The Ira M. Taylor Gallery at Hardin-Simmons University to present the annual student art competition with a reception and awards on Thursday, April 4th, 5pm-6:30pm. 

From March 25th - April 5th 2024, The Hardin-Simmons University Art Department, Ira M. Taylor Memorial Gallery, is hosting its Annual Student Art Competition Juried this year by Rebecca Bridges, director of the Center for Contemporary Arts in downtown Abilene.  

The exhibition will feature a variety of artworks produced by students from the HSU art program spanning a variety of creative disciplines, mediums and styles. 

There will be a public reception with the guest juror present at the gallery for discussing and distributing awards on Thursday, April 4th, 2024 from 5:00 – 6:30 pm.  

The reception and awards ceremony will also be broadcast via instagram live on the art programs instagram account hsutx.art  

Second Floor, Galleries B & C

Third Floor, History Hallway

Join us as Signature Artist Member and expressionist painter, Patty Rae Wellborn shares her distinctive style in a new body of work.

Opening reception: March 1, 5-7PM

Second Floor Art Galleries

Experience Signature Artist Member, Peggy Shepherd’s vibrant photography for her second solo exhibition.

Feb 8, 2024 – Mar 30, 2024

“In this series of photographs, I explore the vibrant spectrum of color, pushing it to its limits and beyond. A simple white flower transforms into a kaleidoscope of hues. The photographs for this exhibition unexpectedly chose me, diverting my initial direction for my sophomore solo show.

This collection symbolizes a personal journey of change, as I transitioned from the soft, gentle colors of my first solo exhibition to fully embracing the saturated colors of my imagination.”

Reception 5-7 pm Feb 16

HISTORY EXHIBITIONS

Cultural Heritage Exhibition – Black History Month

Third Floor, History Hallway

Investigating the Non-Narrative, a collection of Watercolors and Oils by Carol H. Fairlie

A new exhibit featuring ACU alumnus Rolando Diaz opens at the Center for Contemporary Arts in downtown Abilene.

You probably have seen Rolando's work before and don't know it. He did the mural on the side of the Thomas Everett's building at South 1st Street and Cedar St. He also did the massive canvas of running horses that's on the first floor of the Enterprise Building.

This new exhibit features his 'Horses of Revelation.'

Third Floor, History Hallway

December 11-15 Senior Exhibition—Natalie Thompson Reception TBA

Dive into a world of color and come see abstract paintings by niece/aunt duo Casey La Rue-Chavez and La Rue.

Gallery 3

Texas Photographic Society is proud to announce the call for entry for By Hand: Alternative Processes, our fifth exhibition featuring hand-made photo-based imagery created using alternative photographic processes and historical printing methods. Our juror is acclaimed artist, educator, writer, and editor Christina Z. Anderson. This call is open to artists of all levels internationally.

JUROR'S STATEMENT

In the 1960s there was a growing interest in creating photographs no longer tethered to factory-produced photographic paper. 19th century processes were resurrected as was experimentation with traditional and new photographic materials. It was said of this trend:

Now the making process has not only become the subject matter for photographers, but by exploring a variety of new and old processes the shape of ideas as well as images has changed the appearance of what had traditionally been referred to as ‘photography.’…we do not know as yet where the freedom made possible by new techniques will lead. (Van Deren Coke, “Some Thoughts on the 60s Continuum” in Image Vol 15 No. 1 March 1972).

Sixty years later this trend continues. Alternative process photography or “alt pro” is all about engagement with the handmade print. I will be jurying the Texas Photographic Society’s call for contemporary handmade works slated for exhibition in December 7, 2023 through February 7, 2024. Processes that will be considered are numerous*, as long as the end product is a handmade print. My juror’s eye will be toward the contemporary expression of alt pro today.

*Processes such as kallitype, Vandyke brown, argyrotype, platinum, chrysotype, carbon, cyanotype, salted paper, gum bichromate, anthotype, wet plate collodion, tintype, ambrotype, chemigrams, daguerreotype, bromoil, chromo, liquid emulsion, lith, mordançage, cliché verre, lumen prints, and traditional analog materials used in experimental ways.

JUROR'S BIO

Christina Z. Anderson’s work focuses on the contemporary vanitas printed in a variety of alternative photographic processes, such as gum and casein bichromate, cyanotype, salted paper, chrysotype, palladium, chemigrams, chromo, mordançage, lumen prints, and combinations thereof. Anderson’s work has shown nationally and internationally in over 120 shows and 60 publications.

She has six books in print which have sold in over 40 countries: from newest to oldest, The Experimental Darkroom: Contemporary Uses of Traditional Black & White Photographic Materials, Digital Negatives with QuadToneRIP, Demystifying QTR for Photographers and Printmakers (co-authored with Ron Reeder), Cyanotype, The Blueprint in Contemporary Practice, Salted Paper Printing, A Step-by-Step Manual Highlighting Contemporary Artists, Gum Printing, A Step by Step Manual Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice, and Gum Printing and Other Amazing Contact Printing Processes.

Anderson is Editor for Focal Press/Routledge’s Contemporary Practices in Alternative Process Photography series and Professor of Photography at Montana State University. To see her work, visit christinaZanderson.com and @christinaZanderson.

December 4--8 Fern Ferguson  - Senior Exhibition Reception Dec. 1, 4:30-6:00

November 27--December 1, Kappa Pi Student Art Sale

Anthony Brown, Wandering the West, will be exhibited in the Ira M. Taylor Gallery at Hardin Simmons University from Nov 13 - Dec 8, 2023.

The exhibition features a collection of paintings by local Abilene artist, Anthony Brown.

There will be a public reception with the artist present at the gallery for a discussion and Q/A session of his work on Thursday, December 7, 2023 from 5:00 – 7 pm.

Anthony Brown

Anthony Brown spent his first 6 years of life in the idyllic Dutch-inspired town of Holland, Michigan. At age 7, his father, a language professor, took a new position teaching at a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here he spent his school years. These were the days of the hippie movement. As a young teenager, Anthony hitchhiked to The Woodstock Music

Festival in the summer of 1969. Times were changing. During his college years, he attended Syracuse University in New York and Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.

As an artist, the brilliant light of the Texas skies and the mountains and plateaus of the Rockies were calling him west. In Abilene, he discovered a growing art scene and a community of gifted and friendly artists. He became an active member of The Artist League of Texas, now known as The Center for Contemporary Arts. Many art opportunities in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and later in Montana presented themselves. Anthony continues to paint with much fervor.

Anthony is grateful for businesses like Condley and Company, Hendricks Medical Center, and other corporations that have purchased his work. He is especially thankful for the many individuals that collect his paintings and seem to share his great love for the extraordinary beauty of The West.

Exhibition Statement

WANDERING THE WEST

My inspirations in art are dramatic scenery, light, people of the land, and the vast story of the West. I don’t think I would be a painter of landscapes if I still lived in the East. The sculptural shapes of the mountains and rocks are mighty and lonely compared with the super green and crowded East.

I work mainly from the photographs I take as I travel; often cutting them up and collaging them to suit me. With brush in hand, I proceed to express my feelings and passion for the captivating geography of the West on the canvas before me. Color and composition are my mainstay.

I am excited to be a painter dedicated to producing positive work. There is plenty of dreary art; defeated and hopeless in message. I want to tell the hard truth, but like the Impressionists, with a heart of love and awe.

Textiles are not seen as a fine art medium. While many argue no functional or practical work is fine art, and that the division between what is and is "not" is purely on a basis of purpose beyond aesthetic enjoyment, textiles do not receive the same elevation with purely aesthetic works that other media used for functional works do. There remains a gulf between traditionally 'feminine' crafts, such as textile work, and traditionally 'masculine' crafts, such as ceramics or woodworking, in being claimed by the fine arts world. I am enchanted with the idea of grabbing something that has been cast aside and instead thrusting it into center focus. I am, personally, contentious of the divide between ‘arts’ and ‘crafts’ altogether.

View works from the Center for Contemporary Arts Artist Membership in a showcase of artworks in a range of mediums by our gifted artist membership. This yearly exhibition serves as a platform for CCA artist members to present their latest and greatest works.

An opening reception will be held Friday, November 10 from 5-7 PM

The Center for Contemporary Arts is proud to present the 14th Annual juried Intercollegiate Student Art Competition for area college and university students!

The competition is open to students of Abilene Christian University, Cisco College, Hardin-Simmons University, McMurry University, Texas State Technical College, Angelo State University, Howard Payne University, Midwestern State University, South Plains College, and Tarleton State University. Entries may be submitted in any medium as long as the finished piece meets the size and weight restrictions of the category.

EXHIBITION

Entries will be juried by professional, contemporary artists. Work accepted by the jury for exhibition will be displayed in Gallery 3 at The Center for Contemporary Arts January 23 through March 28, 2020. All work selected for the exhibit must remain on display through the end of the show.

AWARDS

Awards will be given for Best in Show, as well as Best in Category. Awards will also be given for 2nd and 3rd Place in each category, as well as three Honorable Mentions. Awards will be announced and distributed during the November ArtWalk.

HISTORY EXHIBITIONS

November 1, 2023 – November 30, 2023 Third Floor, History Hallway

October 14, 2023 – February 3, 2024 First Floor, Main Gallery

October 14, 2023 – February 3, 2024

Second Floor, Alice and Bill Wright Photography Gallery

Raúl Colón returns to NCCIL with new exhibit

Contributed by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature

Step into a world where imagination knows no bounds as the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature (NCCIL) proudly presents the vibrant art of Raúl Colón this fall.

Born in New York City in 1952, Colón later moved with his parents to Caguas, Puerto Rico, where he studied commercial art. In 1978, he made his way back to the mainland United States when he moved to Miami, Fla., to work at an educational television center. There, he designed everything from puppets to short, animated films. Colón settled with his family in New City, a cozy, quiet suburb of New York, in 1988. Since then, he’s built a celebrated career in commercial and children’s book illustration, with his art appearing in subway station murals, CD covers, major editorials, and museums and galleries worldwide.

The NCCIL is hosting Colón’s work for the second time in its 26-year history. The artist first visited the museum in 2012 for his exhibition Tall Tales and Huge Hearts. This fall’s revitalized version breathes new life into his work, drawing a path from Colón’s earliest projects to the past 11 years of his career. New additions include art from wordless books like Draw! as well as celebrations of American multiculturalism such as The Little House of Hope and Light for All.

Illustrators don’t often pick and choose their picture book assignments. Rather, they are handed projects by their editors. The artist then faces the challenge of finding inspiration in the text — a picture hiding inside the story, just begging to be illustrated.

“If I don’t see it, I’m not interested,” Colón says.

Moai by Ellie Hamby

Through the lens of my camera, it has been my passion to observe the world around me. My friend and I recently completed an "Around the World in 80 Days: 81 and Still on the Run" adventure going to all 7 continents and seeing as many of the World's Wonders as possible. I use my photography to serve as a window into the world. There is a profound artistic beauty throughout the world, in the stunning landscape, the magnificent manmade structure, and capturing the feelings on the faces of the people I meet.

Karla Garcia is a Mexican-born, Dallas based artist whose research into her history and place informs her work. Utilizing primarily terra cotta clay in a very direct approach—resisting adornment or decoration and leaving evidence of the artist’s hand—Garcia creates elaborate installations interpreted from desert landscapes. These landscapes evoke far west Texas including the surrounds of El Paso and Juarez as well as the Chihuahuan Desert. For her Cell Series exhibition titled When the Grass Stands Still, the artist researched the regional environs of the museum’s region of Texas. Coordinating with the OJAC’s Robert E. Nail Jr. archivist, Garcia studied historical images and books relevant to the natural landscape as a resource for a new body of work for her installation. Garcia suggests that the sculptural forms “exist as part of the land, teaching and reminding us of our personal and cultural history and being part of the land.”

The Cell Series of exhibitions is generously supported by McGinnis Family Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas, Kathy Webster in memory of Charles H. Webster,

Lucy & Fowler Carter, Margaret & Jim Dudley, Jenny & Rob Dupree, and Dr. Larry Wolz.    

Leigh Merrill has created a new body of work for her exhibit Garden of Artificial Sugar that stems from her meticulous “photographic” process. Often utilizing thousands of individual photographs, Merrill isolates and then manipulates visual elements of nature before seamlessly stitching or collaging each together to eventually fabricate a unique scene. Playing off the fallacy of truth via photography, Merrill creates her own fictional realities that appear as brilliantly colored scenes of (un)natural landscapes. The saturated pigments that now suggest trees, leaves, and other natural elements, appear to sit on the surface of the paper. In some areas the artists manually collages cutout elements onto the surface—further confusing the viewer’s perception of the two-dimensional image, and further pushing the limits of what we qualify as a photograph. With Merrill’s work, what originated as photographs of bucolic flora and funga—void of fauna—have transformed into sugary semblances of reality.

LEIGH MERRILL: Garden of Artificial Sugar is generously supported by Jon Rex Jones, Nancy L. Hallman, Sally & Robert Porter, and Elizabeth & Duncan Osborne.

(Leigh Merrill, Grove, 2023 archival pigment print and collage on Hahnemühle watercolor paper, 34.5 x 43.5 inches. Courtesy of the artist and the Liliana Bloch Gallery.)

McMurry University, a Hispanic-serving Institution, will kick off Hispanic Heritage on Friday, Sept. 15, by opening a special historical exhibit on the McMurry University campus. The exhibition will showcase a native Tejano pioneer, Jose Policarpio “Polly” Rodriguez, educating students and the community by sharing the true stories of their lives and the legacies of individuals who contributed to the early history of Texas. The Texas State Historical Association defines a Tejano as a Texan of Mexican descent.

Who: McMurry University in collaboration with TexasTejano.com

 What:  Opening of “A Tejano Son of Texas” Exhibit at McMurry University Kicking Off Hispanic Heritage Month Festivities

When: Friday, September 15, 2023

9:30 am - Opening Presentation/Ribbon Cutting

Comments from Rudi R. Rodriguez, President, TexasTejano.com Recognition of Sara Graham, Exhibit Sponsor

Refreshments

Informal Tours of Exhibit

10 am - Presentation to McMurry Students & Community

Noon - Celebration in Quad

Kickoff of Hispanic Heritage Month

 Where: McMurry University in Amy Graves Ryan Fine Arts Gallery & Ryan Recital Hall Ryan Fine Arts Building (corner of Sayles and Hunt Street)

TexasTejano.com, a San Antonio-based company dedicated to creating awareness and education about early Native Tejano pioneers by sharing the true stories of their lives and legacies, announces a collaboration with McMurry University in Abilene, for National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The celebration officially begins on Friday, September 15th and will run through Sunday, October 15th, coinciding with the dates of the national celebration. Planned activities for Tejano Heritage Month include numerous campus events, including a Tejano exhibit and collection, formal presentation and reception, student contests and educational programs for students of all ages.

The center of attention will be the “A Tejano Son of Texas,” an exhibit set to be displayed in the Amy Graves Ryan Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibit will be introduced to students and the community on its opening day with a presentation and reception. The collection includes an engaging timeline of the life of Jose Policarpio “Polly” Rodriguez, who served the state as a scout, Methodist minister and Texas Ranger, achievements later acknowledged as key to the growth of our state.

Other items on display during the month include portraits of Native Tejano heroes of the Texas Revolution, including Lorenzo De Zavala and José Antonio Navarro, and leather saddles from the 1800s. The exhibit has, in previous years, traveled to numerous Texas venues, including the Texas State Capitol, the Texas Historical Commission and the Heritage Society Museum in Houston. It has been enjoyed since 2004 by over two million people.

Funded by McMurry alumnus Ms. Sara Graham, Class of 1967, the exhibit and activities will be featured during the university’s 2023 centennial year celebration.

“McMurry has a long and rich history in Texas, and it is our pleasure to co-host this exhibit to celebrate the diverse storyline of our state,” says Dr. Sandra Harper, President of McMurry University.

Rudi R. Rodriguez, President, TexasTejano.com, descendant of Polly Rodriguez and researcher behind the exhibit is honored to have an opportunity to showcase the exhibit to thousands of students and visitors on the McMurry campus.

“We believe knowledge about Texas history and certainly American Southwestern history will be expounded through our partnership with McMurry,” he says. “Because of the generosity of our underwriter, Ms. Graham, our young people will have access to unique details of everyday life and milestones of our Native Tejano ancestors.”

In addition to the exhibit, TexasTejano.com will support numerous departments, faculty and staff at the university to facilitate auxiliary programs during Tejano Heritage Month to include an essay contest, art contest, and website design contest open to McMurry students.

“Our partnership will enable real collaboration for our students, business leaders and community during this celebration,” says Harper.

Supplemental activities like the art contest and essay competition will include prizes for the three outstanding submissions in each category.

For a complete list of activities for Tejano Heritage Month at McMurry University, please visit TexasTejano.com or mcm.edu.

ABOUT TEXASTEJANO.COM

For over 21 years, Texas Tejano has produced and shared meaningful documentaries, plays, scripts, publications and exhibits that highlight the Native Tejano experience in early American history. We seek to celebrate the extraordinary stories, many untold, of men, women and families who helped shaped our great country so our next generations will know of the vital contributions of their ancestors. Viva Tejas!

*Native Tejanos are descendants of the first Spanish, Mexican and Indigenous families on the Texas frontier starting in 1690. Since the early 1700s, expeditions to build roads, forts and missions, Spanish soldier/settlers brought their families to Texas and became the first Tejanos. In 1731, the first Texas civil-government was formed at San Antonio by the Canary Islanders and the soldier/settlers.