HOLLY JOHNSON GALLERY

MARGO SAWYER
SYNCHRONICITY

May 11 – July 27

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to present, Margo Sawyer: Synchronicity, an exhibition of new wall dependent sculpture and works on paper by the celebrated artist. The artworks in the exhibition are from Synchronicity of Color, an ongoing series by the artist for the past twenty-five years. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 11th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Margo Sawyer’s artistic practice investigates the relationship between space and transcendence; the places where architecture and ritual converge to encourage a state of contemplation within the viewer. The central actor in Sawyer’s work is color. With an array of complex and unexpected unions of color and optical play, she explores how transparency, reflectivity, luminosity, physicality, materiality, perception have a psychological effect of color as a window into our spiritual world.

“Many of my artworks are entitled Synchronicity of Color, taking its name from Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences. Synchronistic events reveal an underlying pattern, a conceptual framework, like a quilt. My art unites color; a metaphor that celebrates and honors our multicultural/multidimensional world. As the niece of lauded Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas, I use color as a visual clue to my own multi-racial, multi- cultural heritage.”

Sawyer’s practice also bridges site-specific installations and public art to transform mundane architectural structures into euphoric icons, join exquisite objects and materials into domestic spaces and turn large public spaces into intimate refuges. Sawyer’s most celebrated works are Synchronicity of Color, Red & Blue (2008) at Discovery Green in Houston, Texas. These works transform two utilitarian structures into jubilant quilts of color, where the scale and physicality of colors draw you in¬. The two works were honored in Public Art in Review (2009) by America for the Arts & Public Art Network, for exemplary commitment and leadership in the field of public art, and the works soon became an icon for the city of Houston. Sawyer has created many public artworks in cities such as Austin, Dallas, Houston, London, New York City, Indianapolis, and San Antonio.

Margo Sawyer received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2018), was appointed the Texas State Three-Dimensional Visual Artist Laureate (2015) was awarded the Dora Maar Fellowship (2016) from the Brown Foundation & the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has also been an Artist-In-Residence at Pilchuck Glass School (2001, 2013), was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2001), a Japan Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship (1996), two Fulbright Research Awards – a Senior Research Fellowship to Japan (1995-96) and to India (1982-83), the Rome Prize (1986-87), and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Individual Artists (1987).

Her work has also been included in many exhibitions at institutions such as; Art Museum of South Texas (2022), San Antonio Museum of Art (2020), El Paso Museum of Art (2015), the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum (2014), The McNay Museum of Art (2010), The Blanton Art Museum (2008), Austin Museum of Art (2005), Blaffer Art Museum (2004), Mattress Factory (2001), ArtPace (2000), Austin Museum of Art (1998), Sagacho Exhibit Space (1996), GalleryGallery Kyoto (1996), and PS1 Museum (1989).

Sawyer was born in the U.S., although her formative years were in England. She received a B.A. Honors Degree (1980) from University of the Arts London/Chelsea College of Art, formerly the Chelsea School of Art, London and received her M.F.A. in Sculpture from Yale University (1982). She is the Jack G. Taylor Regents Professor in Fine Art and Professor of Sculpture and Extended Media in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has been a part of the faculty since 1988. She currently resides in Elgin, Texas.

Eric Cruikshank:
An Echo

March 30 – June 15

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to present Eric Cruikshank’s exhibition, An Echo, representing a selection of recent works on paper. An opening reception will be held Saturday, March 30th, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. This is the artist’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, and it will continue through June 15, 2024.

Taking landscape as an initial starting point, Eric Cruikshank’s focus is on the emotive qualities of place. In the absence of imagery or narrative, the works are left open to interpretation, as an almost blank plane to reflect one’s own emotions and ideas. Using an objective palette tied to the Scottish landscape, color acts as a vehicle to reveal the picture planes underlying points of reference; with the works being grounded in the everyday, the viewer is encouraged to readdress notions of their surroundings, where the familiar is made full of possibility.

This group of monochromatic and color gradient works on paper include oil, mixed media, pastel, and colored pencil. The works are completed with a meticulous level of control with color and impression of light being two major topics. Fields of color come under close scrutiny – with their refined shades and contours – and lead the eye around each piece, gently engaging the viewer in the act of looking.

Eric Cruikshank was born in Inverness, Scotland (1975). He received a BA (Hons) in Painting and Drawing from the Edinburgh College (1997). His art has been included in numerous exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, America, and Japan, and he has been the recipient of several awards such as; Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award (2016), Edinburgh Council Visual Artist Award (2014), Hope Scott Trust – joint award with Michael Craik (2013), and Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2009), among others. He has also participated in several residencies: the Mustarinda Residency, Finland (2012) and the Santa Fe Art Institute Residency (2010). He currently lives and works in Dundee, Scotland.

 Holly Johnson Gallery
1845 Levee Street @ Turtle Creek Blvd
214.369.0169,
Gallery hours are 10 to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and by appointment.
hollyjohnsongallery.com.