It was a cold January evening when I first arrived at the studio on the first floor of the historic I. Alexander building on Flores Street. I had earlier attended a collage-making event at Third Space, a gathering hosted every Thursday at the Laredo Center for the Arts. I remember walking around downtown with artist Hector Hernandez, talking about the endless possibilities for art in that part of the city.
Stepping into the old I. Alexander store, once the premier haberdashery of Isaac Alexander and now repurposed as an art studio, speaks volumes for those possibilities.
According to the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Alexander established I. Alexander Clothing Company in 1896 with his brothers Louis and William. He was remembered as “a business genius” who introduced onion farming to Laredo landowners. The Alexanders were considered one of the most prominent Jewish families in Laredo.
The space has wooden floors and carries the scent of a building that has stood since 1881. Its teal-green walls and red door frames add to the eclectic atmosphere created by the work of artists Victoria Ramos, Andres Padilla, and Luis Sánchez, who have chosen the studio as both a workspace and a refuge.
There is a certain kind of magic in that place.
Just a block away sits the Laredo Center for the Arts. Nearby is Los Olvidados Coffee Shop and Gallery, where Padilla and his partner, Klaire, have hosted Chill Sundays under the banner of Basura Productionz. Around the corner is On The Rocks Tavern, whose hallway-adjacent space, known as ‘’Quien sabe’’ once served as Padilla’s first studio.
Their stories, like the history of downtown itself, are deeply intertwined.
Victoria Ramos (known simply as Vicky among friends) used to frequent the now gone Cultura Beer Garden to listen to local and regional bands. It was there that she met Luis Sánchez, who worked as a bartender, and years after that, Andres Padilla, who spent a brief period working as a barista on the building’s first floor. Nearly seven years have passed since those first encounters. Art spaces have come and gone, but the artists have continued to evolve alongside the city.
For Padilla, having a dedicated studio became increasingly important after completing Daphne Art Foundation’s Artist-in Residence in 2024. He said the experience reinforced the value of maintaining a consistent place to create.
For Ramos, whose practice spans photography, painting, and experimental music, finding a space outside her home was essential. She needed room to work, experiment, and rehearse without the limitations that often come with sharing a living space.
Sánchez, programming director of the Laredo Center for the Arts, launched Third Space there to give artists a place to gather, create, and connect. In some respects, the studios at I. Alexander embody that same spirit.
The studio functions as a communal environment in which its artists can develop their practices alongside one another, allowing them to share materials, exchange ideas, and offer feedback on works in progress. It is a place not only for making art, but also for sustaining a creative community.
I visited on a recent Sunday afternoon. An album by Hanus played in the background as we talked. Listening to the stories of these relentlessly dedicated artists, it became clear that the studio represents something larger than itself.
Over the past several years, we have witnessed Laredo’s artistic landscape bloom through the efforts of nonprofits, small businesses, and independent creators. Longstanding galleries have closed their doors, but those losses have encouraged artists to seek new ways of inhabiting and shaping cultural spaces. Rather than waiting for opportunities to appear, they have begun creating them for themselves.
It is often said that the real history of art is made in small galleries. Increasingly, it is also being made in artist-run spaces like this one.
This is a moment in which artists are taking ownership of their own practices while building community with one another. It is something many of us dreamed of for years.
Cultural movements endure when they are self-sustaining. And this studio feels like the first stone set in the foundation of a new era, the next natural step in the evolution of Laredo’s artistic community.
