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Galveston, Texas - The Galveston Arts Center will present three exhibitions
from three area artists with different backgrounds, who work in very
different media, but who all deal with issues of memory of place.
Sandria Hu: Fragments includes works on panel that will be shown
in the downstairs gallery. The exhibitions Martha J. Terrill:
Glimpses and Fragments, and Colin Zelt: Sea-Arama Ruins
will be shown in the upstairs galleries.
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Sandria Hu, Budapest 5, 2007,
Oil, mixed media and silkscreen on wood, 39 ¼ x
45 ½ inches.
Courtesy the artist and McClain Gallery, Houston |
As the title of
the exhibition denotes, the Fragments in Sandria Hu’s
abstract works are both physically and emotionally present. In a
process that the artist has developed over many years of artistic
work and worldwide travelling, Hu forms the basis for her work from
fragments of found objects, usually pieces from cigar boxes and
scraps of wood or panel.
This constructed grid of rectangular forms
becomes the foundation for the subsequent layers of paint and
embossed paper the artist uses to build her images of abstracted
landscapes. “They are landscapes of the mind—fragments of memory of
places visited and revisited again and again,” writes GAC curator
Clint Willour. |
The resultant works are
abstract in abstract in approach to art making, yet
representational of the artist’s experiences with
different places and cultures and the emotions those
memories evoke.
Of
Chinese-American descent, Hu was born in San Francisco and received
an MFA from Stanford University and MA and BA from San Diego State
University. She has been the recipient of many fellowships and
grants which have allowed her to study as well as teach art in
places as varied as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium,
France, Spain, Ukraine and Mexico. Hu moved to Houston in 1975 where
she continues to teach at the University of Houston–Clear Lake.
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When Tropical
Storm Allison flooded Houston in June, 2001, Galveston/Houston
artist Martha J. Terrill had no idea of the impact the event would
have on her artistic career. While helping a friend clear out a
flooded garage, Terrill discovered a small, water-damaged trunk set
out for the trash. She took it home and several months later was
delighted to discover that the trunk was full of letters, books,
photo albums and other ephemera.
Dating from 1901 to 1903, the
contents chronicled the life of a young man from Franklin, Louisiana
who was attending business school in New Orleans. A painter by
training, Terrill quickly began assembling fragments of handwritten
letters, book illustrations, elegantly marbled endpapers,
advertisements and other pieces into intimate collages. “The works
fell together quickly and easily. They really made themselves,”
Terrill says. A selection of works created to date, as well as the
trunk and its remaining contents, will be the focus of Martha J.
Terrill: Glimpses and Fragments. |
Martha
J. Terrill, Braided Silk, 2007, Mixed media collage
7 x 5 inches, Courtesy the artist and DesignWorks Gallery, Galveston
Arts Center |
Terrill studied
at Parsons School of Designs, NY, the University of Houston and at
The Glassell School in Houston. She was the Curator of Collections
at Transco Energy Company where she instituted the Transco Gallery,
which now operates at the Williams Tower Gallery. The artist lives
and works in both Galveston and Houston.
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Colin Zelt, Sea-Arama #32, 2005,
Archival inkjet
print, 20 x 24 inches, Courtesy the artist |
Houston
photographer Colin Zelt documents the demise of what was once
Galveston’s top tourist attraction in his exhibition titled Sea-Arama
Ruins. The large-scale, saturated color images belie the sad,
dilapidated state the site had become prior to it being razed last
fall. In 1965, Sea-Arama Marineworld opened as one of the first
ocean-themed amusement parks in the U.S., featuring exhibitions of
exotic fish and mammals. The 200,000-gallon aquarium—once a venue
for acrobatic dolphin, whale and sea lion shows—became a haunt for
vagrants and graffiti artists. Zelt took the photographs over a
series of visits between January 2005 and September 2006. |
Zelt holds at
Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, and B.S. in Physics and Applied Math from the University
of Victoria, Canada. The artist lives and works in Houston where he
is an Associate Professor of Earth Science at Rice University. He is
the recipient of the 2007 Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship presented
by the Houston Center for Photography.
The exhibitions
open with a reception from 6 to 9 pm, during ArtWalk—Galveston’s
free evening in celebration of the visual arts—which is held on
Saturday evenings approximately eight times a year. Galleries,
restaurants and other businesses open their doors to host artists
from all over the world and welcome visitors. Most locations are
within walking distance in Galveston’s charming Historic Downtown
District. The popular event has now expanded to other locations on
the island. For more than 15 years, the Galveston Arts Center has
organized ArtWalk to promote the visual arts, offer alternative
spaces to see and learn about art and to welcome visitors and
residents to the island’s open art community. A brochure with a map
and information on participating venues will be available at the GAC
front desk.
The next ArtWalk
date is Saturday, July 14, 2007. The GAC will present Texas
Juried Glass 2, the second event held in Texas to focus
specifically on the use of glass as an artistic medium. For
information, phone (409) 763-2403 or web www.galvestonartscenter.org
Funding for
Galveston Arts Center programs is provided by the National Endowment
for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Galveston Hotel/Motel
tax funds, foundations, corporations including Target Stores,
generous community support, volunteers and an active membership. |
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