The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Made in Plastic”, an exhibition of new scultpure, painting, and installation works by Goldmark artist Shabnam Modjarrad.

The exhibition is on display from 5 February to 28 February, 2025. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, 8 February, from 2pm - 6pm. The reception is an ideal opportunity to meet the artist and learn from her about her artwork and exhibition.

About the Exhibition

“Through art I aim to highlight the complex and fragile relationship between humans and the natural world. By means of drawing, painting, sculpting, and installation, I explore the impact of human actions on the environment and raise awareness about pressing issues. As a nature lover, I am deeply concerned about the destruction and exploitation of the earth's resources. I often incorporate elements of the natural world, such as dried plants, bones, and other organic materials reflecting my fascination with the interconnectedness of all living beings and manmade material. This is a reminder of the delicate balance and interdependence of all ecosystems; we are part of nature and not above it or outside of it.

I am drawn to using found and reclaimed materials in my work, not only for their aesthetic value but also to bring attention to the excess and waste that pervades our society. Most of my materials are found at nearby lakes, streets and my own by-products. By repurposing these materials and displaying a new perspective, I hope to spark conversations about consumerism and its detrimental effects on the environment.”

- Shabnam Modjarrad

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “The Wee Teeny TIny Mini Itsy Bitsy Art Show, 2025”, an exhibition featuring miniature artworks by Goldmark artists and friends.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 14 Janaury 2025 to 1 February 2025. The exhibition’s closing reception is on Saturday, 1 February 2025 from 1.00pm - 3.00pm. The reception is a great opportunity to meet many of the exhibiting artists and to learn from them about their artwork.

All of the artworks in the exhibition are priced at $100 or less and will be available for purchase before and during the reception.

Featured Artists

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Possible Worlds”, an exhibition of ceramic sculptural works by artist Christy Wittmer.

The exhibition is on display from November 11 to December 19, 2024. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, 11/16, from 1pm - 3pm. Christy will present an artist talk about the exhibition and her artwork at 1:30pm on Saturday, 11/16.

The reception and artist talk are ideal opportunities to meet the artist and learn from her about her artwork and exhibition.

About the Exhibition
Possible Worlds is an exhibition that abstracts human histories and refigures them for an expansive future. Complicated porcelain structures and industrialized forms explore the space between progress and entropy, the known and the unexpected, and physical and unbodied worlds. These abstract thought/feeling studies investigate experiences of upheaval and messy emotions as open-ended questions and points of possibility.

Artist Statement
Balancing experimentation with skilled craft I create sculptures that challenge expectation of function and notions of stability.

Clay is an essential material in my work. Press your finger into its cool softness and it will give way, recording the trace of the interaction, an indication of the hand-made. Coils of clay are a primal mark, the first thing humans make in clay. My repetition of this shape echoes the experience of daily practice. The hours and marks accumulate into a structure more complex than the single simple gesture. With fire, the clay ossifies irreversibly into an unchanging and fragile artifact.

I contrast these delicate hand made sculptures with soft fabric forms and industrial objects. Stacked and balanced, the work is held together by the weight of one object supporting another, creating spaces of tenuous stability. The temporary equilibrium of this work engages body awareness, exploring time, impermanence and longing.

- Christy Wittmer

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is pleased to pleased to present Channeling Experiences, a joint exhibition featuring the work of painters Jill Brown and Michal Romero.

The exhibition is on display in the Norman Brown Gallery at 14001 Goldmark Dr from 9/30 to 11/1, with a closing reception on Friday, 11/1, from 5:30pm - 7:30pm. Jill and Michal will be present at the closing reception to respond to questions and comments about their artwork, and this will be the best time to meet the artists.

About the Exhibition
Jill Brown and Michal Romero (2023-2024 Goldmark resident artists) will be exhibiting their recent works for the first time together in 12 years. Brown works primarily in oil on canvas and utilizes various tools to scrape imagery into her surfaces. Romero also works mainly in oil on canvas but also uses mixed media on paper. Brown’s work is highly abstracted and nonobjective while Romero’s dances back and forth between representational and abstraction. Both of the women’s works, however, depict an ongoing dialogue of their search for meaning and making sense of their lives through gesture, color, imagery, and structure. Though each painter has her own aesthetic, their works collectively transform their thoughts into vibrant experiences for the viewer.

Brown and Romero became close friends while attending UT Tyler in the late aughts / early teens. Romero (neé Durham) was working on her MFA while Jill was completing her BFA in the small-but-growing art program. Since then, both women have kept in touch over the years while creating work and sharing stories. In early 2022, they started planning a two-person show together. Brown had just returned to the US after spending 6 years overseas. Romero had gotten married, left the teaching profession after 7 years, and had moved to Fort Worth to focus on her art full-time.

Channeling Experiences shows their visual conversations and brings the viewer into the stories the women shared with each other of life, aging, vulnerability, humor, love and loss. Their creations have brought them even closer together as they have shared and continue to share evolving outlooks. Inevitably, it reveals how necessary friendship is in order to live a richer, fuller life.

About the Artists
Jill Brown, born in Dallas in 1985, has recently returned to her hometown after six vibrant years in Australia. Since childhood, her passion for drawing blossomed into a love for painting during her college years. Jill’s work creates a striking dialogue between artist and viewer through her bold use of color, dynamic marks, and compelling compositions. Her pieces invite a deeper look, revealing a meticulous and enigmatic side beneath the surface.

Jill earned her BFA from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2010 and now focuses on her art while teaching in Forney, TX.

Michal Durham Romero was born in 1983 in east Texas and has been drawing since the age of 4. Romero creates abstract landscapes and settings based on notions of spirituality and nostalgia. Her creative approach derives from how she perceives her surroundings and how certain objects or images stay with her over time.

She received her BA at the University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and her MFA from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2012. Michal won the "Visual Communications Through Art" Award from the Visual Art Alliance Houston, the December "Artist of the Month" award from Downtown Tyler Arts Coalition, has work in UT Tyler's permanent collection.

A firm believer in the importance of fine arts in everyday life, Romero has spent 7+ years educating others at the college and secondary levels about art processes, art in-context, and fostering individual creativity. Romero lives and works in Ossining, NY.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Gaps and Spaces”, a solo exhibition featuring paintings by MCat Davis.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 19 August 2024 to 20 September 2024 with an opening reception on Saturday, 14 September 2024 from 2 pm - 4 pm.

Davis will be present at the reception to respond to questions and comments about the exhibition.

About the Exhibition

By forming a visual vocabulary for forces that have an Intangible form, I build and create imagined bodies and places that straddle my experience and imagination. I am drawn to the infinite possibilities in emptiness, in-between, and the fleeting. With a long background in dance and choreography, my art practice is activated by physicality and steady motion. I dissect personal interactions and observations into simple forms and colors that I associate with my experiences while leaving room for transformation. I relate to postmodern abstractionists and transcendentalist painters; Their consciousness of their surroundings and conceptualizations around energy flow and human perception greatly influence my process and development of work. This show explores possibilities born from the gaps and spaces in the every day, turning nothingness into creatures, timelines, and worlds.

About the Artist

Mcat Davis is an interdisciplinary artist and an educator in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas. Originally from Dallas, Davis earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Mississippi in 2018, where she focused her studies on drawing and painting. Upon returning to DFW, she began showing work locally through spaces such as Craighead Green Gallery and the Bathhouse Cultural Center. She briefly occupied a studio in the Goldmark Cultural Center and also worked with organizations like the Texas Visual Arts Association to curate group shows and coordinate events. Davis moved north to Denton to attend Graduate School where she earned her Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas. Since relocating to Denton, Davis has continued to show her work, Teach classes through UNT, and enjoys curating group shows around the metroplex.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present Drawing Invitational 4, an exhibition featuring works by Louise Murdock, Kyle Wood, and Gordon Young. All three artists bring together a diverse array of aesthetics, styles, methods, and conceptual issues in the drawing medium.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s in the Norman Brown Gallery from 8 July, 2024 to 9 August, 2024. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Saturday, 13 July, from 2 to 4 pm. An artist talk will be held at 3pm that day in the gallery.

About the Exhibition

The Goldmark Gallery Committee is pleased to present The Fourth Annual Drawing Invitational. This year we invited three amazing artists whose styles of drawing and material choices are widely varied. At the same time the viewer will discover a unity of commitment to this most basic and uniquely human form of expression running through the exhibition. In 2021, the Gallery Committee created the Drawing Invitational to fill a void in our exhibitions to highlight the most fundamental of all visual arts —drawing.

The importance of drawing in an artist’s life is hard to overstate. For most of us, artists as well as non-artists, drawing was the first form of expression we used to communicate— often before we mastered language. Additionally, drawing is the basic building block for many forms of visual art, a foundational skill we build on in our artistic journeys, whether we specialize in painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, or other art forms.

The Gallery Committee wishes to thank the Goldmark Cultural Center for their commitment to this exhibition as well as our three talented exhibiting artists: Louise Murdock, Kyle Wood, and Gordon Young.

We also want to thank you, the viewer, for your participation without which our efforts would be meaningless. We hope you will enjoy this exhibition as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Whispers of the Canvas”, a solo exhibition featuring paintings and ceramic works by Fort Worth artist Ivette Levy.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 14 April 2024 to 17 May 2024, with an exhibition reception on Saturday, 20 April 2024 from 1pm - 3pm.

Ivette will be present at the reception to respond to any questions or comments about her exhibition.

About the Exhibition

"Whispers of the Canvas” extends an invitation to reflect on the life we are leaving behind in our pursuit of constructing a false existence within the realm of social media.

This collection delves into the surreal landscape of the 'New People,' beings that with their multiple eyes and chicken feet, stand as ethereal emissaries, offering glimpses into the intricacies of our contemporary existence.

At its core, this series is a poignant exploration of the human experience—a reminder of the yearning for genuine connection amidst the chaotic allure of virtual realities. It is a call to embrace authenticity and reclaim the beauty found in the simplicity of genuine human interaction.

Each piece within this collection serves as a testament to the complexity of our shared journey, encouraging introspection and dialogue about the impact of digital personas on our perception of self and society.

As I navigate the creative process, I am guided by spontaneity and intuition, allowing the canvas to unveil the profound sentiments evoked by our digitally saturated world. Each work becomes a vessel through which I express the urgency to reconnect with our authentic selves and each other.

The title, "Whispers of the Canvas," embodies the subtle yet powerful messages that resonate within each artwork—a reminder of the profound beauty found in embracing our true selves.

Inspired by the poignant words of an elder who once shared with me the sentiment that 'It hurts to be alive,' this collection stands as a testament to the vitality and significance of genuine human connection amidst the illusion of social media.

Join me on this journey of exploration and discovery, where art serves as a mirror reflecting the complexities of our modern existence. Let us embrace the whispers of the canvas and embark on a voyage of rediscovery and authenticity.

About the Artist

Ivette Levy's artistic journey is deeply rooted in personal history and the world, embracing both its positives and negatives. She strives to capture the complexities and contradictions within herself and society, acknowledging their dualities. Ivette's paintings reflect a fusion of her experiences, societal interactions, and historical contexts.

Living with ADHD, she offers a unique perspective through her art. While craving connection as a social being, she often grapples with the delicate balance between reality and desires, influenced by the illusions propagated through social media. In an age of instant gratification, she observes how social media molds emotions like malleable clay, distorting realities and hindering genuine connections.

Through her art, Ivette earnestly advocates for awareness in a society consumed by immediate gratification. Drawing inspiration from her personal struggles, she sheds light on aspects often overlooked by mainstream media.

Her objective is to foster a fresh outlook through her creations. In a time where superficiality often prevails, her art encourages deeper introspection and reflection

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Mind Explosion: Unfinished Stories on Canvas”, a solo exhibition featuring paintings, ceramics, and jewelry by Dallas painter Amy Twomey.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 4 March 2024 to 5 April 2024. The exhibition is on display during the Spring Art Walk at the Goldmark Cultural Center on Saturday 23 March and Sunday 24 March.

The exhibition reception is on Saturday, 30 March 2024 from 1.00pm - 3.00pm.

About the Artist

Amy Twomey is an extraordinary artist whose passion for creativity has taken her on a remarkable journey. With an unwavering determination to pursue her dreams, she has become a master in various mediums, including photography, pottery, painting, jewelry design, and printmaking. Her artwork is an expression of her soul and a reflection of her innate artistic talent.

In 2018, Amy faced a life-changing diagnosis of incurable blood cancer/NMZ lymphoma, propelling her to appreciate the value of time and the significance of living purposefully. She chose to immerse herself in nature, setting challenging goals and exploring new adventures, such as hiking, camping, and discovering the beauty of the world. The desert holds a special place in her heart, and her dream is to live in a little eco-friendly adobe home surrounded by a big garden, small cabins for guests, and an art studio where she can hold workshops and retreats.

Amy holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in photography and fine arts from The Art Institute of Chicago, The University of New Mexico, and The University of Wisconsin. These degrees have allowed her to hone her skills and expand her artistic horizons. Amy is currently working on a series of mixed- media paintings for an art exhibition.

With an unshakable love for her family, dedication to her creative passions, and a newfound appreciation for the healing wonders of nature, Amy is committed to making every moment count on life's beautiful adventure. She invites you to join her in this inspiring quest as she creates art that moves the soul and makes the most of this precious gift called life. Amy's world of boundless creativity and unbridled joy is a true inspiration to all.

About the Exhibition

In my art, I aim to pour my heart out onto the canvas, allowing the viewer to witness not just the highlights of life but also the struggles and complexities that make us human. Through a process that often begins with a jumble of emotions and experiences, I find solace in putting brush to canvas. It's a journey of release, a way to let go of the weight that life can sometimes bring.

Each stroke, each layer, is a deliberate step towards unearthing the beauty that exists even in the darkest moments. As I paint, I confront the shadows, the challenges, and the pain, transforming them into something that radiates with hope and light. It's in this transformative process that I find my sense of healing and resilience, and I hope that it resonates with others who encounter my work.

For me, the act of creation is an exploration of the human experience, an invitation to embrace both the complexities and the simplicities that define our lives. It's a reminder that every story, no matter how complicated or dark, has the potential to evolve into something beautiful and inspiring. I hope that when people engage with my paintings, they find a sense of connection and understanding, a recognition of their journey within the vibrant narratives I depict.

Through this exhibition, I invite you to join me on this journey of transformation, to witness the raw emotions and experiences that have shaped my art, and perhaps to discover a reflection of your own story within the layers of color and texture that adorn the canvas.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Bridges”, an exhibition featuring over 45 ceramic sculptures and paintings by Goldmark artist Riki Greenspan. The exhibition brings together artworks representing two decades of Riki Greenspan’s art career in Dallas.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 22 January 2024 to 23 February 2024.

The exhibition reception is on Saturday, 10 February 2024 from 3.00pm - 5.00pm.

A separate closing reception will be held on Friday, 23 February 2024 from 5.00pm - 7.00pm. Riki Greenspan will be available at the reception to respond to questions and comments about her artwork.

About the Exhibition

“It is not a secret that after more than twenty years living in Dallas, my husband and I are about to relocate closer to our children and grandchildren, near Washington DC. I feel that my years in Dallas were artistically fruitful, that my work developed and grew. In recent years I built an artistic home in my Goldmark studio, and was proud of the fact that I was the first artist to move into the building. I would love an opportunity to say goodbye to Dallas and to the Goldmark community by presenting the work I have created in the Norman Brown Gallery,

With the upcoming move in mind, I embarked on creating a set of outdoor sculptures that will serve as identifying signs for the multiple trees in our new back yards. Ten different species at all, each will be marked with a carving of its name, and decorated with identifying representation of leaves and fruit. I imagine this series to be the center piece of the exhibition.”

-Riki Greenspan, 2023

About the Artist

​Riki Greenspan is a native of Jerusalem, Israel and has resided in the United States for about three decades, She has lived in Dallas since 2003.

Riki initially trained in education, has teaching experience with both children and adults. She started honing her interest in art in the late 1980s.

Riki received a BFA in Art, and an MA in Ceramics from the University of SC in Columbia.

A lifelong learner, Riki continues to attend classes at Brookhaven College in Ceramics, Sculpture, Printmaking, and Photoshop.

Riki was a member of Studio 8 in Dallas for three years until it closed in 2017 and has been a resident artist at the Goldmark Cultural Center since 2018.

Riki’s sculptures have been shown in local and national exhibitions.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “The Wee Teeny TIny Mini Itsy Bitsy Art Show”, an exhibition featuring over 70 miniature works by 43 Goldmark artists and Dallas College Brookhaven ceramic students.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 15 December, 2023 to 13 January, 2024. The exhibition’s closing reception is on Saturday, 13 January, 2023 from 1.00pm - 3.00pm.

Featured Artists

Nan Martin
Rita Barnard
Susan Sponsler-Carstarphen
Richie Peña
Kathleen Carpenter
Lisa Helm Ballew
Margo Miller
April Soncrant
Barbara Jones
Christi Clark
Kristie Golden
Florence McLure
Rebecca Boatman
Ani Thurmond
Kyle Wood
Mr. Mo
Cecilia Navarro
Victoria Rios
David Snider 
Hugh De Witte
Vicki Charlotta
Riki Greenspan 
Dawn Branan
Natalie Friedman
Dan Hargrave
Jenni Simms
Alex Yeh
Rachel Hoehn
Du Chau 
Elizabeth Bentley 
Marty Ray
Cyndi McDonnell
Ginny Marsh
Terri Wilder
Jacqueline Jackson 
Conan West
Weston Pugh
Beverly Crockett
Dennis Sweeney
Barbara Franklin 
Bret Hahn
Midori Kitagawa
Ina Jeon

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “The Nature of Things”, an exhibition featuring new ceramic works by Lisa Ehrich.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 3 November, 2023 to 9 December, 2023. The exhibition reception is on Saturday, 11 November, 2023 from 1.00pm - 3.00pm.

About the Exhibition

I make clay objects that are influenced by nature. Embedded in the layers of intention and accident are the ideas that inspire my work: the sensuality of form, implied volume, human touch to a natural object, symbols of fragility, healing, and regeneration.

My experience of working with clay cannot be separated from my life experience, which includes a passion for research and travel. My eyes, head, and spirit have been filled with images of a ceramic world that includes ancient skills, timeless forms, and conceptual and symbolic content. Italian niches, Stonehenge, the Canadian Rockies, my backyard garden, and much more reside in my subconscious well that feeds my imagery and symbolism.

I move from throwing to hand-building, seeking the process that best actualizes the ideas that emerge. My surfaces are intended to reveal the form, to feel like the skin of an object, appearing as a natural consequence of its being.   I focus on atmospheric firings to achieve the desired effects and often use sandblasting as a final step.  A medley of other materials is sometimes employed to complete a concept, which results in a visually poetic combination.

- Lisa Ehrich, 2023

About the Artist: Lisa Ehrich

Having grown up in a small town in Mississippi, several things were very important to me, traveling and making things. Traveling affirmed that the world was much larger than the Delta and making things allowed my hands to understand the beauty and oddness of the world in which I lived.

I came from a very artistic family. When I was 13, my parents sent my sister and I to study art for the summer at the Banff Center of Arts in Alberta, Canada. I was transformed by the experience and knew my life would always include some form of art- making. It was my sophomore year in college at the University of Texas at Austin that I took my first ceramics class. Graduate school followed at the University of North Texas where my major was Ceramics and my minor, Sculpture. I graduated UNT in 1981 with a clear vision of wanting to teach in higher education and desiring to make objects in clay.

Since 1982, I have enjoyed 40+ years of teaching and providing leadership for the Art Department at Brookhaven Campusof Dallas College. The classroom,students, and working with amazingcolleagues have given me the chance to build a challenging and rewarding career. Also, the opportunity to teach field courses in Italy and England allowed our students and me to expand our perspectives while learning different cultures.

Working in clay continues to be my primary medium in my studio practice as an artist.As I transition from my teaching career to being a full-time artist, I am excited to enter this phase of my professional career.

- Lisa Ehrich, 2023

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Pretty in Pink”, an exhibition featuring new works of hand-cut and painted photography by Venessa Monokian.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 25 September, 2023 to 27 October, 2023.

About the Exhibition

On a nature walk during a visit to Miami, my hometown, I found myself in what I can only describe as a magical fairy forest. Lush and green, with light streaming in to illuminate miles and miles of heart shaped vines coating everything. The vine enveloped every bush, palm, and even climbed to the top of the trees. What initially felt magical started to feel odd. I didn’t recognize this vine from my childhood, and its loving embrace seemed to be suffocating. I later learned that this was an invasive species called air potato vine (Dioscorea bulbifera). In reality, the vine was choking everything in its path.

This vine has found its way, not just to South Florida, but also to my new home in southeastern Texas. Invasive species like this one are often cultivated because of their beauty. When misplaced they kill the native plants and throw off a natural balance.

Standing within the miles and miles of vines, reflecting on how this one plant has impacted both of my current home spaces, I felt truly overwhelmed. I began to photograph the vine, unsure of what these images would become. After printing, I cut most of the photograph away, isolating the vine and its victim. Colorizing the shadow areas of the image where the air potato vine is positioned to highlight it. I deliberately picked a neon pink color due to the unnatural tone, acting as a toxic visual marker. The visual effect is similar to my own first reaction to the air potato. One of awe and enchantment of its beauty. The work lures and guides the viewer to think more deeply about their relationship to nature and the negative impact humans can have on it.

This work helped me build a strong connection, not only with the environment in my newer home of Texas, but between Texas and the place I grew up, South Florida. Miami and Houston are coastal cities, each affected by hurricanes, humidity, and the effects of humans on the natural terrain. Here, I found myself, more strongly than ever before, pulled to think about more than just my immediate surroundings.

- Venessa Monokian, 2023

List of Works (with pricing)

About the Artist

Venessa Monokian was born and raised in Miami. She currently lives in Houston and is a member at Box13 ArtSpace. Monokian received her MFA from Florida International University. In 2011, she was featured in a WLRN documentary by Emmy winning filmmaker Andrew Hevia, Rising Tide: A Story of Miami Artists. Monokian has shown her work internationally including Met/Gal in Austin, the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, Mac Fine Art in Fort Lauderdale, Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Panal 361 Argentina and Mister Pink Galeria De Arte in Spain. In 2023 she was be part of a three person show at Sam Houston State University Art Gallery entitled Scarcity and Abundance and is currently has a solo exhibition at the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery in Dallas Texas.

Venessa Monokian
vmonokian@yahoo.com
Monokian.com
(305) 804-0758

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present TRES LECHES, an exhibition featuring selected works by Brujita Workshop.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 21 August, 2023 to 22 September, 2023. A reception for the exhibition will be held on Saturday, 9 September, from 3 pm to 5 pm at the Goldmark Cultural Center.

About the Exhibition

The group exhibition TRES LECHES presents a whimsical yet thoughtful exploration of the front yard picnic experience, delving into its minutiae and broader cultural significance through a diverse range of mediums including drawing, textiles, and ceramics. The artworks in this exhibition are at once playful and profound, inviting the viewer to contemplate complexity of domestic and interpersonal dynamics in an outdoor setting.

Artworks in TRES LECHES show that femininity can be powerful, grotesque, and wild rather than the passive and docile ideal often seen in traditional representations of women.

About the Artists

Brujita Workshop is the Dallas-based art collective by SooMi Han, Analise Minjarez, and Mylan Nguyen. They have shared studio spaces since 2020 and their work continues to inform each other's practices.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present the Familia Printmakers Group Exhibition, an exhibition featuring new printmaking works by 10 different printmakers of the Familia Printshop.

The exhibition is on display in the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery from 7 July, 2023 to 11 August, 2023. A reception for the exhibition will be held on Saturday, 5 August, from 3 to 5 pm during the Summer Art Walk at the Goldmark Cultural Center.

About the Exhibition

The Familia Printmakers Group Exhibition brings together the work of our 2023 community print shop members. This exhibition features work from 10 different artists across many printmaking disciplines such as lithography, relief, intaglio, and screen printing.

Featured artists include:

• Braulio Lazon-Conde

• Madison Cooper

• Savannah Flores

• Clarissa Gonzalez

• Taye Karp

• Benjamin Muñoz

• Richie Peña

• Sarah Pickett

• Anna Redman

• Robyn Rozelle

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “The Battle of Good & Evil”, an exhibition of sculptural works by Goldmark artist Terri Wilder.

The exhibition is on display from 26 May 2023 to 30 June 2023, with a closing reception from 1pm - 3pm on Saturday, 24 June 2023. An artist talk will be presented on Thursday, 8 June 2023, from 11am - 12pm.

About the Exhibition

As we go about our daily lives, each of us makes hundreds of choices between good and evil. Will we be kind and patient or gruff and sarcastic? Do we choose to be generous or selfish? Is honesty our policy even when it costs us, or do we find a little lie more convenient? Why do we so often fall into the temptation to do what we know is wrong? Paul the Apostle described our struggle in his letter to the Ephesians: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual forces of wickedness in high places. Eph. 6:12

As an artist contemplating Paul’s words during the covid pandemic and the ensuing social and political chaos, Terri wondered what this would look like. The Battle of Good and Evil is her attempt to make these invisible spiritual truths visible.

About the Artist

For 30 years Terri’s passion for art had to fit into the busy work and travel schedule of a flight attendant.

Her career with Delta Air Lines allowed her to meet all kinds of people and to travel around the globe having many great adventures along the way. In 2012 when she retired, she began a new but equally exciting chapter. At last, she was free to give ceramics her full attention. When the possibility to apply for graduate school presented itself, naturally she jumped at the opportunity. The University of Dallas accepted her into their program in the fall of 2016. After completion of her MA in 2018 and MFA in 2019, she moved into her current studio at 14001 Goldmark, Suite 235. She loves being part of this wonderful community of talented artists.

Once she had moved into her studio in July 2020, she got to work creating seven wall-mounted black Madonna. Influenced by her travels to Africa and a love of Ankara fabrics and tribal mask-making, the work challenges ethnocentric ideas of beauty and finds inspiration in spiritual text to bring clarity and insight to a chaotic year of isolation, sickness, social unrest, economic downturn, and overwhelming uncertainty for a good future.

As 2020 gave way to 2021 she added a series of seven devils and seven angels to this body of work. The fourteen double-walled vessels pair together in provocative relationships. For anyone familiar with contemporary Texas clay, they should recognize the influence of her ceramic heroes: Dan Hammett, James Watkins, and Carl Block.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “LAST SONG”, a joint exhibition by Laura Hyunjhee Kim and SV Randall.

The exhibition is on display from 14 April 2023 to 19 May 2023, with an opening reception from 3pm - 5pm on Saturday, 22 April 2023, during the Spring Art Walk.

About the Exhibition

LAST SONG is a multimedia installation that intertwines the past, present, and future into a cyclical perception-altering timescape, in which constructs of order and continuity no longer apply. From a disorienting assemblage of found object sculptures, to audiovisuals suspended within an endlessly repeating temporal loop, Laura Hyunjhee Kim and SV Randall present an evocative (other)worldy diorama of displacement, where a sense of semblance and linearity has been warped. On the cusp of reanimation, seemingly discordant artifacts conjure and reveal memories and traces of performers from strange spaces between spaces of entanglement, that echo neither-neither. 

About the Artists

LAURA HYUNJHEE KIM is a Korean-American multimedia artist who creates post-disciplinary performances to reveal spaces of hybridity that reimagine on/offline (non)human interactions. Kim has shown work worldwide, recently including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Theatre of Digital Art in Dubai, Kadist Art Foundation, Transfer Gallery, Pioneer Works, Harvest Works, and the Athens Digital Art Festival. Kim received the ArtSlant Award in New Media (2013), New Media Caucus Distinguished Scholar Award (2019), Judson-Morrissey Excellence in New Media Award (2020), and the Black Cube Video Art Award (2020). Kim is the author of “Entering the Blobosphere: A Musing on Blobs” (The Accomplices, 2019) and the co-author of “Remixing Persona” (Open Humanities Press, 2019). Kim is an Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Dallas. She lives in the company of neighboring songbirds, squirrels, and wild rabbits in Richardson, Texas.

SV RANDALL is an interdisciplinary artist from Buffalo, NY. He received his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from VCU and his BFA from Alfred University. His work has been exhibited at David & Schweitzer Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY; the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Ditch Projects, Eugene, OR; and the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. SV is the recipient of the Toby Devin Lewis Fellowship Award and has most recently participated in residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan, ME), Sculpture Space (Utica, NY), the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (Roswell, NM). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Reclaiming my World, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Goldmark artist Armando Sebastian.

The exhibition is on display from 3 March 2023 to 7 April 2023, with an opening reception on Saturday, 11 March 2023, from 1-3pm.

About the Exhibition

In his exhibition, “Reclaiming my World”, Armando Sebastian creates narrative works to tell the story of his journey. “Growing up in Mexico as the only son in a traditional Hispanic family I felt pressured to choose a manly profession that would please their expectations,” Sebastian says. After coming out and losing most of his friends in the process he made the decision to start a new life in the US, in search of better opportunities, to follow his passion and to pursue his dreams. With vibrant colors and symbols with references to gay poets and music icons, Armando Sebastian takes us through an imaginary journey toward another place in time, an intimate place free from gender codes and cultural boundaries. “This exhibition is about new chapters, beginnings and endings. I’m reclaiming my world. A universe immersed in elements and themes that have inspired my work from the beginning of my painting years,” Sebastian states.

Sebastian chose these lyrics by Steven Morrissey to precede his work as an epigraph.

Ordinary boys, happy knowing nothing happy being no-one but themselves
Ordinary girls, supermarket clothes who think it's very clever to be cruel to you
For you were so different you stood all alone
And you knew that it had to be so
Avoiding ordinary boys Happy going nowhere, just around here
In their rattling cars
Ordinary girls Never seeing further than the cold, small streets that trap them 
But you were so different you had to say no
When those empty fools tried to change you, and claim you
For the lair of their ordinary world where they feel so lucky
So lucky, so lucky with their lives laid out before them
They are lucky, so lucky, so lucky
So lucky, so...   

About the Artist

Armando Sebastian was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. At an early age he became interested in theater and fashion, which later evolved into his expression through narrative painting. Sebastian moved to the U.S in search of broadening his opportunities as an Artist, to learn English and to follow his passion. He has been exhibiting his work in the North Texas region for the past decade in venues such as the Latino Cultural Center and the Fort Worth Community Arts Center among others, as well as with galleries based in Los Angeles and New York City. In 2017, he was recognized with the Artistic Merit Award granted by the ArtSpace111 in its Fourth Annual Regional Juried Exhibition in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2018, he was included in the juried exhibition, New Texas Talent, at Craighead Green Gallery and was a participating artist in MaricónX, a group show that traveled to multiple cities across the state of Texas. His work has been featured in publications such as the Dallas Morning News and PublicArt magazine among others. Armando Sebastian currently lives and works in Dallas, TX.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “SMART - Social Message Art”, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Goldmark artist Tony Strickland.

The exhibition is on display from 20 January 2023 to 24 February 2023, with an opening reception on Saturday, 1/21, from 1-3pm. During the opening reception, Tony Strickland will present an artist talk from 2-3pm in the Norman Brown Gallery.

About the Exhibition

2020 was easily the most tumultuous year of my life, I thought. With the sudden onset of COVID, coupled with all the civil and racial unrest from the George Floyd killing, and the consistent televised killings of unarmed Blacks by White police officers and their constant acquittals, it was obvious White society still fails to see the humanity in African Americans. Combine all of the above factors with the current political climate and the Insurrection at The Capitol in January 2021, and I knew I had to express myself creatively and become a part of the conversation.

However, all of these issues would become secondary and minuscule in my life with the sudden passing of my fiancé, Angela Woods, on June 5, 2022. My life has been forever altered, and all of the grief, memories, and emotional emptiness is reflected in the paintings produced since that date.

This series of paintings addresses all the above issues and is an accurate barometer of today’s political and racial climate. The series and concept is titled “SMART.” This is an acronym for Social Message Art. The paintings also bridge the gap between the disciplines of graphic design and fine art by executing graphic compositions in an expressive painterly style.

-Tony Strickland

Artist Statement

I firmly believe there’s an inner artist in every person, but the difference between the professional, and/or lifetime creative professional and the lay person, is the artist’s ability to face their fears and insecurities and pursue the final vision. This is my life’s purpose and journey. The pursuit of creative freedom, spiritual & intellectual growth, and the unexpected results and truths that are discovered as a result of this process.

-Tony Strickland

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “2x2: Art in Pairs”, a group exhibition of ceramic works by Dawn Branam, Kathleen Carpenter, Seema Christensen, Barbara Franklin, Rivka Greenspan, Virginia Marsh, Sue Miller-Jochum, Kay Morgan, Susan Sponsler-Carstarphen, Lora Stutts, and Terri Wilder.

The exhibition is on display from 5 December 2022 to 15 January 2023, with an opening reception on Saturday, 12/10, from 1-3pm, and a closing reception on Saturday, 1/14, from 1-3pm.

About the Exhibition

In the world of art, clay is a medium all its own -- at once humble and sophisticated, simple and complex, intuitive and highly skilled.  Ancient as the earth from which it comes, it is also fresh and contemporary. No wonder, then, that a humble incidental experience with the material becomes, for some of us, a serious life pursuit. Working in clay is labor and love. Hands on, hands in, wet and dry, soft and firm. Satisfaction has to be derived from the doing, since the final result will reveal itself only at the end of a long process. 

We are a community of Dallas women from diverse backgrounds examining the relationships and interactions of ceramic artwork presented as “doubles”. Born in South Korea, South Africa, Israel, India and the U.S., we share our stories through ceramic works-- some functional, some sculptural.

“I liked doubles because the eye couldn’t be passive. The viewer had to go from one to the other to see why they were similar and why they were not similar.”                                                         -Viola Frey

In this collective body of work, we explore the dynamics created by sameness and contrast in form, surface, and concept. Our investigation reveals the truth of Frey’s observation.  The sum of the pairs is larger than the individual value of its components.

About the Artists

Dawn Branam was born in Lawton, Oklahoma and earned a Bachelors of Business degree from the University of Houston.  She went on to a successful career first in the field of accounting and later migrated to software and logistics where she is still active.  Also, as a long term Vipassana meditator, Dawn is a deeply involved volunteer at the local meditation center in Kaufman, Texas where she exercises functional design skills in the development of the campus.  Along the path of her life, art has been a constant companion.  From an early age, she worked in ceramics alongside her mother.  Later, she absorbed and experimented through elective course work during business school. Her present work in clay is an exploration of ideas with no functional purpose. 

Kathleen Carpenter hails from Dallas, Texas - but has been kidnapped by her husband and relocated to an undisclosed location in the surrounding suburbs. Her work spans the cute and the craven, the moe and the macabre, but these days she’s taken to painting pets in Victorian dress and molding amorphous monsters out of clay.

Seema Christensen was born in New Delhi, India, and immigrated to Canada and later to the United States.   Seema has a BS in Electrical Engineering with Computer Option degree and worked as a Software Engineer and Oracle Database Administrator in the Virginia/DC area.  Her true passion for clay started in the Fall of 2005 after taking her first ceramics course at a local college in Texas.  Clay was a way to incorporate creativity and problem solving with a tangible outcome.  Her recent ceramic works deals with nature - balance, beauty, serenity, and fragility.  Her experience and travels to other countries allowed her to explore world architectures using clay. Most of her work is wheel thrown using underglaze techniques, and/or hand carving.

Barbara Franklin was born in South Africa and emigrated to London in 1972. She began her ceramics journey in 1976, when she was urged to go to a sculpture class at the Henrietta Barnet School in London, UK. John Brown, an encouraging teacher, put her on the path to create many types of work including abstract sculpture and mediums using stone, wood and clay. Barbara arrived in Dallas in 1989. She attended Brookhaven college to further her artistic studies in ceramics. She considers herself very fortunate to have professors Du Chau and Lisa Ehrich as teachers and mentors. She works out of her studio at Goldmark Cultural Center in Dallas.

Rivka Greenspan, more familiarly Riki, is a native of Jerusalem, Israel. She has lived in the U.S. for more than half her life, andin Dallas since 2003. She took her first ceramic class almost 30 years ago, while an art student at the University of South Carolina, and never stopped. Eventually she earned a BFA at USC, and in 2004, an MA in Ceramics, under the tutelage of Prof. Virginia Scotchie. Since then, she has taken classes and workshops with many wonderful teachers and artists, no one more influential on her artistic development than Du Chau. After the art community at Valley View Mall closed, she was the first artist to establish her studio in the Goldmark Cultural Center. Her work utilizes techniques of hand building and mold making. Riki’s emphasis is on the artistic medium and its creative possibilities, not utility. A strong inspiration in her work is derived from the physical making process. 

Virginia “Ginny” Marsh is known for her bold stoneware and porcelain vessel and sculptural forms set off by colors and textures. Transformed by the fire, they retain marks of the earth from which they are made and of her hands. While raising a family on a small organic farm, she taught at the University of Louisville, worked as Editorial Advisor on ceramics for Chilton Books, gave workshops all over north America, and published numerous magazine articles. Her work has been featured in major pottery books. More recently she taught classes at the Craft Guild of Dallas and worked as Resident Artist at the University of Dallas. She now works in her home studio and fires in a small car kiln in her back yard. A native Texan, she is a member of the Goldmark Cultural Center and the Craft Guild of Dallas.

Sue Miller-Jochum fell in love with pottery in her senior year of college at the University of Louisville.  Virginia Marsh was her instructor and she helped instill in Sue an appreciation of form, color, and function.  As so often happens, life gets in the way of the things we really enjoy. It was not until she was in her forties that she allowed herself to once again enjoy pottery. Her pieces are inspired by a sense of fun and by the movement of the clay. 

Kay Morgan was born in the small central Texas town, Comanche and as a child was always playing in mud. She earned a BFA in crafts at UNT with a concentration in ceramics. After a brief career in advertising, she spent the next 20 years working with another medium, three daughters as a stay-at-home mom. With her family raised, she returned to her addiction-- playing in mud. For the past 20 years she has been perfecting her skills as a member of ceramics classes in several community colleges in the DFW area.

Susan Sponsler-Carstarphen was born in Seoul, South Korea, was adopted at 6 months of age, and grew up on a farm in Iowa. She earned a BA in Advertising Design at Iowa State University, and an MFA in photography at Texas Woman’s University. Her work explores issues related to identity and being an Asian American international adoptee and consists of photo-based artworks which include ceramics, cyanotype images on fabric, encaustic paintings, installation, mixed media images and quilts. Her work has been shown in Seoul, South Korea; Panama City, Panama; Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago. Her work is included in numerous publications, most notably in “Convergent Conversations” by Margo Machida in Blackwell’s Journal: A companion to Asian art and architecture. She works in her studio at the Goldmark Cultural Center in Dallas.

Lora Stutts, a native Texan, holds an MFA from the University of North Texas. She worked at the North Carolina Arts Council and taught at Barton College. She lives in Texas and recently returned to an old passion: working in clay.

For 30 years Terri Wilder’s passion for art had to fit into the busy work and travel schedule of a Delta Air Lines flight attendant. When she retired in 2012, Terrifinally was free to give ceramics her full attention, later earning an MFA from the University of Dallas in 2019.  Her years of travel impact her work greatly. References to cultures from many lands are a natural part of her expression. Having had the privilege to experience the beauty and diversity the world offers, she wants to share those discoveries through her art.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Refuge | Refuse”, an exhibition of environmentally themed, mixed media landscape paintings by Matthew Jones.

The exhibition is on display in the Brown Gallery from 28 October 2022 to 25 November 2022, with an exhibition reception on Saturday, 11/12 from 1 - 3pm during the November Art Walk at the Goldmark Cultural Center.

About the Exhibition

Painting is a way of expressing a connection to the land that was fostered in me at childhood. I grew up in an old forest in central Ohio, and though I now spend my days in urban centers I have never forgotten my roots. I want viewers to become immersed in my landscapes, but I do not just celebrate the land. Debris and discarded plastics litter my compositions. The work forms a tension in the viewer between the joy of exploring new lands and the revulsion of discovering the pollutants that are so often just off the trail.

My watercolors are created through a casting process. Beginning with a wax slab, I carve a negative of what I intend the finished project to be. That void is then filled with recycled paper pulp. When possible I try to mix paper refuse recovered from the sites I visit into the pulp; this adds a level of site specificity to the process. Once complete I have a low relief paper support to paint on, granting my watercolors a level of dimension and impasto that is on par with my encaustics.

Though I recover paper when I can for my casting process plastics are a larger concern of mine. They feature prominently in my work because only 9 percent of our plastics get recycled. The rest end up incinerated, wasting space in landfills, or in the water system where they break up into microplastic bits to poison marine life. Globally, 8 million tons of plastic enter the environment per year. Local activist groups like to challenge people to pick up 10 pieces a week. I encourage everyone to try to meet that challenge as well.

- Matthew Jones

About the Artist

Matthew Jones is an avid traveler and nature enthusiast who wants to share his adventures with the wider world through his art. His mediums of choice are watercolor and encaustic, but he uses casein and oil frequently as well. Matthew Jones received his MA in 2016 and his MFA from the University of Dallas in 2018. He is currently an Adjunct Professor for Tarrant County College - Southeast. His paintings have been exhibited nationally but notable local institutions include: Beaudry Gallery and Framing, The Irving Arts Center, The Oak Cliff Cultural Center, Umbrella Gallery, McKinney Performing Arts Center, Art 7 Gallery, Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery, and now The Goldmark Cultural Center.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Past is Present”, a solo exhibition of installation and video work by Michelle Cortez Gonzales.

“Past is Present” is on display in the Norman Brown Gallery from 16 September 2022 to 14 October 2022, with a closing reception on Saturday, 8 October 2022, from 1.00 - 3.00pm.

About the Exhibition

“Past is Present” is an exhibition of installation and video work that focuses on familial ties, identity and domestic labor through the effects of assimilation within my Mexican American family. I am strongly influenced by people in my life who share cultural experiences through hard work, hand-making, and objects. Simultaneously, I recognize a legacy of silence and trauma that has trickled down and informed the duality of connection and conflict between my past and present.

Found fabric and domestic craft processes are an essential feature in my practice, as they too can become lost histories. Ten small works made up of fabric scraps, drawings, and old photographs of family members are displayed along the wall and secured with vinyl tablecloth and gold embroidery. Each piece acts as a relic of memory, preserving the actions of love that draw me back to my family and my culture.

The 8-minute looped video is inspired by my grandmother, who was a strong but silent woman. She spent nights working hard for others and days carrying out household tasks for her family. I imagined the discrimination she faced that forced her to choose English over Spanish, and actions over words as methods of survival. I am depicted hanging wet sheets with hand embroidered Spanish words onto a clothesline. Sounds of cicadas and thunder rolling in the distance are heard throughout. The words Orgullo (pride), Familia (family), Lengua (language), Historia (history), Tradicion (tradition), and Yo (me) are literally left hanging in the elements of rain and wind. With each fabric hung, a shadow is created between me and my grandmother; as a mother, a woman, a laborer, and descendant of my Mexican American family.

The act of conjuring memories and connecting to the past becomes an important meditative exercise that allows me to link to my ancestors and aid in my healing journey. This exhibition is meant to evoke memories of one’s own past and speak to our interconnectedness of fragmented identities.

-Michelle Cortez Gonzales

About the Artist

Michelle Cortez Gonzales is a mixed media painter and installation artist. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Dallas. She carries an extensive record of solo, juried, and group exhibitions across galleries in the DFW area. She was featured in Visit Fort Worth’s 2021 series of “Women Worth Meeting," and has been awarded residencies from Cuttyhunk Island Artist Residency, Massachusetts (2021), and with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art as a 2021 Community Artist. Her work has been written about in publications including the Dallas Morning News, Glasstire and Maake Magazine.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present Under the Surface, a solo exhibition of new works by Nan Martin. The exhibition features a collection of cement and wire figure sculptures that address a common theme of the vulnerabilities of the human experience.

Under the Surface will be on display in the Norman Brown Gallery from 5 August 2022 to 2 September 2022, with a reception on Saturday, 13 August 2022, from 12 - 5pm during the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Summer Art Walk.

About the Artist
Nan Martin is a sculptor who primarily works in wire, steel, cement, and whatever else strikes her fancy. Her early creative influences came from a French mother who was a painter and her Parisian grandmother who was a clothing designer and dress maker in 1950s Hollywood and 1960s San Francisco where she grew up.

Creating wire figures had its roots in the mid-1990s after she was encouraged to take a sculpture class while struggling with a family tragedy. A sculpture professor had a powerful influence in her emotional healing through art and introduced her to the wire and steel she uses today.

After earning an M.A. degree in sculpture, her early work was in ceramics which focused on faces and the human form. This work led to an invitation to appear on the HGTV program "Modern Masters as a featured artist.

Nan makes silicon molds from ceramic body parts which are cast in cement and integrated with wire and steel.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present the first annual “Familia Gathering” printmaking group exhibition.

“Familia Gathering” features works produced by current and past members of Familia Printshop, Dallas’s first and only community printshop. Also featured in “Familia Gathering” is a pop-up display of screenprinted works by Amapolay Manufacturas Autonomas, a Peruvian artist collective that illustrates the different manifestations of South American popular culture through graphic art, serigraphy, and graphic design.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, July 2, from 4pm-6pm at the Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present “Rebuilt from the Ground Up”, a solo exhibition featuring a ceramic sculptural installation by Karla Garcia.

“Rebuilt from the Ground Up” will be on display from May 13 to June 10, 2022. On Saturday, June 4, an opening reception will be held from 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm at the Norman Brown Gallery.

About the Exhibition
The borderland saw me grow and its landscape continues to teach me about who I am. I am part of the desert space at the edge of the Mexico/US border that is marked by a dotted line. In my installations, I create desert landscapes that become abstract self-portraits of experiences from my childhood in Mexico to adulthood in the U.S. For this installation, I created 500 “nopal” ears (prickly pear) that are stripped down from the details that make up the actual nopal. The process becomes meditative through the repetition that results in a reconstructed prickly pear tree.

The cactus-inspired sculptures refer to my Mexican cultural history and are made with terracotta clay. They are low-fired to cone 013 and stained with coffee to create a value scale of browns, oranges, and tan colors of the ground beneath. I pinched each piece to shape and I leave the memory of my fingertips as a way to express my presence as a MeXicana Americana rebuilt from the ground up.

-Karla Garcia

About the artist
Karla García is a Mexican-born, American-based artist that creates installations and sculptures with clay, found objects, and other symbolic materials to her Mexican heritage and migration. Her research-based artwork is a connecting point from her own history, ancient histories, and how these shape her identity, noting that “I hope that my work can be a catalyst for the public to experience a little bit of our human history in unexpected ways.” García is a Professor of Art at the Dallas College - Mountain View Campus. She completed an MFA degree in Ceramics and a Museum Education Certificate from the University of North Texas in 2019. García has exhibited in galleries in Dallas TX, Fort Worth, TX, and New York, NY. She was selected as a C3 artist at the Dallas, Museum of Art and has exhibited at the Nasher Sculpture Center Windows series.  García was a resident at Corsicana Artist and Writer Residency in 2021 and is currently working on a Binational installation at the border of Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.

Artist website: www.karlamichellgarcia.com
Instagram: @KarlaGarciaArt

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present Savage Arcadia, an exhibition of paintings by Michael Pianta.

The exhibition will be on display from 18 February 2022 to 18 March 2022. An exhibition reception will be held at the Norman Brown Gallery on Saturday, 19 February 2022, from 1:00pm to 3:00pm and Michael Pianta will present an artist talk in the Gallery at 1:30 pm that day.

For most of its long history painting has depicted the visual world. Even when the subject does not exist and cannot be observed, the visual paradigm remains one of how-things-look. How they might have looked, and how they actually look. If we had been there to see it - what would we have seen? This paradigm still has its uses and value.

With my work I join a growing number of living artists who are rediscovering the traditional techniques and methods of naturalistic painting. I utilize these skills to explore human narratives in a contemporary manner. Where history, myth and legend intersect, and our deepest archetypes are revealed, there we find the stories that live with us. The paradigm of realistic painting lends a credible veracity to the narrative, which I believe helps us see these stories in their most revealing light.

The body of work in Savage Arcadia represents my latest exploration of the various ways to create vital narrative painting today. Humankind walks a narrow road with respect to nature. We need nature to live, but nature is not a loving parent. It is literally inhuman. Cruel, merciless and indifferent. Everything we get from nature must be wrestled from it. Civilization is a defense against nature's caprices, but it is fragile, and underneath it the reality of nature remains. These paintings, by focusing on the figure, emphasize the human response to this condition. Human beings cannot defeat nature (we should not even wish to) and we cannot hide from nature, since nature will always find us. Instead, like the figures in these paintings, we must confront the world with resolve - a stoic determination in the face of adversity. Though danger is all around us (sometimes obvious, sometimes more hidden), and though the situation could tum for the worse at any moment, we must venture forth regardless. There is something ennobling about this view of humanity. We do not shrink and cower; we advance in spite of everything.

To explore this deep theme I felt it would be best to depict a not-quite-real place, a mythic place. These are explorers, anglers, survivors, but not literally construed. They exist on the plane of archetypes - the idea of a fisherman, so to speak, rather than an actual instantiation. The title of the exhibition plays into this mythic theme. Traditionally, Arcadia is an idealized, pastoral land. One thinks of nymphs and shepherds playing pan flutes. Real nature is not like this, of course, which is the point of the Arcadia myth. Real nature is ruthlessly amoral. It is “savage” in the sense of being anti-civilizational. But it is the place where humanity goes to take what it needs, to hone itself against fierce resistance, the place where our strength, intelligence, resourcefulness and grit is summoned up and put on display. So perhaps it is an Arcadia after all.

Michael Pianta (b.1986) has a BFA from UT Tyler, and an MA from the University of Dallas. He has also received certificates of completion in Drawing and Painting from the Texas Academy of Figurative Art, a classical realist atelier in Fort Worth, Texas, He has exhibited at various galleries nationally. He has taught numerous private classes and workshops in Fort Worth. His wife Audra Pianta is also a classically trained artist. Together they run Pianta Studios, which offers workshops and classes in the Metroplex area. They live in Fort Worth with their two daughters.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery is proud to present They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds, an exhibition of new works by Tina Medina, including interwoven mixed media, photographic, and fiber pieces, exploring the contributions of families to the development of American land, economy, and culture.

They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds is on display at the Norman Brown Gallery from 13 August 2021 to 10 September 2021. Regular visiting hours are 11am - 5pm on weekdays. A closing reception will be held at the Norman Brown Gallery on Saturday, 4 September 2021, from 2pm to 5pm.

Growing up my father told us colorful stories from his childhood about traveling the United States as a migrant worker with his family. They picked crops of different vegetables and fruits that eventually made their way to American dining tables. Contemplating my father and his family’s contributions makes me wonder in awe at the millions of other families who have anonymously contributed to and helped build this country.

My newest works exhibited in “They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds” are about the contributions of families, especially women and children to the cultivation of the lands, economies and culture of the United States. The expression, “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”, mostly used as an activist cry, expresses the feelings of black and brown families whose physical hard labor of the past and today continues to be overlooked as the roots of the success of our country.

The seeds planted were not only those for produce, but also were seeds of hopes and dreams for families to make a better life in the U.S. Those families’ next generations of children grew up as citizens of the country who continue to contribute on various levels to the economy, culture and identity of the U.S.

Artworks included in the exhibition are small intimate interwoven and painted photographs, embroidery and watercolor mixed media pieces.

As a woman of Mexican indigenous ancestry born in the United States, I am compelled to make art that speaks about current issues by representing the point of view of immigrants and people of color. The struggles and continued barriers people of color endure in the US motivates me to create works from the viewpoint of those who have suffered racism, bigotry and xenophobia. Part of the experience I portray is how we try to place ourselves within a historical context that was never meant to include us.

My inspiration comes from cultural history and identity, including gender, ethnicity, nationality, ancestry and class. I find it necessary to revisit the history of the US to remind ourselves how the past informs and shapes the present. Our past and present history influence how we perceive others and even how we perceive ourselves.

Using found materials, sewing, fibers, and assemblage I explore juxtapositions of history with cultural symbols to reflect the narratives of those whose stories are left untold.

-Tina Medina, 2021

Tina Medina is a visual artist and professor of art at Mountain View campus, Dallas College. Born and raised in West Texas, Medina earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Texas Tech University and Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Texas. Medina’s art has been exhibited nationally in exhibits such as Immigration, Migration, Movement & The Humanities at Arizona State University. Most recently her work was selected to be showcased in Arte Latino Now 2021, a virtual exhibit for the Center for Latino Studies at Queens University Charlotte in NC, and selected for Changarrito Artist of the Month 2021 Virtual Residency for Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas. Medina has curated several exhibits including Contemporary Latino American Artists of the Metroplex and ELLA: Exhibiting Local Latina Artists at the Dallas Latino Cultural Center. She was a member of the oldest artist run co-op in Texas, 500X Gallery and has served on various City of Dallas Public Art Committees.

She lives with her family in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas.

The Goldmark Cultural Center’s Norman Brown Gallery proudly presents MEXICANISIMO, an exhibition of acrylic and oil paintings by Armando Sebastian. The exhibition is on display from 2 July 2021 to 7 August 2021. Regular gallery viewing hours are 10am-5pm on weekdays.

An exhibition reception will take place on Saturday, 7/10, from 2-5pm. The artist will present a short talk and guided tour of the exhibition at 3pm.

If you are interested in attending a guided tour with the artist (Saturdays only) contact Armando Sebastian at armandosebastian_art@live.com

My first trip out of my home town was to Mexico City when I was 5 years old, there are a few things that I remember very clearly: our visit to Teotihuacan; the two pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, with stone carvings of snakes and humans all over the place, people praying, people picnicking, people selling all kinds of things. I remember the Cathedral and the Alameda Central while driving in my grandpa’s old truck listening to Trio Ballads. Once when we were walking in downtown Mexico City I felt a mysterious presence in the air, I remember being so excited because my mom was always telling me tales about everything, I think that stimulated my imagination and all those things made me fall in love with my culture and the ancient Mexico.

Since then I have felt a strong connection with my people, and I draw and paint using bright colors inspired by Mexican folk art, and the human body. Rooted in autobiographical details from my childhood and adolescence. I like to tell stories through my work and explore questions of identity and gender, you'll find yourself into the atmosphere of human pain and vulnerability reminiscent of the ex-voto paintings. My work also includes paintings with reference to poets, music icons and symbols amid vibrant landscapes. Perhaps my Art can most closely identify with the genre of magical realism.

-Armando Sebastian