A new solar system-scaled public sculpture awaits visitors to San Antonio’s Pearsall Park on the southwest side of the city.

Artist Doroteo Garza’s Ujuālnān (Grand Sky), commissioned by the City of San Antonio, presents a series of 10 planetary sculptures placed in the park at an approximately 1:11 billion scale of the solar system. The title is derived from the Pajalate language of the region’s original Coahuiltecan inhabitants.

A large-scale public sculpture in a public park composed of a row of spheres depicting the sun with planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Doroteo Garza, “Ujuālnān (Grand Sky)” (detail), 2025

A statement by Mr. Garza explains that the San Antonio River and its environs were called Yanaguana, and the Coahuiltecan ancestral creation story places Yanaguana as the Milky Way in the center of the universe.

Mr. Garza said his work is meant to encourage park visitors to reflect on their relationship with the landscape and cosmos in a shared public space. “The hope is that patrons will contemplate their relationships to the natural world and the sky to gauge the immensity of the Milky Way,” he writes.

A large-scale public sculpture in a public park, with a parent and child walking between planet Saturn in foreground and Jupiter high on a hill in the background.

Doroteo Garza, “Ujuālnān (Grand Sky)” (detail), 2025

The Saturn sculpture features a metal ring with incised lyrics from a song by the Michigan punk band Cloud Rat: “I wish I could carry you with me into the eternal, living in the happiest moments.” Mr. Garza told Glasstire that including the words was inspired by a dream his mother had where she saw Saturn with writing on its rings. The Sun sculpture is in the form of a sundial, and a ceramic plaque placed on the Earth sculpture reads: “You Are Here.” The Pluto sculpture, overlooking the park’s periphery 1,539.33 feet from the Sun sculpture, is set next to a laser-cut metal screen that depicts a galactic spiral, along with Coahuiltecan-derived imagery.

A large-scale public sculpture in a public park composed of a sculpture depicting planet Pluto and a laser-cut metal screen with an image of the Milky Way galaxy spiral..

Doroteo Garza, “Ujuālnān (Grand Sky)” (detail), 2025

Materials for the multipart sculpture were locally sourced, including handmade mosaic tiles from Heye Mosaics.

Ujuālnān (Grand Sky) will be unveiled on Monday, October 27, at 10 a.m., with a Department of Arts & Culture ceremony in Pearsall Park featuring Mr. Garza and Dr. Chris Packham, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who assisted with scaling the sculpture throughout the park and other scientific logistics.