Show Preview | The Texas Aesthetic

Houston, TX
Foltz Fine Art, through June 29

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

WITH ITS VAST and varied landscape, abundant wildlife, and long history filled with diverse cultures and colorful characters, Texas can often feel like a country unto itself. So it only makes sense that a gallery that has long championed art by Texans would produce an annual show entitled The Texas Aesthetic, focusing on the best in contemporary art from across the state.

The long-respected William Reaves Fine Art in Houston had been doing just that for the past 13 years. After founder William Reaves retired at the end of 2017, Sarah Foltz—who joined the gallery in 2013 and became his business partner in 2016—took over ownership. Recently Foltz renamed the gallery and committed herself to championing the state’s exceptional artists and “redefining Texas art for the 21st century,” she says.

That commitment shines through the 65 works from 30 artists on display in this year’s edition of the show, which runs through June 29. Many more of the participants’ paintings, sculptures, photographs, and other works are included in the catalog and stored behind the scenes for interested buyers to see. The diversity of styles, subjects, and media is dazzling. “There is no one Texas aesthetic,” Foltz observes, “just as there is no one Texas experience or Texas culture. We are a state of many.”

Show highlights include Frank X. Tolbert 2’s WHITE HERON, part of the Houston artist’s recent body of work devoted to Texas birds and their native habitats, and new limited-edition bronze animal sculptures by Marfa-based rancher Mary Baxter, who also has on view one of the expressionist landscape paintings for which she’s known. There’s also the humorously surrealistic acrylic painting ROADKILL PLAYS AT THE DOGWOOD FESTIVAL by east Texas painter William Young, and a pair of oil paintings celebrating the state’s distinctive flora by Corpus Christi artist Noe Perez. Also featured, in what Foltz describes as a “vignette show within a show,” is Contemporary Lonestar Printmakers. This group includes works on paper by Margie Crisp, Billy Hassell, William Montgomery, Karl E. Hall, E. Dan Klepper, Charles Jones, and Shawn Saumell.

In connection with the show, Foltz has planned a series of events that aim to expand the public’s understanding of the scope and depth of art in the state. Tied to the gallery’s longstanding relationship with Texas A&M University Press, these events include talks and book signings with Ron Tyler, retired director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, on his recently published The Art of Texas: 250 Years, and with Reaves and his wife Linda on A Book Maker’s Art, telling the story behind the publisher’s own Frank H. Wardlaw Collection of Texas Art. Still other talks consider statewide issues of historical and environmental preservation and conservation. Foltz has also planned a closing reception on Saturday, June 29, from 2 to 5 p.m., which many of the participating artists attend—a jubilant conclusion to a show that feels as varied and epic as the great state of Texas itself. —Norman Kolpas

contact information
713.521.7500
www.foltzgallery.com

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

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