By Michael Burns/reporter
Perspective: North Texas Hispanic Artists art exhibit runs through Nov. 30 in the East Fork Gallery on TR Campus.The exhibit celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month and consists of the art of a large group of accomplished Hispanic college-level art instructors.“This is supposed to talk about the diversity within the Hispanic group,” said Angel Fernandez, art coordinator on TR Campus.
Fernandez put the exhibit together. Under his vision, the exhibit features his work and a select assembly of his hand-picked colleagues: Benito Huerta, Andrew Ortiz, Michelle Murillo, Omar Hernandez, Rosemary Meza-Des Plas, Paul Benero, Rafael Molina, Eduardo Aguilar, Christian deLeon and Jason Reynaga.
Fernandez said when he started planning the exhibit in May, the participating artists had no thesis or assignment. Merely, the exhibit was meant to display diversity within the Hispanic group. Fernandez said this would be evident through each artist’s unique cultural background.
Fernandez was born in Mexico and moved to Fort Worth at age 10. He graduated from a Fort Worth high school and later earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Texas Wesleyan University and then a master’s degree in sculpture at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
This exhibit displays his ironic piece Machito, which means “little macho.” The large piece that hangs from the ceiling represents the absurdities of perceptive masculinity. Fernandez said he thought the best way to achieve his vision and translate it to the audience was to hang three large representative testicles made of leather and green vinyl fabric.
Andrew Ortiz, another featured artist, is an associate professor in the department of art and art history at the University of Texas at Arlington. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, N.Y., and Master of Art and Bachelor of Art degrees from Humboldt State University in California.
His piece Sleep is about something deeply personal to Ortiz in his life, his battle with epilepsy.
“I have seizures,” he began in his description of his displayed piece.
Ortiz said he wanted to do a series on something that’s happened to him since he was born. The piece is a picture of him taken by his son while he was sleeping. To Ortiz, sleep is an act that comforts him and frees him from his epileptic seizures, “like a refuge,” he said.
The photo has an all-black background and Ortiz, pictured sleeping, has a white and gray tone to his skin. He achieved this image by covering the original photo in water and flour and then finished with a textural material.
In the gallery, the other artists use many different media in their work. A variety of paintings, sketches, 3-D pop-outs, graphics and photos can be seen.
The gallery is free and open daily to the public and can be visited during all TR Campus open hours.
