Sculpture Competition

2021: 7th Biennial Salmon Sculpture Competition in Memory of Pam Salmon

October 15, 2021 - August 1, 2023
Sunken Garden Park, San Angelo

Presented by:
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
Angelo State University
Old Chicken Farm Art Center
City of San Angelo

Sponsored by:
Richard and Sherry Salmon
San Angelo Cultural Affairs Council
Texas Commission on the Arts
Twisted Root Burger Co.
The Inn at the Art Center

The Sculpture Garden now has an audio guide app you can use! It's called Otocast and can be downloaded here APPLE LINK or GOOGLE PLAY. 

Otocast can be used not only at our San Angelo Sculpture Garden, but at any museum, sculpture garden, historical sites, public art displays, parks/trails, or tourist sites that use the app.  

This year's accepted artists:

Reynaldo Alaniz--Austin, TX
Danville Chadbourne--San Antonio, TX
Art Garcia--Dallas, TX
B.C. Gilbert--Wichita Falls, TX
William Holmberg--Dallas, TX
Dewane Hughes--Troup, TX
Rollin Karg--Kechi, KS
Peter Mangan--Blanco, TX
GiGi Miller--Austin, TX
Michelle O'Michael--Houston, TX
Ben Woitena--Houston, TX
MacRae Wylde--Hood River, OR

2021 Juror: Emily Wilkinson
Director for Public Art, Texas Tech University System

NOTE: The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and the Salmon Sculpture Competition are not affiliated with the Texas Tech University System. Wilkinson is serving as an independent juror for this show.

Emily Wilkinson has served as the Public Art Director for the Texas Tech University System (TTUS) since early 2014. Working with a committee, Wilkinson oversees the Public Art Collection and Program, which solicits, evaluates, and commissions original public artworks to complement construction projects undertaken by the TTUS Office of Facilities Planning & Construction. She also handles the upkeep, maintenance, and public education of the artworks in the collection for each of the TTUS campuses, including Texas Tech University, Angelo State University, TTU Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Lubbock, TTUHSC Amarillo, TTUHSC Odessa, TTUHSC Abilene, and TTUHSC El Paso.

Prior to her role as Public Art Director, Wilkinson was the Helen DeVitt Jones Endowed Manager of Education for the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas. She also has worked as a museum educator for the Lubbock Lake Landmark, Museum of Texas Tech University, and the Science Spectrum and OMNI Theater.

Wilkinson holds two master's degrees from Texas Tech University—one in museum science and another in education and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration with a focus on public art on higher education campuses.

She is currently a member of the City of Lubbock’s Cultural Arts Grant Review Committee, a Councilor-at-Large on the Texas Association of Museums’ Board of Directors, and a contributing writer to Lubbock Moms.

The Richard and Pam Salmon Sculpture Competition, a juried exhibition of outdoor sculpture, is hosted by the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.  The biennial exhibit of 12-15 large-scale sculptures in the park is in cooperation with the City of San Angelo Public Art Commission and the City government. Sunken Garden Park (700 Block S. Abe Street/W. Avenue D) includes a formal sunken garden area where, spring through fall, canna and other flower displays are featured. The park includes large open areas, landscaped groves, and a walking and jogging track, as well as handsome retaining walls, stairs, and other stonework created by the WPA in the 1930s. The large-scale sculptures enhance an already beautiful spot and add yet another attraction to San Angelo’s wonderful River Walk.

Sculpture Symposium • Friday, Oct. 15

1:30 – 4:30 p.m. · Angelo State University
Carr Education-Fine Arts Building, Room 101

Sponsored by: Angelo State University and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts

Presentations by:

• Emily Wilkinson, Salmon Sculpture Competition Juror, Public Art Director for the Texas Tech University System
• Andrew Bellatti Green, Exhibiting Artist at the Angelo State University Gallery 193

The program will include an intermission. The featured speakers will engage in a panel discussion and dialogue with the audience. Moderator: Howard Taylor, Director of the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts

Other Featured Events

Sculpture Exhibit by Andrew Bellatti Green – Static

Open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 29
Gallery 193 · Carr Education-Fine Arts Building
Angelo State University

View the exhibit during the day and enjoy the reception during the symposium intermission.

Opening and Awards Reception
Salmon Sculpture Competition in Memory of Pam Salmon

5:30 – 8 p.m. · Sunken Garden Park, San Angelo
704 S. David Street, San Angelo, TX 76903 (700 block S. Abe & West Ave D)

Juror: Emily Wilkinson, Public Art Director for the Texas Tech University System
Refreshments and live music are provided.

Symposium Speakers

Andrew Bellatti Green · Symposium Panelist, Exhibiting Artist at ASU’s Gallery 193

Andrew Bellatti Green is a sculptor living and working in Austin, Texas. Green was raised with ten brothers and sisters in Las Vegas, Nevada before moving to Waco in 2006. He earned a BA in Studio Art with an emphasis in sculpture from Baylor University in 2009, then a Master of Architecture from The University of Texas at Austin in 2014. Green has exhibited sculpture in both national and international competitions, group and independent shows, and has a permanent sculpture on display at Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin commissioned by the city’s Art in Public Places program. In addition, Green is a licensed Architect managing multi-million dollar projects at McKinney York Architects in Austin, where he currently resides with his wife and three sons.

Artist’s Statement:

My sculpture explores the relationship between form, physics, and beauty. As we experience the world, we develop an implicit understanding of the physical laws by which we are bound. It is through these shared laws that this work connects with the viewer at a level below the threshold of consciousness. When I encounter something that is carefully balanced, in a state of perfect equilibrium, there is a certain relation between its fragile condition and our own existence. To be in the presence of harmony/symmetry/balance is ineffably moving; perhaps due to the exhibition of an ideal, perhaps due to the vulnerability of that ideal. The work collected for this show is interested in the static display of dynamic forces. It’s about potential energy, stable instability, and elegant friction.

Emily Wilkinson · Juror, Salmon Sculpture Competition in Memory of Pam Salmon

Emily Wilkinson is the Public Art Director for the Texas Tech University System (TTUS), taking on this role in early 2014.

Working with a committee, Wilkinson oversees the Public Art Collection and Program, which solicits, evaluates, and commissions original public artworks to complement construction projects undertaken by the TTUS Office of Facilities Planning & Construction. She also handles the upkeep, maintenance, and public education of the artworks in the collection for each of the TTUS campuses, including Texas Tech University, Angelo State University, TTU Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Lubbock, TTUHSC Amarillo, TTUHSC Odessa, TTUHSC Abilene, and TTUHSC El Paso.

Prior to her role as Public Art Director, Wilkinson was the Helen DeVitt Jones Endowed Manager of Education for the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas. She also has worked as a museum educator for the Lubbock Lake Landmark, Museum of Texas Tech University, and the Science Spectrum and OMNI Theater.

Wilkinson holds two master's degrees from Texas Tech University—one in museum science and another in education and is currently working on her PhD in Higher Education Administration with a focus on public art on higher education campuses.

She is currently a member of the City of Lubbock’s Cultural Arts Grant Review Committee, a Councilor-at-Large on the Texas Association of Museums’ Board of Directors, and a contributing writer to Lubbock Moms.

John Vinklarek · Symposium Coordinator

John Vinklarek is a professor of art at Angelo State University. He earned his BFA from Texas Tech University and his MFA from the University of Oregon. A native of West Texas, he joined the ASU faculty in 1977.

Along with the challenges of teaching a wide variety of courses, Vinklarek has continued his professional growth as a practicing artist. He has exhibited in over 200 national juried exhibitions and has been awarded many prizes. Some examples of his work include a 1,000-foot mural created for GTE in 1982, a monumental bronze for the San Angelo Fire Department erected in 1986, and an extended series of drawings with a bronze plaque for the Concho Valley Council of Governments completed in 1996.

Vinklarek is a member of the London Institute of Pataphysics, and he has continued to present an online radio show called Pataphysics on ASU’s Ram radio for many years.