Helen Altman | Spotted Deer

Through July 11, 2009

The Grace Museum is proud to present Helen Altman: Spotted Deer. This exclusive exhibition features the artist's most recent torch drawings, hand woven wire birds and printed blankets inspired by the fragility of nature.

Altman's statement, "It is a happy moment for me when I can create objects that are simultaneously convincing and yet blatantly absurd in their obvious artificiality," supports her signature combination of masterful technique and common place materials. The exhibition affords a view of the balance of nature as fragile and impermanent and yet well worth our effort to nurture and preserve.

Helen Altman currently lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas. Within the past year, her work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, and Norton Museum of Art in Florida. Helen Altman’s artwork is included in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Time Mediated Anomalies | High Desert Paintings of James Woodson
Through August 29, 2009

From a distance, Jim Woodson’s paintings appear to be familiar landscapes.  But upon careful inspection, the large-scale, richly colored canvases reveal subtle distortions and ethereal references.

The oil paintings are inspired by sweeping southwestern panoramas of Texas and New Mexico. Actively reinterpreting rather than merely depicting what he sees, the artist’s process involves photographing and then recombining elements from different perspectives to create a more personalized version of the scene. His self-described “concurrent views of the landscape” push the horizon line to the upper register of the canvas and incorporate abstract marks made by tools such as palette knives and brushes attached to long sticks. Woodson utilizes the landscape as a starting point for creative exploration of time, space and place.

Woodson is Professor of Art at Texas Christian University where he has taught since 1974, and he maintains his studio at his Ft. Worth home. Educated in Texas, he received a B.F.A. from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas and his M.F.A. from The University of Texas in Austin in 1967. Woodson is well known throughout the state and through the many Texas artists he has taught and inspired over the years.  His work has been exhibited in Texas at the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Arlington Museum of Art, the Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth and at the galleries at TCU.

J. Cacciola Galleries, New York, featured Woodson’s work and in 1999 his work was selected for inclusion in the international invitational exhibition, “Bienniale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea” in Florence, Italy. His work can be found in numerous private and public collections.

James Surls | From the Heartland

Through August 22, 2009

This exhibition from internationally acclaimed sculptor and Texas native James Surls features 21 sculptures from steel, bronze and wood, as well as 12 large-scale drawings by Surls which inspired his sculptures.

The exhibition and accompanying book published by The Grace Museum examine the result of Surls’ transformative move from the forests of East Texas to the mountains of Carbondale, Colorado, where he now lives.

The book James Surls: From the Heartland, published by The Grace Museum, is available at the museum for $71 (tax included). This publication features rich color photos of the artist's work, as well as insightful essays by Hiram Butler, Susie Kalil and Patterson Sims, three of the nation's foremost authorities on contemporary art.