September 7 — October 19, 2024
Akhelo's Walk
Annette Lawrence
Conduit Gallery is honored to announce the solo exhibition, Ahkelo’s Walk, an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Annette Lawrence.
Annette Lawrence’s work, Ahkelo's Walk, involves counting days by walking miles. It is a natural extension of her practice of recording everyday occurrences. Like her other works, this project reflects her commitment to finding meaning and beauty in what life brings.
Akhelo’s Walk is a deeply personal project that has been ongoing for three years. In March 2021, Annette Lawrence turned her walking practice into a memorial to honor her late nephew, Lawrence (Ahkelo) Wade Kimbrough (September 28, 2000 – February 14, 2021). Friends and family contributed to the 7444 miles logged for each day of Ahkelo’s life, making this a collective act of remembrance. The charts created to record the miles are the data set for the works in Ahkelo’s Walk.
In previous works, Annette Lawrence has used tipping text in space to create a more dynamic image. For Ahkelo’s Walk, the charts are repeatedly slanted and mirrored in various sizes, resembling imaginary birds, planes, rocket ships, robots, and architectural schematics. The numbers are illegible, yet taken as a whole, feel familiar.
Lawrence adopted Ahkelo’s color sensibility for her new paintings. His palette is present in photo transfers of close-up pictures of his most colorful clothes. The wrinkles and textures in the fabrics give the transparent circles of color dimension. They read as planets, portals, or bubbles floating in space and nod at the thin veil between spirit and material.
Ahkelo’s Walk is a love story.
Annette 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. 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. Originally from New York, Lawrence served as a Professor of Studio Art in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas form 1996 - 2019.
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.
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.