TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Hispanic artist Gabi Magaly grew up in Bryan worshiping saints who looked nothing like her — she took matters into her own hands, using her own image as the saint.
- The exhibit features self-portraits by artist Gabi Magaly, portraying modern-day versions of saints
- Magaly attended Sam Houston State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2015 — she then earned her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2020
- The exhibit will be open to the public Mondays - Thursdays until October 24
- Temple College will host an artist talk with Magaly at the Visual Arts Complex at 1 p.m. Oct. 31
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“Being raised Catholic, I had to pray to all of these Catholic saints, but they didn't look like me," artist Gabi Magaly said.
"They all had like there were fair skin, blue eyes, blonde hair."
Gabi Magaly's, 'Mi Religión' art exhibit opened at Temple College earlier this month.
"I didn't see my brown self in art, and to have other young girls that look like me see themselves in my work, and they'd be like, 'Oh, I can use my brown self in these in my work," she said.
Magaly says while she is not religious anymore, she knows her artwork could be considered a sin.
But, she doesn't create her art with the intention of being disrespectful towards anyone's faith.
“As I got older, I became more and more proud of my background and my culture," Magaly said.
She is a first generation Mexican American, born and raised in Bryan.
“I didn't see a lot of like Chicano or Chicanx artists," Magaly said.
"I saw it was very white, Eurocentric art history, and that was really hard."
She now lives in San Antonio and teaches photography at her alma mater, UTSA.
“I feel like now is my duty as a professor to make sure I do show people of color or minority artists in my classroom,” she said.
Her best friend from graduate school, Jessica Just, works as a professor at Temple College and coordinated the exhibit with her.
"I think it's really important to show the students work from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, race, all of that," Just said.
She says she loves showing Magaly's artwork to her students each year.
"I think it kind of gets them out of their head and out of that box that you might think of photography existing in," Just said.
"So not just her being important as a contemporary artist, but also important as far as how she's looking at her work and presenting her work and talking about her work to people.”
Temple College will host an artist talk with Gabi at the visual arts complex on October 31.
