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Special exhibition at The Grace Museum

focuses on fragility of nature

ABILENE, Texas (April 14, 2009) – Works from celebrated Fort Worth artist Helen Altman are on view at The Grace Museum in the exhibition Helen Altman: Spotted Deer, which opened Tuesday, and will remain open through July 11. Among the works included in the exhibition are a series of wildlife torch drawings, several hand-woven wire mesh birds, and blankets printed with wildlife imagery.

To produce her torch drawings, Altman uses a unique process that requires her to soak the paper in water and then scorch images into the surface with a propane torch before the paper dries and ignites. The process makes erasures and touch-ups impossible.

“The bluntness of my tool abstracts the recognizable image and keeps ‘my hand’ out of the picture which is something I greatly appreciate,” Altman said about the drawings.

Along with the drawings, the exhibition includes prints and paintings on canvas stitched to quilted blankets like those used by moving companies. The photographs of animals transferred to the blankets speak to human desire to nurture homeless creatures, said Judy Deaton, chief curator of The Grace Museum.

“For Helen Altman the word nature is ripe with cultural expressions and perceptions,” Deaton said. “By focusing on the fragility of nature the artist invites us to consider reality and our understanding of what is natural, and how we experience nature in contemporary culture.”

Also on view are a series of life-size hand-woven wire birds. Each bird is crafted to resemble a particular species, and carries within its framework an encapsulated token from the real world that most often relates to the bird’s habitat.

“The work of Helen Altman always promises to transform ordinary objects and materials into extraordinary works of art,” Deaton said.

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.  She has been the recipient of awards including the prestigious Engelhard Award and a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

The Grace Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums, and houses five art galleries, a children’s museum, and a history museum.  At 55,000 square feet, The Grace Museum is the tenth largest general museum in Texas, and is the cornerstone of cultural arts and education in West Texas. The museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Grace Museum is a non-profit organization, and the museum’s exhibitions and educational programs are supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Abilene Cultural Affairs Council, the City of Abilene, Taylor County, and the Downtown Revitalization Program of the Tax Increment Finance District.

The Grace Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday. Admission is free Thursday evening after 5 p.m.

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MEDIA NOTE:  Photography opportunities—1) Gallery photography for news purposes only, permitted on request; 2) Artist Reception, The Grace Museum, June 4, 2009, 6 p.m.