Archive

Photography / Through the Artist's Lens

With deep familial roots in Central Texas, Rocky Schenck returns to Austin for a one-person photography exhibit at the Stephen L. Clark Photography Gallery on West 6th Street. Schenck was born in Austin and grew up in Dripping Springs. His ties to the Hill Country's artistic legacy date back to 1851 when his great-great grandfather, Hermann Lungkwitz, and great-great uncle Richard Petri - both artists of considerable reputation - immigrated from Germany.

The exhibit opens on November 8 with a reception for the artist who will be on hand to sign his recently published book, Rocky Schenck Photographs. In this, the latest volume of the Wittliff Gallery Series published by the UT Press, John Berendt's introduction links this talented photographer's work with both the 19th century pictorialist tradition and 20th century Modernism. "For me," says an enthusiastic Steve Clark, "Rocky's work is like peering through a looking glass into another time, if not another world, where even familiar things feel as though they appeared in my dreams." The exhibit runs through December 20.

Mixed Media / Footprints

Just down the street, at Lotus Gallery - an inviting space devoted to Asian art - Cecilia Ling brings together photography and Chinese calligraphy in her mixed media imagery through November 29. Using digital photographs inspired during her extensive travels in Asia, Europe, South America, and the United States, Ling creates rich assemblages with calligraphy and handmade paper.

"For years, I have taken business trips throughout the US, as well as to Asia, South America, and Europe. My photography and calligraphy are a kind of footprint of these journeys. Capturing the beauty of the land and the people is my way of learning and expressing my love for local culture. Whenever I see photos - other people's or my own - it is as though the special moments of life they capture are beautiful dreams revealing inner truth." --Cecilia Ling

Launching Careers / Celebrating Success
All across Austin, galleries and museums are launching careers and receiving accolades for the artistic talent they have nurtured.

Women and Their Work, Arthouse (TFAA), and Austin Museum of Art have led the way in recognizing artists such as Julie Speed, Melissa Miller, Damian Priour and others who have gone on to be recognized nationally. This month, Arthouse brings to the foreground yet another Austin artist whose success we celebrate.

Sydney Philen Yeager: Little Mysteries opens at Arthouse on November 21 and runs through mid-January. Organized by the Galveston Art Center, this exhibit surveys paintings produced between 1992 and 2002 and explores a progression of the artist's ideas through paint and drawing. The earlier paintings concern themselves with recurring imagery - torsos, lilies, hands - drawn onto richly colored, impasto paint surfaces. Over a decade, Yeager's work evolved becoming more and more abstracted as highly organic imagery and textural surfaces emerged. "If her earlier paintings were chock full of nouns," says Mark L. Smith, in the exhibit catalogue, " {the} later ones are mostly verbs."

In December, Yeager continues her chronological evolution when her one-woman exhibit of most recent work opens at d berman gallery. These new paintings continue to explore the bounds of pure abstraction while still corresponding to her interest in the natural world. They maintain an energetic tension which echoes the friction of Nature: untamed chaos vs. harmonious order. They are richly saturated paintings with a strong sense of movement. Yeager will give a talk at Arthouse on January 8, and be available for questions at d berman gallery on January 10.

Around town ...

• At Zandoozi Gallery, Daryl Colburn's collector series, Natura, will be available through December. The series of elongated copper panels are infused with acid patinas and use organic materials to add a rich textural quality.

• At Davis Gallery, new work by SODALITAS explores the collaborative process and the possibilities of three minds working together on an individual piece of art. As each artist - Shea Little, Joseph Phillips, and Jana Swec - adds his/her personal vision to the canvas, the lines between conception and destination are quickly blurred. The trio's work, along with Brian Bowers' photography is on view through December 13.

• Rounding out the wealth of local talent currently showcased, Texas favorites Will Klemm and Jerry Ruthven invite collectors to view their newest work. Klemm's exhibit at Wally Workman Gallery includes the sensual pastels for which he is so well-known and a premiere collection of oil paintings. At Gallery Shoal Creek, Ruthven's more realistic imagery conveys his love of the Texas Hill Country where he has spent a lifetime walking creek beds and following fence lines.