Third Floor History Galleries

Third Floor History Platform

September 27, 2025 -  January 10, 2026

The Old Jail Art Center resumes its Texas Moderns series, highlighting creative mid-twentieth-century visual artists whose works were often inventive or experimental, yet not fully accepted by the general population in Texas more accustomed to traditional forms or styles of art. For this iteration, the OJAC presents over 75 works by Fort Worth Circle artist Dickson Reeder (1912-1970). The exhibition provides an extensive overview of Reeder’s versatility, demonstrating his artistic skill and passion for creating emotive portraits, dynamic abstractions, and experimental prints.

Co-curated by Shannon Steel

Generously supported by The Charles E. Jacobs Foundation, Doris Miller & Don Fitzgibbons, Scott Chase & Debra Witter, John & Ginger Dudley, and Margaret & Jim Dudley. 

On loan from the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas, the OJAC presents a series of short films by multi-media artists Lenka Clayton and Liliana Porter. Though their approaches to making films are far from similar, both utilize what’s at hand to make truly curious works that incite a gamut of emotions for viewers—ranging from angst to joy.

Argentinian artist Liliana Porter creates simple short films using live and stop action images along with a cast of characters comprised of inanimate objects accompanied by curious soundtracks. The simple approach of using figurines, knick-knacks, and vintage toys as characters results in humorous, absurd, and sometimes poignant narratives.

British-American artist Lenka Clayton attempts to objectively measure the furthest distance she could be from her toddler son in three environments: a city park, the alley behind their Pittsburgh home, and the aisles of a local supermarket. The trio of videos underlines the challenging judgment calls that parents make about how much autonomy to give their children. Each scenario shifts one’s emotions from curious cheerfulness to sudden anxiety in just a few frames. 

Curious is supported by OJAC Members.

September 27, 2025 – January 10, 2026

Texas-based artist Timothy Harding makes sculptural paintings and installations that meld traditional painting and drawing practices with technology. Harding’s artistic practice begins on the computer creating individual lines, squiggles, and shapes. Using these digitally created forms, he creates vinyl stencils that are strategically transferred onto a canvas and utilized to create layers and layers of paint until a fully realized pattern emerges. 

Harding’s works merge the gestural nature of Abstract Expressionism with the flatness of Minimalist painting to explore how a traditionally two-dimensional object can visually and physically occupy a three-dimensional space. He purposefully stretches his finished paintings across ill-fitting supports or builds a substructure under the canvas to make the surface fold, buckle, or protrude, “sculpting” the painting into a unique shape. Harding disrupts our understanding of painting—as he makes the once two-dimensional canvas into a three-dimensional object. In this way, Harding creates a new type of medium, as he combines sculpture with painting.

The Cell Series is generously supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, McGinnis Family Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas, Kathy Webster in memory of Charles H. Webster, with additional support from Jay & Barbra Clack, Joe & Susie Clack, Jenny & Rob Dupree, and Dr. Larry Wolz.

Exhibit Title: Guardians of the Frontier, U.S. Army in Texas 1845 - 1895

Dates on Display: October 9, 2025 – February 8, 2026

 The Jerri and Jim Alexander Exhibit Gallery

Description: “Guardians of the Frontier, tells the powerful story of how soldiers protected the Texas frontier and forged a path westward from 1845 to 1895.”

Second Floor Galleries B & C

Curator Comments

The magical moment when Cindi Holt became an artist is not what you might expect. Self-taught and inspired by the colorful world of her imagination, memories, and her immediate environment, interiors and landscapes are presented as a rich colorful visual experience that is captivating and enchanting. Holt’s intuitive approach to painting creates carefully delineated and curiously compressed scenes into a rhythmic and idealized painting. Her recent landscapes celebrate a place without shadows, reminiscent of a “peaceable kingdom.” Included are Texas-inspired subjects, from wildlife and wildflowers to notable interiors like her “Texas Governor’s Mansion” series, which was exhibited at The Grace Museum in 2002. 

First Floor Atrium & Main Gallery

Artist Reception | Friday, November 14, 2025 | 6 pm

Curator Comments

Gail Norfleet’s new work on layers of transparent Lucite can be viewed as a natural progression after years spent as a printmaker creating monoprints. When making her early monoprints, she would often use clear plastic plates through which she could see the images before transferring them onto paper with a printing press. The new works of art on view in this exhibition reveal how Norfleet has mastered the technique of painting on transparent surfaces. Now using multiple Lucite panels, she works on both sides to create up to four different surfaces on which she can layer paintings, drawings, cut paper collages, and photographs to create her signature style of multi-dimensional artwork. 

Norfleet explains that her surroundings have always inspired her subject matter. Even today, she continues to share her unique, dream-like personal dialogue by creating nuanced memories through multi-dimensional paintings of her recent travels to Morocco and New Mexico.  

The Grace Museum’s photography collection has grown exponentially since it began in 2008 with a major gift from Alice and Bill Wright of over 400 photographs from their personal collection of works by important photographers and associates throughout Bill’s fifty-year career as a documentary and fine art photographer and author. Due to the Wright’s stewardship, the collection continues to grow through gifts and a grant from the David H. Gibson Foundation supporting new acquisitions and an upcoming publication on Texas Photographers in The Grace Museum Photography Collection. Major gifts have come from photographers who wish to honor their relationship with the Wrights. The focus of this exhibition features new acquisitions as well as selections from the existing collection.

The Grace Museum is committed to the exhibition, documentation, preservation, research, and interpretation of photography. The Grace curates and exhibits three photography exhibitions annually from the Wright Collection and loans from other artists, museums and galleries. 

Second Floor Galleries A & B

We are thrilled to invite you to the Spring Senior Art Exhibition presented by the Hardin-Simmons University Art Department. This exhibition showcases the exceptional work of our graduating art major Deonna Reese and will be held at the Ira M. Taylor Gallery from November 20th to December 5th. 

Exhibition Overview: The Senior Art Exhibition is the culmination of our students’ academic journey, featuring a diverse range of artworks that reflect her creativity, technical skills, and conceptual development. This year’s theme, “Ashes to Ascend,” explores inner growth and pathways. Visitors will experience an immersive variety of mediums, including paintings, sculpture, digital art, and mixed media.  

Featured Artist: The exhibition will feature the works of our graduating senior: 

·                     Deonna Reese: A mixed media artist who uses textures within her work. She enjoys storytelling, while having Biblical connections in her pieces.  

Opening Reception: Join us for the opening reception on November 20th from 5-7pm at the Ira M. Taylor Memorial Gallery located in the Frost Center for Visual Arts. This event is free and open to the public. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the artist, here about their work, enjoy refreshments, and celebrate achievements.

Social: Visit the HSUTX.ART to learn more about the artist and her work, and posts leading up to the show.  

Additional Information: The exhibition will be open to the public from November 20th to December 5th, with regular gallery hours from 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday. Admission is free. For more information, please contact the Gallery Director, Caleb Dulock, at caleb.dulock@hsutx.edu or 325-670-1941. 

November 21 through January 17

Gallery 4

Opening Reception: November 21, 5-7PM

Artists Kathie Walker-Millar, Larry Millar, and Rebecca Boatman

WINGS, WATER, AND WONDER

Sarabeth Clevenger

November 20 through January 17

Breed Gallery

Opening Reception: November 21, 5-7PM

by Sarabeth Clevenger

“At this point in my life, I am continuing to explore my spiritual connections, by closely observing my environment, and combining images that move me: mountains, water, rocks and light, with images suggesting mystery and wonder: Angels and Cherubim, wings and bones, death and life, and the spaces between them. Many pieces in this show are retrospective, but they fit with newer pieces on the same themes.”

Universal Human Rights Month 2025

December 2-27, 2025

Third Floor History Galleries

Denver Gravitt (Gallery 3 - Upstairs)

TPS International Show

 Wright Photo Gallery

HISTORY EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW

America 250: Semiquincentennial

3rd floor History Galleries

January 17 – December 31, 2026

Artist Member Group Show (Breed Gallery - Main)

ISAC (Gallery 3 - Upstairs)

Casey La Rue Chavez (Gallery 4 - Small)

"The Pumphrey Brothers: Oh What a Time to Gather Together"

Opens February 7th and closes May 9th 

The Department of Art at Hardin-Simmons University (HSU) is proud to announce the first exhibition of the Spring 2026 semester, a special group show titled "Adjunct Faculty Show."

Presented in the Ira M. Taylor Gallery inside the Frost Center for the Visual Arts, this exhibition is dedicated to showcasing the professional work of the Art Department’s dedicated adjunct faculty members. The exhibition serves as a vital celebration of the educators who bring diverse perspectives and contemporary professional experience into the classroom at HSU.

The exhibition will feature a compelling range of media and artistic approaches, reflecting the breadth of expertise found within the department. All are invited to attend the opening reception and artist talks.

Exhibition Title: Adjunct Faculty Show

• Featured Artists: A select group of HSU Art Department Adjunct Faculty

• Venue: Ira M. Taylor Gallery, Frost Center for the Visual Arts, Hardin-Simmons University

• On View: Thursday, February 12, 2026 – Friday, March 6, 2026

• Opening Reception: Thursday, February 12, 2026, from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

• Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00am – 4:00 PM

2nd floor Galleries A, B, C

February 19 – March 21, 2026

Abilene Creative Arts Club annual membership show

Third Floor History Platform

Third Floor History Galleries