image: Don Matheson
FWCAC – The Fort Worth Community Arts Center is a great place to see concentrations of art. Emerging artists can get their feet wet here. The Center can act like a lab for a conceptual show that a commercial gallery might not be willing to risk their space. The show rotates quickly, so there are opportunities to see a great deal of work. Many local MFA shows have found a place at this art center. Two shows are coming down today that caught my attention and made me go out of my way to see the work. Don Matheson’s landscapes and the group show of four artists titled “Polychromatic Paradise.” The exhibition includes Madie Braswell, Sophia Ceballos, Kyle Hanson and Adam Palmer.
Adam Palmer is precisely why I was intrigued. I follow his work closely and I had to see the show for myself. Palmer manages to always delight my senses with his colorful works on paper. His sculptures are weird as ever, while his paintings are pushing even further towards sophistication. Palmer’s art consistently stays fun and imaginative. Sophia Ceballos has a similar aesthetic in her use of dashes and lines to create motion. However, Ceballos’ colors are more subdued because she uses watercolor. The shapes look to be similar to organic molecules.
Kyle Hanson’s paintings remind me of David Hockney’s California paintings. Although Hanson has keyed up his colors a little brighter and intense than Hockney during that period. Madie Braswell creates animation with colors right out of the 1980’s computer graphics. I thought about my transition from CGA to VGA screens. 16 colors to 256 colors were quite a leap. Braswell captures the spirit of these simple structures of the past. I doubt she is old enough to remember it, but that doesn’t mean she can’t tap into the computer graphics of an older era. I will be adding Braswell, Ceballos, and Hanson to my watch list.
In a show near the front of the center are paintings by Don Matheson. What I liked about the show is that Matheson converts historical landscape paintings into abstract flat colors and shapes. Thus interpreting the landscapes which once might have symbolized the bounty of the nations these painters were portraying. Matheson strips out these old symbols for a more minimal response to the past while still adding meaning to the image. Only the piece illustrating a hedge maze pulled me back to art historical landscapes so much so that I felt he might not have simplified this particular piece enough.
Both shows end on the 27th of July. Other than the group show of K-12 students which closed on August 6th, the rest of the art center will be resetting for brand new shows. I plan to frequent the Fort Worth Community Arts Center much more this year. With the mass amount of art they show, they happen upon some good art and nice shows on a frequent basis.