VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Inman Gallery presents two new shows - Brent Steen - Still Lifes: Seeing Violet  in the Main Gallery and Jim Richard:  Let's Stay Inside in the North Gallery.  These exhibitions take separate looks at the domestic spaces we inhabit and the potential for the surprising, unfamiliar, and mysterious therein.

A new series of graphite on panel works by Houston native Brent Steen depict scenes the artist composed and photographed in and around his Brooklyn, New York home and studio. Evincing commonplace objects – wind chimes, matches, flowers – in uncommon situations, the black and white images suggest narratives seemingly colored by an atmosphere of violence.

New Orleans-based Jim Richard debuts a new painting, Blinds, along with nine collages from his ongoing investigation of the decorative. Photographs of paintings, sculpture, and emblem-like objects are cut-out from shelter magazines and inserted into pictures of peopleless living room interiors, creating collisions of pattern and style, questions of value, and life-like presences out of the inanimate.

Pictured:  Jim Richard, detail, Blinds, 2009 oil on linen, 60 x 55 inches.