Show Preview | Storied Lands - Southwest Art Magazine

Houston, TX
Foltz Fine Art, November 16-December 21

Jeri Salter, Antiques, pastel, 9 x 18.

This story was featured in the December 2019/January 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art December 2019/January 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

THE THREE SEPARATE but related shows currently on view at Foltz Fine Art share an overriding theme and an umbrella title that also belongs to the largest of the trio: Storied Lands, which perfectly captures the long history, geographic diversity, and undeniable mystique of southwestern Texas. More specifically, says gallery owner Sarah Foltz, the exhibition was inspired by a key event celebrated in 2019: the 75th anniversary of Big Bend National Park, a vast expanse of unspoiled mountains, deserts, canyons, and rivers covering more than 800,000 acres along the border with Mexico. “We wanted to do a multifaceted show,” says Foltz, “that celebrates the diversity of that region and those quiet places with big skies and wide expanses where you can reconnect yourself with nature.”

: Jack Boynton, Mountain Vectors, 1989, acrylic, 30 x 30.

: Malou Flato, Nasturtiums, mixed media, 60 x 72.

: E. Dan Klepper, Nine Boulders, photograph, 40 x 60.

Foltz’s words perfectly describe the part of the show that carries the Storied Lands title. It features 55 pieces, mostly landscape paintings, by 10 contemporary artists from across the state. Among these are works by gallery regulars like Mary Baxter, whose impressionistic oils capture the desolate beauty of vast desert and mountain scenes; Jeri Salter, whose works portray gentle rural scenes in soft pastels; and Pat Gabriel, who’s represented by two startlingly photorealistic oil paintings depicting lone trees rising from the scrubland. Also included are works by artists new to the gallery: Mallory Agerton’s peaceful oils of farmlands; Terri M. Wells’ fresh and luminous watercolors; atmospheric oils from Susu Meyer; and Malou Flato’s close-up compositions of foliage and flowers. “We’re very excited to bring their works into the conversation,” Foltz adds.

Expanding that conversation even more is the related show called Modernist Visions of the Southwest, a museum-quality gathering of 30 paintings by the Houston Modernists—Richard Stout, Earl Staley, and the late Jack Boynton, Herb Mears, and Dick Wray. The quintet, who painted together in the 1950s and ’60s, “were very active and innovative, playing a rich role in the development of the local art scene,” says Foltz, not only painting but also teaching at local institutions. While each man had his own distinctive style, “all of them used abstraction or modernism to express their love for the South-west,” she adds.

: Noe Perez, Orange Cactus, oil, 30 x 30.

: Mallory Agerton, The Poet’s Moon, oil, 12 x 12.

: David Caton, Frio at Garner, Late Afternoon, oil, 48 x 60.

Yet one more take on the evocative theme can be found in a “vignette exhibition” entitled James Evans: Borderlands, consisting of 10 powerful black-and-white photographs by the renowned photographer who, for the last three decades, has lived on and focused his lens on both sides of the border in Big Bend country. From vertiginous views of canyons to a vaquero on horseback to an intimate close-up of a century-old woman’s hands, Evans’ “sense of place and people is fantastic,” says Foltz. The collection adds a poignant and vivid exclamation mark to the multifaceted event. —Norman Kolpas

contact information
713.521.7500
www.foltzgallery.com