Alex Rubio's 'El Corazón' Surveys Four Decades of San Antonio's West Side

Key facts

• Alex Rubio's solo exhibition 'El Corazón' is on view at the Contemporary at Blue Star in San Antonio through October 4, 2026.
• The exhibition surveys nearly four decades of Rubio's career, with works dating from 1989 to 2026.
• Rubio is a contemporary Chicano artist from San Antonio's West Side, known for chronicling the city's neighborhoods and community life.
• At sixteen, Rubio helped the Community Arts Organization with murals at the Cassiano Homes housing project.
• The exhibition includes 'La Virgen de Guadalupe' (1989), a large painting featuring an angel modeled after the son of Juan Hernandez, Rubio's mentor and cofounder of the Community Arts Organization.
• The portrait 'Vincent Valdez' (2005) depicts artist Vincent Valdez, whom Rubio mentored from age ten; Valdez has exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was named 2023 Texas Artist of the Year by Art League Houston.
• Works like 'El Paletero' (2004) and 'El Callejero' (2006) depict mobile food vendors and are part of Rubio's 'Barrio Works' series.
• El Callejero was inspired by a raspa truck that passed by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center during Rubio's artist-in-residency.
• The exhibition celebrates San Antonio's cultural memory and the communities of the West Side.