Annette Lawrence
Annette Lawrence’s studio practice is characterized by transforming raw data into drawings, objects, and installations. The data accounts for and measures everyday life. Her subjects of inquiry range from body cycles, to ancestor portraits, music lessons, unsolicited mail, and journal keeping. She addresses questions of text as image, and the relationship between text and code. Her work is grounded in examining what counts, how it is counted, and who is counting. Her process is one of making and unmaking, looking, waiting, recognizing things that go unannounced and remain steady, continuous, and unremarkable on the surface, but hold magic over time.
Lawrence’s work has been widely exhibited and is held in museums, and private collections including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Dallas Museum of Art, The Rachofsky Collection, ArtPace Center for Contemporary Art, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, American Airlines and the Art Collection of the Dallas Cowboys. She received a 2018 MacDowell Fellowship, the 2015 Moss/Chumley Award from the Meadows Museum, and the 2009 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Award from the Dallas Museum of Art. Her work was included in the 1997 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. She is an alumnus of the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Skowhegan School. She received a BFA from The Hartford Art School and an MFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art. Originally from New York, Lawrence lives and works in Denton, Texas and is a Professor of Studio Art in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas. In 2019, Lawrence presented a talk on the work of On Kawara as a part of the Dia Art Foundation “Artists on Artists” lecture series in New York. Video and audio of the lecture are available on the Dia Foundation website here.
In May 2021, the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) announced the Texas State Legislature’s 2021 and 2022 appointment of Annette Lawrence as State Artist of the year, Visual Artist, 2D. Read more about the appointment here.
In 2023, Lawrence accepted the Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor and department chair position at UNC Chapel Hill. She currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Decatur, Georgia.
Conduit Gallery Exhibitions
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SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021
Modern Billings, various billboards throughout Fort Worth, TX - produced by the Museum of Modern Art Fort Worth
Blind Alley Projects, Fort Worth, TX
2019
Conduit Gallery, Dallas TX
Gough Gallery, Denton, TX
2016
Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
UNT on the Square, Denton, TX
2014
The Cliff Gallery, Mountain View College, Dallas, TX
The Gallery at Vaudeville, Fredericksburg, TX
2012
The Center for Creative Connections, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
2010
The National Performance Network / Visual Arts Network, Annual Meeting, Fairmont Hotel, Dallas, TX
Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 14, 2010.
2005
Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY
2004
Collaboration with Curator Annette Carlozzi, Testsite, Austin, TX
2003
The Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
2002
Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA
2001
Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2000
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Installation, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS
2016
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Station at UNT/Dallas, Dallas, TX
2009
Dallas Cowboys Art Collection, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
For What It's Worth: Value Systems in Art Since 1960, The Warehouse, Dallas
2023
Afro-Atlantic Histories, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Holding Space/Marking Time, Irving Arts Center, Irving, TX
2022
Texas Women, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
2021
2021 Texas Biennial, organized by Big Medium, Austin, TX (Sept 2021 - Jan 2022)
2020
Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
2019
The Parachute Factory, Lexington, KY
2018
Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
The Warehouse, Dallas, TX
2017
MARS Gallery, Melbourne, AU
2015
The Warehouse, Dallas, TX
2014
School of Fine Arts, Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX
2013
The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
2012
The Rachofsky House, Dallas, TX
2009
Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide, Australia
Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
2008
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
Porteous Brea Gallery, Stromness, Scotland
2006
The Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2005
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
2000
Sitegiest, Porter Troupe Gallery, San Diego, CA, September 15 – January 6, 2001
AWARDS / GRANTS / FELLOWSHIPS / HONORS
2021/2022
Texas State Artist, Appointed by the Texas Legislature, artist working in 2D
2018
MacDowell Fellowship
2015
Moss/Chumley Award, Meadows Museum of Art
2009
Dallas Museum of Art Awards to Artists Dozier Travel Award
2000
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, African American Art Advisory Association Award
1996
Skowhegan Camille Cosby Award for African American Artists
1994
Dallas Museum of Art Awards to Artists Kimbrough Fund
Art Matters Grant
Cultural Arts Council of Houston Artist Award
1993
Core Fellowship, Glassell School of Art / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
SELECTED ARTIST TALKS / LECTURES
2019
Artists on Artists Lecture Series presentation on On Kawara, Dia: New York, NY
2017
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Tuesday Evening Lecture Series, Fort Worth, TX.
2011
Nasher Sculpture Center, 360 Speakers Series, Dallas, TX.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
2018
MacDowell, Peterborough, NH
2009
Monash University, Faculty of Art & Design, Artist in Residence, Melbourne, Australia.
2008
The American University, Washington, DC.
2007
Tanera Mor International Artists’ Workshop, Tanera Mor, Scotland.
2000
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
1998
Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Johannesburg South Africa.
1996
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME.
1994
Core Program, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX.