Three News Exhibitions Now Open at Irving Arts Center

Pair of New Exhibits Commemorate Black History Month

(IRVING, Texas, February 25, 2021) – Three new exhibitions are open for viewing in the galleries at Irving Arts Center including a pair of free-to-view exhibits celebrating Black History Month.

The works can be viewed in-person Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 PM with free timed-entry reservations available at IrvingArtsCenter.com. They will also be available for virtual viewing with 360 degree gallery tours available at IACOnlineArt.com.

In the Main Gallery, Artistry & Inspiration features the works of eight talented black artists. “These pieces communicate the African-American experience and culture,” says Jearlene Miller, who organized the exhibit on behalf of the Irving Black Arts Council. Their works are inspired by African-Americans’ contributions to art, culture and history.

Opening February 19 in the Courtyard Gallery, City of Hope: Resurrection City & The 1968 Poor People’s Campaign commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s anti-poverty campaign, an initiative born out of the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibition, organized by The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), features posters documenting the historic campaign which demanded economic and human rights for poor Americans of all backgrounds.

Opening February 19 in the Courtyard Gallery, City of Hope: Resurrection City and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daring vision for economic justice and opportunity for each U.S. citizen. This poster exhibition, organized by the Smithsonian, examines the Poor People’s Campaign—a grassroots, multiracial movement that drew thousands of people to Washington, D.C. For 43 days between May and June 1968, demonstrators demanded social reforms while living side-by-side on the National Mall in a tent city known as Resurrection City.  The digitized version of City of Hope, along with educational resources, can also be accessed at IACOnlineArt.com.

A third new exhibit on display in the Focus Gallery showcases the drawings and paintings of University of Dallas graduate student, Natalie Lambert. Titled I Love You Very Much But… the exhibition features drawings and paintings of ambiguous skin-like forms.

Artistry & Inspiration (February 6-March 27)
EXHIBITING ARTISTS

• Missy Burton is a McKinney-based artist, award-winning photographer, and Co-Founder of the Msanii HOUS Fine Art Gallery in downtown Carrollton. Her work is featured in the permanent collection of the African American Museum of Dallas and in private collections across the USA. Burton uses photography and poetry as mediums to interpret, life, love and the world around us. The expressive imagery captured in her photos and evoked by her poetry, often explores the effects of social influences on human rights. Burton’s contributionto the Artistry & Inspiration exhibition is selections from her “I am Woman” series: 8 captivating photos paired with poems which echo the thoughts, emotions and experiences of African-American women as well as 11 images  from her 2019 ‘F.R.E.E.’ (Flagrant Rules of Ensued Emancipation) series. Inspired by Juneteenth, an American holiday that celebrates the June 19, 1865 announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas, this body of work explores the relativity of freedom and Burton’s perception of it.
  
• Jennifer Monet-Cowley is an artist, curator and educator from Trophy Club. She curates contemporary artist exhibitions at The African American Museum in Dallas, and is currently collaborating on a permanent public art project for the City of Dallas which honors Oak Cliff artist Arthello Beck Jr. Through her art, she explores inter-sectional issues of race, gender, class, and culture. Monet-Cowley has five pieces on display in the exhibition; among them powerful works inspired by some of the most violent, tragic events which transpired during the Civil Rights Movement. Pieces featured in this exhibition include her haunting interpretation of the Edmund Pettis Bridge where peaceful protesters marching from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 were met with tear gas and beaten by nightsticks by law enforcement.  In Monet-Crowley’s piece she has painted streaks of blood, befitting the tragedy which has come to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Another piece depicts the 16th Street Baptist Church sign which hung outside the church in Birmingham, Alabama. Painted on the canvas are four small handprints, a haunting reminder of the bombing orchestrated there by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1963, killing four young girls.
  
• Amy Daniels is an artist and photographer from Allen. Much of her work features layers of abstraction woven into photographic tapestries with mindful themes. She captures unique perspectives using patterns, shapes, textures and light. Six of Amy Daniels’ paintings are featured in the exhibition.
  
• Afi se is a contemporary realism and figurative conceptual artist living in Houston, with roots in Togo and Mali. Her art represents and venerates the rich history of the West African diaspora with an emphasis on generational trauma and triumph in Black America. As a child of the diaspora, her paintings are conceptualized narratives of the African plight through the eyes of a self-aware Black American. In her art, she often combines and reimagines historical events and attributes specific to the Black American experience.  In doing so, Afi se shines the spotlight on the beauty and resilience of her community by using the gifts and talents given by her ancestors. Seven of Afi Ese’s paintings are featured in the exhibition.
  
• Michael E. Johnson works as Coordinator of Campus Support Services at Tarrant County College in Arlington. Based in Dallas, he is also a talented visual artist and illustrator. For this exhibition, Johnson pays homage to some of the most revered African-American athletes and political figures of all time with his unique pen and ink drawings. Johnson captures the likeness of Barack Obama as well as that of such athletes as Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Jackie Robinson. Nine pieces are featured in the exhibition.
  
• Jalen A. Law is a Buffalo, New York-based artist who often live-paints and has had his work displayed in several international exhibitions. His artwork most often incorporates visually powerful images which force the viewer to face uncomfortable issues and realities. Currently, Law is working on a research-based art program called “The Emotional Intelligence Program” that aims to provide students with the social and emotional tools they need to succeed both in and out of the classroom. Eight oil on canvas paintings from the artist are featured in the exhibition.
  
• Sontonya Necheal is a self-taught mixed media, abstract artist from Scurry, Texas. She creates art that is rich in color with layered textures of emotion, capturing the rawness of her emotions. For her, art is therapeutic that allows her to overcome hardships and feelings of brokenness one canvas at a time. She believes in coloring outside the lines and embracing the beauty of “mistakes” as she creates her art.  She has eight pieces on display in the exhibition.  
  
• Terrell Weathersby is a self-taught artist from Jackson, Mississippi who relocated to McKinney, Texas in 2018. He specializes in acrylic painting as well as graphite, charcoal and pastel drawings. His goal as an artist is to be a positive motivator, creating works of art that inspire the viewer to push forward in reaching toward their goals, whatever they may be. He aims to send a positive and empowering message with each piece he creates. Weathersby has six pieces featured in the exhibition.

Fish and Grits by Afi Ese from the Artistry & Inspiration Exhibition at Irving Arts Center