VALERIE FOWLER: Nature and Other Stories
November 30, 2016 – January 7, 2017
Julia C. Butridge Gallery, Dougherty Arts Center
1110 Barton Springs Road, Austin,Texas 78704
512-974-4000

Opening Reception:    

Wednesday, November 30th, 6-8pm (with brief musical “cranky” show at 7pm)

Theater Performance: Tuesday, December 20, 7pm

Artist Talk: Wednesday, January 4, 7pm

Dougherty Arts Center presents “Nature and Other Stories”, a survey of Valerie Fowler’s exuberant and dense nature-themed oil paintings and large works on paper, selected from work spanning 20 years.

Fowler has exhibited widely, but this will mark her first solo exhibition.

Fowler draws and paints actual places, often depicting Austin and Central Texas locations, but the magical realism of her work reveals unseen layers of the seen landscape. 

Looking through her eyes at a riverbed, an evening streetscape, a patch of earth, we see lines forming swirling patterns in shadows; vibrant colors pulsing with energy, making visible the unseen natural forces at work. The heavy atmosphere of a hot, humid Texas night comes to life in enveloping, mysterious texture.  An anonymous overgrowth of vines along a path, painted in a deep cool palette of blue and green hues, takes on a sinister beauty, a roiling complexity.

Fowler said, “I use the allegory of nature to show the ambiguity of beauty in humankind. There is, always, in my pieces, an element of sadness and wonder, at the beauty of things both evil and good.”

Included in the exhibition will be Fowler’s original illustrations for the musical project and book Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase (written by husband, Brian Beattie).

Opening night, November 30 at 7pm, there will be a brief musical “cranky” performance showcasing Fowler’s illustrated, 30 foot long panoramas, cranked along to Beattie’s musical accompaniment.

In addition, on December 20 at 7pm, in the Dougherty Theater, Beattie and a full cast of players will perform the full musical soundtrack of Ivy and the Wicker Suitcase, again featuring Fowler’s “cranky” panoramas.
 
All events are free and open to the public

This project has been developed with the support of Big Medium and grant funding from the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division.

For more information, contact the artist:    valerie@valeriefowler.com
To see images of the work:    valeriefowler.com
Gallery information:    JBCGallery@austintexas.gov