Monday, October 22, 2012

Veronica Jaeger • Humano-Metric

Veronica Jaeger will bring her vision of humankind, its complexities and situations to life in her artwork as her exhibit, Humano-Metric, will be on display at the Ben Bailey Art Gallery at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Jaeger’s art will be on exhibit from Sunday, Nov. 4, through Wednesday, Nov. 21, with an artist reception and talk at 2
p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14. “The relation between the reality of the physical world and the reality of the mind is what moves me to create,” Jaeger said. “Part of this motivation comes from life’s emotions and experiences resulting in metaphorical imagery that exemplifies an opposites’ interaction between human nature and geometry. This connection figure-geometry is primordial in my work. “I begin organizing these ideas around the components I use to build my paintings like color-wooden blocks, human figures and faces, strings and some other objects, which unfold into the fusion of human and geometric explorations and its allegorical significances: comical, emotional, physical, spiritual, neutral,” she said. “This is the way I perceive life and existence, a permanent blend of good, bad and incomprehensible facts. This is the truth of life as I see it. My intention is to mock the palpable reality and its false sense of order, normalcy, security and stability.” Jaeger lives and works in South Texas. Her work has been exhibited at different national and international venues, including the Museo Contemporaneo de Arte in Tamaulipas, Mexico; the Museum of Art and Sciences in McAllen; the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee; the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana; and in galleries in New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Universidad Rafael Urdaneta in Maracaibo, Venezuela and a master’s degree in studio painting from the University of Texas-Pan American. In 2008, she was awarded a grant by the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and in 2009 she received the Lenore Segan Award from the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation in New York City. Most recently, she has participated locally in the Texas Biennial and as a finalist on the Hunting Art Prize during the 2010, 2011 and 2012 competitions in Houston. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 361-593-3401. 
Julie Navejar julie.navejar@tamuk.edu or 361-593-2590  -TAMUK-

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Arturo Garcia Bustos

Ben Bailey Art Gallery is site of historic Mexican art by Bustos Ben Bailey Art Gallery - 09/28/12 - 11/02/12 Contact: Julie Navejar julie.navejar@tamuk.edu or 361-593-2590 One of Mexico’s most significant cultural assets is its legacy within the history of art. Mexico produces influential visual art that successfully extends far beyond the geographic borders of its creation and continues to impact and educate the world. In the printmaking medium, Mexico has truly created a masterful proportion of original visual art embodying the ever-changing spirit of the nation. The exhibit
presents the legacy and history of Mexican art. The Bustos exhibit will be on display at the Ben Bailey Art Gallery at Texas A&M University-Kingsville starting Thursday, Oct. 4, and continuing through Thursday, Nov. 1. An official opening ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9. Octavio Fernandez Barrios, curator for the show and director of the Museo Nacional de la Estampa in Mexico City, will be the guest speaker. The exhibit is part of the university’s Presidential Performing and Visual Arts Series (PPVAS). Barrios is a renowned expert on the history of art in Mexico and specializes in modern and contemporary art. He has taught classes in these areas at the University of Morelos, Institute of Technological and Superior Studies in Monterrey and at various other universities as a guest speaker. He also is an expert in the conservation and restoration of art pieces and esthetics and production of art, as well as developing a variety of art projects in Mexico and serving as curator for various shows in the United States. The exhibit features 44 original prints by Bustos, who is recognized as one of the greatest Mexican lithographers and as one of the best Mexican painters and muralists. His murals can be seen in the Oaxaca room of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico, the metro station at the University of Mexico and the stairways of the Municipal Palace in Oaxaca, just to name a few. In 1999, Bustos and his wife, Rina Lazo, a famous artist in her own right, conducted a master’s class in Italy, teaching the art of the mural. As the result of the political and social upheavals of the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to the early 1920s, the experimentation and process-driven media of printmaking provided an inexpensive avenue of creating visual narrative intersecting elements of political, social and artistic revolution. From these political and artistic experimentations emerged printmakers that continue creating striking narratives facilitating social commentary. The artwork of Bustos, one of Mexico’s most renowned artists and master printmakers, represents this paradigm shift in Mexican art. He is one of the last surviving students who worked under Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Those students were known as Los Fridos. Bustos was born in Mexico City near the Zocalo. The cultural and political environment fascinated the youthful Bustos, as he is called by his friends and family, and greatly influenced his artistic development. In 1941, when he was 15, he entered the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas and the following year entered the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura, where his teachers were Kahlo, Feliciano Pena, Agustin Lazo and Maria Izquierdo. In 1945, he was one of four students who followed Kahlo to Coyoacan, where he entered the Taller Grafica Popular and participated in founding the group Artistas Jovenes Revolucionarios. It was then he met Rina Lazo, who was assistant to Rivera at the time. She would become his partner and wife for over 60 years. They share the Casa de la Malinche, where they both paint and create engravings. In 1952, the Frente Nacional de Artes Plasticas was founded, recognizing that this group of artists would be the representative of the workers in the arts in Mexico. In 1953, he went to Guatemala with his wife, who was Guatemalan by birth, and gave an important workshop on engraving. These works are still exhibited in Guatemala. Bustos works with four main themes in his lithographs: scenes of rural Mexican life, the fight of different towns for liberation, the campaign in favor of disarmament and peace, and portraits of people. His hundreds of works have been exhibited in Argentina, Austria, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States. He has been a member of the World Peace Council, the Mexican Plastic Arts Hall and the Mexican Academy of Arts, among other organizations. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 361-593-3401. About the Presidential Performing and Visual Arts Series The Presidential Performing and Visual Arts Series is a year-long program of art, music and theatre performances that bring culture and variety to Kingsville for faculty, staff, students and community audiences. The series strives to provide a new element of learning outside the classroom for students as they are entertained and educated through diverse mediums. Community members are welcome to continue life-long learning by attending these events. -TAMUK-

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sarah Fisch, Art Career 101

Sarah Fisch Speaks On Poor Media Coverage Of South Texas Art 
Posted by: Kristina Canales on March 26, 2012
Sarah Fisch A woman who’s experienced bright cities like New York and Los Angeles loves it in South Texas. It’s the sense of community, the art, the writing, the music. Why is it that the rest of the world doesn’t see our area the way only a select few do? “The only time they talk about us is for hurricanes or shooting Selena,” said Sarah Fisch, San Antonio-based journalist for glasstire.com. Fisch is traveling across areas of South and West Texas for her “Chupacabrona Tour” and treated Art and journalism students here at AMK to a lecture on Friday. She grew up in San Antonio but like many students, she aspired to move out of the state to bigger and brighter cities like New York City. She was astounded by how much she missed that good ole Texas culture and eventually made her way back years later. “I feel like as artists we have a certain obligation to represent where we came from,” said Fisch. “South Texas is a force. There’s just not enough media coverage of the area.” According to Fisch, she is irked by the things people associate with this area, “poverty porn” as she called it—the decline, the broken down buildings, etc.—so she raised about $6,000 and took off in her car to begin talking to people and experiencing what it is that makes South Texas bright and cultural. Her advice to aspiring artists and journalists? Just go with it. Find something that really grabs you and just run with it. “Any idea you have,” explained Fisch, “social media it. Collaborate. Take advantage of being in school because you are each other’s resources. Do stuff you never thought you could do.” The economy is still rough and more and more artists are fleeting New York, but they’re bringing back what they got. Fisch is encouraging people to go to those big cities and learn—you can get information anywhere. She also added to not be afraid to have influences. It’s easy to be inspired by someone else’s work because in the end, it will be your voice put into something you do. The only way to become good at something is to do it over and over. “Ok, the truth is,” said Fisch, “it’s really hard to make a living so you better love it.” Art Career 101

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Joyce Jablonski, Transcendental Dialectic

Ben Bailey Art Gallery
On View:  March 21 – April 20, 2012
Artist Talk: Wed. March 21st, 6PM – 7PM
Reception : Wed. March 21st, 7PM –9PM


Artist and educator Joyce Jablonski will bring her ceramics exhibit to the Ben Bailey Art Gallery beginning Wednesday, March 21, and continuing through Friday, April 20.  Transcendental Dialectic seeks to continue investigating the sculptural installation forms as well as graphic images with china paints and decals on two-dimensional tiles.

She will have an artist’s talk at 6 p.m. March 21, in the Little Theatre followed by a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. in the art gallery.

“My work has always been nurtured by the idea of ‘the nature of the being’ which seeks to question the traditional definition of the sacred and the secular,” Jablonski said. “I consider myself a modern-day shaman, who also questions, challenges and hopes to bring new meaning to the ordinary. New metaphors emerge in a modern medium to seek the universal truth. I also seek an inner awareness of myself through the intuitive drive, creating works of art and teaching the value of things beyond appearance.”


About Joyce Jablonski

Jablonski has more than 20 years’ experience teaching and making art in universities and in art organizations. She is currently professor of art and head of ceramics at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. She teaches ceramics. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Artsdegree from Youngstown State University and her Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Texas at San Antonio.

Her artwork has been widely exhibited in venues that include South Bend Regional Museum and the Snite Museum of Art in South Bend, Indiana; the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada; and the McDonough Museum and Butler Institute of Art in Youngstown. Her work has been shown in local galleries during National Council on the Education of Ceramic Arts conferences in San Antonio, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Phoenix and San Diego.

Jablonski’s work also has been shown in the Midwest Museum in Elkhart, Indiana and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri. She has been featured in exhibitions for five consecutive years at the Navy Pier New Art Forms and Art Exposition in Chicago and in Feats of Clay XII at the Lincoln Arts Center in Lincoln, California.

Internationally, her work has been exhibited in Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, New Zealand, Argentina, China and Russia.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Nancy Moyer, The Bicameral Face

A Conceptual Theory through Digital Photographs
Ben Bailey Art Gallery
On View: Jan 27 – Feb 22, 2012
Reception and Artist Talk: Wed. Feb 1st, 6PM – 9PM
Talk Starts at 6:30 PM















Art gallery exhibit features look at human faces 

Artist Nancy Moyer will explore the theory that all faces have three sides in her new art exhibit at the Ben Bailey Art Gallery at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The exhibit, The Bicameral Face, begins Friday, Jan. 27, and continues through Wednesday, Feb. 22. An artist reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, with Moyer speaking at 6:30 p.m.

“We are all aware of the asymmetry of the human face, but what causes it?” Moyer said. “I decided to explore a theory of brain function as it affects our face and discovered a fascinating approach to the portrait.

“With my Faces, I have created a series of portraits that I believe more accurately depict each individual than would the traditional single-image portrait. The visual effect of this complex mind structure is demonstrated through a variety of individuals who make many decisions on a daily basis,” she said.

Moyer said The Bicameral Face shows the three true personas that existed at the time of the photograph including the Empirical merged face, or the person we see; the Commander, or the dominant side who receives and generates information and has cosmic connections; and the Facilitator, or the side that analyzes information and manifests it into a visible or public act.

“I discovered that the face is a dynamic organ. Depending on the person’s daily experience, the asymmetry may change,” she said. “I re-photographed several of the faces and they were different each time. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

“With this exhibit, I identify some dual personalities, some inner conflicts and show the window of the brain through the facial windows of my subjects. I hope viewers will think about their own faces from this point of view and consider using this concept as a way towards a better understanding of themselves and those around them.”

About Nancy Moyer
Moyer is Professor Emerita of Art at University of Texas-Pan American. She was chair of the art department there for 17 years. She is currently chair of the McAllen Arts Council, art critic for the McAllen Monitor and has served as managing editor of Voices of Art magazine.
She has had 10 solo exhibitions and over 90 juried and group shows with mostly drawing and metal work.

Her most recent exhibits include Jackrabbits! a collaborative public sculpture commission by the city of McAllen; Chain Show, at the Blue Heron Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine; and the Fifth Anniversary Exhibit at Galeria 409 in Brownsville.

Published jewelry works include Defensive Ornament, by Schiffer Publishing Company, due out this spring; Art Jewelry Today 2, Schiffer Publishing Company; The Craft of Making Jewelry, Lark Books Press; 500 Brooches, Lark Books Press; 1000 Rings, Lark Books Press; and Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing by Tim McCreight, Brynmorgan Press.
Moyer’s metal work is included in the slide archives of the National Ornamental Metal Museum.

Contact: Julie Navejar julie.navejar@tamuk.edu or 361-593-2590
For more information, call 361-593-3401.
-TAMUK-




Artist’s Statement

According to Leopold Ballak, M.D., the face is the window of the brain. “The left side of the face, controlled by the right side of the brain, expresses feelings and passions more intensely than the right side. As a result the left side tends to record a deeper, perhaps more revealing pattern of emotions than the more easily controlled right side of the face.” (reverse for left handers).

It turns out that this describes the actions of Julian Jaynes theory, “The Bicameral Mind.” My interest is directed further toward the visual and physical effect the brain exerts on the face, and why. According to Julian Jaynes, the bicameral mind, which was an evolution of our early brain, identified a Master Control (right side). This side commanded; the other obeyed. The right side was able to tap into a variety of knowledge sources: its own active synapses, bioelectrical resources from within and without, the cosmic consciousness, etc. As logic (left side) evolved and offered a better way of social interacting, the bicameral master control mind with its vast bioelectrical resources de-evolved. It ultimately was seen as disruptive and primitive. We are left with two distinct brain hemispheres that don’t work together as well as they once did. The vestiges of its process has been seen as a gift, since, unlike the logical mind, the right side could often foretell the future, and warn of unseen dangers. Evolved down into the “intuitive” brain, it is our sixth sense. Although it has declined from a probable audible voice to a “hunch” or a “gut feeling,” it is still often identified as “the voice within.” Bucky Fuller identified the bicameral mind structure inadvertently with his Phantom Captain: the little person inside operating the controls.

• The Empirical merged face: the person we see;

• The Commander: the dominant side who receives and generates information and 
   has cosmic connections;

• The Facilitator: who analyses information and manifests it into a visible, or public, act.
   Or doesn’t, which forms an interesting conflicted face.

I also discovered that the face is a dynamic organ. Depending on the person’s daily experience, the asymmetry may change. I re-photographed several of the faces; they were different each time. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

With this exhibit, I identify some dual personalities, some inner conflicts, and show the window of the brain through the facial windows of my subjects. I hope viewers will think about their own faces from this point of view, and consider using this concept as a way towards a better understanding of themselves and those around them.





Professor Emerita of Art, UTPA
Chair of UTPA Art Department for 17 yrs

As an Art advocate, I am currently Chair of the McAllen Arts Council, Art Critic for the McAllen Monitor, and have served as Managing Editor of Voices of Art Magazine

Exhibitions:
• 10 solo exhibitions
• Over 90 juried and group shows; mostly drawings and metal works, work ing in the medium that
  best expresses my current concept.

Most recent activities:
• Jackrabbits! Collaborative public sculpture commission, City of McAllen
• The Bicameral Face: IMAS, and Brownsville Museum of Fine Art
• Chain Show, Blue Heron Gallery, Deer Isle Maine
• 5th Anniversary Exhibit, Galeria 409, Brownsville
• Counterflux: Defensive Ornament, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle Scheduled for 2012:
• Continuations: a Retrospective, Kika de la Garza Fine Arts Center, Mission Scheduled for 2013
• Multiple Exposures: Jewelry and Photography, Museum of Art and Design, New York; my work
  has been selected for this curated exhibit scheduled for August 2013.

Published jewelry works include:
• Defensive Ornament, Schiffer Publishing Co – due out spring 2012
• Art Jewelry Today 2, Schiffer Publishing Co.,
• The Craft of Making Jewelry, Lark books Press, New York
• 500 Brooches, Lark Books Press, New York
• 1000 Rings, Lark Books Press, New York
• Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing, by Tim McCreight. Brynmorgan Press

My metal work is included in the slide archives of the National Ornamental Metal Museum

Nancy Moyer Production of Bicameral Face



Video by of Ruben Avila and VisualArtsNetwork