VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present Letitia Huckaby: LA 19 (Daughters of God), featuring work which blends quilting and photography while paying homage to the family of this Fort Worth-based new media artist. The exhibition will open during the May 29th ArtWalk and remain on view through July 4, 2010. Curator Clint Willour will lead a gallery talk with the artist at 6:30 pm.

With a background in both journalism and photography, Huckaby combines the documentary aspects of photography with quilt making techniques to explore her personal history. Work from the series LA 19 incorporates photos of Huckaby’s extended family, who lived on or off of Louisiana’s state highway number nineteen. The 2-dimensional works are photographs that have been transferred onto scrap fabric which is then pieced together as a fabric collage or quilted photograph and framed. MaDear (2010) shows a woman sitting in a living room as seen through the window; the image is printed on circular pieces of silk and decorative fabric which have been sewn together.

The series Daughters of God focuses on the female members of Huckaby’s family, with each woman captured wearing a white dress in a different setting. The artist’s grandmother made the dress, which looks similar to a baptism garment. Huckaby notes that the dresses symbolize the passing down of tradition through generations.

The exhibition will also include three-dimensional works, specifically photographs of family quilts and family pictures that have been printed onto fabric and sewn into dresses. Something Old, Something New (2010) incorporates photos transferred onto fabric, as well as antique fabrics that the artist collected from other family members. These scraps were sewn into round “yo-yos,” a traditional style of quilting, that were then made into a wedding dress. The work layers the wedding tradition of old and new, as well as two- versus three dimensions (flat images sewn presented in sculptural form).

Huckaby will receive her MFA in Photography from the University of North Texas in Denton this May. She holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and BFA in Photography from the Art Institute of Boston. In 1997 she studied under Lucy Mingo, a Gee’s Bend quilter in Boykin, Alabama. Her work has been shown at the South Dallas Cultural Center, Houston’s Project Row Houses, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, New Orleans Photo Alliance and Renaissance Fine Art Gallery, Harlem, New York.

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 retail gallery, 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.

SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP

Funding for GAC’s exhibition programs is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston Endowment, Inc., Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, the City of Galveston through the Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund, and the generous support of the community, volunteers and an active membership. GAC’s Art for All Education Program is supported in part by the Wilton and Effie Mae Hebert Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Alice Taylor Gray Foundation, Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund, and the Jr. League of Galveston County’s Community Assistance Fund.

LOCATION AND HOURS

Galveston Arts Center is located on the corner of Strand and 22nd (Kempner) Street in historic downtown Galveston. The building is currently closed until further notice for repairs to damage from Hurricane Ike. We anticipate re-opening in 2010. For more information, call 409.763.2403 or visit www.galvestonartscenter.org.  

Galveston Arts Center in Exile 2 is located at 2501 Market Street, Galveston, TX, 77550. The mailing address for GAC remains the same: 2127 Strand, Galveston, TX 77550.

Pictured above:  Letitia Huckaby, Something Old, Something New, 2010, Pigment prints on silk and scrap fabrics, Courtesy the artist.