KIRK HOPPER FINE ART

She Said, He Said:
Janet Chaffee and Benito Huerta

December 7 – January 11

Janet Chaffee’s work is an intuitive and playful exploration of composition, color, and abstraction combined with elements of nature. The initial drawings for this work are derived from found rock formations along the border of California and Mexico as well as, from the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains. Chaffee also draws from found lace work, stating “The lace works found in Germany, Italy, and Cuba were chosen because they were used inside homes and in life-changing ceremonies. The lace becomes a screen in each painting. Allowing the viewer to stay on the surface or pass through to discover layers beneath.”

Benito Huerta’s subject matter includes an amalgamation of political, economic, and social commentary along with personal identity and pop-culture references. “There are a couple strands of work that are different from each other, visually,” says Huerta. “There are pieces that are remarkably different because they’re addressing issues that are current and topical. Some of the work is addressing similar issues, but with a different approach, and others that are much more personal.”

This is the first two-person exhibition in the DFW Metroplex for the Arlington based artists.

Janet Chaffee is originally from Denver, Colorado but has lived in Texas most of her life. She earned her BFA in painting from The University of Texas at Arlington in 1999 and received her MFA in painting from Texas Christian University in May 2002. After graduating, she taught drawing at TCU, UTA, and The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. She has shown in both individual and group exhibitions throughout the state of Texas receiving third place in The Dishman Competition 2005 at the Dishman Art Museum at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Andrea Karnes, Curator of The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, juried the exhibition. In 2006, Janet was awarded The Murrin Family Award in the Preservation Is the Art of The City, exhibition held at The Fort Worth Community Arts Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The juror was Rebecca Lawton, Curator of Painting and Sculpture for the Amon Carter Museum. She had a solo exhibition at The Ellen Noel Museum in Odessa, Texas in 2008. Janet’s work was exhibited with the Daimler Financial Services in Fort Worth Texas, 2009-2010 and in the 2010 exhibition, Intense Concentration, at The University of Texas at San Antonio, a drawing show featuring seven nationally known artists. During the summer of 2010, she was awarded a Once Upon a Time Grant from Trinity Valley School of Fort Worth to attend the residency at Atelier Hilmsen in Germany, and in the summer of 2012, she spent time at Santa Fe Clay in Santa Fe, New Mexico. September 22 through January 6, 2013, her collaborative work with Benito Huerta was shown in, Espoused, an exhibition at The Art Museum of Southeast Texas. She had a one-person exhibition, Pentimento, in March of 2013 at Brookhaven College in Dallas, Texas, followed by a collaborative exhibition, 2014 Post Structuralism/ I Zimbra, September 24- October 26, 2014, at Cedar Valley College Gallery. Also in the fall of 2014, she was included in, Flow into the Mystic: Marriage and the Contemporary Artist, an exhibition at the Tyler Museum of Texas and curated by Derek Frazier. Recently, Janet was juried into the Texas Vignette Art Fair, in Dallas, Texas. Vicki Meek was the juror for the exhibition. She also participated in the exhibition More Than This… at Arts Fort Worth, curated by Anne Allen, as well as 150 Years / 150 Artists, curated by Sara-Jayne Parsons at TCU in Fort Worth. In the fall of 2023, Janet’s work was featured in the exhibition Renewal at Artspace III, Fort Worth, where she is currently represented. Janet also teaches Upper School Art at Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth, Texas and her work can be seen in, “She Said/He Said,” at Kirk Hopper Gallery in Dallas, Texas December 7th through January 11th.

Benito Huerta received a B.F.A. degree from the University of Houston, and an M.A. from New Mexico State University. He was Co-founder, Executive Director and Emeritus Board Director of Art Lies, a Texas Art Journal. He recently retired, 1997-2024, as Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and stepped down as Director / Curator of The Gallery at UTA two years earlier. His work will be included in a two-person exhibition with Janet Chaffee this December-January, 2024-2025, at Kirk Hopper Fine Art, Dallas, and in April- May, 2025, at Andrew Durham Gallery, Houston. Spring 2024 he was in several one-person exhibitions including Profane Truths and Sacred Lies at The Gallery at UT Arlington shown alongside with Chaffee + Huerta Collaborative Post Modern Fulcrum at UTA. Other one-person exhibitions – More or Less: Una Retrospectiva at William Campbell Gallery, Foch Street, 2022-2023, and Más O Menos: A Retrospective at the Latino Cultural Center in 2023. Other one person exhibitions were at Houston Museum of African American Culture; the Wichita Falls Museum of Art; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth; the Glassell Gallery, Shaw Center for the Arts, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA; and at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Huerta has also exhibited in group exhibitions at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; the Cheech Marin Center For Chicano Art and Culture, Riverside, CA; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; His work is in several museum and corporate collections throughout the United States. Huerta has completed public art projects for the University of Texas at Arlington, Signs of Life, 2019 and Urban Still Life, South Main Street project, Fort Worth, 2017. Other completed public art projects are the Marine Creek Park Corridor Master Plan in 2014, Fort Worth; SnakePath (Mexican Milk Snake), Mexican American Cultural Center, Austin, Texas (2007); Wings, DFW International Terminal D Skylink terrazzo floor designs (2005); and Axis, Henry Gonzales Convention Center, San Antonio (2003).

Kirk Hopper Fine Art
1426 N Riverfront Blvd
Dallas, TX 75207
214.760.9230
www.kirkhopperfineart.com