WEST TEXAS TRIANGLE, an alliance of Five Art Museums,
presents the work of Catherine Lee
The West Texas Triangle (WTT), a collaboration of five art museums, is pleased to announce a region-wide exhibition of sculpture, painting, prints, and ceramic works by international contemporary artist Catherine Lee. Throughout her career Lee has worked in abstraction, exploring a wide range of materials such as bronze, steel, oil paint, and raku ceramics. The exhibition will feature key works created between the early 1980s to the present. The Ellen Noël Art Museum and Museum of the Southwest will inaugurate the WTT exhibition with a joint opening in Odessa on May 31, 2012, followed by a lecture in Midland on the following morning. The Grace Museum in Abilene and the Old Jail Art Center in Albany will both open in Albany on June 2, 2012. The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts exhibition will open in San Angelo on July 6, 2012 and there will be an artist’s talk the following day at noon. The full list of dates for each museum can be found at the end of this release.
WTT was formed in 2006 to define West Texas as a “Space for Art” for the purpose of promoting the unique collections and exhibitions of each institution to a wider audience. The group includes the Grace Museum in Abilene; the Old Jail Art Center in Albany; the Museum of the Southwest in Midland; the Ellen Noël Art Museum in Odessa; and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in San Angelo. Each of the participating museums possesses wonderful collections that encompass a vast range of human history and artistic activity, and all are located in distinctive landmark buildings. Continuously changing exhibitions focus on a broad overview of all cultures and time periods. All of the museums are in close proximity to a rich array of unusual and delightful cultural, shopping, and dining attractions in their respective towns. Significantly, all five of the participating museums are accredited by the American Association of Museums, whose accreditation program includes less than 800 institutions of all disciplines across the entire United States.
Every year, this alliance of venerable institutions endeavors to exhibit the work of a single sculptor with a Texas connection at each of the museums. Past featured artists included George Tobolosky (2011) Sherry Owens (2010), James Surls (2009), Joe Barrington (2008), and Jesus Moroles (2007). This year, the West Texas Triangle is excited to present the work of Catherine Lee.
Born and mostly raised in Pampa Texas, Lee lived and worked in New York City for three decades before returning, and now lives and works in Texas. She first exhibited in New York at P.S.1 in 1980 and since then has participated in numerous exhibitions internationally. Lee has presented solo exhibitions at Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Irish Museum of Art, Dublin; Hôtel des Arts, Toulon; and Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne Métropole. Her work is included in numerous public collections, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. Lee’s work is most often linked to the post-minimalist movement in both style and approach.
Versatile and prolific, Lee is as adept at firing raku ceramics as she is at welding metals. She is also an accomplished painter and printmaker, highly regarded for her large monotypes. In her paintings, she uses minimal, repetitive forms that elicit emotional responses, as seen in her early shaped paintings like Sojourn (1985) and her new grid-like Quanta paintings (2010-12). Lee’s interest in painting and sculpture merge in her series of free-standing bronze Hebrides (2003-04) sculptures, which feature both monochromatic and richly hued patinas. Serialization is also an important theme in her work, as evidenced by her wall mounted bronze relief sculptures of the Alphabet series and monumental repeated ceramic wall installations To Alabama (2002-04) and Alice (2009-10). Each institution will present different selections by Lee, from large-scale sculpture and prints to mixed-media installation and paintings. An exhibition catalogue is being published by Charta in Milan, with the support of Galerie Lelong, and will feature essays by Hearne Pardee, Lilly Wei and Stephen Westfall. It will be available during June 2012.
Catherine Lee is represented by Galerie Lelong in New York and the dberman gallery in Texas.
For images of Catherine Lee’s work, please contact Galerie Lelong at 212.315.0470 or via email at art@galerielelong.com.
The contact information and dates for the exhibitions at each of the institutions is as follows:
Ellen Noël Art Museum in Odessa, TX
May 31 through August 12, 2012
NoelArtMuseum.org
info@noelartmuseum.org
432.550.9696
Museum of the Southwest in Midland, TX
May 31 through August 12, 2012
MuseumSW.org
info@museumsw.org
432.683.2882
Grace Museum in Abilene, TX
June 1 through August 16, 2012
TheGraceMuseum.org
info@thegracemuseum.org
325.673.4587
Old Jail Art Center in Albany, TX
June 2 through September 9, 2012
TheOldJailArtCenter.org
info@theoldjailartcenter.org
325.762.2269
San Angelo Museum of Fine Art in San Angelo, TX
July 6 through September 2, 2012
SAMFA.org
museum@samfa.org
325.653.3333
Galerie Lelong, NY
GalerieLelong.com
art@galerielelong.com
212.315.0470
Catherine Lee
catherinelee.net
contact@catherinelee.net