Today@Sam Article

Gaddis Geeslin Gallery Exhibit Explores ‘Trace Echoes’

Oct. 25, 2016
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt

Story by Max Manning. 

The Gaddis Geeslin Gallery in the Department of Art at Sam Houston State University will present “Trace Echo,” an exhibit featuring work by artists Helen Altman, Rabéa Ballin and Brad Tucker through Nov. 22.

“Trace Echo” includes work that relates to the traces or echoes of popular and mass culture, particularly music, within our lives, according to curator Melissa L. Mednicov, SHSU assistant professor of art.

Trace Echo(Helen Altman)
A piece by Helen Altman that is currently on display in the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery as part of the "Trace Echo" exhibit. —Submitted image

“These artists explore such echoes through both their subject matter and their work’s materiality,” Mednicov said. “Helen Altman uses objects and ephemera from mass culture to create disruptions to working record players.

“Rabéa Ballin’s work refers to culture associated with popular music. She includes varying work such as an encaustic stack of Vibe magazines and wax paper transfers of ’90s rappers and cassette tapes,” Mednicov said. “Brad Tucker’s work consists of sound installation via sculptural disruptions to a record player, silent speaker-like sculptures, and abstracted forms which visually bear the echo of musical references.”

An opening reception will be held Thursday (Oct. 27) from 6-7 p.m. in the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery with light refreshments. Ballin will give an artist talk on the same day, from 5-6 p.m. in the Art Auditorium, located in Art Building E Room 108. Tucker will also speak on Nov. 10, from 5-6 p.m. in the Art Auditorium.  

Altman, who currently lives and works in Fort Worth, received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas.

She has had numerous solo exhibitions at the Moody Gallery in Houston and the Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas. Currently, her work is included in the solo exhibition “Helen Altman: Wilderness, Wildfires and Workhorses” at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts in Tyler.

Ballin was born in Germany, raised in southern Louisiana and moved to Houston to pursue her MFA degree in drawing and painting at the University of Houston.

While an undergraduate at McNeese State University, she returned to Germany to attend the Göethe Institute and subsequently studied art history in Rome and Florence.

Ballin has exhibited at Project Row Houses, The University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston’s ArtLeague, Community Artists’ Collective, and with Alabama Song. She is currently an assistant professor of fine arts at Lone Star College.

Brad Tucker, who lives and works in Austin, earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas and his MFA degree from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in New York.

He was an artist resident at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Core Program and has exhibited and performed internationally, including solo exhibitions at Inman Gallery in Houston; the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas; and the Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles.

All events are free and open to the public.

Located at 1028 21st St. in Huntsville, the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

Parking is free for events after 5 p.m. Day visitors may obtain a parking permit at the Sam South Complex, at 2424 Sam Houston Ave.

For more information contact Gaddis Geeslin Gallery technician Max Manning at mpm031@shsu.edu or 936.294.3102.

 

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