News & Press
Heyd Fontenot featured in Dallas Voice
Dallas Voice | Dec 3, 2021 | by Jenny Block
https://dallasvoice.com/bewilderingly-beautiful/
Heyd Fontenot's current exhibition Color! Pattern! Propaganda! is reviewed in the Dallas Voice.
Nasher Sculpture Center Acquires Jeff Gibbons' Sculpture B.O.B.O. (Boat O.A.R. (Oceanic Auto-Reclaimer))
Nov 3, 2021
https://www.nashersculpturecenter.org/
Nasher Sculpture Center Announces Recent Gifted Acquisitions
Five major works from contemporary artists including Jeff Gibbons
The Nasher Sculpture Center announces recent gifts to the collection: five large-scale works by contemporary artists Jeff Gibbons, Nicolas Party, Kathleen Ryan, Arlene Shechet, and Bosco Sodi. Generously given to the Nasher Sculpture Center by various private donors, the group of sculptures expand the museum’s holdings of works by living artists. Jeff Gibbons is the latest artist based in Texas to join the collection.
“The gifts of these important works of sculpture to the Nasher collection are tremendous, as they each enrich the understanding of the future of sculpture while making evident the deep ties to the traditions of the past still at play in current artistic practice,” says Director Jeremy Strick. “We are exceedingly grateful to the benefactors that have made these acquisitions possible, and we look forward to presenting these new works to the public.”
Jeff Gibbon’s B.O.B.O. (Boat O.A.R. (Oceanic Auto-Reclaimer)) offers a potent summation of the artist’s varied artistic pursuits and philosophical perspective, incorporating found objects, movement, and sound in an amusing and engaging sculpture that considers an episode of great personal significance and even greater implications for humanity. Like many of Gibbon’s sculptures, B.O.B.O. (Boat O.A.R. (Oceanic Auto- Reclaimer)) is a functioning machine, composed of a variety of objects oriented abnormally and playfully. The front of the organ sports a rendering of floating ice factories that Gibbons made to illustrate his idea for an invention to help counteract global warming and create more fresh drinking water. The idea expanded on earlier sculptures he had made using refrigeration equipment that grew ice in beautiful forms and patterns. It also serves here as a remnant of a poignant episode in his life when the artist spoke to the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C. and later sought a patent for his invention but was unable to see the process through due to lack of funds and advocacy, only to see someone else develop the same process successfully several years later. The title for the work, B.O.B.O. (Boat O.A.R. (Oceanic Auto-Reclaimer)), is also the name Gibbons gave to his invention and underscores the affection he typically places on inanimate objects, activating and personifying them—cast-off, downtrodden objects as stand-ins for human experiences. The work by Gibbons continues the Nasher’s acquisitions of important works by Texas artists and its more recent support of artists in the region. The work also expands the lineage of Dada, represented in the collection by the founding presence of Jean Arp, and adds to the Nasher’s growing range of found object constructions from Joan Miró to Elliott Hundley and including Texas artists Jim Love and David MacManaway.
About Jeff Gibbons | Jeff Gibbons (American, born 1982) is an artist, musician, poet, writer, and curator based in Dallas. His work engages a variety of media and forms including painting, sculpture, photography, video, sound, experimental music, and dance. Over the past decade, he has been one of the most innovative artists working in the region, showing independently at Conduit Gallery and at a variety of non-profit art spaces throughout Texas, including the MAC, the Power Station, and the Goss-Michael Foundation, as well as international exhibitions in Guadalajara and Querétaro, Mexico, and Marseille, France. He has also collaborated and performed with a variety of artists and performance groups, including the Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet and in 2018, for the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family SOLUNA International Music and Arts Festival, with fellow artist and musician, Gregory Ruppe.
Johnny Floyd Hyperblack Spectacle reviewed in Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News | Oct 15, 2021 | by Darryl Ratcliff
Preorder available for Maja Ruznic In the Sliver of the Sun exhibition catalog
Aug 20, 2021
Preorder available for
Maja Ruznic
In The Sliver of The Sun
Text by Nicole Dial-Kay, Hariz Halilovich, Annie Godfrey Larmon
Harwood Museum of Art, 2021
56 pages, hardcover
10 1⁄2 × 8 1⁄2 inches
Margaret Meehan at Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
Jul 1, 2021
https://virginiamoca.org/amplify
Margaret Meehan is included in the exhibition Amplify at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
JULY 17 - OCTOBER 24, 2021
Amplify focuses on the experiences of woman-identifying artists in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. Virginia MOCA curators have connected with curatorial colleagues and asked them to share their recommendations of woman-identifying artists who are exploring identity and the gendered roles of women. Constructs regarding a woman’s identity can be complicated and loaded with political agendas and nuances; yet they are also fascinating, beautiful, and filled with joy when embraced in all their forms. Through a variety of media and approaches, the artists in Amplify explore some of the many aspects of what it is to be a woman. They reveal common themes from an intersectional, and deeply personal lens.
Texas Legislature Appoints Annette Lawrence State Artist of the Year 2021-2022, Artist Working in 2D
Jun 9, 2021
www.arts.texas.gov/stateartist
AUSTIN, Texas – May 18, 2021 – The Texas State Legislature made appointments Tuesday, May 18 to the positions of state poet laureate, state musician, state two-dimensional artist and state three-dimensional artist. The positions, created by SB 1043 of the 77th Legislature, are filled for one-year terms. The eight appointees for 2021 and 2022 were selected by a legislative-appointed committee for the exceptional quality of their work and for their outstanding commitment to the arts in Texas. The 2021 appointees include Texas Poet Laureate Cyrus Cassells of Austin, Texas State Musician Leon Bridges of Fort Worth, Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist Annette Lawrence of Denton, and Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk of San Antonio.
Annette Lawrence included in 2021 Texas Biennial
May 13, 2021
https://www.texasbiennial.org/
Big Medium is pleased to announce the 51 participating artists and five museum partners of the 2021 Texas Biennial: A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon, co‑organized by curators and artistic directors Ryan N. Dennis and Evan Garza. For the seventh iteration of the Biennial and for the first time in its history, the project will be distributed across several Texas museums, featuring exhibitions, programs, and works of public art in San Antonio and Houston from September 1, 2021, through January 31, 2022.
Heyd Fontenot at the Galveston Art Center
Apr 23, 2021
https://galvestonartscenter.squarespace.com/heyd-fontenot
On view April 24 through July 11, 2021, Heyd Fontenot’s exhibition, Sacred Order of Eternal Wounds, delves into the myth of American identity to explore the politicized topics of gender, sexuality, queer identity, and what the artist calls "the false-promise of comfort-in-conformity." Fontenot is well-known for his stylized and delicate nude portraits. This exhibition debuts new visual experiments in figuration, illustration, and decoration in a series of mural-scaled paintings. Blurring the lines between art gallery and theatrical prompt, this immersive installation transforms GAC’s main gallery into a space reminiscent of a secret fraternal order’s ceremonial chamber. This environment draws on the artist’s background in film and set design and is populated by images of contemporary figures, archetypal characters from mythology, and a codex of symbols and patterns. Fontenot’s work navigates perceptions of the human body as a political site that is conflicted by religious and political institutions, mass media, consumption, and social norms. This "sacred order" celebrates queer space in the face of nonstop social outrage motivating a newfound public dialogue and a growing awareness that tradition and nostalgia are oppressive forces.
Jeff Gibbons reviewed in Dallas Morning News
Mar 31, 2021
Gibbon's exhibition at Conduit Gallery reviewed online and in print by the Dallas Morning News
Anthony Sonnenberg Visiting Artist Lecture on YouTube
Mar 23, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdfRhDhJG54
Anthony Sonnenberg lectures on themes and interests in his studio practice with the University of Texas Arlington Department of Art and Art History.