SPHERE
New Works by Anila Quayyum Agha, Garland Fielder,
Mary E. Foster,
Russ Havard and Jo-Ann Mulroy Curated
by Takako Tanabe
Opening
Reception With the Artist:
Saturday, June 5, 2004 (6-8 PM)
SPHERE
is an art exhibition that showcases the work of five artists
who are exploring a variety
of non-traditional media
to approach their subject matters and create uncommon bodies
of work. Their works cannot simply be categorized as paintings,
drawings or sculptures. They combine new methods and unique concepts.
The curator describes their styles as “the creation of
a new sphere of art.”
Anila
Quayyum Agha graduated
from the University of North Texas in 2004 with a MFA degree
in
Fiber Art. Ms. Quayyum Agha introduces
embroidery and dyes to her works on paper. “Embroidery
embodies essential femaleness of women,” which “presents
a marker of domestic identity for women.” Agha, who is
originally from Pakistan, creates the works of art viewing the
world of women in her own culture, suggesting a new evaluation
of the women’s role in the society.
Garland
Fielder is
currently in the MFA program at the University of North Texas,
majoring
in Painting. He paints abstract images
on various surfaces, such as traditional canvas, wood constructions
and Formica. Mr. Fielder says that this aspect of his art-making “projects
not only my commitment to process but strives to illuminate an
interplay between the various modes of formal expression.” Mr.
Fielder’s
site-specific painting is constructed from several paintings
and questions the context of art in paintings.
Mary
E. Foster received
her MFA in Printmaking from the Texas Christian University
in 1998.
Ms. Ms. Foster creates works for her
late father by referring to the texts written by him. She found
these texts after he passed away. With the knowledge in printmaking,
she uses cyanotypes to transfer her ideas onto paper. Foster’s
works are not mere memories of his father, but reconciliation
of her identity as an artist and the loss of father as a part
of her identity.
Russ
Havard,
growing up in rural east Texas, developed landscape painting
as his most important
subject matter. He says his art
is “the by-product of this physical, mental, and spiritual
composting.” As if to show it clearly, the image of landscape
in his works are cut out and detached from the reality, which
gained a subtle lyrical feeling instead. Mr. Havard then places
his landscapes on a constructed block of wood. Mr. Havard received
his MFA in
painting from the Stephen F. Austin State University in 1997
and now lives and works in Lufkin, Texas.
Jo-Ann
Mulroy graduated
from the Ohio State University with an MFA in Printmaking in
1994. Ms.
Mulroy has been working with
the images she finds in the Victorian source materials that she
collects. She reproduces images from the collected sources and
has these “play off each other ultimately creating a dialogue.” Ms.
Mulroy welds a small glass structure and layers it on the images.
The
structure traps the “dialogue” and enhances it into
a “visual poem.”
The
curator, Takako
Tanabe completed her MFA at the University
of Dallas in 2003. Ms. Tanabe, a visual artist herself, has been
a member of the 500x gallery in Dallas since 2002. She will stay
at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, for 3 months to serve
as an intern.
Ms. Tanabe curated this exhibition at the culmination
of her 4-month Gallery Apprenticeship Program, a program implemented
in 2003 by the Bath House Cultural Center. The Apprenticeship
Program is funded, in part, by the Texas Commission on the Arts
and the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.
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