On view June 5 – August 22, 2021 in the 1878 & Brown Foundation Gallery
Irene Antonia Diane Reece: Opening June 5th at Galveston Arts Center: Home-goings
Above: Irene Antonia Diane Reece, Dancing with the Sea no. 3, 2021, Inkjet print, 16” x 11”, Courtesy of the artist
On view April 24, 2021 – July 11, 2021 in the Main Gallery
Heyd Fontenot: Sacred Order of Eternal Wounds
Heyd Fontenot, Triple Diamond/DoubleMask/Double Minotaur (detail), 2020, Latex paint on scenic muslin, 10’ x 14’, Courtesy of the artist and Conduit Gallery
Galveston Arts Center (GAC) presents Home-goings, a solo exhibition by Houston-based contemporary artist and visual activist Irene Antonia Diane Reece opening Saturday, June 5, 2021 from 6 to 9 PM in conjunction with ArtWalk. Reece’s exhibition features photography and installations that explore African American spirituality, Black southern churches, and Black Liberation Theology. The term home-goings describes the traditional funerary practice in the African American Christian church of celebrating the life of those who have passed and sending them on to the afterlife and their motherland. For Reece, this practice represents the complexities of protecting Black lives and has become central to her work and life. Through experimentations with imagery from family archives, church objects, and multilayered metaphors and messages, Reece celebrates her family, identity, spirituality, and emphasizes that Black lives are sacred. This exhibition will be on view in GAC’s second-floor galleries through August 22, 2021.
In GAC’s first-floor gallery, Heyd Fontenot’s exhibition Sacred Order of Eternal Wounds continues through July 11, 2021. Fontenot’s exhibition transforms GAC’s main gallery into a space reminiscent of a secret fraternal order’s ceremonial chamber and debuts the artist’s new visual experiments in figuration, illustration, and decoration in a series of mural-scaled paintings. The installation delves into the myth of American identity to explore the politicized topics of gender, sexuality, queer identity, and what the artist calls “the false promise of comfort-in-conformity.”
GAC’s galleries are open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 5 PM. For information and hours for ArtWalk participating spaces, please visit: https://www.galvestonartscenter.org/artwalk
These exhibitions are supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Irene Antonia Diane Reece My God Wears A Durag, 2020 Inkjet print 16” x 11” Courtesy of the artist
About the Exhibitions:
Home-goings is an exhibition by Houston-based contemporary artist and visual activist Irene Antonia Diane Reece featuring photography and installations that explore African American spirituality, Black southern churches, and Black Liberation Theology. The term home-goings describes the traditional funerary practice in the African American Christian church of celebrating the life of those who have passed and sending them on to the afterlife and their motherland. For Reece, this practice represents the complexities of protecting Black lives and has become central to her work and life. Through experimentations with imagery from family archives, church objects, and multilayered metaphors and messages, Reece celebrates her family, identity, spirituality, and emphasizes that Black lives are sacred.
Heyd Fontenot’s exhibition, Sacred Order of Eternal Wounds, delves into the myth of American identity to explore the politicized topics of gender, sexuality, queer identity, and what the artist calls “the false promise of comfort-in-conformity.” Fontenot is well-known for his stylized and delicate nude portraits. This exhibition debuts new visual experiments in figuration, illustration, and decoration in a series of mural-scaled paintings. Blurring the lines between an art gallery and theatrical prompt, this immersive installation transforms GAC’s main gallery into a space reminiscent of a secret fraternal order’s ceremonial chamber. This environment draws on the artist’s background in film and set design and is populated by images of contemporary figures, archetypal characters from mythology, and a codex of symbols and patterns. Fontenot’s work navigates perceptions of the human body as a political site that is conflicted by religious and political institutions, mass media, consumption, and social norms. This “sacred order” celebrates queer space in the face of nonstop social outrage motivating a newfound public dialogue and a growing awareness that tradition and nostalgia are oppressive forces.
Irene Antonia Diane Reece No Place I Rather Be, 2021 Inkjet print 16” x 11” Courtesy of the artist
For more information on GAC exhibitions, please visit: galvestonartscenter.org/exhibitions
About the Artists:
Irene Antonia Diane Reece identifies as a contemporary artist and visual activist. Born and raised in Houston, TX, she earned her BFA in Photography and Digital Media at the University of Houston and MFA in Photography and Image-making at the Paris College of Art.
Reece’s work has been exhibited internationally, including recent exhibitions at the 5th Biennale Internationale de Casablanca, in Casablanca, Morocco and the group exhibition Withstand: Latinx Art in Times of Conflict at the Holocaust Museum Houston.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, ARTnews, and Lenscratch, along with editorial contributions for ProPublica. Reece is a 2021 recipient of the Black Rock Senegal Residency in Dakar, Senegal. Reece’s photographic works, appropriated films, usage of text, and found objects create an insight into her world.
The topics surrounding her work are racial identity, African diaspora, social injustice, family histories, re-memory, mental and community health.
Reece’s objectives are to continue to take up space, contribute to making work for the communities she represents, and create forms of racial equity in the arts. More info: irenereece.com
Irene Antonia Diane Reece Protect Black Boys, 2021 Inkjet print on church fan 11” x 8” Courtesy of the artist
Heyd Fontenot is a Texas-based multidisciplinary artist and curator whose career has included roles in advertising, theater, television, film, and digital media, as a graphic artist, set designer, art director and producer.
He has held positions as Director of CentralTrak (2011-2016), UTDallas’ international artists’ residency program and exhibition space, and was recently appointed as Director of the San Antonio non-profit art space Sala Diaz where he was previously a Casa Chuck resident artist (2019).
Widely known for his figurative paintings and drawings, Fontenot recruits his friends and artistic peers as models and has in this process created a comprehensive portrait of his community over the last two decades.
Fontenot has been awarded the Dozier Travel Grant through the Dallas Museum of Art, the Mastermind Award from the Dallas Observer, been named as one of 100 Dallas Creatives, and while directing the gallery at CentralTrak it was named “best art space” by both DMagazine and the Dallas Observer and top ten galleries by Glasstire and Culturemap.
Fontenot has exhibited his experimental films at festivals nationally and internationally. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Texas and the United States, including exhibitions at Mountain View College, Dallas, TX (2014); the Wrong Store, Marfa, TX (2013); Beige, Memphis, TN (2013); Allegheny College, Meadville, PA (2012); Inman Gallery, Houston, TX (2011); Rollins College, Winter Park, FL (2011) and the University of Maryland, College Park, FL (2010).
As a working artist, Fontenot has participated in multiple residencies and is an active exhibiting artist represented by Conduit Gallery in Dallas. More info: heydfontenot.com.
