhibiting artists Kristen Morgin, Maguire and Payan-Estrada will be present at the opening. The exhibitions will be open to the public through Dec. 13. 

Payan-Estrada will give an artist talk a day prior to the event where he will discuss what he has been working on as an artist and do an informal walk-through of the exhibition space  12 p.m. at the Rubin Center. Maguire will also be giving an artist talk himself on “Scenes of Absence,” at 12 p.m  Wednesday, Sept. 26. 

Payan-Estrada graduated from UTEP as a double major in graphic design and ceramics. He also interned at the Rubin Center as an undergraduate. After graduating from UTEP and receiving his museum certification, he moved to Los Angeles, California to attend graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts, where he also now teaches ceramics.  

Payan-Estrada described the Total Collapse exhibition as an “exploration of ceramics” in a conceptual and more critical point of view. The exhibit “Clay in Contemporary Past” will feature a collaboration of unique ceramic approaches by different artists. 

“I feel that the curatorial process ended up being with a lot of the ideas of this show; a lot of it has to do with material, ceramics, what is our connection to ceramics. Ceramics is everywhere, ceramics is in your tiles, your cups, your bowls, your toilets! That’s the immediate ceramics,” Payan-Estrada said. “It was the beautiful idea of how ceramics encompasses a lot of our existence as humans.” 

Jacqueline Martinez may be reached at [email protected].