New Texas Talent

I really appreciate your patience. You've read my articles about hate mail, a side comment on the economy and the underlying greed that fuels it, and even my little tongue and cheek advice about mood music.

"What exactly does all this have to do with art," you're asking. "With the exception of blabbing on and on about your studio, and a snippet on monotypes back in 2007 you really haven't talked much about art itself."

Sheesh, and here I was complimenting you on your patience. Well, fair enough. I'll get to the business of writing something that has to do with art.

This coming Saturday, July 25th, the Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas will open its 2009 edition of New Texas Talent. This is a juried exhibition that Craighead Green began back in 1994, just a couple of years after they first opened. The competition for this exhibition is extremely high caliber. I would like to say I was chosen for this year's exhibit, but perhaps it would be better to wait until next year. At that point it may actually be true. Every juror is different. This particular juror, Dr. Charissa N. Terranova is Assistant Professor of Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas and Director of Centraltrak: The UT Dallas Artists Residency. Since arriving in Dallas from Boston in 2004, Dr. Terranova has been deeply engaged in the arts culture and urban history of Dallas-Fort Worth. She has written art criticism for the Dallas Observer, Dallas Morning News, THE Magazine, Art News, etc.

As stated by Dr. Terranova: "The works in this exhibition engage three-dimensional space in unique ways. Some represent space in two dimensions while others forthrightly extend outward into the environment of the gallery. By intervening in and showing space inventively - in ways that are sculptural, urban, and architectural - the works in this exhibition collectively make a statement on materiality and materialism. That it to say, this work is in no way metaphysical. It is boldly manmade and with us in the here and now. It does not intend to catalyze spiritual feelings of transcendence. Rather, this form probes the ground - zones of standing and walking - and interacts with roving bodies, making the galleries of Craighead Green so many everyday spaces." (source http://www.artandseek.org/event.php?id=11393)

With the exception of Gregory Zeorlin's Time Segment 44, I have not seen the other pieces that Dr. Terranova selected for the show. In order to talk intelligently, I researched as many of the artist she juried in as I could find data on. From what I found about the juried artist her statement is dead on. Except for a smattering of photographs and paintings most of the show is in the 3rd dimension. I was fortunate enough to find many of the juried candidates online.

Let me highlight a few of my favorites for you. As always I have embedded links so you can visit these sites for yourself.

Glen Comtois studied art and design at North Texas, and architecture at Texas A&M. Glenn states, “The intent of my art is to break the flat plane of a painting. The culmination of finishes, elevation of materials and the texture of materials create movement and activity across the entire artwork, possibly such as ones journey through life. Glen's work consist of beautifully crafted woodcuts painted or "washed" in acrylic. However, most inspiring to me is the glimpse he gives of his sketchbook, which details several projects.

David Chapman Lindsay is an associate professor of foundations and drawings at Texas Tech. His work stems from figurative painting, minimalist forms, church spaces, and an intense interest in space as a metaphor for community and individual psychologies. His canvases are exquisitely painted, but that is not the end of it. The canvases twist, bend and it one case (Four Cardinal Directions) seem to come out of the wall.

Joel Kiser studied sculpture at Texas Tech and did his graduate work here at TCU. He is one of my favorites, because he has such a great sense of humor. (You got that about me in the last couple of posts I hope.) The only thing I could find online of Joel's was a video called Falcon Cam #2, where Joel mounted a model of the Millennium Falcon (Yes that falcon from Star Wars) and a camera to a vehicle so that all you can see is the Falcon and the road in front of it. The tag line for this work is "Even the fastest ship in the galaxy is at the mercy of loop 820 traffic in Fort Worth TX."

Of course I have always admired the quality of work I have seen at The Craighead Green Gallery. It does not seem that this show will be any less stunning.



Ken O'Toole is an abstract expressionist painter and published author, living and working in Fort Worth, Texas.