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 EXHIBITIONS
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CURRENT EXHIBITS - OPENING ON SEPT. 27, 2008:
 Art Along El Camino Real Quilt
Mania II: Piece by Piece
ART ALONG EL CAMINO REAL
September 27 - December 13, 2008
As we look into the rich cultural history of the Hispanic heritage, its roots take us back centuries to Spain. It follows a path from Spain to Mexico onto El Camino Real (the Royal Highway) which led to North America through El Paso and on to New Spain which became New Mexico. Sixteeth century Spanish colonists originally brought santos (figures of saints) with them for devotional purposes. As a result, their art forms and traditions traveled with them on their journey along El Camino Real to the north.
This exhibit will include paintings and 3-dimensional sculptures that are hand carved from wood. It reflects the work of some of today's most talented contemporary artists as their art interprets the early forms that traveled this infamous historical highway.
Internationally known Nicholas Herrera, whose work was recently added to the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, along with other reknown artists such as Victor Goler, David Nabor Lucero, Miguel Martinez and Marie Romero Cash, will be among those being exhibited.
Quilt Mania II
September 27 - December 13, 2008
 Titled "PIECE BY PIECE." This exhibition will present a legacy of quilts. The
curator will be Mary Ruth
Smith, Ph.D. from the Arts Department at Baylor University. More
info at QuiltMania.org.
Since the 1970s, the contemporary art quilt has
evolved to form a diverse body of creative
accomplishments. Before this time, the word quilt
referred almost always to a particular kind of bed
covering: a sandwich of two fabrics with batting held
together with thousands of tiny handmade stitches.
Surprisingly, late twentieth century formally trained
artists began to find something exciting about the
patches of colored and patterned fabrics that composed
traditional quilts made by women of the past who had
little artistic training, but whose quilts had become
recognized by many fine arts museums. They saw
quilting materials and techniques as alternatives to
their art media. At the same time, quilt artists
envisioned using art techniques and unusual materials
in their quilted creations. As a result of this new
focus by different artistic persuasions, quilts became
an art form. They were removed from the bed and became
important for their aesthetic value rather than their
function.
 Through this reinvention and refocus, hundreds
of studio artists have created art pieces that, in
most cases, hang on the wall. However, there are other
artists who have treated the quilt as a
three-dimensional item that sits on a pedestal. Some
have even returned the quilt to the bed, thus creating
freestanding sculptures that include the bed as a
contextual component.
The quilters chosen for the Piece by Piece exhibition
at the Arlington Museum of Art represent Texas studio artists who have
taken the quilt from its
traditional roots and transformed it into an art
quilt, part of a new genre of art that has been
included in the most prestigious national and
international exhibitions. Many have been published in
the best publications of the field. Some quilt artists
are teachers and authors who have traveled the globe
to teach others. Several have judged major
competitions. All are serious in their pursuit of
technical skill and the formation of conceptual ideas
that inform their work, and at the same time, all
practice professionalism in their other related
activities.
 A
leading member of the contemporary art quilt movement is Pam Studstill,
a resident of Pipe Creek.
Her geometrically pieced quilts offer the viewer an
array of intricately patched areas of stunning hand-painted color and pattern
reminiscent of fields and vistas she experiences in the Texas Hill Country.
Quilt #44 is probably one of the earliest pieces in
which Pam's signature style became fully developed,
according to Martha Connell, Director of the Connell
Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. Pam numbers her quilts
rather than naming them because she does not want to
influence the viewer's interpretation of her quilts.
Houstonian Liz Axford trained and practiced as
an architect, but gave up architecture in 1986 to
become a serious maker of quilts. Quilting allowed her
to continue to explore design problems similar to
those she experienced in architecture. In addition,
she discovered greater freedom in the selection of
materials, techniques and concepts she could explore.
Many of her early quilts were improvisational; that
is, they relied on a spontaneous response to
construction methods and compositional considerations.
Turbulence is an example of a new direction Liz's
quilts took in the early part of the twenty-first
century. It is composed of nine individually hand-felted and hand-stitched patches
of wool roving and
silk organza.
 Dallas resident Jack Brockette, a retired art
educator, was introduced to quilt making early in
life. As a child he sat under the quilting frame at
quilting bees and helped his mother retrieve the
needle on the underneath side of the quilt and push it
back through the layers of fabric to her. Look Through
a Glass Darkly, his latest creation, is a quilted
plaid whole cloth with an attached overlay of sheer
French seamed patches of hand-dyed silk organza.
Overall, quilts are highly personal statements
that can be designed and developed in many different
ways. Each artist in the exhibition is truly
individual, offering a wide range of materials,
techniques, styles and concepts for wondering,
questioning and enjoying.
2009
September 12-13: Wildlife Art Show
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