Reflections on Darwin

Reflections on Darwin
Wright State University
Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries
November 1, 2009–January 10, 2010

2009 marks the 150th anniversay of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin's controversial book about the theory of evolution, and is also the 200th anniversary of his birth. To commemorate Darwin and the significance of the theory of evolution on our culture, Reflections on Darwin includes artists explore through various contemporary art practices the ideas behind evolution and its impact on today’s society. JD Talasek, Director Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) will present a lecture on the theory of evolution and its influence on contemporary art on Thursday, November 5th.

Curated by Benjamin Montague, Assistant Professor of Art

On the Scaffolding of Collecting by Tracy Hicks

Lesli Robertson

While visiting the University of North Texas Faculty exhibition I saw this quite piece in the corner. Among the mostly big and bold and crowded exhibition was this unassuming Lesli Robertson piece that seems so peaceful and at ease in the gallery. I look forward to seeing Lesli's work in the future.

UNT Faculty Exhibition

Took a short trip to Denton to see the University of North Texas Faculty exhibition. I wanted to see some of my friends work and the other faculty's work that I may not be familiar with.


The two framed pieces to the left are by Bryce Lafferty, adjunct faculty member - one of my new favorite pieces of art I have seen in recent months "Art Measuring Device II", 2008 the larger of the two.




A pleasant surprise was the "Trophy Skulls Collection", 2009, ceramic and mixed media by adjunct faculty member Trish Igo. I couldn't drag myself away from this piece.


Two wonderful paintings by Vincent Falsetta, Professor of Art, Painting. Both were oil on birch panel. I want these.



What can I say, I didn't recognize this person's work immediately, Ed Blackburn the great Fort Worth artist is a adjunct faculty member, who knew. This painting is titled "The Man Drove", 2009, oil on canvas.





Installation shot that includes Susan Cheal's mixed media installation in the foreground. The exhibition was a little crowded. At first I was confused by the dress pieces and wondered if that was part of Susan's piece too - the wall labels for the dress pieces were very confusing - I don't know who created those pieces. The digital c-print portraits to the right of this shot are by Jenny Vogel, Assistant Professor of Art, New Media.




Paintings to the left are by Iva Zimmerman, Academic Advisor, and the video piece is by Shane Mecklenburger, Assistant Professor of Art, New Media.

There is a wonderful minimal piece by Lesli Robertson that I will post later. I believe this exhibition ends this coming weekend.

Shamrock Hotel Artists' Open Studios

4312 1/2 Elm St. Dallas, TX 75226
October 24th 5-9pm

Artists:

Lauren Gray

Lily Hanson

Eric Harvey

Peter Ligon

Brian Ryden

Noah Simblist,

Sunny Sliger

Saul Waranch

A visit with Susan Giller

Stacey and I took the opportunity to visit with with Susan Giller while on the White Rock Lake Artists' tour. We both loved her work so much that we took a couple of pieces home with us. Susan is working on a mobile that we definitely want to see when it is completed. Stacey liked the laminated works on paper and talked about them all way to And/Or Gallery. Susan will have a solo exhibition at the Visual Art League in Lewisville in December - looking forward to that show.


Susan Giller with a work in progress.


Various clay pieces in the studio. I like the pair on the lower left - the blue strips are reminiscent of the late Tre’ Arenz work.


One of Susan's many wonderful drawings.

AND/OR Moving Sale

Stacey and I visited the moving sale and to say goodbye to Paul Slocum in person. In the middle of all the items for sale was this absolute gem of a work by Lily Hanson. I was sad to hear that Lily had left Dallas.

White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour

Saturday & Sunday
October 17 & 18, 2009
10 am - 5 pm

Stacey and I did our first White Rock Lake tour together on Saturday, October 17th. We decided to focus on a few artists and some that are familiar to us or that we have in our collection. If you have the opportunity to participate it is definitely worth the trip - just make sure you have a map.

First stop was at Marty Ray's studio where we saw lots of her very recognizable pottery. Our favorites were the darker or use of black in her work.

2nd stop at Rebecca and Ken Boatman's "place". Not being familiar with with their work it was difficult to determine whose work was whose. There were also guest artists here. The bottle trees seems to be popular.



3rd stop at Chris Lyons studio. Beautiful work.



Next the studio of Susan Giller. Susan's work in clay is unique and creative - loved her work - our favorite stop of the day.

Always a favorite - Glo Coalson's pigeons.

Absolutely one of the most beautiful backyards we have ever visited. This was our last stop of the day at Cynthia Daniel's place. Other than the beautiful backyard there was really not much to see art wise. We were definitely inspired to get back to work on our yard - I still need a nice large piece of sculpture for our yard - maybe something a little less whimsical as in this picture.

On the Scaffolding of Collecting by Tracy Hicks

"My work evolves from interpreting collecting by collecting, then interpreting the assembled collections, reordering, reassembling, reinterpreting and eventually presenting collections to be interpreted by others. Discovery from the bone-in-the-hand experience of collecting is as significant to me as the interpretation of the accumulated collection. Each element found is a new key to the overall. No element of a coherent collection is totally separate from the others. Add or remove any element and the entire collection changes. So nuances in the individual object can make profound alterations to the interpretation of the collection."

Tracy Hicks
2009

Bob Wade: 40 Years of Blood, Sweat and Beers from austinmuse on Vimeo.

Sally Wyatt with Martin Delabano

Emperors and Roosters

Stacey and I visited Ray-Mel Cornelius' "Emperors and Roosters" exhibition at Norwood-Flynn Gallery on Saturday, October 3rd. The exhibition closes this coming Saturday, October 10, it is definitely worth a trip to see Ray-Mel's work.


Stacey's favorite was "Caligula" that hung over the mantel with the silly looking out of place eggs. Come to think of it - there were a lot of distractions. I wish Norwood Flynn would just concentrate on the art and not get side tracked.




Head of a Rooster series.


This is "Claudius". My favorite was the one that appeared on the invitation "Nero".

In the back gallery was a nice exhibition of Christopher Bingham's works on paper.