“Ways of Seeing: One Exhibit, Two Spaces,” will feature artists and friends Eric Avery, M.D., and Sue Coe and includes treasured gifts shared and built by the two over their 40-year-plus friendship. 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 (March 20 – April 19, 2023), and Eric Avery, M.D.: Art as Medicine at the Laredo Center for the Arts (LCA) (March 3 – May 12, 2023) downtown.
“Ways of Seeing: Sue Coe: Look Through My Eyes. Animal and Human Rights” is curated by Kassandra 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 artist’s friendship spanning 40 years. 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.