The Fort Worth Contemporary Arts building hosts exhibitions that showcase artists from both in and outside the TCU community.
Its first exhibition of this semester is “After Walker Evans,” gallery manager Devon Nowlin said.Most of the featured artists are Texans, from cities such as Houston and Austin, Nowlin said.
These new artists were selected to be contemporary mirrors to the radical and formal shift in photography that Walker Evans helped stylize during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Evans pushed the boundaries of photography, questioning both the reality of the object being photographed as well as the reality of the photograph itself.
The exhibit’s guest curator, Rachel Cook from DiverseWorks in Houston, chose contemporary artists that resemble Evans’ work.
“The photograph acts as a document, but it also stands for the thing,” curator Sara-Jayne Parsons said. “This is quite a problematic idea that involves a lot of photography critique.”
Unlike larger art galleries, the Fort Worth Contemporary Arts is able to “take some risks” when creating an exhibition, Nowlin said. In turn, the gallery’s featured artists are able to create their art specific to this location.
“Often times you’re going to find artists who are making brand new work here, or they are testing things out and [can] be somewhat experimental,” Parsons said, “but obviously, [they] have the critical support from the student and professional arts audience of Fort Worth.”
Admission is free and open to anyone.
“Contemporary art is often very challenging,” Parsons said. “Sometimes for people who don’t look at contemporary art very often might find it confusing or a bit of a turn off. But actually … a part of what we do here is really about taking time to help people feel comfortable in their environment so they can explore that challenge and feel free to ask a lot of questions … not be afraid to say, ‘Actually, I don’t get that,’ and that’s okay … because that’s what we are here for.”
The exhibit opens today and runs through Oct. 25. It displays the artists’ works in its gallery on the corner of Greene Avenue and Berry Street.
For more information on “After Walker Evans” and what other exhibitions are coming to the Fort Worth Contemporary Arts and the Moudy Gallery, visit http://www.theartgalleries.tcu.edu/.
