500 MAIN Summer 2016 Newsletter tête-à-tête : Folk Art and Fine Art from the Permanent Collection On View: June 18 through September 4, 2016 Opening Reception: Friday, June 24, 6 - 8 p.m. Featured Speakers: Karol Howard and George Morton Every summer, AMSET takes great pride in featuring an exhibition curated from our vaults – giving us the opportunity to exhibit works from our permanent collection in the main galleries. AMSET has gained recognition for its significant and growing collection of regional folk art, which is highlighted along with fine art from our permanent collection in tête-à-tête: Folk Art and Fine Art from the Permanent Collection. This exhibition pairs both folk and fine art from the permanent collection that speak together in their subject matter, aesthetic nature or visual relationship. Art historians and museums take delight in categorizing art objects based on style, media, type, decade, etc. often highlighting the differences between objects, for example a collection of decorative arts (such as Georgian silver) and fine art (such as a painting). Although James H. Evans, Bull Snake on Sofa, 1992, brown toned groups and definitions are certainly gelatin silver print, Museum Purchase from the Artist, useful, it is PC 1996.05 often invigorating to present seemingly disparate objects together, visually creating a synergistic conversation amongst artists, styles, objects and media that are not always readily apparent. In tête-à-tête, a lively discourse is created by the visual conversation sparked when art and artists of bifurcated worlds collide. This fresh look at our permanent collection invites audiences to engage with the similarities, differences, concepts and intentions behind the creation of fine and folk art, as well as our art historical categorization of objects, shedding fresh light on the relationships formed by unlikely pairings created through the amalgamation of art worlds. This exhibition is generously funded, in part, by Marcia and Seth Crone, the City of Beaumont, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Sulton Rogers, Head, 1992, Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund, the Texas Commission on paint, wood, plastic beads, Gift of Sylvia and Warren the Arts, an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Lowe, PC 1996.01.02 Works and the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation. TERESA BAKER: shape, line, what the eye is doing On View: June 18 through September 4, 2016 Opening Reception: Friday, June 24, 6 - 8 p.m. Featured Speaker: Teresa Baker Born in Watford City, North Dakota, Teresa Baker is a relative newcomer to the Southeast Texas art scene. She is known for her minimal, process-based works of immense bravura achieved through a melding of original materials and non-objective, unencumbered vision. Baker received her BA in Visual Arts from Fordham University, New York in 2008, followed by her MFA from the California College of Arts in San Francisco, 2013. Prior to her academic studies, Baker was awarded a painting and drawing intensive at the prestigious Gerrit Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands. The artist has exhibited widely on the west coast, and is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies. This exhibition is Baker’s first solo museum exhibit in the Southeast Texas area, and presents fresh works by the artist highlighting her experimental and sophisticated use of textures, color and space in the artistic process. Often incorporating vinyl, felt and Teresa Baker, Fill (detail), 2016, other fabrics with acrylic paint, Baker creates artworks fluorescent vinyl on vinyl coated mesh, that seem to dynamically propel off the wall with their loan courtesy of the artist strong visual form and texture. The artwork in this exhibition highlights Baker’s process and recent use of vinyl coated mesh as a means for further exploration of shape, lines and folds in her media – proffering limitless boundaries for artistic expression. This exhibition is generously funded, in part, by the City of Beaumont, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund, the Texas Commission on the Arts, an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works and the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation. CAFÉ ARTS IN A WORLD OF HORSES : Cheryl J. Cathcart On View: June 23 through August 21, 2016 Artist’s Reception: Sunday, June 26, 2 - 4 p.m. About the Artist: I am drawn to the magic of photog- raphy because it captures in an instant a specific moment in time and space with visual cues to the emotion inherent in the scene. The specific choice of horses as a subject to study with my camera began about six years ago. When I moved to Corrales, New Mexico in 2004, I began to make photographic studies of horses and tropical birds. With the availability of digital cameras, I abandoned film and darkroom chemicals Cheryl Cathcart, Sunshine on Fire (Lusitano, Portugal), with gratitude. For me, photography is 2014, digital photograph, loan courtesy of the artist the perfect combination of science and art. The functional demands of digital SLR cameras must be entwined with the timeless considerations of composition and light. The artistic side of this equation allows me to express my feelings and thoughts about the horses I photograph. Exhibition Statement: Dolly and George, my grandfather’s two gigantic grey and bay draft horses, created my first impressions of horses. They are engraved in my memory since age three or four. Father lifted me into a huge farm wagon and held me up so I could see over the wagon’s sides on a hot summer afternoon in southern Iowa. The surge of power I felt as he handed me the reins remains a tactile memory in my fingers as much as it is a visual image decades later. To my amazement, the horses walked on towing the old wagon full of corn. Later, I would learn that the high intellect of a horse is no guarantee of a willingness to co-operate or obey. The horse’s power, intelligence and spirit stream through my camera lens in every photograph I produce. I am lucky to have combined a love of photography and travel with a desire to capture the essence of horses in my artwork. This exhibition presents magnificent horses captured during my travels in New Mexico, Montana, France and Portugal. Why take photos of horses? Their huge eyes can be soulfully gentle or wildly inflamed; their exquisite body conformation reveals muscled velvet and steel. Their sociable nature towards other horses and humans is heart-warming. Strong emotions guide my finger towards my camera’s shutter button, reminding me of that day long ago when I first learned to commune with a horse. *FALL PREVIEW* CURTAIN CALL Ann Wood On View: September 23, 2016 through November 27, 2016 Opening Reception: Friday, September 23, 6 - 8 p.m. Featured Speaker: Ann Wood Ann Wood is a native of California and MFA graduate of the University of Texas in San Antonio. She is recognized for her mixed media sculptures, wall hangings and site- specific installations characterized by vivid colors, wild and fantastical flora and fauna motifs, in a variety of media. For AMSET’s fall exhibition premier, Wood debuts Nest: a site -specific, magical, canopied forest that will suspend from AMSET’s gallery ceiling, inviting viewers to step into her fantastical world of artistic splendor. Nest is interactive and visitors are welcome to walk under and through the canopied formation. Wood’s signature mixed media wall- hangings and sculptures will also adorn the gallery, creating a tapestry-like effect as they spill off of the walls and into the gallery space. A video interview with Wood explaining her art, career and the site- specific Nest installation will be featured on a continuous loop in the Conn Gallery space Ann Wood, Nest (in progress), 2016, Galveston adjacent to AMSET’s main galleries for the studio shot, April 22, 2016 duration of the exhibition. This exhibition is generously funded, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Beaumont, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation. AMSET Membership Drive & Phone-a-thon 4:00 - 6:00 p.m., Thursday, June 16, 2016 The Art Museum Board of Trustees and staff invite you to participate in the Membership Phone-a-thon Thursday, June 16 from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Each person who participates will be encouraged to secure either ten new “regular” members, two Patron members at the $500 level, or one Presidents Club member at the $1,000 level. We will provide a contact list, and contact can be made via email, text or telephone calls. A great selling point is that AMSET now offers reciprocal memberships with the North American Reciprocal Museum Program (NARM) and the Reciprocal Organization of Associated Museums (ROAM) for members at the Friend Level ($100) and above, and Texas Reciprocal Memberships (TRM) for members at the Fellow Level ($250) and above. We hope this will encourage people to join, as these reciprocal memberships will offer free admission to over 800 museums in North America. If you are not able to participate, you can help by keeping your membership current and by giving memberships as gifts to loved ones or as donations through Summer ArtVentures and Gift of Art scholarships. If your membership is not current, you can renew today by going online to www.amset.org or calling (409) 832-3432, or expect to be contacted Thursday! Membership is an important part of the art museum as it supports operations and programs.