Press conference to Call Out THE COMPLICITARIANS
Contact:
Sarah Fisher
Artist
Cell: 832-260-3131
Email: skywoman22
IG: @sarahfisherportraits
Cesar Espinosa
FIEL Houston Executive Director
Cell: 832-512-3733
Email: cespinosa
IG: @FielHouston
Twitter: @FIELHouston
Laura Wehrman
landSPACE
Cell: 917-861-1490
Email: lewehrman
IG: @landSPACEatx
[Austin, TX] On Saturday, September 12, 2026, at 2:00pm, at landSPACE Gallery, 1104 Tillery, East Austin TX, Artist Sarah Fisher Will Call Out THE COMPLICITARIANS to Open Her Solo Exhibition ROGUE: The September Issue. Speakers will be available for comment after the press event.
FIEL HOUSTON Executive Director Cesar Espinosa will speak to FIEL’s collaboration with the Artist
STATEMENT FROM ARTIST SARAH FISHER
Today, I add the term “Complicitarian" to the American lexicon. A Complicitarian is "one who lacks the necessary courage to act upon or meaningfully assert one’s convictions, morals and/or beliefs in the service of others at a time of import or crisis.” We recognize these people in the upper echelons of Big Everything — Big Business, Big Religion, Big Government, Big Politics, Big Law, Big Medicine, Big Academia — even Big Art. We recognize them; but these people do not recognize us. They do not assign any real value to our humanity — immigrants and people of color in particular. Complicitarians are leaders-in-name-only who let us all down.
In this exhibition, ROGUE: The September Issue, I share protest artwork spanning thirty years, including ad making, screenwriting, performance, playwriting, drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, photography, journalism and sign making — work that at times taunts the powers that be and that consistently seeks to provoke my fellow citizens out of their complacency — and beyond their fear — into action.
In this exhibition, I publicly recommit to driving my creativity and advocacy deeper into the issues that keep me up at night: civil and human rights, income inequality and our country’s accelerating descent into authoritarianism.
In this most consequential time, with our democracy on the line, I amp up my citizen-artist voice, and will call out Texas Complicitarians by name in a new series of mixed media protest portraits representing elected officials, church leaders, business leaders, political actors and wealthy Texans who are conspicuously using their power, influence and silence to undermine the US Constitution, to corrupt and destroy our civic institutions and to enable the persecution of our beloved people: immigrants, people of color, the poor and the LGTBQ+ community. These Complicitarians must be stopped by we, the people, at the ballot box this November 3, 2026.
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Sarah Fisher (b. 1964, Cincinnati, Ohio) is a visual artist who explores portraiture through the lens of protest, painting, printmaking, poetry, drawing, collage, assemblage, sculpture, installation, journalism, screenwriting and playwriting. Solo exhibitions include: It’s All About Separation, Hardy & Nance Studios, Houston TX (2024), DISASSOCIATION V, Jung Center of Houston, Houston, TX (2024); It’s OK To Feel This, Lanecia A. Rouse Gallery, Houston, TX (2024), When I Walk I See Things, landSPACE: a kunsthalle, Austin, TX (2023), You Won’t See It Coming, Museum of East Texas, Lufkin, TX (2022); Decisions, Michelson Museum of Art, Marshall, TX (2022); It’s No Small Thing, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX (2021); The Second Yes, Front Gallery, Houston, TX (2019); and Seen, Art Palace Gallery, Houston, TX (2017). www.sarahfisherart.com
Recent two-person exhibitions include: You Can Write Your Own Autobiography, College of Health and Human Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX (2024), Mrs. Schmetterling Unframed, University of Houston Downtown’s O’Kane Gallery, Houston, TX (2022) and Found/Loaded, Stephen F. Austin State University’s Cole Art Center, Nacogdoches, TX (2021). Recent group exhibitions include: HomeGoods, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX (2026), Making & Becoming: The Glassell’s Block Program Celebrates 10 Years with Two Shows, MFAH Glassell School, Houston, TX (2025), Heat Index, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX (2025), Connector: A Survey, Rudolf Blume Fine Art, Houston, TX (2024), Endless Summer: A Group Show of Texas Artists, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX (2024), Tender Loving Care, Kinzelman Art Consulting for M-M Properties, Houston, TX (2024), Kaleidoscope: Celebrating Women in Art, Hooks-Epstein Gallery, Houston, TX (2024), Ignition: G5 Collective at The Jung Center, Houston, TX (2023), 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lufkin, TX (2022), Bearing Witness: Houston Artists Respond, The Blaffer Museum, Houston, TX (2022); Portraits: Impressions of Our Times, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Lubbock, TX (2021), A Collection of Friends, Selections from the Estate of William F. Lassiter, Inman Gallery, Houston, TX (2020).
In 2021, Fisher was awarded the 2021 Summer Grant Trio Grand Prize by the Wendy Wagner Foundation. Her mixed-media work is published in Mrs. Schmetterling (Arrowsmith Press, 2021), a book of poetry by Robin Davidson. Fisher graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1986 and completed the MFAH Glassell School of Art BLOCK Advanced Studio program in 2018. She lives and works in Houston.
Cesar Espinosa is co-founder and Executive Director of FIEL [Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha — Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight] the largest immigrant-led civil rights organization in Texas. Mr. Espinosa is a proud immigrant from Mexico. He came to the U.S. in 1991 at the age of five and is a former DACA recipient. He attended the prestigious Michael E DeBakey High School for Health Professions in HISD and went on to study at Houston Community College. He later transferred to University of Houston to study political science. Mr. Espinosa has served and is currently serving on a variety of boards at the local, state and national level. He has also always looked to work on a variety of issues, including race relations, police reform and a variety of issues uplifting many communities. Mr. Espinosa is a fierce progressive advocate for immigrants’ rights, students’ rights and human rights. With his over two decades of experience in the field of organizing, Mr. Espinosa has learned how true grassroots organizing can truly make the difference in our communities. Mr Espinosa is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards at the local, national and international level, including the prestigious Alfonso Garcia Robles award from the Autonomous University of Mexico, the highest honor bestowed by the university to a non academic. www.cesarespinosa.org
FIEL is the largest immigrant-led civil rights organization in Texas. Founded in 2007, it advocates for fair immigration laws, access to higher education, and community empower-ment. FIEL provides college application assistance, deportation defense resources, and civic engagement initiatives. www.fielhouston.org
landSPACE: a kunsthalle is the culmination of a years-long determination to create and offer a space that uniquely supports the presentation of a range of artistic experiences, both in the visual and performance arts, inside as well as outside. A private, noncommercial space founded by Laura Wehrman, landSPACE: a kunsthalle is open by appointment. Queries can be emailed to lewehrman or DM at Instagram @landSPACEatx
FIEL Houston 