“Abstract art seems very frightening,” says Suzanne Weever, the curator of modern and contemporary art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, “because you can’t see a figure, you can’t see an object, you can’t see the landscape as we know it. But in many ways there’s so much content if you open yourself up to abstraction.” Historically, Texas has been renowned for traditional figurative art. But the mid-20th century brought free-thinking artists to the state—many of them women—and a bold shift began. Timed to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment—which gave women the right to vote—this 95-work survey tells the stories of 17 female artists, among them Sara Cardona, Terrell James, Dorothy Antoinette “Toni” LaSelle, Catherine Lee, Susie Rosmarin, Margo Sawyer, and Liz Trosper. —E.C.