Kathy Vargas

Kathy Vargas, artist/photographer from San Antonio, Texas, received her MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1984. She has had one person exhibits at Sala Uno in Rome, Galeria Juan Martin in Mexico City, Centro Recoleta in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and retrospectives at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio and Universitat Erlangen in Germany. Group shows include "Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry" a national traveling exhibit commissioned by the Corcoran Gallery and “Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA)”. She is in the collections of the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, the Toledo Art Museum, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Sprint Collection. Named 2005 Texas Two-Dimensional Artist of the Year by the Texas Commission on the Arts, she also received a Lightwork Residency in 1993 and Art Pace Residencies in 1997. Her papers are housed at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. She is currently professor of art/photography at the University of the Incarnate Word.

• BFA, MFA from UTSA (the University of Texas at San Antonio)

20 years in Art/Photography at the University of the Incarnate Word

• Professional Photographer since 1975
• Director, Visual Arts Program, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, 1985 - 2000
• Chair, Department of Art, UIW, 2000 - 2012
• Assistant Professor/Associate Professor/Professor of Art/Photography, 2000 - present

• Intrepid Women of Artpace, 2020, San Antonio, Texas, 2020
• "Mira Mira On the Wall: Reflecting on 20 Years of NHCC Exhibitions," (virtual exhibit) National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2020
• "Celebrating 10 Years" Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, online art exhibition and fundraiser, 2020
• A Featured Speaker for Focus on the Story International Photo Festival at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Presentation title: Media and Metaphor, 2019

Society for Photographic Education

• curatorial work
• writing fiction
• growing/tending citrus trees
• sewing

• Lightwork Residency, Syracuse, New York, 1994
• Artpace San Antonio Residency, 1997 and Artpace London Residency, 1997
• Texas Two-Dimensional Artist of the Year, 2005
• Distinction in the Arts Medal from the City of San Antonio, 2019

• Member, Centro de Artes Advisory Board, City of San Antonio, through 2000
• Member, San Antonio Museum of Art, Latin American Art Visiting Committee, through 2000
• Member, San Antonio Museum of Art, Contemporary Art Committee, starting in 2001

• Created the BFA in Art and the BFA in Photography as well as the minor in Photography

• Research interests include the History of Photography
• social justice photography
• manipulated photography in both digital and darkroom variations
• art curation and arts administration.

• History of Photography
• Introduction to Photography
• Darkroom Photography
• Design for Photographers
• Documentary Photography I
• Documentary Photography II
• Documentary Photography III
• Directorial Photography
• Introduction to Lighting
• Introduction to Portraiture
• Advanced Projects in Photography
• Numerous Topics courses in Photo and Art History
• Social Justice Photography (upcoming in 2021)