CRIS WORLEY FINE ARTS

KELLI VANCE
Don’t Abandon Me

May 11 – June 15, 2024

Open Reception: Saturday, May 11 // 4-7pm

Cris Worley Fine Arts is proud to announce our upcoming exhibition, Kelli Vance: Don’t Abandon Me, which opens May 11th and runs through June 15th with an artist’s reception on Saturday, May 11th from 4-7pm. This is Vance’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery.

Vance’s luxurious and masterly paintings have often presented women in states of anomie or conflict—personal, social, physical. This is the feminine in a quietly hostile environment of her own making, or trapped in a set of expectations that she either works with, to maintain equilibrium, or against, with mixed results—sometimes defeated, sometimes defiant. Vance’s women are in a kind of unseen, unstoppable trouble, or they are recalling it, or are bracing for it. They are often in their final minutes of innocence before the sinister shadow overtakes the narrative.

In the latest works Vance returns to the use of a second figure, a trope she employed in the beginning of her career. The addition of another character sets up a new dynamic in the work, as one figure is often seen in conflict with the “other.” It is important to consider, however, that when setting up compositions (Vance photographs them first before painting) she plays the role of both characters, acting as both protagonist and antagonist. The title of the exhibition, Don’t Abandon Me then takes on a new meaning, a mantra of sorts, reminding one to always strive for authenticity and self-possession.

Robert Sagerman
Fieldwork: Flows, Thickets, Clearings, Strata

March 30 – May 31, 2024

Cris Worley Fine Arts is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition of Robert Sagerman|Fieldwork: Flows, Thickets, Clearings, Strata. The exhibition will open with an artist’s reception on Saturday, March 30th, from 4­­–7 pm, and will run through May 4th. The event is free and open to the public. This is the New Jersey- based artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

Robert Sagerman’s paintings reflect the artist’s longstanding fascination with how, in the realm of art, the material turns symbolic to transcend its physical constraints. Sagerman’s paintings on canvas—lusciously weighted with thousands of daubs of paint—take us somewhere immaterial yet nonetheless fully felt. The assertive materiality of Sagerman’s works creates patterned movements that evoke the natural world, that remind us of the movement of water, of wind, of light. Their color gradations reflect the shifting shadows and radiance of the natural world at dawn and sunset.

These universal qualities reflect Sagerman’s concern with what painting can communicate across time and space, and also across belief systems. As Sagerman writes, “In painting there is only materiality at hand, even if one wishes to embody something of the immaterial.” There is no denying the physical sphere; to accept it is to be mindful. But this anchor doesn’t stop us from striving to rise above the hard facts of our corporeal existence, to land somewhere more connective and universal.

Robert Sagerman was born in Queens, NY and currently works in rural New Jersey. He received his BFA and MFA from Pratt Institute. He also holds an MS in Art History from Pratt Institute as well as an MA in Religious Studies and a PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies from New York University. Exhibitions include: Nancy Toomey Fine Art, San Francisco, CA, Galerie Renate Bender, Munich, Germany; Heather Gaudio Fine Art, Greenwich, CT; Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO. Sagerman’s work has been reviewed by Art in America, NY Arts Magazine, Kunstforum International, Art News and the Atlanta Journal Constitution, among many others. His work is in the collections of the Portland Art Museum (Portland, OR); The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum (Hagen, Germany); and the Museum Für Konkrete Kunst (Ingolstadt, Germany), as well as other notable corporate and private collections.

Cris Worley Fine Arts
1845 Levee St. #110, Dallas, TX 75207.
214.745.1415,
Gallery Hours are
Tuesday – Saturday from 11am – 5pm and by appointment.
www.crisworley.com