VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present Water Sparks, a thirty-year retrospective of glass and stone sculptures created by Austin-based artist Damian Priour. The exhibition will open during the January 23rd ArtWalk and remain on view through February 28, 2010. Curator Clint Willour will lead a gallery talk with the artist at 6:30 pm.

Noted artist Damian Priour is best known for his elegant sculptures created from limestone, glass and rusted metal. A seventh generation Texan, Priour was born on Padre Island where the gulf tides and weather became an influence on his later artistic career. It was in the 1970s that the artist made his first sculpture from fossil-laced native Texas limestone and glass—a pairing that was as natural to him as saltwater. Priour writes, “In my sculpture, glass becomes a metaphor for water. It alternatively pools in rivulets and in powerful current flows that join together to carve up immense slabs of limestone.” The retrospective features a broad spectrum of sculpture, from modest to monumental, examining the artist’s continual reworking of the interplay of these two materials.

The exhibition, organized by Galveston Arts Center’s curator Clint Willour, was originally scheduled to be on view this past fall, but was postponed due to Hurricane Ike. It instead premiered at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum in Austin in September 2009.

Willour notes, “Damian’s enthusiasm and commitment to this project has never waned. When the horror of Hurricane Ike overwhelmed me, it only strengthened his resolve to make it happen. It is ironic that an exhibition about water was almost derailed by that every element.” GAC’s association with Priour began in 2005 when he was selected as the winner of the Ryan Davis Prize for first place in the first Texas Juried Glass exhibition. As a result, he was chosen to be a juror for Texas Juried Glass 2, which was hosted at GAC in the summer of 2007.

Priour received a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1972 and completed studies in design at the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. His work has been exhibited and collected throughout the world, including the Corning Museum of Glass; Columbus Museum of Art; Blanton Art Museum, Austin; City of Austin Convention Center; Corpus Christie International Airport; Equitable Company, New York; and Charles A. Westurn Museum of Art, Wisconsin.

Galveston Arts Center is currently operating “in exile” from our second temporary downtown gallery space - the site of the former Maceo’s Spice and Import Company located on the corner of Market and 25th Streets. The administrative offices are also at this location. The gallery and selections from GAC’s museum shop, ArtWorks, are open to the public Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. A flyer listing all ArtWalk participants with times and locations can be downloaded at www.galvestonartscenter.org.