***Due to the popularity of Immersed, we are adding additional hours for visitors to experience the exhibition!
- On Sunday, August 19 and Sunday, August 26 we will open two hours early at 10:00 am. (We normally open at 12:00 pm)
- Reservation slots are already available on our website and at Visitor Services.
Immersed: Local to Global Art Sensations from The McNay Art Museum on Vimeo.
Immersed Reservations
Due to the nature of the installations, reservations are required in order to allow for the best possible visitor experience. When reserving a space for Immersed, you will select a reservation for timed entry into the exhibition. Reservations occur every hour. There are a limited number of timed reservations to enter the Immersed exhibition each day.
What are my benefits as a McNay Member?
- Access to early reservations and your first visit to the exhibition will be free of charge. Members at the Patron level and above may visit the exhibition free of charge for the run of the exhibition;
- The first right to reserve a space when new time slots open later in the summer;
- Invitations to the following Members-only events: First Look Reception, Preview Reception, the Last Look Reception, and other opportunities to be announced;
- Members at the Patron Level and above are also invited to the Patron Gallery Night.
Click here to become a McNay Member.
How do I book a reservation?
- Step 1: Click here to purchase your admission ticket online.
- Step 2: Make your reservation online at the link below.
RESERVATIONS
MEMBERS: Click here to make your reservations!
GENERAL PUBLIC: Click here to make your reservations!
Reservations for September 2 will be first come, first served.
Have questions? Click here to read Immersed FAQs or call Megan Solis at 210.805.1756 or Sandie Krywoszej at 210.805.1772 during business hours, Monday – Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.
Organized in conjunction with the San Antonio Tricentennial celebrations and the 50th anniversary of HemisFair ’68, this exhibition focuses on San Antonio as a place of deep history, local values, and global thinking. Immersive, environmental installations by Yayoi Kusama and Philip Worthington, a film by Andy Warhol, and a new commission by San Antonio’s Chris Sauter transform the McNay’s Tobin Exhibition Galleries.
Internationally celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity (2009), cover image, immerses the viewer in an enclosed, mirrored, seemingly infinite space. A constellation of lights brightens into the expanse, only to slowly fade back into darkness so that the cycle can begin again. The work asks viewers to think about not just placement in local or global settings, but in the entire universe. Kusama’s vision of a better society through creativity, and dedication to creating objects and environments that unite and heal, is itself a mirror to San Antonio as the city reflects on its 300-year history.
British artist Philip Worthington’s Shadow Monsters (2004), pictured above, turns visitors into fantastical beasts. Worthington’s immersive space transports viewers to the realm of their own imaginations, recalling childhood play and creativity. Made possible by innovative uses of technology, Shadow Monsters actively engages audiences and speaks to the positive potential of art in the digital age. As San Antonio looks back on the past 300 years, its own myths and legends are highlighted. Worthington’s installation questions how the past has been represented and retold through oral, written, and visual traditions, and encourages new ideas about the future.
Andy Warhol’s Sunset, an unfinished short film from 1967, honors the significance of HemisFair ’68 in San Antonio, and provides a meditative environment in contrast to the other installation spaces within Immersed: Local to Global Art Sensations. For HemisFair ’68, John and Dominique de Menil were invited to coordinate the Vatican’s pavilion for the fairgrounds. In 1964, in an effort to combine spiritual transcendence and art, the de Menils approached fellow Roman Catholic Andy Warhol to create a new work for the space. However, the plans for the pavilion were never carried out, and Warhol abandoned his part of the project—a film featuring a static shot of the sun setting, with a voice reciting lines of poetry on the soundtrack. With the screening of the film at the McNay, Warhol and the de Menils’ vision will, for the first time, and half a century after its creation, be on view in the city of its intended premiere.
Finally, in an installation created exclusively for Immersed, San Antonio artist Chris Sauter explores links between biology and culture, the present and the primordial, the personal and the universal. Using architecture as raw material, Sauter carves into the walls to retrieve materials needed to build other objects, as a way to reveal aspects of the natures of those materials and objects. Stay tuned for exciting new details about this developing masterpiece!
Have questions? Click here to read Immersed FAQs
Click here for sponsorship information
Funding to date is most generously provided by Frost Bank Charitable Foundation, Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation, Carolyn and Allan Paterson, and Dr. Victor Rodriguez. Additional support is provided by the Director’s Circle and the Exhibition Host Committee, chaired by Anna and Todd Wulfe.
Exhibition Host Committee to date
Chairs: Anna and Todd Wulfe
Lisa Roberts & Rob Barnett, Carla & John Brozovich, Gary L. & Kim R. Cram – Cram Roofing Company, Inc., Raúl & Beatriz Cárdenas, Lucifer Lighting Company, Dave and Stacy Schlagel, Alice C. Simkins, Lucille & Jim Travis, Alice & Clark Welder ,Lori & Scott Wulfe, Jeanie & Bill Wyatt, Richard Aste & Max Goodman, Raymond Goldstein & Jane Welch, Sarah E. Harte & John S. Gutzler, Kathleen & Byron LeFlore, Therese McDevitt, Mitcham Partners, LLP, Carolyn & Allan Paterson, Juan & Patricia Ruiz-Healy, Raymond J. Welder, III, Henry & Barbie Gonzalez, CeCe Frost Griffin & James Griffin, Elizabeth Halff, Jay Heizer, Kay Heizer, Melissa & Kelton Morgan, Anne & Chuck Parrish, Naum & Maya Royberg, Janet & Joe Westheimer, Mrs. Barbara R. Wulfe
Images
- Yayoi Kusama, Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity, 2009. Wood, metals, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic paint, and LED lighting system. Edition 3/3. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Weiss Law Accessions Endowment Fund, 2016.34. Copyright Yayoi Kusama. Photography by Carrithers Studio / Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
- Philip Worthington, Shadow Monsters, 2004–ongoing. Java, Processing, BlobDetection,
SoNIA , and Physics software. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Weiss Law Accessions Endowment Fund, 2016.156. Photograph by Carrithers Studio / Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
- Andy Warhol, Sunset, 1967. 16mm film, color with sound, 33 minutes. Copyright 2018 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.
- Chris Sauter working on his installation for Immersed, titled Pleasure Principle, 2018.
