Inquisitive Eyes: El Paso Art 1960-2012 - June 12 to Aug 26, 2012

Inquisitive Eyes: El Paso Art 1960-2012

June 17 – August 26, 2012

Woody and Gayle Hunt Family and Tom Lea Galleries

The exhibition "Into the Desert Light: Early El Paso Artists 1850-1960," 1/17 to 2/25/2010, examined the development of artistic trends and the primary artists and imagery of the period. It sought to demonstrate that in the El Paso region traditions were strong, exhibition opportunities were few, the desert landscape was the subject of choice and that European modernist influences, such as abstraction, did not have much of an effect on artists or collectors until the 1950s.

The exhibition “Inquisitive Eyes: El Paso Art 1960-2012" recognizes the contributions those artists made and acknowledges that realism and representational imagery form the basis of this earlier period as well as the period 1960 to the present. In addition to exploring examples of realistic imagery by some of El Paso’s best-known artists, the work of other, under-recognized artists from the same region and period who worked with new subject matter and new art-making practices will also be investigated. This exhibition will explain the various reasons for working with realistic, semi-abstract or completely non-representational imagery and will indicate how modernist ideas opened the door to the development of new art forms and new subject matter.

This exhibition will present a glimpse into a period when there was an ongoing discussion about traditions and new directions. This recent period was one when unique cross-border relationships developed to support artists, when new definitions of art resulted in temporary, performance based and site specific works of art and when organizations fostered opportunities for artists working outside of traditional practices. This exhibition includes contemporary art from painting and installation to multimedia and new genres, but most of all it identifies some of the many highlights of art during this period for the delight of the viewer’s inquisitive eyes.

Artists Represented

Manuel Acosta
Ray Lopez Aleman
Vladimir Alvarado
Celia Alvarez-Munoz
Susan Amstater
Marta Arat
John Arnold
Julia Barello
Earline Barnes
Ho Baron
Richard Baron
Kim Bauer
Therese Bauer
Phillip Behymer
Bruce Berman
Vincent Burke
Margarita Cabrera
Carlos Callejo
Julian Cardona
Robert Carlson
Frederick Carter
Melesio Casas
Antonio Castro
Jose Cisneros
Sergio Chavez
Carl Cogar
Holly Thurston Cox
Woody Crumbo
Suzi Davidoff
Rigoberto de la Mora
Francisco Delgado
Connie Dillman
James Drake
John Dunn
Gaspar Enriquez
Alberto Escamilla
Adrian Esparza
Noel Espinosa
David Fleet
Dave Ford
Gabriel Gaytan
Manuel Guerra
Carlos Gutierrez
Rudy Gutierrez
Virgil Hancock
Becky Hendrick
Ricardo “Rick” Hernandez
Jan Herring
Cesar Ivan
Loren G. Janzen
Anna Jaquez
Luis Jimenez
Charles Kistenmacher
Susan Klahr
William Kolliker
Winifred Stoddard Korf
Tom Lea
Annabel Livermore
James Magee
Ginny Malone
Hal Marcus
Frederick Martin
Ernesto Martinez
Ann James Massey
Robert Massey
Candy Mayer
Diana Molina
Tom Moore
Rudy Montoya
Aaron Mosley
David Nakabayashi
Maria Natividad
Carmen Navar
Mauricio Olague
Ruben Olvera
Ysela Fulton O’Malley
Mago Gandara Orona
Mitsu Overstreet and Noah MacDonald of the Keep Adding collective
Ray Parish
Mario Parra
Gloria Osuna Perez
L.B. Porter
Bill Rakocy
Paul Henry Ramirez
Sam Reveles
Hilda Rosenfeld
Rudy Royval
Ben Saenz
Steve Salazar
Joel Salcido
Bob Snead
Jacquelyn Stroud Spier
Rachel Stevens
David Taylor
Rachelle Thiewes
Aleksander Titovets
Lyuba Titovets
Eugene Thurston
Miguel Valenzuela
Willie Varela
Leo Villareal
Bob Wade
Shane Wiggs
Bassel Wolfe
Albert Wong