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A new mural at Hemisfair adds a sizeable dash of color and ponders both the history and future of San Antonio.
Meredith Balzen, Hemisfair's director of external relations, described it as artwork in motion: “I would describe it as almost a 3-D look to the mural ... because there's two sides of it, and there's a part in the middle that looks like it's coming out at you, which is the HemisFair '68 homage that has the quatrefoil.”
The quatrefoil is the symbol of San Antonio. It’s seen on the city’s logo, and architecturally, in buildings all over town, as far back as the rose window at Mission San Jose.
Balzen said the mural’s theme is broken up into past, present and future sections: “On the past side, we have imagery of a white buffalo. We have a couple different Native American homages, including Aztec, and there are a few surprises with inside it as well."
Artist Chris Fonseca designed and painted it on the wall of the Magik Theatre, and it was finally unveiled on Wednesday.
Balzen noted that their requirements were pretty aspirational: “We wanted a highly realistic kind of optical illusion for what the corner of what the mural is on. We wanted to make viewers feel like they were stepping back in time through what Hemisfair was and then what it's going to be. So it was a tall order; it was a big ask.”
Twenty-two artists submitted proposals, and Balzen said they took it down to the final three, and then Fonseca was chosen.
“All of the artists that submitted were great. So Chris Fonseca put his heart and soul into this mural. He worked really well with our team to make sure that we're capturing everything that needs to be captured,” Balzen said.
The project was coordinated by Centro San Antonio’s Art Everywhere project. The mural measures 69 linear feet and about 13 feet tall. It wraps around two sides of the same building.
Visitors can see the mural at the northeast corner of the Magik Theatre building. Balzen said that while there is construction downtown, there is parking nearby in the South Alamo lot, or in the parking garage of the 68 Apartments nearby.
