The first exhibition in the new location will be Recent Paintings by Robert Jessup. Also opening that evening will be a group show of works by Annabel Daou, Lance Letscher, Johnny Robertson and James Sullivan.
RECENT PAINTINGS by ROBERT JESSUP
and a Group show
Conduit Gallery, one of Dallas most respected contemporary art
galleries, is moving from Deep Ellum, where it opened in 1984, to a
warehouse space in the Design District.
The first exhibition in the new location will be RECENT PAINTINGS BY ROBERT JESSUP. Also opening that evening will be a group show of works by ANNABEL DAOU, an artist now
living in New York; LANCE LETSCHER, who lives in Austin; JOHNNY
ROBERTSON, from Fort Worth, and JAMES SULLIVAN, the chair of the
Department of Art at SMU.
ABOUT ROBERT JESSUP
Within Robert Jessups visually enticing paintings unfold complex and
mysterious narratives - acutely constructed in order to encompass all
that a painting can communicate to its audience. Images of characters in
familiar settings are distilled, then made monumental, though a process
of memory and imagination, creating enigmatic allegories which explore
the deeper musings of the psyche as the artist wanders from the kitchen
to the backyard, from the winding road to the deep winding forest. As
layered and piled with reverberating meanings as they are with complex
color and richly textured impasto, the pictures abound with references
from the history of Western art, from Bruegel to Balthus by way of
Titian, Monet, Leger, Picasso and Tenniel to name a just few. These
diverse influences are lovingly acknowledged and yet are synthesized to
form a most singular vision.
Robert Jessup is a nationally recognized artist who has work in major
museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum in New York; The
High Museum, Atlanta, GA.; The Blanton Art Museum at the University of
Texas, Austin and the Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia. His work
is also included in numerous corporate and private collections around
the United States. Jessup is a professor of painting and drawing at
the University of North Texas. He came to UNT from professorships at
University of Hartford, in Connecticut, and Cornell University, Ithaca,
NY. He has an MFA degree from University of Iowa, and undergraduate
work at the University of Washington and Harvard University. He has had
numerous exhibitions since coming to Texas, including shows at the
Galveston Art Center; The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi;
Museum of East Texas, Lufkin; Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont;
Joseph Rickards Gallery, New York, Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA;
McMurtry Gallery, Houston.
Image:Robert Jessup, The Bath, 2002, oil on canvas, 67x84
___________
ABOUT THE ARTISTS IN THE GROUP SHOW
Annabel Daou will be showing new paintings comprised of multiple blocks
mounted on the wall, or stacked from the floor up the wall, as if the
drawings, upon the blocks, were reaching and grasping for a hold on the
wall. Lance Letschers collages use old paperback books cut up and
configured into geometric patterns that are poetic and visually
stunning. Johnny Robertson is a painter whose distilled abstract
canvases resonate with surfaces that have the irrational behavior of
liquid mercury. The figurative sculptures of James Sullivan are
constructed of straw and plaster over steel armatures. The materials
used by the sculptor evoke a sense of the fragility and temporal nature
of the human body.
_________
ABOUT THE CONDUIT GALLERY
Conduit Gallery was founded by Nancy Whitenack, who opened the gallery
in March 1984, with its first space on Elm Street in Deep Ellum. The
gallery moved to 3200 Main Street, in 1991, into a space designed by
Dallas architect, Graham Greene. Moving from its space in Deep Ellum,
to the Design Center, will double the amount of exhibition space of the
previous location. Along with having 2 separate exhibition areas, the
gallery will maintain its commitment to the Annex Gallery, with what
will be known as the Projects Room.
It is an exciting move to an area of the city that is already an
international trade center, and rapidly developing as a destination for
contemporary high-rise living, shopping and entertainment, said Ms.
Whitenack.
A reception to celebrate the exhibitions, the artists, and the new space will be Saturday, May 11, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 1626 C Hi Line Drive.
Both exhibitions will be up through June 15.
Conduit Gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m..
Call (214)
939-0064 for more information.
Lisa Taylor
Taylor-Made Press
923 Salmon Dr.
Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 943-1099 (phone)
(214) 943-9285 (fax)
Conduit Gallery
3200 Main, suite 2.5
Dallas, Texas 75226
ph. 2149390064