SAN ANTONIO — When Crisa Valadez and Sealia Montalvo were wrapping up a part of a show called "LA to SA," which illustrated the similarities between Los Angeles and San Antonio, it was a month-long exhibition that drew much attention. 

“We definitely wanted to give a platform for more underrepresented artists and up-and-coming [artists],” Montalvo said. 

Los Angeles-based artist Jacqueline Valenzuela drove 1,300 miles to San Antonio to show off her art. 

“You know other cities across the world have sister cities? We are going to make San Antonio our sister city,” Valenzuela said. 

She says this because Valadez and Montalvo make it a point, through their curative collective Motherling, to provide a platform for women artists in Texas and across the country. 

“It was just really special to meet people who have the same vision for the show and like it was just so organic the flow of the show. 

It’s also vital. There’s a $192 billion gender gap between men and women artists. 

“Just learning things in art history, even in literature, a lot of women would put things in male names just because it wasn’t accepted in society,” Valadez said. 


A University of Oxford study showed that gender bias in the arts has fueled the lack of women representation, but studies show that women’s art is slowly increasing in value. 

“But I think there’s always room for improvement,” Valadez said. 

Every month Motherling features at least one female artist at the Mercury Project, a contemporary art space in the Lone Star District.  

“We’ve had such fast momentum just within the past year and so its been real exciting,” Montalvo said. 

Motherling isn’t slowing down. They understand how opportunities like these open doors so that more women can flourish in their art careers. 

“No matter what happens or what people say, we are going to propel no matter what,” Valadez said.