VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present two exhibitions of work focusing on animals, Jules Buck Jones: Everglades, and Isa Leshko: Elderly Animals. The exhibitions will open during the July 16th ArtWalk  and remain on view through August 21, 2011. Curator Clint Willour will lead a gallery talk with both artists beginning at 6:30 pm during ArtWalk. The event is free and open to the public.

Inspired by a residency at Florida’s Everglades National Park in 2009, Austin-based artist Jules Buck Jones creates large-scale works on paper featuring amphibians, reptiles and birds he encountered on his visit. Jones lived alone in a cabin during the park’s off season, canoeing through the swamps where he encountered insects, frogs, alligators, hawks, sharks and a Burmese python, while also searching for the elusive Florida Panther. Working in a larger-than-life scale, Jones’ boldly colorful works are a combination of field-guide illustrations and abstract expressionism.

“Conceptually, I think [it] is interesting and intrinsic to the dialogue between man and nature,” notes Jones about the grand scale of his work. “I draw inspiration from prehistoric cave paintings, totemic symbols, the great artist/naturalists like Audubon, and a contemporary art world increasingly more aware and intrigued with issues of the natural world…. I aim to express and conjure the flesh and magic of evolution, classification, environment, bio-diversity, mutation, and extinction.” Works such as Terrapin (2010) combine fact and fantasy, as the turtle’s humped back evolves into a lava-exuding land mass.

In stark contrast to Jones’ large and vivid menagerie are Isa Leshko’s quiet, intimate black and white portraits of animals that are old or at the end of their lives. Most of her subjects are farm animals and pets that have been surrendered to animal sanctuaries to spend their final days. By their very nature, many farm animals do not live out their natural life spans, and the photographer was intrigued to observe animals that had reached geriatric ages.

“I began this series shortly after I had spent a year in New Jersey caring for my mother who has Alzheimer’s disease,” writes Leshko. “When my mother got ill, I made a conscious decision not to photograph her. Six months after I had returned, I encountered a blind elderly horse living on a relative’s property and was compelled to photograph the animal. After reviewing my film, I realized I had found a project that would enable me to explore my feelings relating to my aging parents and my own mortality.” Using a Helga, a toy camera with a plastic lens, Leskho has little control over the technical aspects of each photo, giving her the freedom to focus on the composition and emotional content of each image.

Jules Buck Jones lives and works in Austin where he received an MFA in studio arts from The University of Texas. He has a BFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. His work has been exhibited at McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, where he will have a solo show concurrent with GAC’s; Champion Gallery, Austin; Conduit Gallery, Dallas; Lawndale Art Center, Houston; and The Front, New Orleans, among others.

Isa Leshko grew up in Carteret, New Jersey, and received a BA from Haverford College, where she studied psychology with an emphasis on neurobiology and cognitive science. She studied photography at the New England School of Photography and the Woodstock Center for Photography. Her work has been exhibited at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, and Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, among others. She recently moved from Houston to Philadelphia.

Galveston Arts Center is operating in a 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 exhibition gallery and selections from GAC’s retail gallery, ArtWorks, are open to the public during the summer Monday through Saturday, from 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. A flyer listing all ArtWalk participants with times and locations can be downloaded at www.contemporaryartgalveston.org.

Pictured above:
Jules Buck Jones
Alligator Island, 2010
Acrylic and ink on paper
30 x 22 inches
Courtesy the artist and McMurtrey Gallery, Houston

Pictured below:
Jules Buck Jones
Terrapin, 2010
Acrylic and mixed media on paper
72 x 72 inches
Courtesy the artist and McMurtrey Gallery, Houston

Isa Leshko
Handsome One, Thoroughbred Horse, Age 33, 2011
Archival Pigment Print
9 x 9 inches
Courtesy the artist and John Cleary Gallery, Houston

Isa Leshko
Violet, Potbellied Pig, Age 12, 2011
Archival Pigment Print
9 x 9 inches
Courtesy the artist and John Cleary Gallery, Houston