Liz Rodda, Plan For Victory, 2011, black jade icosahedron, 16 milimeters

As a means of introduction to Texas State University and the surrounding communities, this exhibition features the works of Liz Rodda, newly hired Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State. Rodda received her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art in the Studio for Interrelated Media Program. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally, including Dumbo Art Center, NY; CS 13 Art Space, OH; Big Medium, TX; Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, Germany.

Taking the legacies of minimalism and conceptualism as departure points, Liz Rodda applies a slightly off-balance logic to consider both small, everyday revelations alongside galactic, otherworldly concepts. Her exhibition, Altered States, is derived from speculations on escape, belief systems and desire in relationship to recent world events, personal experiences and imagined realities.

Using a variety of media, such as video, photography, sculpture and painting, Rodda’s projects often negotiate seemingly polar ideas such as possibility and impossibility, success and failure as well as irony and sincerity. Many works involve juxtaposing conceptually divergent images side-by-side. By transferring meanings to each other, the images introduce unexpected contradictions and supplement our balance of perception with a disruptive counterbalance.

As in Altered States, Rodda’s work expands on the intangible nature of desire and how it often shares the same mental space as futility. Her interests lie in the ability to subtly disrupt expectations and complicate perceptions by asking questions that draw more attention to the questions themselves than to the answers.

[www.lizrodda.com]

Randall Reid, Watch Tower, 2012, Steel, Paint, 5 x 7.25 x 2 inches

This exhibition highlights the works made by Professor Randall Reid on his recent Development Leave.

Randall Reid scavenges flea markets, junk shops, and garage sales for materials to make his intimate collages. Reid deconstructs his finds, then employs their parts in nearly two-dimensional works, unlike many “artist-pickers” who create assemblages from found objects without significantly altering their appearance. Fragments, once familiar, are often unrecognizable when they are juxtaposed with and/or skillfully joined to elements which the artist fabricates in his studio. Old measuring devices, discarded signs, rusted metal tools—these and similar cast-offs are repurposed as art-making materials and given another life in Reid’s hands.

Using a format of squares or vertical and horizontal rectangles, Randall Reid composes his collages in a highly formal way, either emphasizing their rectilinear structure or playing against right angles. Framing, both literally and figuratively, is critical throughout Reid’s art. In addition to the steel frames that surround the perimeters of the pictures, in some works concentric, internal frames draw the viewer to the collage’s center, as if looking through a series of windows or portals. In other compositions, which are either strictly horizontal or asymmetrical, Reid employs texture and line to visually engage and command attention.

Color is used in both restrained and dramatic ways. Elegant earth-toned palettes, nearly monochromatic, contrast with saturated hues and bright color swatches. In some cases typography adds an additional dimension— a single letter or fragment of a word refers to the world outside the work’s frame. While the collages are primarily formal in concept and design, elements such as typography allow outside narrative qualities to quietly creep in.

Above all else, Randall Reid’s collages and assemblages clearly demonstrate his love of materials—humble and unpretentious. On viewing these static works, one senses Reid’ s pleasure in actively scouring the shelves and tabletops and bins of flea markets for hours, and the sparks of inspiration he derives from spotting a broken tape measure or old road sign. As a result, the poetic nature of Randall Reid’s creative process is evident as visual poetry in his art.

– René Paul Barilleaux, Chief Curator/Curator of Art after 1945. McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas.

[www.randallreid.com]

W. Tucker, HO 89¢, 2011, charcoal, coffee, paper on paper,9 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches

“As a space to place images, a wall to me seems to be yet another version of a found object – which is what I often paint on: drawer fronts – reclaimed, old slatted wood blinds, book covers stripped of their pages.” - W. Tucker

Drawing on whatever surface seems appropriate – so goes the practice of Austin based artist W. Tucker. The richness of Tucker’s work is found in the relationship between his chosen “found” surfaces and what gallerist Nancy Whitenack calls “the idiosyncratic cast of characters he draws on these materials.” The patina of the materials contrasted with the fluidity and earnestness of the drawings upon them results in works that explore and exploit the relationship between a surface changed by time and the immediacy of a freshly made drawing. As Whitenack goes on to say, “The end result illustrates an artist that teeters between the world of the calculated and formal studio practice of materiality and the loose and unconscious practice of mark making.”

In addition to smaller works exhibited, Tucker will take up residence within the gallery space for the week prior to the exhibition’s opening to create a site-specific narrative drawing – made directly on the wall – which will evolve throughout the artist’s time there. In a unique opportunity to see Tucker at work, viewers will be allowed to watch the installation progress throughout the week.

[www.wtucker-art.com]

Colby Bird, Suit in Window, 2012, C-print, 5 x 7 inches

Mr. __________ decides that a doghouse must be built for for his 2 year old terrier.

Mr. __________ conceives of the design, and begins work in the basement of his home.

He applies the initial coat of wood stain to the first wooden beam.

He falls asleep on a couch in the basement.

He wakes up with a faint headache behind his eyes.

He contemplates the house he plans to build.

He shortens the length of the wooden beam with a saw.

He applies another coat of stain to the now shorter beam.

He falls asleep in the basement.

He wakes with a faint headache.

He thinks about the wood, stained a light brown.

He opens a window.

He cuts the beam again with a saw.

He applies another coat of stain.

He falls asleep.

He wakes with a headache.

He sees the wood.

He falls asleep.

He wakes up.

He has a headache.

He is asleep

Trained as a photographer, Colby Bird has a natural sensitivity to light and light sources. The presence and absence of light is an integral element of both his photographic and sculptural works. He considers his photographs to be not just prints, but rather the combination of light, paper, wood (frames), glass, camera, artist, and viewer.

In this exhibition, House Lamps, Bird is using light as a primary medium. In a fetishistic gesture towards artificial light, he has handmade 100 electric lamps. The dull glow of the bulbs, and the awareness of the power and labor required to illuminate them serves as a comforting reminder of the functioning of the world outside.

Joshua Wade Smith, Portage, mixed media, 96 x 24 x 60 inches

Each year, the School of Art and Design at Texas State extends an invitation to selected distinguished alumni to exhibit works in each of the areas of discipline in our studio program. The resulting survey exhibition is comprised of a variety of media and creative approaches that reflect the diversity found within our Art and Design alumni.

This year, as we celebrate our 12th year of this invitational format, we welcome back the following artists:
Matt Golden
Kristopher Leinen
Clay McClure
Lance McMahan
Ted Ollier
Joshua Wade Smith
Elena Velasco

Curated by Liz DeLuna. The first retrospective of works by South African graphic designer Garth Walker, courtesy of the Dr. M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University, Queens, New York.

Opening Reception: Tuesday, October 23 | 5 – 7 p.m.
Artist’s Lecture: Thursday, November 15 | 3:30 p.m.

Garth Walker, Front and back cover for ijusi issue #6 (The V8 Power Issue) ,1997, printed material

Widely regarded as the pioneer of post 1994 ‘South African rooted graphic design’, Garth Walker has taken the gospel of African creativity to conferences and workshops in more than 20 countries on all 5 continents. His image archive on South African vernacular street and township design is the largest extant, and covers literally everything from gravestones to type, signage, and architecture.

Garth Walker founded two of South Africa’s best-known graphic design studios. Orange Juice Design in the early 1990s (acquired by Ogilvy South Africa), and more recently in 2008, Mister Walker. Both studios work in the corporate sector for many of South Africa’s best known brands–on both large and small projects across a wide range of disciplines. But Walker’s real interest lies in “what makes me African – and what does that look like?” This forms the basis for much of his personal work. Since 1995, he has published his experimental studio graphics magazine, ijusi, to world-wide acclaim. The non-commercial magazine provides a platform for creatives globally to explore their own personal views on the African experience.

Garth Walker has exhibited or is represented in the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis Art Institute, International Center of Photography, National Portrait Gallery (UK), Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Biblioteque Nationale de France, Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), The Smithsonian, and numerous university and academic collections worldwide. His work has been featured in well over 100 books and magazines. Garth Walker is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), British Design & Art Direction (D&AD), The Type Directors Club (TDC NY), and The St Moritz Design Summit. He is a founding Trustee of the South African Brand Design Council (BDC).

I: November 26 – November 30
Opening Reception: Monday, November 26 | 5 – 7 p.m.

II: December 03 – December 07
Opening Reception: Monday, December 03 | 5 – 7 p.m.

III: December 10 – December 15
Closing Reception: December 15 | time tba

Ally Ingram, Pink, 2011, digital photography

Each student who earns a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Art and Design Studio curriculum is required to exhibit artworks that are generated in their Thesis semesters. Entirely conceived, designed and installed by the Thesis students, this exhibition highlights selections from those bodies of work.

Tommy Fitzpatrick, Nest, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 122 inches

Each year, the faculty in the School of Art and Design takes the opportunity to share their creative work with the university and surrounding community. A survey of artistic styles and disciplines, this exhibition is reflective of each faculty member’s current direction of work and is a chance for students and others to share in the creative lives of the Art and Design Faculty at Texas State.

Beili Liu, Stalemate/ 针锋相对, 2012, maple, graphite, string, mixed media, each element 6”x6”x18’

Beili Liu’s time and process based installations explore subjects of cultural specificity and overlaps, transient or persistent energy, and conflicting and confluent forces. Thread, paper, incense, wood, salt, water, these simple materials and compounds are the vehicles by which Beili Liu hand crafts microcosms of fragility and poignancy. By working on these everyday materials, Liu manipulates their intrinsic and bare qualities to extrapolate much more complex cultural narratives. Art in America Review has commended her works for being “materially simple but metaphorically rich” (Janet Koplos, April 2009).

Beili Liu is a multidisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. She has held solo exhibitions at venues such as the Hå Gamle Prestegard, Norwegian National Art and Culture Center, Galerie An Der Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich, Germany, Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center, Shanghai, Hua Gallery, London, UK, Nordisk Kunst Plattform, Brusand, Norway, and the Chinese Culture Foundation, San Francisco. Liu has participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, the Austin Museum of Art, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Alexandra Museum of Art, Louisiana, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Granary Gallery, Fiskars, Finland, the Kaunas Biennale—a survey of international contemporary fiber art, hosted by the National Gallery in Lithuania, and Hamburg Art Week, Germany.

Born in Jilin, China, Beili Liu now lives and works in Austin.

Peter Beasecker, Double Vase, 2009, porcelain, 16 x 8 x 15 inches. Photo: Harrison Evans.

New Century Modern, co-curated by School of Art and Design Professor Michel Conroy and Gallery Director Mary Mikel Stump, brings together the ceramic art of 10 North American artists whose work brings a contemporary vitality and validity to modernism, proving it to have persistent longevity and cultural currency.

New Century Modern features the ceramic works of:
Peter Beasecker
Sally Brogden
Sam Chung
Heather Mae Erickson
Steven Heinemann
Maren Kloppmann
Jim Lawton
Mark Pharis
Tim Rowan
Munemitsu Taguchi