Ignore All Previous Instructions
Review of San Marcos Studio Tour Grand Opening
What is a typical art museum to you? When I think of an art museum, a few things come to mind, one of them being rules. Typically, upon entering a museum, I am met with a sign that states “No outside food or drink” “Do not touch the art” “No loud noise or disruptions”. Imagine the Met, there are rules on what size bag you can bring, how many people in a group at a time and reservation rules, no running, no rough housing, no smoking and finally, no soliciting. These rules were nowhere to be found at MotherShip Studios for the Studio Tour. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
MotherShip Studios hosted the Grand Opening of the 2025 San Marcos Studio Tour last Friday night, April 4th, at 7pm. This “Kick Off Party” came to life through live music, (which was considered to be part of the art on display; I always wonder if music counts to the art world at large, but in this exhibition it is most definitely a key part), free drinks, sponsorships, food venders, older people (and I’m talking your great great grandpas age which honestly shocked me because it was past bedtime), and of course the 85 artists work on display hung across the walls. This tour was a self guided tour hosted in a smaller garage looking venue that is the apparent MotherShip Studios home base. You almost have to appreciate the fact that MotherShip put this event on considering that the venue was quite a bit on the smaller side (and was not air conditioned), nonetheless, it was a good time. This was unlike any art exhibition or show I had ever been to. Maybe I need to get out more, maybe this is laid back, messy style of exhibit is typical and I just don’t know it. The rules of your usual art museum did not seem to apply here. It was lively, it was loud, it was chaotic, it was crowded, it was..well.. a mess, but in a good way. The art was all over the place in both theme and placement. To me this was the most unserious, unambitious, college art kids party type art exhibition I have ever attended; very laid back, everyone’s kinda drunk, everyone’s sweating and kinda stinks (it adds to the ambiance). Art pieces and exhibition goers alike are ignoring all the instructions of the typical art show and honestly it was a huge mess.
Let’s talk about this self guided stuff; I do appreciate a self guided tour, (self guided being, by definition, is a tour you leaf yourself on without your typical tour guide), I am not one for being told how to feel about a piece or be told off the bat the background of the artist, I like coming to those conclusions and research on my own, but this self guided tour stressed me out. As you enter the facility, from either side, you are met with an open bar. You can pick up a drink and get started on flowing through the tour almost immediately. With sounds and original music from the DJ &bops and Lazy Suzanne, (and I could not tell you which one was playing; there was a small introduction but over the noise of the people, I could not hear it), you follow the large and disorderly crowd of elders and babies (who are running around and about to trip you), into the first section (if you could even call it that) of the show. On this wall is a cluster of art by various artists ranging from photography to painting to ceramics. The pieces seemed to have no real connection in theme or background, or if they did it was not very apparent to me as a viewer. MotherShips main goal seemed to be to get donations. For what you may ask? I do not know at all, that was not made clear. So I guess having no theme was fine with them. No theme, no goal, just random artworks in random order everywhere you look. There is a separation of this wall and the next wall by a divider that is also, (you guessed it) a wall. They are more like half rectangular walls side by side. The next wall showing much of the same random pieces. There were a few pieces of scenes from around San Marcos (that hit home for us seniors that are about to graduate), some amazing glass work and assemblage pieces, and more photography. Opposite the walls were three rooms. In the furthest room to the left was an interesting display of cut out photos from Lana Del Ray’s instagram, and candles in rows waiting to be lit up by someone who donated for some famous dude she had written up beside the “tip jar”. The next room over was a free photo booth for gallery goers to take pictures with their friends or family. In the last room was an artist named Ben Folsom.
This room struck me mainly because I happened to run into Ben and he was drunk and vaping almost directly in my face, so of course at that point I am going to remember him vividly. Aside from his slightly off putting introduction (LMAO) his work was very childlike and unrefined. That is genuinely the first two words that comes to mind when I see it, and I don’t mean it in a negative way either. His niche seems to be different drawn looking kind of pieces that are only half drawn because some of it is painted (to describe these works is almost impossible so I will attach a link here). The room was filled with large format, abstract, single (sometimes double, sometimes triple) colored art works made mostly from acrylic and either charcoal, pastel, or oil, on canvas. Aside from the works, the walls were pretty bare boned and painted the shade of beige that comes in an unfurnished two bedroom apartment. The floor was black and coated in dust, wall debris, and looked like he JUST got done painting (look here), though that’s probably not his fault and was there previously. He was focused on selling his pieces (which I understand) and the room really reflected that, sadly.
I feel Ben could have done much more. Weirdly it was quiet in there, yes there was a DJ spinnin on the roof of the room, literally right above my head, but something about his (roughly) 8 big pieces hung around me made the room silent. One piece in particular struck me, Untitled 4x4ft pastel and acrylic on canvas. This work stood out amongst his others which, though abstracted, held a lot of artistic qualities like form and shading and whatever. But this work, it looks like my niece got ahold of some crayons, and that is what makes it stand out. That youthful and childlike quality made me freeze in place for just a second longer. In the same sense it makes me very uneasy. The harshness of the red scribbled in the lower half of the work gives me anxiety in my chest and produces thoughts that this piece is depicting something terrible like maybe someone murdered in their bedroom or maybe even jail cell (I only say jail cell because the white blob surrounded by blue looks like a toilet to me, and that lay out is common of a jail cell). The lack of title leaves all of it up to my own interpretation, as do the rest of his works. In fact, almost all of his works in that room were Untitled, leaving you to think for yourself of what each piece means, if it means anything at all (which honestly, I doubt it does). Most of his work on display looks kind of the same, only differing in size and maybe color. Maybe one piece has a slightly larger body shaped object than the last, but they all are pretty much the same. Additionally, the colors, aside from that shocking red, were muted and dull. My eyes slid across his works like a knife to lukewarm butter. Not a super bad thing, definitely not the best thing, but at the very least, it’s notable. On the table nearest the door he had some prints laid out flat. They were probably smaller than your average piece of copy paper and each one seemed to be covered “head to toe” with abstract drawings. They were for sale, like the rest of his works (and I am not sure the price, because, just like the rest of the gallery, nothing was properly labeled). If I’m being honest, I did not look too hard at them, and I will tell you why; he was looking real close and I could smell his lemon blue razz vape on my neck and I felt the urge to leave the room right then and there before we entered some awkward conversation again like we did when we first connected.
I left the room and that was about all that was left to see of this “Kick Off” of the San Marcos Studio Tour, except for the food vendor outside selling hot pocket-esque food (once again not a bad thing, who doesn’t love a hot pocket?). I exited MotherShip Studios to the right, got another strawberry ginger drink which I sipped outside while letting the breeze that wasn’t seeming to want to look at the artworks like the rest of us inside hit my neck before I left for the night.
I went home now experienced with this style of gallery viewing and really not sure how to feel about it. The DJ’s tracks, awkward drunk artists, and expressionistic art created by locals who see the same streets as I do placed excitedly on the walls all around me, made for a very thought provoking experience. This gallery was not polished and sterile, it was not silent and filled with overzealous thoughts and comments; it was loosey goosey, loud, and informal, some may say (it’s me, I am some) rough around the edges. This exhibition was nowhere near interested in following the instructions of the traditional art spaces and museums, they were playing by their own rules, if any rules at all. That is what adds to the experience of it all, good or bad, it depends on your point of view. The artists who had separate rooms made their spaces reflective of their works or of whatever goal they were trying to reach, though that goal was very unknown, they had all the creative freedom and that is always good to see happen. Ben’s childlike, abstracted pieces, most of them at least, ended up getting sold so I guess his goal was met. In addition to his new sales, he got a new following, me. Aside from the vape in my face, and the offbeat hello, his work stuck with me more than any other works in the whole exhibition and had me thinking long after the tour had ended. Though seemingly bland, his works are intriguing and his pieces (especially the Untitled piece I mentioned above) are the furthest thing I have seen from traditional art since “Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp. A piece that is so simple it is comical. A piece without instruction and without rules. Now he is not revolutionary. Ben is not the first to do abstract art and forget the traditional, but I can see his work as a part of that realm and I will follow his work from here on out just out of curiosity.
It is laid back exhibitions like these that get others involved. Uptight, scholarly, traditional galleries with tons of rules create a divide between art people and non art people. Experiences like this make everything easy to digest and you feel less intimidated by the works you see and the gallery operations. Though a risk you take by exhibiting this way of viewing makes it seem less serious and less ambiguous. It is frustrating for people who genuinely want to experience the works and know more. For gallery goers who want to give back to a cause with donations. For art students writing a paper for their class (me right now). For artists who want their work to be talked about, bought, or promoted. I love that all instructions were forgotten, by Ben and all the other artists, by MotherShip Studios, and by the gallery goers; but I think I speak for everyone when I say, it needed more structure. It needed more theme and intention. It needed a lot more in a lot of different areas. This exhibition could have been great for the artist included and the studio, but they were seriously lacking in various departments. Solutions involve more thought, more planning, more themes, more involvement. Until MotherShip steps in and includes these, this exhibition will always just be a mess that has no instruction, no theme, no goal, and no real art world presence.
(Title and Artist Unknown)