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 Gail Norfleet Henry Finkelstein past exhibitions future exhibitions and events press release | | | |
Gail Norfleet: Cubes / Flowers / Still Life February 17 – March 16, 2024 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 17, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, March 2, 11:00am Plexiglass continues to be a foundational element in the work of Dallas artist, Gail Norfleet. The inherent transparency of the material allows light to illuminate multiple painted layers and enables the development of spatial relationships and narratives. Gail Norfleet reflects, "My training as a printmaker has influenced the way I work today. Early on, I was known for my monoprints that were painted on plexiglass and then printed on paper with an etching press. The technique was painterly and immediate. The ghost image left on the plexiglass was always intriguing. More and more, the possibility of using the painted plexiglass as the finished piece became apparent. The transparency, and looking through one layer to the next, set up all sorts of spatial possibilities." "My surroundings have always inspired my subject matter. Hints of Texas, New Mexico, and a recent trip to Italy establish a sense of place. Where I played as a child near White Rock Lake holds strong memories. As a child, I noticed the flowers. Today, gathering them to arrange a still life is a happy part of my process. The cube is an important new player in this body of work. Its clarity as a 3-dimensional geometric object enters the story with various meanings. Initially the cube’s value is in spatial relationships, and then various meanings are conjured as the block becomes a pedestal for a flower or evokes a child at play." Gail Norfleet earned her BFA at The University of Texas at Austin, and her MFA at Southern Methodist University. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Tyler Museum of Art, Museum of the Southwest in Midland, and The Grace Museum in Abilene. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at the Michelson Museum of Art, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Cedar Valley College, DW Gallery, Delahunty Gallery, and Austin College. This is her seventh solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a discussion with Gail Norfleet, Jim Woodson, and Sedrick Huckaby on The Art of Painting: A Conversation with President Bush's Art Instructors at The George W. Bush Presidential Center See Gail Norfleet's monotype Estepona #2 in the Dallas Museum of Art collection * * * Jim Woodson: Mediated Time January 13 - February 10, 2024 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 13, 6:00pm-8:00 pm Conversation with Jim Woodson and Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite: Saturday, January 20, 11:00am The High Desert in Abiquiu has inspired Texas artist Jim Woodson since exploring the region via motorcycle in the late 1980’s. His paintings are a unity of the intuitive process of painting, personal ideology, and the desert landscape. Woodson embraces the concepts of time, space, and knowledge in his work and uses these three elements to title his paintings. Jim Woodson’s “Short Statements on Painting (in no particular order)”: Remember less, Explore More Learn then forget, then look and discover Move Thought into Thinking A verb is more active than a noun Try not to Know A bit of knowledge spoils what can be discovered Filter knowing at the end of the brush Ideas Die if not Transformed In 2013, Woodson was honored by the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Commission on the Arts as the Texas State Artist of the Year in 2D. This designation is the state’s highest recognition for excellence in the arts. He earned a BFA from Texas Christian University in 1965, and an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 1967. In 2014, Woodson was distinguished as Professor Emeritus at TCU, where he had been on the faculty since 1974. This is Jim Woodson’s fifth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. Learn more about Jim Woodson View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Mary Vernon: Paintings November 11, 2023 – January 6, 2024 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 11, 5:30pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, December 9, 11:00am Mary Vernon says: "The long tradition of landscape painting is one of conceptual positions and ideas revealed through images recalling the world. Still-life, as an intimate form of landscape, explores the same concerns. Color, the major actor in my painting, transforms my geometric plan. Geometric structure determines the field, color occupies it, navigating through the structure, making space, asserting the presence of things waiting on our recognition. Finding those things is an act of memory for me. We see that color, within a structure, does what the poet Charles Tomlinson claims— brings the mind half way to its defeat, Among these overlappings, half-lights, depths, The currents of the air, these hiddenesses." Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our ninth solo exhibition of paintings by Mary Vernon. Born in Southern New Mexico, Vernon was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Vernon served as Professor of Art at Southern Methodist University for 50 years, beginning in 1967. Now retired from teaching, she works full-time in the studio. Her third booklet, Stories, has been published in conjunction with this exhibition. Learn more about Mary Vernon View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Emily LaCour: Full Circle September 30 – November 4, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 30, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, October 7, 11:00am "I made this work in response to the longing for, anticipation of, and witnessing of new life and shared spaces. I take my experiences of family and transcribe them into painted fictions, like a lucid dream. The mark making is as important as the imagery; they confuscate and emphasize one another in process. When I am painting, I think about the flow of color and value from one figure into the next, and from figure into environment. Light is the unifying space and bridge between figures and forms and planes—Full Circle." —Emily LaCour Emily LaCour began her series At the Table prior to the pandemic, depicting “cumulative moments of connection and belonging at a table.” This theme continues to occupy LaCour who has begun to paint in homes, with families gathered around a table, to create multi-generational commissions. Motherhood now influences LaCour’s compositions, inspiring a series of Eclipse paintings with the heads of infants and parents silhouetted in a celestial embrace. Family history in Louisiana led Emily LaCour to study at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where she earned her BFA, with a minor in Art History, in 2011. Following her MFA from SMU in 2014, she returned to LSU to teach painting and drawing until 2017. Since then, LaCour has maintained a teaching and studio practice in Dallas. Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our second exhibition and first catalogue of her work. Watch a video of Emily LaCour speaking about her painting Recentering from her series At the Table Watch a video of Emily LaCour speaking about her series At the Table in her first exhibition at Valley House Gallery View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Michael O'Keefe: Conversations with Ancient Stones September 30 – November 4, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 30, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk at Meadows Museum: Thursday, November 2, 6:30pm The Parthenon marble frieze housed at The British Museum was the springboard for Michael O’Keefe’s series of 50 graphite drawings, Conversations with Ancient Stones. A book has been published to document the work, with each drawing juxtaposed next to O'Keefe's photographs of the marble reliefs. Valley House Gallery is pleased to offer all 50 drawings, with a selection of 13 on view. Paris-based art historian Stephanie Nadalo, PhD, writes, "Michael O'Keefe invites viewers to participate in a visual and conceptual dialogue between past and present, between ancient sculpture and contemporary drawing. Whereas academic artists in the past sought to faithfully reproduce copies or idealistically emulate the classical style, O’Keefe responds to the ancient marbles in a dialogic manner that acknowledges the monument’s complex history while freely injecting elements of fantasy, contemporaneity, and pictorial experimentation into each scene... offering a fresh pictorial language that thrives independently from its ancient source." Michael O'Keefe earned his MFA from SMU and teaches at The O’Keefe Studio Center in Richardson, Texas. O’Keefe maintains a studio practice focused on figurative sculpture and drawing. Valley House Gallery has represented his work since 2009. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * David Collins: Beyond These Days August 19 – September 23, 2023 Artist Talk: Saturday, August 19, 5:30pm Opening Reception: Saturday, August 19, 6:00pm-8:00pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our fourth solo exhibition of paintings by Dallas-raised, New York-based artist David Collins. Employing a personal iconography of shape and memory, Collins references architectural elements and aviation motifs originating from his family’s history in avionics and radio technology. Recollections of homes, airports, construction sites, and urban spaces inform Collins’ practice, and a move from New York City to rural Long Island in 2015, introduced new influences from observation of the cycles of nature. In his paintings the kaleidoscope of shifting geometric planes creates a dynamic landscape where forces move in many directions, creating tension that ultimately settles into balance. David Collins is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a recipient of fellowships at Yaddo artist colony in 2003 and 2005, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in 2008. In 2018, the Jesuit Dallas Museum honored the 1984 alumni of the Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas with an exhibition of his paintings and color monotypes. In 2022, Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, Connecticut, and Valley House Gallery jointly published a catalogue on David Collins' paintings. Watch an interview by Art This Week with David Collins in his New York studio in 2013. Watch a walk-through of David Collins' first solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery in 2011. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Jack Barnett: Earth and Sky July 15 – August 12, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, July 15, 6:00pm-8:00pm Valley House Gallery is honored to present our first solo exhibition of paintings by Jack Barnett. His Texas skyscapes and landscapes reflect the quiet sensual joy of looking at—and being in—nature. Both expansive and intimate, the paintings survey areas he explores, and their changing seasons, on drives from his home south of Fort Worth. Jack Barnett says: "Flat land and big skies always inspire me. Many paintings come from surprise discoveries made while driving on country roads and gazing at shifting light. I stop and look for a long time and supplement direct observation with sketches and photographs. In the end, memories and emotions mean more to me than exact topography." Born in 1944 in Fort Worth, Barnett saved lunch money to buy his first set of paints, then built his first studio at age 14. Drawing and painting whenever possible, he committed himself to being an artist after seeing the paintings of George Inness and Thomas Eakins on a high school field trip. After living in Galveston and New Orleans, Barnett attended Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) where he won numerous awards and a travel scholarship to study masterworks in Europe. He taught at PAFA and started a picture framing business, and continued teaching and framing after returning to Texas in 1985. Jack Barnett’s works are in museum collections including The Butler Institute of American Art, Picker Art Gallery, The Old Jail Art Center, and Tyler Museum of Art. In 2012, the Tyler Museum of Art presented a solo exhibition of his portraits and figures. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * SMALL SCULPTURES: Fit for the Table July 15 - September 23, 2023 "SMALL SCULPTURES: Fit for the Table" includes work by Michael Aurbach, Deborah Ballard, Kathy Boortz, Curt Brill, Carol A. Cook, Alex Corno, Mike Cunningham, David A. Dreyer, David Everett, David Hayes, Tracy Hicks, Allan Houser, Anita Huffington, Rudolf Sotelo Lailson, Anne Chase Martin, Henry Moore, Michael O'Keefe, Jen Rose, Marlene Rose, Luke Sides, George Tobolowsky, and Thomas E. Woodward. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Cindi Holt: Nature’s Parade May 20 – July 8, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, May 20, 6:00pm-8:00pm "Be still Seek goodness Listen for the answer" —Cindi Holt Cindi Holt listens to her intuition. A self-taught artist, she was first inspired to paint in 1985. From longhorns to Texas birds and wildflowers to imaginative interiors, paintings of these subjects from the last five years will be on view, many on loan from collectors. Cindi Holt’s paintings have graced White House and Texas Governor’s Mansion Christmas cards. A series of paintings of the formal rooms of the Governor’s Mansion traveled to six Texas museums from 2001 to 2003. Holt was commissioned to paint site-specific murals for two Central Market stores. The Preston Royal café has a mural with the Valley House pond at its center (the original was gifted to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum). The Fort Worth café mural depicts life in Fort Worth (the original triptych can be seen in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History). Cindi Holt is a California native who lives in Fort Worth. Valley House has represented her work since 2003. In 2018, we published a catalogue with a 15-year survey of her paintings and an interview between Cindi Holt and Dan Blagg. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Kathy Boortz: A Closer Look May 20 – July 8, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, May 20, 6:00pm-8:00pm The dynamic shape of found wood is the catalyst for Kathy Boortz’s mixed media sculptures along with a keen eye for wildlife based on years of observation. She has fabricated her welded steel elements at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas for more than 25 years. Her exacting portraiture is sculpted in clay and she finishes rendering the birds with keen attention to detail in the carefully painted surfaces. Kathy Boortz elaborates: "When I hike, my eyes are often downcast, feasting on the gifts of nature offered up by the natural world. Weighed down like a peddler, I arrange and rearrange the treasures I gather till I reach my destination, where I review and reassemble my stash, my prizes of singular beauty. The shapes I select lend themselves to further interpretation. Some literally make themselves while others need tweaking. All in all, my aim is to lovingly portray the beauty and the humor of these ubiquitous avians that live amongst us, carrying on their lives despite the loss of their natural habitats." Kathy Boortz studied with Charles Umlauf at The University of Texas at Austin where she received her BFA (1970) and her MFA (1974). Valley House Gallery published the catalogue “In Plain View: A Mixed Media Celebration of Texas Backyard Birds” on her work in 2017. We are honored to present our third exhibition for Dallas artist Kathy Boortz. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Miles Cleveland Goodwin: Country Folk April 8 – May 13, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 8, 6:00pm-8:00pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our fifth solo exhibition of paintings by Miles Cleveland Goodwin. In Miles Cleveland Goodwin’s soulful compositions, he shows us the essential and mystical nature of the people, animals, and land around him. He says, “I want to paint things that have a spiritual integrity—paintings that show the truths of life.” Through his deeply intuitive paintings, Goodwin metaphorically speaks to our fundamental nature, in all of its heartbreak, wonderment, and everyday beauty. Miles Cleveland Goodwin says: "In this show, Country Folk, I have put together a group of paintings of the people, places, and fantasies I see in my daily life in southern Appalachia. It’s important to me to convey a sense, despite political or cultural differences, of a unity between the subject(s) and myself. Something or someone does not cease to be beautiful because it differs from one’s self. Most of the things I interact with deal with poverty, and the beauty that comes from making due. In painting them I create a monument to them." Miles Cleveland Goodwin was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, and spent his youth in the South. He earned his BFA at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He currently lives and works in Georgia. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * David H. Gibson: Photographs (Recent and Vintage) February 25 - April 1, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 25, 6:00pm-8:00pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our eleventh solo exhibition of photographs by David H. Gibson since 1990. A lifelong photographer, Gibson's first solo exhibition was presented by Eastman Kodak Marketing Education Center in Rochester, New York, in 1990, followed by his first gallery exhibition "A Reverent Eye" at Valley House Gallery. This exhibition includes recent photographs of Eagle Nest Lake in New Mexico and Cypress Creek in Wimberley, Texas, as well as the Texas Gulf Coast. A selection of vintage gelatin silver prints will be on view as well. John Rohrbach, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, writes about David H. Gibson's photography: "Amid a world preoccupied with conflict, division, and ecological challenge, David Gibson asks us to slow down and attend to the healing power of nature's splendors. By focusing on its extended flux, and especially the poetry of its moisture-touched changing light, he reveals the rewards of quiet attention." Another opportunity to see David H. Gibson's photography is the exhibition "Morning Light: The Photographs of David H. Gibson" at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, January 14 - May 21, 2023. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Sean Cairns: The Myth We Call Space and Time January 14 – February 18, 2023 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 14, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, January 21, 11:00am Sean Cairns paints emotionally charged minimalist landscapes yielding paintings as tender as they are philosophical. Influenced by Folk Art’s matter of fact subjects and Modernism’s color field compositions, his mixed-media paintings incorporate chance operations and found materials, often worked and reworked on the floor. “I think the paintings reveal themselves once they’re on the wall but while painting on the floor I’m immersed in the terrain I’m building,” says Cairns. In these paintings you often will find a figure, a narrative, and a landscape all veiled in the illusion of abstraction while maintaining the painting’s harmony in switching between traditional perspective and flat fields of glowing color. Born in 1988, Sean Cairns was raised in rural Sparta, Illinois, coming from multiple generations of folk artists. Following an undergraduate degree in Sculpture at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2011, and an MFA in Visual Studies in 2014 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Cairns turned his attention to painting. Sean Cairns has lived in Dallas since 2014. This is his second solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. * * * David A. Dreyer: Cold Mountain Jam November 12, 2022 - January 7, 2023 Artist Remarks: Saturday, November 12, 5:30pm Opening Reception: Saturday, November 12, 6:00pm-8:00pm November 12 events on Facebook "I live, and we all live, to breathe our own special note into this world." —Ken Kesey "Cold Mountain Jam is a tribute to that journey of authentic expression shaped by the textures of life, the liberation of light, and the sensual perception of music’s cosmic landscape." —David A. Dreyer We are pleased to present David A. Dreyer’s ninth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. Dreyer was born in Dallas in 1958 and earned his BFA and MFA from SMU. The paintings in this exhibition are inspired by music, nature, and the Cold Mountain poems of Chinese poet Han-shan. Observations of vast landscapes and the cosmos inform Dreyer’s personal language of pictorial elements. Small graphite drawings are the catalyst for Dreyer’s oil paintings, which are built over time in layers of color and line and develop through intuitive responses. This process of painting is uncertain, fueled by curiosity and listening. Phrases written on the edge of the canvas at critical stages of the paintings’ development become titles in poetic verse revealing Dreyer’s path within the abstract. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Ying Li: Quintessence October 1 - November 5, 2022 Artist Remarks: Saturday, October 15, 5:30pm Reception for the Artist: Saturday, October 15, 6:00pm-8:00pm October 15 events on Facebook Valley House Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition "Ying Li: Quintessence." About this body of work, Ying Li says: "The rhythm of my painting is a dance of brushwork based on training in Chinese calligraphy. I strive to reveal resonances where abstraction and representation merge, reflecting the heart and spirit. Things that exist in alternate dimensions come to life with oil and canvas. The unseen becomes visible while the visible unlocks perception at the core of essence." This marks Ying Li’s first solo exhibition in Texas. She maintains studios in New York City and Haverford, Pennsylvania. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum, and Art in America, among others. She has had solo exhibitions in New York, Maine, Florida, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Georgia, New Hampshire, Ohio, New Jersey, Switzerland, Italy, and Ireland. Born in Beijing, China, Ying Li studied painting at Anhui Teachers University (1974-77) where she taught (1977-83) before immigrating to the United States in 1983. She received an MFA from Parsons School of Design, New York, in 1987. Li has taught at Haverford College since 1997 and holds an endowed chair as The Phlyssa Koshland Professor of Fine Arts. This exhibition includes 18 plein-air landscape and still life paintings along with a selection of Jazz drawings and watercolors. About the Jazz works, Ying Li says: "Since arriving in the United States I have been fascinated with Jazz music and musicians. The culture of Jazz is the expansion of freedom and this really resonated with me coming from the era of repression during the Cultural Revolution in China." "Freedom allows the expansion of consciousness and this is exactly what I want to capture in my drawing. The sound becomes visible, and the energy, motion, and improvisation are captured in the moment with ink and paper." View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Otis Huband: Recent Paintings and Collages August 20 - September 24, 2022 Artist Remarks: Saturday, August 20, 5:30pm Opening Reception: Saturday, August 20, 6:00pm-8:00pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our fourth solo exhibition for Otis Huband. Born in 1933, Otis declared his intention to be an artist at age 6. He earned his BFA and MFA at Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William & Mary, now Virginia Commonwealth University. Subsequently, he traveled to Italy with his wife Anne to study painting and sculpture at L'Accademia di Belle Arti in Perugia. They returned in 1965 and made their home in Houston. After many years of providing art instruction, including at the Houston Museum School of Fine Arts and Art League Houston, Otis retired from teaching in 1982. Since then, he has devoted all of his time to the studio. Otis Huband's daily studio practice begins by making collages to transition from cognitive thinking to perceptual impulses. Then, he moves into painting, independent of the collages. Otis says, "I never make preparatory drawings for the paintings because I want the delight and surprise of discovery. I feed on my subconscious reservoir to create a new and personal reality that is revealed in the act of painting." View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Henry Finkelstein: Paintings May 21 - June 18, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, May 21, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, May 28, 11:00 am Henry Finkelstein is a colorist and a landscape painter, with a working dynamic highly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists. Finkelstein paints from life, discovering meaning as he works. He says, “nature gives me a grounding,” and elaborates “color is the most important thing. For me, color is emotion. It’s a sensibility inspired by the light and air in which I paint. These feelings are hard to name because this is the nature of emotion. And if I could name them what would there be left to look at?” Finkelstein reacts to the landscape in a loose, lyrical painting manner, as he focuses on discovering in nature new color relationships, spatial concerns, and rhythms. It is a process, as he says, of “listening to color.” Henry Finkelstein earned his MFA at Yale University School of Art in 1983, followed by a Fulbright Grant to study in Italy. In 1994, he was elected a National Academician. Finkelstein has taught painting and drawing in New York City since 1996. This is his tenth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery since 2002. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Michael O’Keefe: Excavations of Form / Archaeology of Feelings April 9 – May 14, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 9, 5:00pm-7:30pm Artist Talk: Saturday, April 30, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is pleased to present "Excavations of Form / Archaeology of Feelings," our sixth solo exhibition of work by Dallas artist Michael O'Keefe. About this body of work, Michael O'Keefe says: "For me, working at art is a way of feeling, a type of reflection. It is a way of sifting through experience that is like the work of an archaeologist; I dig into a process, discovering many beautiful moments, uncovering various impulses, and lingering in possibilities that seem interesting to me. I am looking for something evocative, something alive in the form of a figure. I engage with the figure abstractly, my imagination absorbed in the forces of form, texture, shape, line, and gestural movement. Each piece has formalist considerations, but the work is only resolved when it strongly reflects my feelings that were dug up along the way." In this exhibition are new works developed in the studio over the past three years including a series of life-size abstract figurative sculptures constructed in sculpting epoxy and a series of monochromatic collages. Michael O’Keefe completed a monumental bronze portrait of the pianist Van Cliburn in 2020, for the new Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU in Fort Worth. O’Keefe’s preliminary drawings for the Van Cliburn commission and a plaster cast of the final portrait are in this exhibition. Watch a video of Michael O'Keefe discussing his "Portrait of Van Cliburn" commission. In the video, O'Keefe talks about the challenges of portraiture and reveals some of the aspects of Van Cliburn's artistic sensibilities that informed his choices within the sculpture process. Michael O’Keefe earned his MFA from SMU and currently teaches at The O’Keefe Studio Center in Richardson, Texas. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Gail Norfleet: Pages from a Glass Book February 26 – April 2, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 26, 5:00pm-7:30pm Artist Talk: Saturday, March 12, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is pleased to present "Pages from a Glass Book," our sixth solo exhibition of work by Dallas artist Gail Norfleet. About this body of work, Gail Norfleet says: "It was by accident that I found the folding glass frames that suggested the idea for Pages from a Glass Book. The diptych format and the transparency of the glass were not new to my work. The ability to paint on the front and back and to see from one layer through to the next was compelling. For two years I have pursued images from the world around me. Intimate interiors, landscapes, masked models, flowers, lonely dogs, and even political statements have been worthy subjects evocative of these iconic times. The narrative is far from over and this series of art is still evolving." Glass and plexiglass continue to be foundational elements in her work. The inherent transparency of these materials allows light to illuminate multiple layers and enables the development of spatial relationships and collaged narratives. Gail Norfleet earned her BFA at The University of Texas at Austin, and her MFA at Southern Methodist University. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of the Southwest in Midland, and The Grace Museum in Abilene. Listen to Gail Norfleet's Artist Talk from her 2019 exhibition "Made in Layers" Watch a discussion with Gail Norfleet, Jim Woodson, and Sedrick Huckaby on "The Art of Painting: A Conversation with President Bush's Art Instructors" at The George W. Bush Presidential Center View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Bob Stuth-Wade: The Comfort of Trees January 15 - February 19, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 15, 5:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, January 29, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is honored to present "The Comfort of Trees" including recent paintings, watercolors, and mixed media works by Bob Stuth-Wade. About this body of work, Bob Stuth-Wade writes: "Almost every day during quarantine Bhakti and I went to Proctor Lake. She sniffed. I painted. For years I saw nothing beautiful there until I began to see that seeing itself is beauty. Proctor then became a place of practice, like the cushion I sit on to meditate each morning and night. The trees there have become companions and objects of devotion. Standing, rooted down, reaching up, stable and engaged with air and earth, they are my teachers. Standing, seeing, rooted in this moment, I am present because the intensity of painting outside demands it. The voice that says, “You can’t,” surrenders to the doing. Experience inevitably, unpredictably, completes itself. Passing through insecurity to completion in fragile confidence is the joy of painting. This silent verity is my ever-present work." —Bob Stuth-Wade Bob Stuth-Wade’s self-directed art education began under his mentor, Dallas artist Perry Nichols, when he was a student at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. In 2019, Jesuit Dallas Museum presented the exhibition "Bob Stuth-Wade: 'Whatever you do, that which makes you feel most alive, that is where God is' (Saint Ignatius of Loyola)" for which Bob Stuth-Wade gave an Artist Talk. Bob Stuth-Wade's work has been written about by Eleanor Jones Harvey of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Frederick Turner in American Arts Quarterly, Judy Deaton for The Grace Museum, and Rebecca Lawton for his recent Valley House catalogue. Museum exhibitions include Jesuit Dallas Museum, The Grace Museum, and San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. This is Bob Stuth-Wade’s 11th solo exhibition since 1991 at Valley House Gallery. View the exhibition on Artsy CATALOGUE: To purchase the catalogue Bob Stuth-Wade: Painting in Earnest which was published in conjunction with his 2018 exhibition, email gallery@valleyhouse.com, and provide your name, mailing address, credit card number, expiration, security code, and billing address. The catalogue is $40 plus $10 shipping and handling, for a total of $50, plus 8.25% sales tax if mailed within Texas. The softcover catalogue is 104 pages with 105 color reproductions and includes an essay by Rebecca E. Lawton. Please call 972-239-2441 with any questions. * * * Mary Vernon: Paintings November 20, 2021 - January 8, 2022 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 20, 4:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, December 11, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our eighth solo exhibition of paintings by Mary Vernon. Born in Southern New Mexico, Vernon was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Vernon served as Professor of Art at Southern Methodist University for 50 years, beginning in 1967. Now retired from teaching, she works full-time in the studio. Her second booklet of Stories was published in conjunction with this exhibition. About the paintings in this exhibition, Mary Vernon states: "The long tradition of landscape painting is one of conceptual positions and ideas revealed through images recalling the world. Still-life, as an intimate form of landscape, explores the same concerns. Color, the major actor in my painting, transforms my geometric plan. Geometric structure determines the field, color occupies it, navigating through the structure, making space, asserting the presence of things waiting on our recognition. We see that color, within a structure, does what the poet Charles Tomlinson claims— "Brings the mind half way to its defeat, Among these overlappings, half-lights, depths, The currents of the air, these hiddenesses."" View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a video of Mary Vernon's Artist Talk for her 2019 exhibition * * * Miles Cleveland Goodwin: The Closing Door October 9 - November 13, 2021 Opening Reception: Saturday, October 9, 3:00pm-7:00 pm, Remarks at 5:00pm We are pleased to announce the opening of Miles Cleveland Goodwin’s solo exhibition “The Closing Door” at Valley House Gallery in Dallas. About his work, Miles Cleveland Goodwin says: "I’ve spent most of my life painting in the American South. My work is usually a reflection of life around me. I see people and places that are passed by, disregarded by contemporary society. Yet, they fully exist in our time, and are a part of what makes life rich and meaningful. My instinct is to salvage the forgotten and unappreciated, and elevate the discarded. I want to paint things that have a spiritual integrity—paintings that show the truths of life. My painting is all I have to let the world know how I feel. I’m not very good with other forms of communication. I feel a responsibility to be a public servant, to show you things with love, colored by a melancholy soul." Miles Cleveland Goodwin was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, and spent his youth in the South. He earned his BFA at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He currently lives and works in Georgia. This is his fourth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. A catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition, with an essay by Andrew J. Walker, PhD. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Sean Cairns: Handler July 24 - August 21, 2021 Opening Reception: Saturday, July 24, 5:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, July 31, 11:00am, Reservations Required "I didn’t grow up with art, but I was always aware of Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic. This depiction of American life reminds me of my rural Southern Illinois upbringing. I find myself caught between two types of traditions—that of my roots and that of oil painting. My paintings are a way to reconcile my rural youth with my urban life working at the Dallas Museum of Art and how they intertwine to create a personal narrative. Compositional barriers such as fences and paper cutouts are intended to make the viewer feel like an outsider—shut out from the real narrative. I feel a similar sense of being shut out when I see the blank expressions in Grant Wood’s painting. Rural America is like a house with its shades drawn. I know there are things behind the shades, beyond the fences; sometimes it’s a snake, but snakes can mean all kinds of things, can’t they?"—Sean Cairns We are pleased to present Sean Cairns’ first solo exhibition at Valley House. He earned his BFA from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 2011, and his MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2014. Despite two art degrees, his education in painting is self-directed. Sean Cairns has lived in Dallas since 2014 and will move to London soon. View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a video of Sean Cairns speaking about his work * * * Deborah Ballard: Can You Hear Me June 12 – August 21, 2021 Dedicated to Edith Baker (1923-2021) Deborah Ballard’s first gallerist and friend Afternoon Gallery and Garden Reception: June 12, 1 – 5pm Valley House Gallery is honored to present our 4th solo exhibition for Dallas sculptor Deborah Ballard with new works throughout the sculpture garden and in the gallery. Ballard draws inspiration from life experiences, body language, and world travels. She develops and refines her ideas with a personal language derived from observing the human form and invites the viewer to contemplate our interactions with one another. Unlike traditional sculptors who begin with a small maquette, Ballard works in reverse, beginning with life-size figures. Since receiving her MFA from Southern Methodist University in 1990, Ballard has built sculptures as variations on a theme, rather than as editions. She first models the figure in wet clay, then takes a mold from the clay (with up to 20 mold sections for a single figure) and manipulates the form in subtle or dramatic ways to create a different expression for each figure within the series. Initially, they are cast in plaster, then variations are cast in stone and/or bronze. Constant experimentation with techniques, diverse patinas, and spatial arrangements among multiple figures creates an emotional dynamic more interesting to Ballard than portraiture. View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a video of Deborah Ballard speaking about her sculpture * * * Allison Gildersleeve: Swiftly Flow the Days May 1 – June 5, 2021 "Like the stagehands who dress the set between acts in a play, I employ layered, saturated colors, flattened textures, and chaotic brushwork in service of painted worlds that set the stage for action. These scenes of disjointed interiors and chaotic landscapes are devoid of actors, but the detritus left in the wake of their presence compresses generations of interstitial moments from past and present, all cast in the shadow of the town my family has inhabited since the early 1900s. When the pandemic exploded in New York City, my husband, children, and I returned to this town. In these months of quiet, as I've walked the cobweb of streets through neighborhoods I’ve memorized since childhood, I’ve felt the parallel presence of the daily lives, dramatic or mundane, that existed here before my time. While my paintings were once confined to my own personal timeline, now the imagined histories of other lives that date back centuries have seeped into my work." —Allison Gildersleeve Allison Gildersleeve has exhibited across the United States and abroad, including New York City, Denver, Charleston, Oakland, and Stockholm. She has received numerous fellowships and residencies, most notably the New York Foundation for the Arts in Painting, The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Yaddo, The Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and Liquitex International Research Residency in London. Allison Gildersleeve received her BA from the College of William and Mary and her MFA from Bard College. Valley House Gallery has represented Allison Gildersleeve's work since 2014. This is her third solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. An exhibition catalogue will be available. View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a video of Allison Gildersleeve at her Liquitex Residency In London. Watch a video of Allison Gildersleeve at her studio in Brooklyn. Watch Part 1 of a video of Allison Gildersleeve interviewed by Cheryl Vogel during her first exhibition at Valley House, followed by Part 2 and Part 3. * * * David A. Dreyer: Cold Mountain Observatory March 6 - April 17, 2021 "I want my paintings to be a celebration of pure nature and moment—homage to the sacred spaces of memory. I begin with small automatic drawings, a practice of intuitive organization used as a catalyst for paintings. Drawings originate in the realm between the hand and eye, a sensuous experience with seemingly endless possibilities. It is more difficult to explain what I paint than why—which is to create a unique image that discloses personal recognition of things never seen and space that imparts a sense of self. My process is organic, evolving through moments of insightful meditation that fuel curiosity and reveal discoveries with uncertain predictability. I take from the familiar as dreams take from the real. In mining an area of the unfamiliar, a place where dream and invention exist, I refine that which can only be imagined—till things never seen seem familiar." —David A. Dreyer We are honored to present Dallas artist David A. Dreyer’s eighth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. The paintings are inspired by music as well as the Cold Mountain poems of Han-shan, Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), as translated by Gary Snyder. Dreyer earned his BFA in 1990 and his MFA in 1992, both from Southern Methodist University. A catalogue will be available. View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a video of David A. Dreyer speaking about his work View on Facebook * * * Emily LaCour: In the Shade of a Tall Tree March 6 – April 17, 2021 "In the Shade of a Tall Tree is a body of work that speaks to my internal reality in a year of grief, rest, and reflection. We have been wading in the uncertainty of life, the certainty of death, and the necessity of each other. It feels like sitting in the shade of a tall tree on a sweltering day or surrendering to the wild twists and turns of an improvisational painting process. The title is a metaphorical connection to my late grandmother, as trees were the main subjects of Jerelyn Fitzgerald Richard’s paintings. Growing up, we would paint together in the swamplands and from her kitchen window. When the trees outside the window were being cleared for apartments, she invited the guys over for coffee so they could see them from her point of view. The demo crew left her favorite trees standing. In the space of her table, she made room for many opinions and palettes and showed me that creating is a way of witnessing my life and those in it. This is what I seek to make visual." —Emily LaCour Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition for Emily LaCour who resides in Dallas, but spent her youth in Louisiana. In 2011, she received a BFA and a minor in Art History from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge where she later taught painting and drawing from 2014 to 2017. She earned an MFA from Southern Methodist University in 2014. View the exhibition on Artsy Watch a video of Emily LaCour speaking about her work View on Facebook * * * Mark Messersmith: The Weight of Everything January 23 – February 27, 2021 Mark Messersmith’s paintings read like epic novels, full of richly conceived characters and vividly described vignettes that unite into grand and sweeping narratives. His subjects are invariably focused on the interplay between fragile nature and careless humankind, played out in the sizzling scrublands and swampy backwaters of the Florida Panhandle, just beyond civilization’s reach. Messersmith’s mastery of painting is underscored in these works, which are laden with high-keyed color, dizzying perspectives, careening imagery, and virtuoso light effects. They are also clearly tied to the history of painting, with references that range from Late Medievalism to nineteenth century Romanticism to contemporary Outsider art. Part P.T. Barnum and part Walt Whitman—and just as quintessentially American—Messersmith offers the engaged viewer a cornucopia of visual delights and a veritable banquet of savory food for thought. —Peter Baldaia, Huntsville Museum of Art Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our fourth solo exhibition for Mark Messersmith, including ten paintings that were featured in Precipice at the Amarillo Museum of Art. Messersmith earned an MFA from Indiana University in 1980, and was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting in 2006. Among the museums that have collected his works are the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, Musée du Haut-de-Cagnes, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Tyler Museum of Art. His work was recently included in the exhibition A Telling Instinct: John James Audubon & Contemporary Art at the Asheville Art Museum in North Carolina. He recently retired from Florida State University in Tallahassee where he was a Professor of Art for 35 years. A comprehensive catalogue will be available. * * * On Being Human August 29 - October 31, 2020 Artists who address the human condition help us to navigate what it means to be human. These last months have reminded us of the importance of our basic humanity and the inherent value of others. After isolating, we felt a need to be surrounded by people—hence this invitational exhibition about people seen through the artist’s eye. In addition to Valley House artists, we have invited figurative artists whom we admire to participate: Deborah Ballard, Vera Barnett, Lu Ann Barrow, Peter Bonner, Curt Brill, Lloyd Brown, Jerry Bywaters, Sean Cairns, Jeanne Campbell, Lindy Chambers, John Cobb, Brian Cobble, Robert D. Cocke, Carol A. Cook, Laurie Hickman Cox, Lee Baxter Davis, Laurence Edwards, David Everett, Max Ferguson, Barnaby Fitzgerald, Scott Gentling, Miles Cleveland Goodwin, Ira Greenberg, Jimmy Hill, William Eric Horsbrugh-Porter, Otis Huband, Sedrick Huckaby, Anita Huffington, Kathryn Keller, Sirena LaBurn, Emily LaCour, Rudolf Sotelo Lailson, Jungeun Lee, Laurie Lipton, Jun-Cheng Liu, William B. Montgomery, Philip Morsberger, Fred Nagler, Trish Nickell, Gail Norfleet, Michael O’Keefe, Luke Sides, Hadar Sobol, Ellen Soderquist, Everett Spruce, Earl Stroh, Bob Stuth-Wade, James Surls, Chaco Terada, Valton Tyler, Mary Vernon, Donald S. Vogel, Amy Werntz, Jim Woodson, and Miguel Zapata. In memory of Lu Ann Barrow (1934–2020) Her paintings enriched our lives with uplifting parables on being human. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Lindy Chambers: Obscura June 27 - August 22, 2020 Meet the Artist by Appointment: Saturday, June 27, 11:00am - 5:00pm Valley House is pleased to welcome back Lindy Chambers for her third solo exhibition. Born in Tennessee, Lindy, an identical twin, spent her youth drawing and riding horses before moving to Texas in 1972. Her early focus on sculpture shifted when the foundry she built to cast her own bronzes burned to the ground. She turned to painting, inspired by rural trailer life around her Bellville, Texas, home. The trailers, where dogs and goats once ruled, are now peopled with human activity: drive-in movies, family reunions, bike riding, playing games, mowing the yard, watching flying saucers, gardening, etc. Most of my inspiration comes from rural Texas. My focus begins when I leave the highway pavement and drive on dirt and gravel roads in the country. I am oddly drawn to the obscure habitats and curious color combinations that I find off-road. Before every painting, I make a series of black-and-white thumbnail sketches. When I start to paint, the color is intuitive, and the process is spontaneous. I try to listen to the canvas and react to it. If I overthink the painting, it is likely to end up in Danny’s burn pile. —Lindy Chambers Three upcoming solo exhibitions will be held at the Lawrence Arts Center, Kansas; Women & Their Work, Austin; and the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Luke Sides: A Gluttonous Past June 27 - August 22, 2020 Meet the Artist by Appointment: Saturday, June 27, 11:00am - 5:00pm My work has dealt with Pigs, Puppies, Pastries, Peppers, and Portraits, but most importantly PUNS. I feel my work is greatly influenced by the Funk movement with a little Pop component. Pigs have been an interest of mine from a very early age after reading Animal Farm and raising pigs as a child for FFA. I have always seen my sculptures of pigs as self-portraits. The gluttonous nature of pigs resonates deeply with me. In the past, I ate myself into a state of obesity and high cholesterol. The combination of these things and a deep family history of heart disease were not enough to curb my appetite. On the other hand, pigs are extremely smart. Pigs are survivors to the point that feral pigs and wild boars have become a real problem for rural communities across the US. Although King Pig is cast in bronze, many of my pig sculptures are cast in pig iron. All these aspects make the pig my spirit animal. I have embraced my shortcomings and work daily to rectify them, but I also embrace the tenacity of the pig and see that as my strongest trait. —Luke Sides Valley House has represented Luke Sides’ sculpture since 2011. Luke was born in Dallas in 1975 and earned his BFA (1998) and his MFA (2001) from the University of North Texas, Denton. He has been a Professor of Art at Collin College – Plano Campus since 2002. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Henry Finkelstein: Recent Paintings March 21 - April 25, 2020 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 21, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, March 21, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is honored to present a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Henry Finkelstein. About this body of work, he says: "Color, light and air, space and volume have always been at the core of my paintings. But increasingly I find that the character of the place itself is just as important to me. I’m drawn to old places, where people have lived a long time, where the land is considered, but not overly manicured, with ancient trees that frame some sort of gardening or farming. When I was in art school in the 1970s, I would not have admitted these things. Most of the discussion was limited to the abstract or formal elements of painting. So much has changed since then that such taboos have become irrelevant. This is liberating for me. My love for the subject doesn’t lessen my passion for the formal. It is always a synthesis of the two." A residency at Rochefort-en-Terre in Brittany, France, in 1992, and again in 2000, introduced Henry Finkelstein to this region where he returns each summer to paint from direct observation. Finkelstein earned his MFA in painting from Yale University School of Art in 1983, followed by a Fulbright Grant to study in Italy. In 1994, he was elected a National Academician. Finkelstein has taught painting and drawing in New York City since 1996. This is Henry Finkelstein's ninth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery since 2002. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Lilian Garcia-Roig: Cumulative Nature - Water COLORS February 1 - March 14, 2020 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, February 1, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is honored to present our 10th solo exhibition of paintings by Lilian Garcia-Roig. About this body of work, she states: "This series of on-site paintings was made during the summer of 2019 on the banks of the Skykomish River in the foothills of the Cascades mountains in Washington State. As in my other plein-air works painted in forests, these paintings document a real-time process: the accumulation of fleeting moments experienced on site. Working with oil on canvas, the paintings are produced in a wet-on-wet, cumulative painting manner that was influenced by the watercolor and gouache works I made there in 2016. This summer was only the second time I have been able to spend an extended period working in oil on this singular, complex subject—the COLORS in water." Lilian Garcia-Roig was born in Havana, Cuba, reared in Houston, and lives in Tallahassee, where she is a Professor at Florida State University. She earned degrees at Southern Methodist University (BFA) and the University of Pennsylvania (MFA), and has been awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a Mid-America Arts Alliance/NEA Fellowship Award in Painting, a Skowhegan Residency, two Fellowships at The MacDowell Colony, a Kimbrough Award from the Dallas Museum of Art, and a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Chaco Terada: Listening in the Silence December 14, 2019 - January 25, 2020 Opening Reception: Saturday, December 14, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Coffee and Conversation with Chaco Terada: Saturday, January 4, 11:00am - 12:00pm The gallery will be closed December 24, 25, 26, and January 1 Valley House Gallery is honored to present our first exhibition of work by Chaco Terada, a native of Japan who has called Dallas home since 1992. Chaco was the nickname given by her grandmother and she uses it along with her given name, Chikako. Born in Toyama, Japan, in 1963, to Haruko and Yhohei Terada, Chaco began the practice of calligraphy with her father, Yhohei Terada, a master calligrapher who taught its history at Toyama University. Even as a child, Chaco departed from a strict observance of copying traditional form for a more poetic interpretation. As she says, "I looked at the calligraphy from all sides and even from the back with light showing through it. It was beautiful to me. My father corrected my work with orange sumi ink. I liked the visual element, missing altogether the point of his corrections." Living as an independent spirit began early in Chaco’s life. In her twenties, she traveled to ten countries as a part of the cultural exchange programs, Up with People and The Ship for World Youth. She recalls, "I wanted to learn about other cultures and not just stay with the Japanese kids." When language skills isolated her, she used calligraphy as a tool to communicate. It was during her involvement with these programs that she began to realize the importance of calligraphy in her life. Moving to the United States liberated Chaco, giving her the freedom to focus on her inner life as a source for artistic expression. Her work became a process of self-analysis, a process that allowed her to draw from her experiences, memories, and feelings. All these elements have forged stories in her imagination, stories in which reality and illusion meet. These stories grow quietly into images as she listens to conversations within her mind. An image can have a long journey in her thoughts, sometimes a year, or longer. "It took some years to develop the ways to express the beauty in my life as artwork," says Chaco. When she decided to combine photography with her calligraphy, her partner, the photographer David Gibson, also an artist represented by Valley House, advised her how to achieve the effects she envisioned. Chaco photographs wherever she goes; it could be nothing in particular, a wall detail, or water on the street. She walks slowly; it is her way to see more. Something from the past connects her to what she sees in the photograph, and her dialogue begins with a string of words. For "Night Player 2" she writes: "Listening to the night, I hear the tune of the moon, stars, silhouette of trees and skyline. Someone plays the night for me. Beats of my heart are joining you." The forty-seven works in "Listening in the Silence" are made using the process she developed that incorporates multiple layers of silk organza, sumi ink, mineral pigments, and archival pigment printing. Each is unique. Photographic images are printed on the silk and calligraphic marks float in the layered atmosphere as if they were dancing. They are intimate in scale, like windows to her private reflections, meditative moments that both convey and invite serenity. Each one is an open invitation to go beyond the surface. A catalogue has been published in conjunction with this exhibition. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Gail Norfleet: Made in Layers November 2 - December 7, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 2, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, November 16, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our fifth solo exhibition of work by Dallas artist Gail Norfleet. Plexiglass continues to be a foundational element in her work. The clear material is the surface upon which she applies paint and collage, and its inherent transparency allows light to illuminate multiple layers. Working on the front and back, and on two panels, creates a real space. In this exhibition, Norfleet places familiar still life subjects (flowers, vases, birds) in front of brightly rendered landscapes and surreal interiors. The subjects originating from life are playfully manipulated into impossible yet compelling compositions. "Bending toward the light, based on reality, a real and illusionistic space is painted on two transparent layers. Could the flower garden be a mirage?" —Gail Norfleet Gail Norfleet earned her BFA at The University of Texas at Austin, and her MFA at Southern Methodist University. She has had solo exhibitions at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary and the former Delahunty and DW Galleries. Norfleet was recently appointed to the Advisory Council of the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. The Michelson Museum of Art in Marshall, Texas, will open a solo exhibition of her work in March 2020. View the exhibition on Artsy Learn more about Gail Norfleet: Watch a discussion with Gail Norfleet, Jim Woodson, and Sedrick Huckaby on The Art of Painting: A Conversation with President Bush's Art Instructors at The George W. Bush Presidential Center Watch an interview of Gail Norfleet in her studio by Eric Miller and Lin Wang on Art After X * * * Mary Vernon: New Work September 21 - October 26, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 21, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, October 5, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our seventh solo exhibition of paintings by Mary Vernon. Vernon recently retired as Professor of Art at Southern Methodist University where she began her 50-year teaching career in 1967, now giving all of her time to her second career in the studio. Born in Southern New Mexico, Vernon was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. A comprehensive catalogue of Mary Vernon’s paintings from the last five years will be published in conjunction with this exhibition. A booklet, "Stories," will be available as well. "The really good artists around now, of whom Vernon is one, take their virtuosity as a gift, and give it away as a gift to our powers of sight and our capacity for joy. They don’t take it entirely seriously—it’s like dancing with a god, or wrestling with an angel—but they respect it too. They’re on such good terms with it that they’ll josh it a bit so it doesn’t put on airs. Mary’s outrageous sense of humor is everywhere in her work, but it’s not lightweight—it’s as serious as a Shakespeare comedy." —Frederick Turner View the exhibition on Artsy Visit the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake in Dallas to see more of Mary Vernon’s paintings in "Conversation: Landscape Paintings as Movement at Rest," on view through September 28, 2019. Learn more about Mary Vernon: Listen to Mary Vernon interviewed by Craig Gould on the podcast Outside of New York that features in-depth discussions with members of the art world who live and work outside of New York Read Frederick Turner's review on Glasstire of the exhibition "Conversation: Landscape Paintings as Movement at Rest" at the Bath House Cultural Center Watch an interview by Jeff Levine on Modern Dallas about Mary Vernon's 2017 exhibition Read Michael Frank Blair's review on Glasstire of Mary Vernon's 2017 exhibition Watch the Art After X video of Mary Vernon’s Artist Talk about her 2015 exhibition Join the effort to endow the Mary Vernon Painting Prize at SMU Meadows School of the Arts Listen to an interview with Mary Vernon about her 50-year teaching career on the blog for the SMU Meadows School of the Arts 50th Anniversary Read about Mary Vernon's 50 years of art and teaching at SMU Watch an interview with Mary Vernon about her 2017 exhibition "Painting is Drawing" at The Grace Museum in Abilene Watch a time-lapse video of the installation of The Grace Museum exhibition Read an article about Mary Vernon by Gail Sachson in Patron Read an article about Mary Vernon by Julie England in Prime Women * * * Bird Show August 10 - September 7, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, August 10, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present BIRD SHOW, a summer celebration of our skyward friends, featuring artists inspired by the avian world. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and prints by artists including Vera Barnett, David Bates, Evelyn Beard, Kathy Boortz, Sean Cairns, Lindy Chambers, Brian Cobble, Robert D. Cocke, Alex Corno, Margie Crisp, Otis Dozier, David A. Dreyer, David Everett, Janine Faure-Terrieu, Kelly Fearing, Barnaby Fitzgerald, Constance Forsyth, Scott Gentling, David H. Gibson, Miles Cleveland Goodwin, Cindi Holt, Otis Huband, Anne Chase Martin, Merritt Mauzey, Mark Messersmith, Brian Molanphy, Pauline Muth, Fred Nagler, Gail Norfleet, Leona Pierce, Bill Reily, Everett Spruce, Bob Stuth-Wade, Janet Turner, Valton Tyler, Mary Vernon, Anne C. Weary, and Clara McDonald Williamson are on view. Some birds are easily discernible in representational works, while other artists abstractly interpret the bird form and spirit. The exhibition also includes paintings by Valley House founder Donald S. Vogel, whose name means bird in German. Valley House Gallery will host two Bird lectures in conjunction with the exhibition: Thursday, August 15, 6:30pm: "Celebrating Birds: Nature's Art Takes Flight" by Tania Homayoun, Ph.D., Texas Nature Trackers Biologist, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. This talk will explore the many ways that birds are deeply intertwined with human art and culture and provide a perspective on their importance in our natural systems as well. Through Texas Nature Trackers, Tania Homayoun engages naturalists of all interests and ability levels in collecting citizen science and crowd-sourced data on Texas’ unique flora and fauna with a particular focus on species of greatest conservation need. Previously, Tania worked for Audubon Texas with the Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center and later the Conservation Science Team as its Urban Conservation Program Manager, where she worked to develop and deliver conservation plans, educational programs/trainings, and activities supporting biodiversity and sustainable communities. Tania holds Bachelor's degrees in Ecology/Evolution/Conservation Biology and Anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota, where she studied the impacts of urbanization on landbird communities. She is an avid birder and always has room for one more native plant in her patio garden. Wednesday, September 4, 6:30pm: "Whooping Cranes: Saving a Texas Icon" by Ben Jones, Senior Director of Conservation, Dallas Zoo, and Sprina Liu, Bird Curator, Dallas Zoo. Whooping cranes are North America’s tallest bird and one of our most endangered. By the mid-1900's, the whooping crane population plunged to an unprecedented low of only 15 birds, due to habitat loss and over-hunting. Thanks to conservation efforts, over 500 birds persist in the wild today. The Texas Gulf Coast is the winter home to whooping cranes who return to the same nesting areas and mate for life. Come join us and learn about the new Whooping Crane Center of Texas, a 5-acre breed-and-release conservation facility designed with help from crane experts and staffed by the Dallas Zoo’s experienced bird department. After the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge in Maryland lost funding and was no longer able to care for their whooping cranes, the Dallas Zoo immediately offered support. As one of only six organizations worldwide selected to participate in the whooping crane breeding program, the Dallas Zoo’s innovative solution was to create the Whooping Crane Center of Texas. We invite you to come and learn about this iconic part of our state’s natural heritage. The whooping cranes future is uncertain without continued conservation intervention. BIRD SHOW will be on view Monday through Saturday, 10:00am to 5:00pm, from August 10 through September 7. The gallery will be closed on Monday, September 2, in observance of Labor Day. BIRD SHOW image includes works and details of works by (clockwise from upper left): Lindy Chambers, David A. Dreyer, Miles Cleveland Goodwin, Kathy Boortz, Valton Tyler, David Everett, Mark Messersmith, Mary Vernon, Vera Barnett, Anne Chase Martin, and David H. Gibson in the center. View the exhibition on Artsy View the exhibition on Facebook * * * Otis Huband: Recent Paintings and Collages June 15 - July 20, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 15, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our third exhibition of paintings and collages by Otis Huband. He begins his work with no preconceived ideas, but rather to discover what will reveal itself. Huband states, "I work from the inside out rather than from the outside in. I feed on my subconscious reservoir instead of duplicating reality, and create a separate, new, and personal reality. An artist is not bound by the laws of gravity, but free to create a pictorial logic." Born in 1933, and reared in Virginia, Otis Huband began his formal art education after 4 years in the US Navy. He earned his BFA and MFA at Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William & Mary, now Virginia Commonwealth University. Two years after receiving his MFA, Otis and his wife Anne took a freighter to Italy where he studied painting and sculpture at Accademia di Belle Arti in Perugia. They made Houston their home when they returned to the US in 1965. A catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition will be available. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * Jason Mehl: Sculpture June 15 - July 20, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 15, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, June 22, 11:00am Maggie Adler, Curator, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, writes, "To me, Jason's works enact a process of perpetual transformation. Time slows in an evocation of the geologic and environmental processes with which his work is in harmony. Whether the forms resemble solidifying magma, the calcified bones of some mythic beast, or craggy stalagmites shaped by a persistent drip, they strike me as constant reminders of the meditative potential of manmade forms." Jason Mehl describes his sculpture as a study in the morphology of recollection, based on recurring patterns of nature and how we remember. The Texas born sculptor has divided his interests between art and science since high school at The Winston School where he worked with clay for hours daily. He continued these dual interests at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he received a BS in Environmental Science in 2002 with a Minor in Art. From 2002 to 2008, Mehl's diverse work and travel experiences provided visual and philosophical references influential in his sculpture: an internship for the Nature Conservancy at Clymer Meadow Preserve, a Blackland Prairie in North Texas; a trail crew foreman for riparian restoration in New Mexico; a research project in the wilderness near Joshua Tree, California; and extensive travel in wilderness areas from Costa Rica to British Columbia, always pursuing his interest in our environmental impact, which has since come to be known as the Anthropocene. Mehl lived in South Korea from 2008 to 2013. The move allowed him funding and free time while he taught at Seokyeong University and two others. During breaks he traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. He was the co-founder of "Something Something Project Space" in Seoul and helped develop rock climbing areas in Korea while presenting his sculpture in multiple exhibitions. His sculptural style had been evolving in unique ceramics since the late 1990's, but a major shift happened in Korea when he cast his first bronze in January 2011. We first became aware of Mehl's sculpture when he participated in the Fairmont Residency Program in Dallas in 2016-17. Valley House is pleased to present our first exhibition of Jason Mehl's bronze sculpture. * * * Jim Woodson: Time Enfolded May 4 - June 8, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, May 4, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, May 11, 11:00am The High Desert in Abiquiu has inspired Texas artist Jim Woodson since exploring the region via motorcycle in the late 1980’s. His paintings are a unity of the intuitive process of painting, personal ideology, and the desert landscape. Woodson embraces the concepts of time, space, and knowledge in his work and uses these three elements to title his paintings. Jim Woodson's personal ideology is expressed in the following short statements on painting (in no particular order): "Remember less, Explore More. Learn then forget, then look and discover. Move Thought into Thinking. A verb is more active than a noun. Try not to Know. A bit of knowledge spoils what can be discovered. Filter knowing at the end of the brush. Ideas Die if not Transformed." In 2013, Jim Woodson was honored by the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Commission on the Arts as the Texas State Artist of the Year in 2D. This designation is the state’s highest recognition for excellence in the arts. Woodson earned a BFA from Texas Christian University in 1965, and an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin in 1967. In 2014, Woodson was distinguished as Professor Emeritus at TCU, where he had been on the faculty since 1974. This is Jim Woodson’s fourth exhibition at Valley House Gallery. View the exhibition on Artsy * * * David A. Dreyer: Days Between March 23 - April 27, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 23, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Spring - water in the green creek is clear Moonlight on Cold Mountain is white Silent knowledge -- the spirit is enlightened of itself Contemplate the void: this world exceeds stillness. —Han-shan, Cold Mountain Chinese poet, translation by Gary Snyder This early Chinese poem echoes the way David A. Dreyer finds inspiration in stillness—stillness in nature and in the isolation of his studio. Observations of the vast landscapes and skies in Texas and New Mexico inform his personal language of pictorial elements built over time in layers of color and line. The process of painting is an uncertain path, fueled by curiosity and listening. Small graphite drawings are the impetus for Dreyer’s oil paintings, which develop through intuitive responses to the work as it progresses. Phrases written on the edge of the canvas at critical stages of the paintings’ development become titles in poetic verse that reveal transitions in Dreyer’s path within the abstract. Dallas artist David A. Dreyer earned his BFA in 1990 and his MFA in 1992, both from Southern Methodist University. We are honored to present his seventh exhibition at Valley House Gallery. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Michael O’Keefe: Recognitions February 9 - March 16, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 9, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, March 9, 11:00 am “Everybody has that feeling when they look at a work of art and it’s right, that sudden familiarity, a sort of...recognition, as though they were creating it themselves, as though it were being created through them while they look at it or listen to it...” ―William Gaddis, "The Recognitions" “A great deal of my recent work was made during a time when I was reading the great American novel by William Gaddis, "The Recognitions," the most demanding book I’ve ever read. Along the way, I extracted sentence fragments that interested me and I pieced them together to make the titles for the last three years of my work. So, my recent work is linked to Gaddis’ novel through the titles, but also in the theme of “recognition,” which speaks to the nature of my work. I feel my way through various processes until I recognize a possibility―a possibility that is promising in terms of visual dynamics but also in terms of giving a body to some part of my experience. It is my hope that the viewer is compelled to recognize some part of themselves reflected in the work.” —Michael O’Keefe Michael O’Keefe earned his MFA from SMU and currently teaches at The O’Keefe Studio Center in Richardson, Texas. This is his fifth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. Michael O’Keefe’s exhibition "Enduring In The Posture Of Love" is on view at The Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas through February 17. A catalogue for The Museum of Biblical Art exhibition, including an essay by Scott Peck, is available. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Miguel Zapata: Madrid / Dallas December 15, 2018 – January 26, 2019 Opening Reception: Saturday, December 15, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Madrid / Dallas is an apt title for our exhibition honoring Spanish artist Miguel Zapata (1940-2014). Miguel began dividing his time between the two cities in 1986, when he was the first contemporary Spanish artist invited for a solo exhibition at the Meadows Museum. SMU’s Luís Martín describes the self-educated scholar-artist as having “the greatest Renaissance mind that I have encountered in my life.” In sculptural reliefs, collages, and drawings, Miguel Zapata’s visual vocabulary contrasts architectural and figurative elements appropriated from the Classical past with bold, gestural elements of abstraction and text. Miguel’s intention was to achieve a balance between the frenzied vitalism of Dionysian forces and the harmony and beauty of Apollonian forces. In describing his work, Miguel Zapata said, “The images in my work are not the product of observing Nature; they proceed from the cultural baggage which has been stored in my memory, where vivid memories are combined with images pulled out of books, prints and even from simple oral descriptions; I gather them and order them within a coherent framework; I manipulate them, trying to reduce what was a multiplicity of things, into a unity in which the memory of the original image remains in a more or less deformed fashion. You might say that I work on the work of man. It is a melancholy, sometimes ironic, vision upon the readymade. Reality is reduced to pure archaeological data which almost constitutes a negation of the present. And it is imagination that has acted as an abstractive process, transforming it.” Since 1959, Miguel Zapata has had over 70 solo exhibitions in Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Japan, and the United States. In 2015, an exchange program bearing his name was established between Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, in Miguel’s birthplace of Cuenca, and Texas State University. A catalogue will accompany this exhibition. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Malou Flato: Recent Paintings November 10 – December 8, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 10, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: prior to the reception, at 5:30pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our first solo exhibition of paintings by Texas native Malou Flato. Over the past forty years, Malou Flato’s paintings have focused on the Texas landscape—its native flowers, blooming cactus, diverse citizenry, and especially its precious water and abundant sky. Flato has a studio in Austin and another on her great-grandfather’s ranch on the southwestern shoulder of the Hill Country, in Edwards County. “Texas is my inspiration,” she says. “I have made my life here, and I would like to think that my art reflects the place I know best.” Malou Flato’s works can be seen in many public places in Texas and beyond. They enliven a border crossing in Brownsville, park benches in Houston, the River Walk in San Antonio, a residence for single mothers in Austin, and a DART station in Dallas. She has been the featured artist of the Texas Book Festival. Central Market stores in five Texas cities have devoted prime space to her paintings, including their newest Dallas location at Midway and Northwest Highway. Beyond Texas, her murals grace subway walls in Boston and a public school in Washington State. The Art Center of Corpus Christi honored its native daughter with a solo exhibition in 2015. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * John Cobb: Italian Sketches November 10 – December 8, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 10, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our third exhibition of paintings by John Cobb. This exhibition is comprised of a series of small works painted on site during a recent residency in Italy. "We visit the land of dreams, through those winding narrow lanes, the poplars all in a row, the majestic cypresses, all in flash. We try to capture these scenes in the undulating landscape, so manicured, and we look for the vestiges of what might have been wild once. We look in the past, maybe of Corot wandering about amongst the oaks near Volterra, and we measure what we see, whether these idyllic landscapes can be represented in the faces of people we meet there. The modern world has its occlusions, it seems to create an ever-present strain upon our hopes, a snide and hurried disaffection. Can I reconcile these observations of the people's faces in the large cities with such a cultivated and deeply cultured realm? Is there a disconnect? Had I only gone to escape? Where-ever I went was I liable only to discover that lurking spirit of preoccupation. These doubts I cast aside in the doing of these works, silently and alone, I have intended to simply convey a newly conceived scene forever able to assuage man's terrors, a reinvention into the dream, an Italy of a deep history." JCobb View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Bob Stuth-Wade: Painting in Earnest October 6 - November 3, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, October 27, 11:00am For the last four years, Bob Stuth-Wade has used his vintage mobile studio “Earnest” to travel beyond his favorite Texas sites, painting along the coast of California, in New Mexico, Arizona, and across the country in North Carolina. In Texas he has continued his affection for Big Bend National Park and the Colorado River. About the exhibition title "Painting in Earnest," Bob Stuth-Wade says, “Incidental adventures color the intimacy of spouses living in a vehicle together. Earnest is a temporary home in the places I most love to paint. Sulphur Springs Fish Camp on the Colorado River feels more like home than our house in Dublin. Big Bend and Canyon de Chelly are the same. Standing or sitting at my easel in these places, there is a sense of sweet transparency. I become like the magnifying glass I held as a child that focuses the diffused light of the sun to a burning point. As an artist, I am a lens that focuses the diffused light of awareness and the beauty of this experience into a painting. That is painting in Earnest.” In addition to landscape paintings, watercolors, and drawings, a series of shell compositions will be shown in homage to Morandi’s bottles. This series stems from Bob’s practice of beginning each day by drawing shells to sharpen his vision. Bob Stuth-Wade’s self-directed art education began under his mentor, Dallas artist Perry Nichols, when he was still a student at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. "Painting in Earnest" is Bob Stuth-Wade's 10th solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. A comprehensive catalogue, with an essay by Rebecca E. Lawton, will be available. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Lloyd Brown: Cross Country on Highway 50 August 18 - September 29, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, August 18, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP Artist Talk: Saturday, September 22, 11:00am In Lloyd Brown’s examination of America, we see small town intersections, train crossings, and rural stretches of road, in paintings made after he traveled across the United States on Highway 50. With an inventive approach to shaping and framing his paintings—through curved surfaces, multiple panels, and overlapping images—Lloyd Brown helps us to see in new ways. About the exhibition title "Cross Country on Highway 50," Lloyd Brown says: "In 2005, I began photographing US Highway 50. My focus was a section of highway known as the Loneliest Road in America that traverses Nevada. Raised in Utah and Nevada, I grew up crossing the Great Basin. My divorced parents lived at opposite ends of the 500-mile divide of mountains and valleys. Highway 50 was the connection between Fillmore, Utah, and Reno, Nevada. In 2012, I extended the highway theme to include Colorado. In Fall 2014, I covered the rest of the highway on a road trip that took me all the way to Maryland. This is not a project to be completed in a single season. It will likely involve the rest of my life, but I really like the idea of covering the breadth of the nation from the vantage point of a single highway." Lloyd Brown lived in Texas for 21 years and now resides in Utah. This is his ninth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery, and a comprehensive catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Miles Cleveland Goodwin: Horseshoe Bend July 14 – August 11, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, July 14, 6:00pm - 8:00pm, RSVP I have walked along the Toccoa River underneath the old iron bridge for four seasons. I have seen as it has seen: the bend in the river, the beaver scampering away from the hellish howls of my relentless hound, who is fixed like a worm to wet earth. Inspirations are echoed from mountain top to mountain top, and slowly fall through the air down into my grasp. —MCG In Miles Cleveland Goodwin’s soulful compositions, he narrates the story of his life. Goodwin responds to his environment, the lives of common folk living around him, and the mysteries of life. Through his work, we experience the inherent ambiguities and provocations felt when confronting life as it is. Goodwin’s paintings metaphorically speak to the fundamental nature of life, in all of its heartbreak, wonderment, and everyday beauty. Miles Cleveland Goodwin was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, and raised in the South. He earned his BFA at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He lives and works in Georgia. This is his third exhibition at Valley House Gallery. View the exhibition on Artsy. Read Lin Wang's review of Miles Cleveland Goodwin's 2017 exhibition The Maze in Urban Art and Antiques. * * * Vera Barnett: Home June 9 - July 7, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 9, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, June 23, 11:00am Vera Barnett developed three distinct series of paintings to embody the meaning of an artistic and domestic life at Home - Portraits, Still Lifes, and Pets. Each series is anchored by a larger thematic painting and surrounded by miniature paintings - all created in a two-step process. First, Barnett fabricates her subject as a stage set made of cardboard, sewn fabric, and found objects. Then, she makes a painting from her construction in a trompe l’oeil manner. Her series of Portraits represent family life - herself, her son, and grandchildren. Childlike sketches on cardboard easels reference the budding of an artist's self-knowledge. At the age of 3, Barnett decided to be an artist, and still has vivid recall of the drawings she saw and made before entering kindergarten. Barnett's Still Life paintings embody the things we bring into our home. However, with an irreverent eye, Barnett selects everyday objects which remind her of other things: a pepper under a light bulb becomes a reclining sunbather and a radish becomes a plumed bird. In the playful series of Pets entitled "When the Cat’s Away" we see that our homes are never truly asleep and often beyond our control. Barnett says, "You may own your home, but other life forms share your house. While my husband's cat Taco is asleep, I imagine lively mice beginning to play in a halo of small paintings." Vera Barnett earned a 4-year certificate at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1981. In the mid-1980's, Vera Barnett and her husband, artist Jack Barnett, moved to Grandview, Texas. This is her third solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Trish Nickell: Points of View June 9 - July 7, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 9, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, June 16, 11:00am For artist Trish Nickell, life took a dramatic turn when she and her husband, David Szafranski, moved to Paris in 1996. Their planned year in France extended to a stay of 12 years. When they returned in 2008, they settled in Portland, Oregon, influencing Nickell to include views of the Northwest coast along with the French landscapes already inspiring her. Trish Nickell was born in Dallas, and grew up in the Park Cities, graduating from Highland Park High School in 1965. In 1968, Nickell earned a BA from University of North Texas, and in 1986 a MA from University of Dallas, followed by a MFA in 1988, also from UD. Independent study with artist John Evans was crucial to her development. About her work, Trish Nickell says: "Occasionally Nature gifts our eyes with a fleeting moment of beauty. As Pierre Bonnard said, 'Art begins in the sensation of being overwhelmed by the beauty of Nature.' That is where my new paintings begin. The views I choose to depict are derived from moments when Nature presents itself completely unsolicited with a certain light, a certain combination of colors exploding before me. I see all parts of the field of vision equally and simultaneously. The whole view is unique. It's not about one exceptional area within the whole. These views have a sense of solitude, but that solitude liberates the imagination and invites meditation. They may seem quotidian, but with closer awareness, abundant richness reveals itself. My friend and mentor John Evans says, 'All my paintings are of worlds where I want to be.' My paintings are also places in which I want to be, and I hope each viewer wants to enter the space depicted. Nature is perfection that cannot be duplicated. However, I take Nature's beauty and expansiveness into myself, allowing it to change and transform my work." * * * Allison Gildersleeve: High Frequency April 28 - June 2, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, April 28, 11:00am Behind my canvases, collages, and drawings lies a singular proposition: places are not inert; they are repositories for all that passes through them. My work is an inquiry into the experiences and sensations manifestly lodged within our surroundings—not as formal histories but as personal, ever-changing narratives. I deliberately return again and again to familiar settings—wooded areas, home interiors, open highways, back country roads—to show that repeated visits to the same place invariably result in wildly divergent depictions. The practice of drawing is an essential part of my work. One wall of my studio is dedicated to my drawings; it becomes a storyboard for the project at hand. I’m interested in the point where imagery breaks down into abstraction, but not completely—I always want to catch it before the sensation of place dissolves into pure mark making. Brooklyn-based painter Allison Gildersleeve spent her youth in rural Connecticut, where she was born. She earned a BA from the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1992, and an MFA in 2006 from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Valley House has represented Gildersleeve since 2014. A catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Watch an interview with Allison Gildersleeve and Cheryl Vogel on YouTube. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Anne C. Weary: True to Nature April 28 - June 2, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, May 5, 11:00am Where I draw is the home and world of the animals--deer, foxes, coyotes, rabbits, armadillos, and wild pigs—and of course birds. They’re all around somewhere when I’m drawing quietly and my land is a safe habitat for them. I cannot resist the beauty and atmosphere of the woods-unspoiled and untouched by humankind. Anne Weary’s studio is the outdoors and her drawings express a spiritual reverence for nature. On her land in Italy, Texas, she sets up a table in the woods, along the creek, or in a pasture, and makes finished drawings on site with graphite, charcoal, or conte. A drawing can take up to two months, one at a time, and Anne hopes the seasons don’t change her subject. Anne Weary was born in Dallas, and Texas land has inspired her art for most of her life. She began studying with Dallas artist Olin Travis at age 12. In 1979, she earned a 4-year certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she studied with Lou Sloan. Her focus was on drawing and she was awarded two prizes for excellence in drawing. Valley House’s founder Donald Vogel mentored Anne Weary and we have represented her since 1987. Her drawings are in the collections of the Arkansas Arts Center, Dallas Museum of Art, El Paso Museum of Art, The Grace Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, and Tyler Museum of Art. Read more about Anne Weary in Waxahachie NOW magazine. * * * Alex Corno: Iron and Graphite March 17 – April 21, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 17, 6:00pm – 8:00pm It is a great pleasure to welcome Italian sculptor Alex Corno for his second exhibition in the United States. Sculpture, wall reliefs, two-dimensional mixed media works, and drawings are arriving from his studio near Milan. In his abstract constructions, Corno does not make art to repeat what is visible, to paraphrase Klee’s affirmation. He uses the formal language of materials and space: opposing thin arcs, rods, and loops with weighty rectilinear forms to achieve a dynamic balance. Corno welds his iron and stainless steel sculptures in a diverse range of scales, from small interior works to monumental garden sculpture. Craftsmanship enhances every aspect of his work: from the welds, to the edges, and the bases that support them. Corno was born in Monza in 1960. He graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti de Brera in Milan in 1982. A catalogue will accompany this exhibition. Watch an interview with Alex Corno and Cheryl Vogel by Jeff Levine on moderndallastv * * * David Collins: Day Shift March 17 – April 21, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 17, 6:00pm – 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, March 17, 5:30pm Valley House has represented David Collins since 2010, and we are pleased to welcome him back to Texas for his third exhibition here. His 2016 move from the bustle of New York City to Long Island influenced a change in his palette that reflects the peaceful, natural atmosphere of his new surroundings. His personal iconography of shapes and memory continues to reference architectural elements, as well as aviation motifs inspired by his family’s history in inventing Cold War era technology. In these new paintings, the kaleidoscope of shifting geometric planes are painted directly onto sealed but unprimed linen. Collins is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a recipient of fellowships at Yaddo Artist Colony in 2003 and in 2005 and at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in 2008. Jesuit Dallas Museum will present an exhibition of David Collins' paintings and color monotypes, opening with a reception on Friday, March 23, 6:00pm-8:00pm. David Collins graduated from Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas in 1984. Jesuit Dallas Museum is located at 12345 Inwood Road, Dallas, TX 75244. The exhibition will be on view through May 28, 2018. Contact Jesuit Dallas Museum Director Elizabeth Hunt Blanc, 972-387-8700 x383, to schedule a tour. Watch an interview with David Collins in his New York studio on artthisweek.com Watch a gallery talk by David Collins about his 2011 exhibition Clearstory on the Valley House Gallery YouTube channel View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Cindi Holt: Inside Looking Out February 3 – March 10, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 6:00pm – 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, February 17, 11:00am Cindi Holt is a self-taught artist who was first inspired to paint in 1985 when she was 34 years of age. Her richly-detailed paintings are imaginative, carefree responses to a place. Even the formal rooms she painted of the Texas Governor’s Mansion in the 1990’s have an energetic warp described by Clint Willour, Patterns are chalk-a-block: bumping into one another; climbing over each other; jostling for space. Flowers on tables mate with those in the carpet and in paintings on the wall. Furniture takes on human form: chairs bow and tables stand on tiptoe... Central Market commissioned Holt to paint a three-panel panorama of the highlights of Fort Worth for their Fort Worth store, and a four-part mural for their café at the Preston Royal location in Dallas. The original paintings are on view at The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, respectively. Cindi Holt is a California native who lives in Fort Worth and has been represented by Valley House Gallery since 2003. * * * John Cobb: Reclamation December 9, 2017 – January 20, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, December 9, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, January 13, 11:00am When John Cobb enrolled in RISD in 1974, his realist tendencies were ostracized. Using funds intended for his education, Cobb moved to Europe, bought a Vespa, and learned by independent study in museums and by making watercolors in Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy. When funds ran low he returned to Austin to finish his art degree at St. Edward’s University. Valley House Gallery has exhibited his work since 2010. These small works are the result of a tribulation. Eyes that could see only double, a heart that gave out from chemo, facial surgery to remove half the face; I lived only in hope against hope to be able to work again. With that old dear longing, restored face, renewed heart, and improving health, I started again to recline upon the shores of Texas waterways and vistas wishing to express as simply as possible my love and delight at being able to see and paint again. Also included in this exhibition will be the egg tempera panel, Christmas, one of the recent paintings completed for The Chapel installation, now 36 years in the making. “God bless us one and all.”—Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens —John Cobb * * * Henry Finkelstein: Paintings December 9, 2017 – January 20, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, December 9, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, December 9, 11:00am Henry Finkelstein returns for his eighth solo exhibition at Valley House Gallery since 2002. A residency at Rochefort-en-Terre in Brittany, France, in 1992, and again in 2000, introduced him to this region where he returns each summer to paint. Finkelstein earned his MFA in painting from Yale University School of Art in 1983, followed by a Fulbright Grant to study in Italy. In 1994, he was elected a National Academician. Finkelstein has taught painting and drawing in New York City since 1996. Unlike strictly abstract painters, I paint mostly from direct observation. Nature offers me a necessary resistance that I find challenging. To this day, discovering new color relationships as I paint from nature remains a central focus of my work. I am not interested in documenting that fact of where I am, but in trying to convey what that place says to me. I go there, I enjoy the light, I enjoy the history. I’m more interested in my direct feelings from what I see, which come mostly from color. When I draw for a while, looking for a motif, color starts to give me a real buzz and I get excited. For me it’s the feeling I can imbue into the work and hopefully communicate to someone else. It is never fixed, but rather it lives on in its own right. This is the simplicity that I seek. —Henry Finkelstein * * * Donald S. Vogel (1917-2004): A Celebration November 4 - December 2, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 4, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Donald S. Vogel, along with his wife Peggy, founded Valley House Gallery in 1954. As a studio painter, Vogel allied himself with the temperaments of Vuillard, Renoir, and Bonnard. In his paintings, he created imagined worlds of color and light; contemplative works that exist as “moments of pleasure.” Early in his life he decided not to paint the hardships of his youth. Vogel studied at the Art Institute of Chicago where the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Nabi paintings were uplifting antidotes to his impoverished circumstances. The WPA Easel Project in Chicago gave him the prosperity of materials, models, and rent that let him work continuously. In 1942, Vogel moved to Dallas and received news that he won a coveted medal and cash award from the American Academy in Rome; however, the war prevented him from traveling to Italy. In 1951, he began dividing his time between the studio and the gallery when he became the director of the Betty McLean Gallery, and then Valley House. Through all the years, Donald Vogel always thought of himself as an artist first. This exhibition celebrates the 100th Anniversary of his birth year. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * Mary Vernon: Paintings September 23 - October 28, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 23, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, October 14, 11:00am About her recent work, Mary Vernon states, "I hope to prove this to you: drawing and painting are holding each other tightly, constantly interfering with each other. It's not that drawing is first and painting is last. It is not exactly that drawing is the truth and painting is the lie that we prefer. It is not at all that drawing is the outline and painting is the coloring-in. The two acts, drawing and painting, get in each other's way at every moment." This exhibition celebrates Mary Vernon's 50 years on the faculty at SMU. In recognition, the Mary Vernon Painting Prize has been announced by the Meadows School of the Arts. Join the effort to endow the prize, which will annually recognize an outstanding undergraduate art student as selected by the faculty of the Division of Art. Funds may be used by the recipient to open a studio or otherwise launch his or her art career. A legendary professor, Mary Vernon taught art history, painting, drawing, and color theory to thousands of students, including Valley House curator Cheryl Vogel. University students voted Vernon their favorite professor at SMU for ten consecutive years. Read a synopsis of Mary Vernon's career and influence written by Julie England and Lin Medlin, and a feature by Gail Sachson in Patron magazine. Read more about Mary Vernon's 50 years of art and teaching at SMU. A second Mary Vernon exhibition "Painting is Drawing" is on view at The Grace Museum in Abilene, through January 6, 2018. The Artist Reception will be Saturday, October 7, 5:00pm-7:00pm, at The Grace Museum. Watch a time-lapse video of The Grace Museum installation, and an interview with Mary Vernon about the exhibition. A Few Words about the Drawing/Paintings of Mary Vernon by Frederick Turner "It’s not that Mary Vernon doesn’t have an axe to grind; she does, but it’s not the ordinary kind, where the Artist’s Socially Responsible Message overwhelms the poor wretched image. It’s that the axe she grinds is one of sheer astonishment at the beauty of the world and, even more, of our perception of it if we open our eyes. Her pawings or draintings are like the very pieces of the world they represent: not the way a photograph is like them, but the way our real amazing jelly eyes grab them and try to make sense of them. They look as if they’d been there forever, with their quirky textures and odd bits of brightness and splotches and drips and smears and all. These lives are not still, but dancing with light and color—she is one of the great colorists of the world, but it’s all done with such insouciant mastery that one doesn’t feel got at or advertised to. She can be as glum and drab sometimes as any odd dim afternoon with some impending revelation or sudden retrospective insight in it. Vernon’s peculiar virtuosity—or rather the way she rides it—is a sort of solution to a big contemporary problem among good artists. There’s plenty of virtuosity about, and artists want to be singular. Do they just throw out their amazing gift, given to them for the solace and enlightenment of the world? Do they sneer at it while exercising it? Do they coyly disguise it? Do they show it off as a sort of conjuring trick, with an intellectual explanation? I’m not talking here about the usual bright artist who never bothered to learn virtuosity in the first place, and can get away with that these days. No, the really good artists around now, of whom Vernon is one, take their virtuosity as a gift, and give it away as a gift to our powers of sight and our capacity for joy. They don’t take it entirely seriously—it’s like dancing with a god, or wrestling with an angel—but they respect it too. They’re on such good terms with it that they’ll josh it a bit so it doesn’t put on airs. Mary’s outrageous sense of humor is everywhere in her work, but it’s not lightweight—it’s as serious as a Shakespeare comedy. And what Mary means by “drawing” is, I think, also more generally the virtuosic power of revelation, the sweet shock of the wabi-sabi of the world, its messy amazingness, its cockeyed calm. She’s a nature artist, one could say, but for her the human, technology and all, is still nature naturing, inventing odd aspects by which it sees itself anew." - Frederick Turner, 2017 View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * TREES A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. (Greek Proverb) An exhibition benefiting Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center August 19 - September 16, 2017 Opening Reception Saturday, August 19, 6:00pm to 8:00pm Native Plants for Birds Lecture by Dr. Tania Homayoun, Urban Conservation Program Manager, Audubon Texas Wednesday, August 23, 7:00pm The Big Thicket and the Sociability of Trees Lecture by Dr. Pete Gunter, Professor Emeritus, University of North Texas Monday, August 28, 7:00pm A Passion for Texas Native Trees Lecture by Tary Arterburn, Principal, studioOustide Thursday, August 31, 7:00pm Tour of Dogwood Canyon For Valley House Patrons Saturday, September 2, 10:00am Trees of Art and Life in the Middle Ages Lecture by Danielle Joyner, Visiting Assistant Professor, Southern Methodist University Thursday, September 14, 12:00 noon Artists included: Jack Barnett, Vera Barnett, Lu Ann Barrow, Kathy Boortz, Lloyd Brown, Lindy Chambers, John Cobb, Brian Cobble, Robert Cocke, Tim Coursey, David A. Dreyer, David Everett, Phil Evett, David FeBland, Henry Finkelstein, Barnaby Fitzgerald, Malou Flato, Bart Forbes, Lilian Garcia-Roig, David H. Gibson, Allison Gildersleeve, Miles Cleveland Goodwin, Cindi Holt, Otis Huband, Anita Huffington, Philip Van Keuren, Olivia Leigh Martin, Winston Mascarenhas, Mark Messersmith, Trish Nickell, Gail Norfleet, Michael O’Keefe, Shane Pennington, Phillip Shore, Everett Spruce, Jane Starks, Jim Stoker, Bob Stuth-Wade, James Surls, Olin Travis, Janet Turner, Valton Tyler, Mary Vernon, Anne Weary, Jim Woodson and Tom Woodward. Please check back as we are receiving work for the exhibition and will be adding it to the website. * * * Kathy Boortz: In Plain View (a mixed media celebration of Texas backyard birds) June 17 - July 22, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 17, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Kathy Boortz' mixed media sculptures of Texas birds are envisaged from pieces of wood found on her walks, developed by modeling heads in clay and welding legs in iron, then completed by painting the whole. Boortz describes the way she begins, "When I hike, my eyes are often downcast, feasting on the gifts of nature offered up by the natural world. Weighed down like a peddler, I arrange and rearrange the treasures I gather till I reach my destination, my home and studio, where I review and reassemble my stash, my prizes of singular beauty. The shapes I select lend themselves to further interpretation, semblances of the animal world which I revere and speak for. Some literally make themselves while others need tweaking but all in all, my aim is to lovingly portray the beauty, the humor, at times the harshness of the fauna of our natural world." * * * Lindy Chambers: No Glass Slipper (living off the grid in rural Texas) June 17 - July 22, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, June 17, 6:00pm - 8:00pm Gallery Talk: Saturday, June 24, 11:00am Lindy Chambers began her trailer paintings in 2011, inspired by the rural “off the grid” lives seen in the region near her Bellville, Texas, home. Beginning with thumbnail sketches and tonal studies, Lindy assembles these trailers—entrenched with their animals, trash, electric wires, propane tanks, and window units—into inventive, colorful compositions where dogs rule, and all strays are black. Detritus is littered throughout, a nod to an earlier series of large scale paintings and assemblages of non-biodegradable trash. She finds meaning in what others discard and overlook. Born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1949, Lindy spent her childhood drawing and riding horses with her identical twin sister, LeeLee. Marriage brought Lindy to Texas in 1972. She studied sculpture at the Glassell School of Art in Houston and built a foundry where she cast her own sculpture for many years. * * * Barnaby Fitzgerald: Concordances May 6 - June 10, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, May 6, 6:00pm – 8:30pm Artist Talk: Saturday, May 20, 11:00am Valley House Gallery is pleased to announce our 8th solo exhibition of Barnaby Fitzgerald’s oil paintings, egg tempera paintings, and drawings. He is a Professor of Painting at Southern Methodist University where he has taught since 1984. Fitzgerald spent his childhood in the Perugia region of Italy before receiving a Magistero degree in printmaking and drawing at the Istituto Statale d’Arte in Urbino. He received a B.F.A. at Boston University and an M.F.A. from Yale University, both in painting. Poet scholar Frederick Turner writes, Barnaby Fitzgerald’s outrageously gorgeous paintings are a guilty pleasure - yet the guilt is unnecessary, for they do not cloy or fatten us. They are as intellectually challenging and stimulating as they are sensually seductive. An exhibition catalogue, with an essay by Frederick Turner, Ph.D., will be available. * * * John Hartell: Paintings (1955-1993) March 25 - April 29, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 25, 6:00pm-8:00pm Valley House Gallery is honored to present a selection of paintings from the estate of American artist, John Hartell (1902-1995). We were introduced to Hartell's luminous paintings by a tip from a dinner guest at the home of his daughter, Dallasite Kay Cattarulla and her husband Elliot. John Hartell taught two disciplines at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York: freshman architects and graduate painters. He was a much-loved professor there from 1930 until his retirement in 1967; one of his most illustrious students is the architect Richard Meier. As an artist, Hartell's first solo exhibition was in 1937 at Kleeman Gallery in New York. He exhibited at Kraushaar Galleries in New York for four decades, beginning in 1943. The Hartell Gallery at Cornell University, under the Sibley Dome, is named for him. In describing John Hartell, the artist Michael Boyd writes, "He was engaged in a kind of visual alchemy, where the visible world is transmuted into pure color and light, where objects seem to condense out of light." John Hartell's daughters Kay Cattarulla and Mari Quint will attend the opening reception. * * * Mark Messersmith: Pay the Thunder No Mind - Listen to the Birds, and Hate Nobody March 25 - April 29, 2017 Opening Reception: Saturday, March 25, 6:00pm-8:00pm Artist Talk: Saturday, March 25, 5:30pm Valley House Gallery presents our third solo exhibition for Mark Messersmith, a Professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee. In lushly-colored paintings, Messersmith creates dense narratives packed with animals, birds, plants, and insects that express his concern for the shrinking world they inhabit. New to this exhibition are small paintings of birds. They are a dramatic shift in scale from his monumental paintings which are embellished with carved pediments and predellas that further the narratives and express his affection for Renaissance altarpieces and folk art. Messersmith earned a BFA at Fontbonne College in St. Louis, and an MFA from Indiana University. He was awarded the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting in 2006. Among the many museums that have collected his works are the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, Musée du Haut-de-Cagnes, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Tyler Museum of Art. The exhibition title is adapted from a quote by Eubie Blake. * * * David A. Dreyer: Till Things Never Seen Seem Familiar February 18 - March 18, 2017 David A. Dreyer was born in Dallas in 1958, and earned his BFA and MFA at Southern Methodist University. He has had solo exhibitions at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas and The Grace Museum in Abilene. We are pleased to present his sixth exhibition of paintings and sculpture at Valley House Gallery. An exhibition catalogue will be available. About this body of work, Dreyer states, "The art I make does not tell a direct story, but prompts one to find things truly unseen. In this exhibition, the works develop through intuitive improvisations, actions upon surface, and lines perpetually reflecting and responding to the previous surface condition until each piece manifests the familiar - a rightness of resolution - the gestalt. This echo of familiarity drives my work, as I simultaneously move head-hearted toward and away from where it comes." * * * Miles Cleveland Goodwin: The Maze January 14 - February 11, 2017 Valley House Gallery is pleased to present our second exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Mississippi artist Miles Cleveland Goodwin, along with the publication of a catalogue illustrating his recent work. Working in his open-air studio, Miles is deeply in touch with his surroundings – both corporeal and spiritual. He incorporates materials provided by the land - dirt, ash, nests, and the refuse of rural life – in his oil and egg tempera paintings, resulting in complex and unexpected surface textures. Likewise, his sculptures evolve through an intuitive process born from his natural inclination to see poetic metaphor in all he observes. Not unlike the spirit of Southern literature and Delta blues music, there is an autobiographical nature to his storytelling. Miles says, I don’t like to do things I don’t know. He paints to figure out who he is. In Goodwin’s soulful compositions, he narrates the story of his family and the essential nature of animals and land around him. In his work, we feel the temperature and humidity. We sense the ever-present spiritual forces that guide our world. We experience the inherent ambiguities and provocations felt when confronting life as it is. The honest intention and lack of guile behind the paintings resonates within us long after an encounter with his work. About this body of work, the artist states: I live in a small town in central Mississippi. I live here because there is a sense of the old world, old ways of doing things—rough hands and bright souls. When I drive to town every morning for three shots of espresso on ice, I see people with cemeteries on the side of their yards, those plastic flowers all around. People who are not racially divided, but together because of a long history of ups and downs. A place where the woods are swallowing homes like snakes eat eggs; they travel down the winding body of the highway roads. It is all so beautiful and true. Collectors Catherine Such and Douglas Walker, recently wrote an appreciation about Miles’ work: Miles Cleveland Goodwin looks at an America that is both long past and just within reach of the future. He crafts a unique landscape portrayed through a lens of archetype and myth and peopled with characters familiar or fantastic yet always resonant. Not quite dystopian, but fundamentally introspective and haunting, the work is meticulously crafted with layers both of material and allusion into a narrative that simultaneously draws the viewer into what might be happening but maintains a deep reserve. Nothing is quite straightforward and narratives are never definitively resolved in Goodwin’s work. Viewers are compelled to speculate about a greater story that lingers tantalizingly just out of reach. Longing, mythos, a gothic formality, and many recognizable but dreamlike elements provide an entry into an ultimately interior experience of his work. The subconscious experience of his art is deeply intimate. This rests on a bedrock of rare skill and ability, coupled with a distinctly southern artistic sensitivity. Goodwin expands his psychological themes with color – particularly white and crimson – and the depth of surface, texture, brushwork and manipulation of paint and material. Imagery arises through a complex and ever-evolving process of interaction between artist and materials. The result? An old master painting rescued from a corner of the attic. A scene played out in a landscape emerging from our shared anxiety for the future. Or a prophetic vision transfigured in pigment and feathers and branches. Deeply American, in its isolated landscapes and beautiful anxieties, the work of Miles Cleveland Goodwin endures. Miles Cleveland Goodwin was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1980, and raised in the South. He earned his BFA at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, and eventually returned to Mississippi. Valley House Gallery presented his first exhibition in Texas, Where We Prayed, in 2015. View the exhibition on Artsy. * * * PUBLICATIONS: >>>> Coinciding with David Gibson's retrospective exhibition is the release of two publications designed by award-winning Nazraeli Press, each with an essay by John Rohrbach, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art: >> "Images Panoramas Sequences" is comprised of three cloth-bound volumes spanning thirty years of work. Nazraeli Press states, "[this monograph] is a long-overdue survey of Gibson's highly-acclaimed photographic output. Working quietly and without regard to passing trends, David H. Gibson has created a body of work that celebrates the ethereal beauty of our natural world." Limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, this set is $250. >> "Still Light" is a hardcover monograph with 70 plates that are highlights from 30 years of Gibson's photography. Also limited to 500, this volume is $55. IN MEMORIUM: >>>> On August 5, our dear friend and artist Philip John Evett passed away at 93 years of age. Phil was a mainstay of the San Antonio art scene after moving to Texas from England in the 1950's. He taught at the San Antonio Art Institute for three years and then at Trinity University for twenty six years. He retired to his home and studio in the Hill Country in 1988 to work full time on his wood sculpture and ink drawings. Valley House first exhibited Phil's figurative sculptures in 2003 in the exhibition "Working with Wood." His dry British wit, gentle demeanor, and openness meant he befriended most everyone he met. It is rare to see octogenarian artists continue to produce art with great intensity; it is even more unusual to be able to say that the quality of the work is strong, excites, and continues to be relevant. Phil did this into his 90's. Texas has lost a major force in Texas Sculpture. I feel honored to have represented Phil, and called him my friend. One of my regrets as an art dealer is that Valley House was not representing Phil Evett 30 years earlier. Our hearts go out to his wife Joanne and to all of his friends who will miss him. - Kevin Vogel >>>> All at Valley House mourn the passing of one of Dallas' most avid arts patrons, Betty Blake, who celebrated her 100th birthday earlier this year. Betty and my father, Donald Vogel, opened the first important modern art gallery, the Betty McLean Gallery, in Dallas in 1951, at the newly developed Preston Center. They brought landmark exhibitions to Dallas, alternating internationally-recognized artists with Texas artists. In 1957, Betty, along with other modern art pioneering women in Dallas, including Lupe Murchison and Betty Marcus, worked hard to create and sustain the Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art. It merged with the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in 1963. Betty Blake was a long-term trustee of the American Federation of the Arts and received their Cultural Leadership Award in 1995. She also served locally on the boards of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. In her last years, Betty regularly visited Valley House on Saturday afternoons to say hello and to see what was new. She was insatiably curious and had a lifelong love of art and artists. We will miss you Betty. - Kevin Vogel >>>> Be sure to read Rebecca Sherman's magnificent profile on Betty Blake in the October issue of PaperCity magazine. * * * For press requests, contact Laura Green at LGreen@valleyhouse.com | ||||
