Contemporary Art Month (CAM) Presents The Things We Carry,
the 2026 CAM Perennial Exhibition
The exhibition will take place at five artist-run spaces across San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO, TX (March 3, 2026) — Contemporary Art Month San Antonio presents The Things We Carry, curated by CAM Board Members Casie Lomeli and Leslie Moody Castro. Over a series of conversations between two curators and eight artists, scattered across seven cities, we discovered a group of people thinking deeply about the physical, emotional, and metaphysical forces that they carry through their lives and into their work.
This is also a milestone exhibition, marking the 40th year of CAM. The month-long celebration of contemporary art began in June 1986 alongside Contemporary at Blue Star's inaugural exhibition. In 2003, CAM became an independent project, and in 2012, CAM introduced the "Perennial" Exhibition, inviting a curator from outside San Antonio to work with the city's contemporary artists. Across its 40-year history, CAM has been organized by countless artists, curators, and supporters. It has held exhibitions in institutions across the city and worked with curators from around the world. The 2026 Perennial is not just a reflection of its exhibiting artists, but a testament to the grit and passion of San Antonio's art community, the same community that has carried this organization forward for four decades.
The Things We Carry embodies this through its very structure, placing artists from around Texas and the Southwest in artist-run spaces across San Antonio. It is a celebration of the act of sharing, of making space for difficult truths, and the resilience required to carry them. The eight exhibiting artists, Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello (Fort Worth), Daniela Oliver de Portillo (San Antonio), Eva Gabriella Flynn (Las Cruces, NM), Jesselyn Gordon (San Antonio), Yuliya Lanina (Austin), Tina Linville (Waco), Matt Rebholz (Austin), and Adrienne Simmons (Houston) are examining archives and histories, geographies and materiality, realities and fictions. What they carry—memories, traumas, places both real and imagined—becomes the material from which this exhibition is built.
CAM 2026 Perennial Exhibition Schedule & Venues
The Things We Carry
All Artists at Un Grito Gallery
Opening Reception | Thursday, March 5, 7 - 10PM & Friday, March 6, 7PM - 10PM
On View | March 5 - 18, 2026
The Things We Carry: Adelante
Eva Gabriella Flynn & Adrienne Simmons at Sala Diaz
Opening Reception | Saturday, March 7, 2026 from 6PM - 9PM
On View | March 7 - May 8, 2026
The Things We Carry: Un Destino, una Vida
Daniela Oliver de Portillo & Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello at Casa Pink
Opening Reception | Saturday, March 14, 2026, from 9AM - 3PM
On View | March 14 - May 30, 2026
The Things We Carry: We’ve Known Each Other for Centuries
Yuliya Lanina & Matt Rebholz at Rojo Gallery
Opening Reception | Saturday, March 14, 2026, from 7PM - 10PM
On View | March 14 – April 11, 2026
The Things We Carry: The Absence of Everything
Jesselyn Gordon & Tina Linville at Outrider Gallery
Opening Reception | March 28, 2026 from 6PM - 9PM
On View | March 28 – May 1, 2026