#lauren moya ford

[hyperallergic]

New York City may be the home of American Abstract Expressionism, but for some of the movement’s most notable women artists, Amarillo, Texas, was also an important hub. A recent book, “Three Women Artists: Expanding Abstract Expressionism in the American West” by Amy Von Lintel and Bonnie Roos, uncovers the little-known stories of Elaine de Kooning, Jeanne Reynal, and Louise Nevelson’s professional and creative gains in the region. Read Lauren Moya Ford’s full article on hyperallergic.com.

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 11, 19th of April, 2024 Research

The Female Body in Land Art, 1970's onwards

Beyond Fairway, 1989, soil, grass, flowers 140 x 500 x 300 cm.

“Pain of Cuba/ body I am/ my orphanhood I live In Cuba where you die/ the Earth that covers us/ speaks. But here,/ covered by the earth whose prisoner I am/ I feel death palpitating underneath/ the earth. And so,/ As my whole body is filled with want of Cuba/ I go on to make my work upon the earth,/ to go on is victory.” —Ana Mendieta, 1981

access here: https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/559315/ana-mendietasilhueta-em-fogoterra-abrecaminhos/

"Demeaning and dismissive attitudes like often accompanied challenges in securing professional support and financial patronage for women’s land art proposals. This barrier is evidenced by the markedly high number of sketches and plans for unrealized projects in the show, and the documentation of works that were completed only to be later dismantled or destroyed due to a lack of upkeep. I was especially struck by photos of “Seeded Catherine Wheel” (1982), a curious maze-like structure by Jody Pinto that disrupted the surrounding Pennsylvania suburbs and is one of several projects that no longer exist."- Lauren Moya Ford, 2023

This article unpacks less noticed aspects of the land art movement (1960's) with particular emphasis on the reintegration of the visions of female artists, who were otherwise disenfranchised in making their works by male discouragement and blatant disregard of the seriousness of female vision in Land Art.

I wouldn’t categorise my practice as being within a Land Art context mainly because I love to work indoors in the gallery space and a lot of my pieces using organic matter or the forms of nature couldn't exist without rotting or deteriorating if they were outdoors or they would be almost too indistinguishable from the outdoor landscape, they need to be separated from the outdoor 'nature' to be examined by the viewer. Yet, as a framework for research into nature, fine art, the bodies of those who identify as women and the environment- Land Art is a way in which certain features of nature has come into contemporary art beyond histories of nature in still life painting and other genres of indoor art-making. Seen as the subject for many paintings in art history, the still life and the landscape genre have largely boxed in nature to something that was interacted with as an imagined subject or filtered through the artists eye-not hand. Land Art brought the artist's into the outdoor spaces of nature and allowed influence. For my practice, nature is a great way to look at systems of time, specifically the season. By looking through a seasonal lens in months rather than in days, my practice links up with celestial narratives on nature as well as the cyclic nature of fertility in womanhood through menstrual cycles. The phases of phenology changes significantly over a month (new growth, deadheading flowers, soil composting and weather's influence) can alter the garden dramatically month to month. So that month to month, each phase of the season progresses the landscape.

[keepingitneutral]

“Taller Sert,” Palma de Mallorca, Spain,

 All photos by Lauren Moya Ford, 

Courtesy of Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca

[johnstreetdaydreams]

books for sale at Las Cruxes

https://lascruxes.com/collections/house-and-universe/products/ashley-thomas-selected-works-book

[fatehbaz]

The US public got its first taste of bananas at the 1876 United States Centennial Exhibition. The Philadelphia event’s many displays included the new typewriter, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, the Statue of Liberty’s still-unattached right arm, and an exotic banana tree. The plant was so popular that it required its own security guard, and curious visitors could buy and try its phallic fruit for just 10 cents. At the time, bananas were largely unknown outside of their native locations, but they quickly became common household foods in Europe and North America.

Today, bananas are the most consumed fruit in the world, with an industry that generates 12 billion dollars per year. Developed countries account for 80% of the fruit’s consumers, though 75% of global exports come from Latin America and the Caribbean, where bananas are the most grown fruit. The crop’s dominance and ubiquity has had serious and far-reaching implications for the region, engendering exploitative labor systems, climate change, and migration.

La Fiebre del Banano / Banana Craze is the first major study to examine the banana’s role in shaping culture, nature, and politics in the areas where it’s grown. The digital exhibition and research project is co-curated by Dr. Blanca Serrano, the project director at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, in New York, and Dr. Juanita Solano, an assistant professor of art history at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Together, Serrano and Solano have gathered nearly 100 banana-related artworks by artists dating from 1960 to today. The database is divided into three themes — identities, ecosystems, and violences — but the online interface also allows viewers to search and encounter works alphabetically, chronologically, and geographically. The site is available in both English and Spanish, and will continue to be updated into the future. [...] “It was a small show, but it showed us that we could tell a very complicated history through just one fruit,” the curators explained to Hyperallergic in a recent email. “We saw that we could tell the sociopolitical history of Latin America in the early 20th century through the banana.”

Standouts from the online display include Claudia Claremi’s installation La memoria de las frutas (Puerto Rico) (The Memory of Fruits [Puerto Rico]) (2015-16), which users can experience through installation images and a linked video. The piece records residents of San Juan, Puerto Rico, as they describe the island’s native fruits. Shot in black and white on 35 mm and 16 mm film, the photos and videos show speakers’ hand gestures as they reminisce about these fruits, which have largely been pushed out to make way for more marketable crops like bananas. [...]

Another work, the series Fotografías de las antiguas instalaciones de los campamentos de la UFCO (Photographs of the Old Camp Installations of the UFCO) (2014), by Elkin Calderón, captures the abandoned buildings of the United Fruit Company in Magdalena, Colombia, where the company massacred protesting banana workers in 1928. Calderón’s pictures radiate a haunting stillness, showing the camp’s current state of decay and hinting at its tragic past. This and other works are accompanied by detailed texts that offer deeper context. La Fiebre del Banano / Banana Craze uses its dynamic, extensively researched online interface to its advantage, encouraging viewers to explore and discover at their own pace. [...]

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All text, images, and captions published by: Lauren Moya Ford. “Digital Exhibition Examines the Darker Side of Bananas.” Hyperallergic. 18 January 2022.

[artbookdap]

"What brings people to art making, and what keeps them going once they’ve started?"⁠ ⁠ Lauren Moya Ford reviews @ateliereditions 336-page 'Why I Make Art: Contemporary Artists’ Stories About Life & Work'⁠ @hyperallergic⁠ ⁠ "A new book by Brian Alfred explores these questions and many more. Alfred is the artist and educator behind @soundandvisionpodcast — a podcast featuring interviews with artists and musicians from around the world. 'Why I Make Art' pulls from 30 of Alfred’s more than 300 podcast conversations to date, conducted between 2016 and 2020. From skateboarding to statelessness, from painting to performance, the wide variety of influences and practices the book covers demonstrate that the motives for art making are as numerous as artists themselves.…"⁠ ⁠ Read the full review via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ @alfredstudio #whyimakeart #brianalfred #contemporaryart https://www.instagram.com/p/Cikl-15Jrzw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[artsleaderuh]

@Glasstire : Rachel Jones: A Sovereign Mouth at 12.26 in Dallas closes tomorrow, December 19, 2020. Read the full review by Lauren Moya Ford below: https://t.co/aE3YU5qULB https://t.co/EBmBtjYCqF (via Twitter http://twitter.com/Glasstire/status/1340304387156176897)

[topworldhistory]

White Gold

Lauren Moya Ford

How Chinese porcelain became a worldwide sensation, changing tastes and the global economy.

from History Today Feed https://ift.tt/2w0Dotg March 31, 2020 at 01:26PM

[taurian-fkbonline]

Shortly after taping his appearance on CNN’s The Van Jones Show, JAY-Z hosted the annual Roc Nation pre-Grammy brunch on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 28). The star-studded event was held at the One World Observatory at the Top of One World Trade Center in New York City. Some of the biggest names in entertainment all came out for laid back gathering, as Jay-Z’s two liquor brands, D’Usse and Armand de Brignac’s Ace of Spades were the main drinks of choice for the event.

Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Diddy, T.I., Big Sean, Nick Jonas, Monica, Lala Anthony, Fabolous, Iggy Azalea, Remy Ma, Fat Joe, Swizz Beatz, Bryson Tiller, Jim Jones, Casanova, Elliott Wilson,  Pusha T and Yo Gotti were some of the attendees spotted at the party. Grammy-nominated artists like Daniel Caesar and Rapsody also appeared at the swanky soirée along with others like Cassie, Brooklyn Beckham, DeJ Loaf, legendary Harlem designer Dapper Dan, Andre Harrell, Justine Skye, and owner of the New England Patriots Robert Kraft. And although she didn’t pose for the official photographs, Beyonce was spotted catching up and mingling with Mariah Carey and Monica. Yesterday afternoon was just a day of who’d who in the entertainment industry celebrating a great year in music. Also shout out to our good friend Kam Mccollough, who was also in attendance and is now officially apart of the Roc Nation family after inking a new deal to curate the Dussepalooza party, formerly Hennypalooza.

Check out photos from this year’s Roc Nation pre-Grammy brunch below.

  This pic warms my heart honestly lol. If someone would’ve told me 3 years ago these two would be doing business together I’d say they need mental help 😂😂 #jayz #jimjones #rocnation #rocnationgrammybrunch #dipset

A post shared by First Klass Breakfast (@firstklassbreakfast) on Jan 27, 2018 at 4:02pm PST

Hov x Joe Crack #RocNation #Grammys

A post shared by First Klass Breakfast (@firstklassbreakfast) on Jan 27, 2018 at 3:18pm PST

@diddy and @cassie show up in style for Jay-Z’s @rocnation Brunch via: @fashionbombdaily

A post shared by First Klass Breakfast (@firstklassbreakfast) on Jan 27, 2018 at 1:57pm PST

JAY-Z, Jim Jones, Diddy, Swizz Beatz, Kareem “Biggs” Burke, OG Juan, Yo Gotti, and Big Sean, photographed at the Roc Nation Brunch in the observatory at the One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Hov is wearing a Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit, a Tom Ford dress shirt and tie, and a Stetson hat from the legendary JJ Hatters store on Fifth Ave. #jayz @jimjonescapo @diddy @therealswizzz @theroc96 @tripleognyc @bigsean @yogottikom

A post shared by @ aintnojigga on Jan 27, 2018 at 3:58pm PST

This is that original Roc-A-Fella shit right here. Hov, Big Bo, Gordo, Biggs, Moya, and OG Juan. The definition of Day 1s. #jayz @theroc96 @bigbo260 @swaggerdad @gordo_roc @tripleognyc #rocafella

A post shared by @ aintnojigga on Jan 27, 2018 at 3:23pm PST

JAY-Z, photographed leaving the Time Warner Center in Manhattan on Saturday morning. He had just completed an interview with Roc Nation’s Van Jones, which will air during the premiere of The Van Jones Show on CNN tonight at 7 PM EST. After the interview he headed to the Roc Nation brunch, which was held at the observatory at the top of One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Hov is wearing a Ralph Lauren Purple Label three-piece suit; a Tom Ford overcoat, dress shirt, tie and dress shoes; and a Stetson hat from the legendary JJ Hatters store on Fifth Ave. His timepiece is a Rolex Perpetual Calendar with a complication by Franck Muller, and is the only one ever produced. #jayz 👑 @juneambrose on his left

A post shared by @ aintnojigga on Jan 27, 2018 at 12:19pm PST

I will never stop alert 🚨!!!!!! BILLI IN NEW YORK !!! @recordingacademy #GRAMMYS @rocnation brunch !!!

A post shared by DJ KHALED (@djkhaled) on Jan 27, 2018 at 2:17pm PST

Beyoncé & @MariahCarey hugging ❤️ #RocNationBrunch pic.twitter.com/YQ1sbEnbY5

— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey_Legion) January 27, 2018

Beyoncé with @MariahCarey at the Roc Nation pre-Grammys Brunch. pic.twitter.com/0NtqxANmnR

— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey_Legion) January 27, 2018

Jay-Z, Beyonce, Diddy, Mariah Carey & More Attend Roc Nation Pre-Grammy Brunch Shortly after taping his appearance on CNN's The Van Jones Show, JAY-Z hosted the annual Roc Nation pre-Grammy brunch…

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Architecture of Family: The Hidden Agenda

Still from “Home” by Thomas Gleeson, screening at the Aurora Picture Show

  This week presents a number of experimental sound performances, opening receptions at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Jonathan Hopson Gallery, and a screening of international short films at the Aurora Picture Show.

  Wednesday, June 14

  Screening — Architecture of Family at Aurora Picture Show

At 8 pm, the Aurora Picture Show (2442 Bartlett) presents Architecture of Family, a selection of contemporary international short films that explore the connections and constructs of family and community through memories, spaces and places. Curated by Mary Magasmen, the program includes work by Amy Jenkins, Sasha Waters-Freyer, Lenka Clayton, Thomas Gleeson, Lisset Mendoza, Allison Hunter and more. At 6:30 pm, Urban Harvest will host a potluck dinner in the garden and guests are invited to bring their own meat or veggies for grilling. Admission is $10.

  Thursday, June 15

  Screening — An Evening of New Films from Israel at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

From 6:30 to 8 pm, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (5216 Montrose) presents an evening of films by Tel Aviv-based artists, both well known and up-and-coming, curated by CAMH director Bill Arning. Arning will provide introductions to each of the films with stories about meeting each of the chosen filmmakers.

  Friday, June 16

  Edward Eberle, “Cylinder”

Opening Reception — Edward Eberle Retrospective at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

From 5:30 to 8 pm, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (4848 Main) will host the opening reception for the first career retrospective of work by Pittsburgh-based ceramic artist Edward Eberle. For three decades, Eberle has pushed the limits of porcelain with a prolific body of work, ranging from classically inspired vessels to deconstructed sculptures. Comprised of over 40 works, the show highlights the evolution of Eberle’s forms, from the mid-1980s to present. The exhibition will be on view in the main gallery through September 2.

  Opening Reception — Annie Evelyn: Multiple Impressions at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

From 5:30 to 8 pm, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft will host the opening reception for Multiple Impressions, a solo exhibition of recent work by Annie Evelyn, the furniture maker at HCCC. The installation invites visitors to experience her craftsmanship first hand by taking a seat on her pieces, crafted from alternative materials like aluminum and cement. The exhibition will be on view in the front gallery through September 2.

  Performance — gig, draft: A Music Performance by Anisa Boukhlif, David Dove and Gabriel Martinez at the Houston Center for Photography

From 6 to 7:30 pm, the Houston Center for Photography (1441 West Alabama) presents an improvisational music performance in conjunction with the institution’s current exhibition Louviere + Vanessa: Resonantia. Anisa Boukhlif will present field recordings, David Dove will perform on trombone and electronics, and Gabriel Martinez will play on prepared electric bass, objects and electronics, all working together to create a unique, improvised composition.

  Performance — Lean, Bleak at Alabama Song

From 8 to 11 pm, Alabama Song (2521 Oakdale) will host another installment of Lean, Bleak, an ongoing experimental music concert series that allows artists to present their work across various practices, including improvisation, noise, poetry, dance and composed song. Performances will include works by Justin Jones/Gabriel Martinez/Ronnie Yates, Parham Daghighi/Joe Wozny, Andrew Durham/Megan Easley, and Ryan Edwards/Ruth Langston/Rebecca Novak. Admission is $5.

  Saturday, June 17

  Public Trust at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

From 1 to 5 pm, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston will present Public Trust, an interactive artwork by Paul Ramírez Jonas. The piece asks museum visitors to examine the value of a word by declaring a promise, the words of which are recorded in a drawing that is shared with them and posted on a marquee board alongside similar pronouncements made by notable figures from the week’s headline news.

  Sunday, June 18

  Bradley Kerl, “English Garden,” 2017

Opening Reception — Coyote at Jonathan Hopson Gallery

From 1 to 5 pm, Jonathan Hopson Gallery (904 Marshall) will host the opening reception for the group exhibition Coyote. The exhibition, which features artists who were all either born or living in Texas, presents works that are imbued by the spirit of the state. Artists include Bradley Kerl, Debra Barrera, Julie DeVries, Lauren Moya-Ford, Erin Joyce, and Jessica Ninci. The exhibition will be on view through July 30.

Architecture of Family: The Hidden Agenda this is a repost

[hyperallergic]

Norman Rockwell produced nearly 3,000 images for publication over his six-decade-long career, but he made many more drawings and sketches that have never been seen. 

For the artist and illustrator known for depicting charming views of daily American life, putting pencil or charcoal to paper was more than just a quick, problem solving process. “Drawing is a complete expression of my idea in line and tone,” he wrote in 1948, adding that “sometimes I feel that making this sketch is the most creative part of making a picture.”

Extensively illustrated, Norman Rockwell: Drawings, 1911–1976 is the first book dedicated to the artist’s prolific but largely private drawing practice.

Read Lauren Moya Ford’s full article.

[grupaok]

Lauren Moya Ford, Far Off Places Made These, 2014

[johnstreetdaydreams]

Writer/Artist Lauren Moya Ford’s essay about my work:

Lauren Moya Ford

Un detalle

Yesterday I entered an old church that happened to be open during the siesta hour. Statues of Mary and Joseph on the altar were surrounded by gilded arabesques and angel heads. Tall white candles flickered soft animation into the carved forms while clusters of chrysanthemums withered below, turning the scene into tableau vivant. Like the altar, Ashley Thomas’ meticulous, large scale drawings are also containers for contemplation and meditation. Made for long views, her works create a space to slow down and hold. And like this scene of slow wax, petals, and shadows, the objects in Thomas’ work are mechanisms of meanings and memories that move and shift.

I remember him... with a dark passion flower in his hand, seeing it as no one has ever seen it, as though he might look at it from the twilight of dawn til that of evening, a whole lifetime...

-Jorge Luis Borges, “Funes the Memorious,” 1942

In Spanish, the word detalle means detail, but it can also mean an unexpected gift or thoughtful act. Like so much women’s work, the execution of detail in Thomas’ drawings is both painstaking and generous. Drawn at life size or larger, the works recenter traits that women have been taught to invest in the people and things around them- patience, focus, and care- into the precision of her work. And so the drawings constitute a visual document of her labor, a register of beauty and effort. Representing subjects in this hyper-focused manner reconfigures their function and connotation inside and outside of the picture, what Gabriel Orozco calls “analyzing the economics and politics of the instruments of living” (2003).

The objects that Thomas portrays are carefully chosen, and the artist’s hand and attention lends them new meaning. As Thomas’ subjects cross from materiality to two dimensions, they also cross conceptual, geographic, and temporal borders. In several pieces, monarch butterflies appear. This endangered insect’s annual immigration from the United States to Michoacán, Mexico remains unobstructed despite ongoing border control debates. In other works, a single rose may signal a number of Mexican American tropes, from Juan Diego’s rose-filled tilma in the legend of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to Selena Quintanilla Pérez (1971-1995), a fellow Corpus Christi native who continues to play a fundamental role in tejan@ identity, to popular tattoos and others. Femmy and firm, natural and man-made, here and there, Thomas’ subjects function as beautiful objects while they also link to a specific place and experience- the narratives that propel environmental, personal, and political lives between the US and Mexico.

A fringed leather cowboy vest, a pumice molcajete, and votive candles are all familiar objects to those from Texas, especially to those who grew up in Mexican American families. The objects are proofs of the female labor that we have observed in the daily lives of our mothers and grandmothers, but may not repeat faithfully in our own. Still, we hold onto these relics (clothing, utensils, and candles) and rituals (dressing, cooking, and praying) as talismans of something close, like a ring that we don't wear but will not allow ourselves to lose. We grow up hearing stories about our mothers’ and grandmothers’ lives, lives that were harder and more Mexican than our own. But memories are shapeshifters. The stories become so ingrained in us that they begin to blur. Which of us didn’t go to the dance because we knew we wouldn’t be allowed in? Which of us ate rose petals out of hunger? Which of us was hit by that hand? Thomas mines the memories that exist between our female antecedents and our own present realities. These stories form a personal archive that she translates onto the subjects of her drawings. Her gracefully drawn arrangements evoke an empowered imaginary space where meaning is opened, events can shift, but remembrance remains a strength.

Where do my artists go

with the beautiful treasure

of the Aztec monarchy?

You all have the sap

so that immense knowledge

does not rust.

-from Consuelo González Amezcúa, Artistas de Talento (Artists of Talent), date unknown

Votive candles are found in the grocery stores, botánicas, and altars of Texas. The candles exist in a loose relationship to the Catholic faith, but they increasingly function beyond the bounds of dogma. Unlike the unmarked candles found in churches, these votives’ glass exteriors display saints, good luck charms, and other iconography, along with Spanish and English prayers. The images show the candles’ intended purpose- bestowing positive energies (blessing, protection, peace), attracting material entities (new lovers, jobs, money), or even inflicting revenge or malice on others. Regardless of their aim, these candles serve as containers for and executors of the holder’s wishes. As time passes, their disappearing wax marks the increment of the votive’s operation and the stamina of the holder’s devotion.

It is fitting that Thomas depicts the candles in triptych, a format tied to the material shifts between god, flesh, and spirit. Produced by bees and ignited by fire, candles embody the natural and the corporeal as they mark the passage of time. Wax has long been a sacred stand in for the human body. Indeed, at a church in the Portuguese countryside I saw a cabinet full of life-sized wax body parts, and another time I found a Spanish cave with wax figurines of body parts hanging from the ceiling. Like the votives in Texas, these wax figures represent human afflictions that require or have been granted divine intercession. And since the votives depict holy figures and prayers, their proper disposal, like a human body, is by burning or burial.

The votives in Thomas’ drawings belong to the domestic sphere, where memories are kept, things are made, and prayers are said. Lighting these candles is an act of faith that puts the holder in direct engagement with the power of objects. To light a candle for someone or something is to keep it in your thoughts, to hope or wish for it, or to simply show that you remember it. Thomas’ votives are body-sized, a scale at which their life spans would far surpass hours, days, and even weeks. As long as the candle is lit it’s alive and working. We see that Thomas’ candles will protect for a long time.

There are many that I knew and they know it. They are all of them repeating and I hear it. I love it and I tell it. I love it and now I will write it... This is now a history of the way I love it.

-from Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans, 1925

Thomas’ practice is based in a lineage of women- makers, mothers, writers, thinkers, sisters, and singers- who act as catalysts in her work. Consuelo “Chelo” González Amezcúa (1903-1975) is one of these women. She and Thomas share a geography- the South Texas Borderlands- and a fascination with the layers of identity they experience as women, artists, and tejanas. Like Thomas, Amezcúa was a maker of detailed drawings. She was also a poet. Thomas treats one of Amezcúa’s poems as the subject of her recent work, Consuelo González Amezcúa's Handwriting (2017). In the 1965 poem, Amezcúa proclaims herself to be a “Mexico Texan / Raised in the city / of Del Rio Texas / Citizen of the U.S.A.” This first line evidences the confluence of identities that Amezcúa and so many others like her continue to navigate in today’s fierce and uncertain political climate. Later on, Amezcúa credits a list of encouraging teachers who are mostly Anglo, something my grandmother also did when asked about her too-brief encounter with institutional education. This recognition parallels the tribute that Thomas pays in her 2017 drawing by placing another woman’s words and life story at the center of her own work. Thomas’ piece amplifies Amezcúa’s poem to body-size, so that the words hang like the text of a banner or flag. As an additional offering, Thomas has drawn daisies and roses around the edges of the poem, a nod to the flowers that one leaves at an altar.

Amezcúa has been labeled as an outsider artist, and her artwork and especially her poetry is not widely seen. Thomas discovered Amezcúa’s work in a book at an antique mall, and then investigated further at the Special Collections of the University of Texas Benson Library. The artist excavates Amezcúa’s text from the archive and re-presents it at a large scale, re-figuring it in the context of a visual artwork in which Amezcúa’s handwriting is a disembodied stand in for the poet herself. By making Amezcúa’s words a pictorial subject, Thomas foregrounds Amezcúa’s writing practice and autobiographical voice, returning agency to this lesser-known figure of Texan art history. And so there is a continuity in this work, not only because both women are meticulous drawers from South Texas, but also because one woman’s experience and outlook is grafted onto another through the creative works that Thomas and Amezcúa produce decades apart. A dialog is transmitted back and forth between past and present, between drawing and writing, and between Thomas’ and Amezcúa’s hands.

The artist’s relationship to antepasadas (female antecedents) like Amezcúa is a close one- she engages their ideas and personae through research, reexamination, and commemoration in her work. For Thomas, memory is an ongoing, ever-widening site. She keeps vigil for the women who came before. She does not forget. She lights a candle for them and keeps it burning.

[artbookdap]

Advance praise for @ateliereditions forthcoming Staff Favorite, 'An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts: The U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection' @hyperallergic⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Lauren Moya Ford writes, "The book’s main attraction is its hundreds of lusciously detailed, full-color illustrations: the reader can almost taste and smell the bright, juicy fruits and nuts across its pages. But the catalogue’s accompanying texts by Adam Leith Goliner, Jaqueline Landey, John McPhee, and Michael Pollan about each fruit’s history and makeup — which encompass elements of archaeology, anthropology, botany, and the arts — are unexpectedly illuminating, and nearly as delightful…"⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Read more via linkinbio. ⁠⁠ Preorder at artbook.com or via your favorite independent bookseller!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ @laurenmofo @usdagov @adamgollner @michael.pollan @marinavitaglione #botanicaldrawings #botanicalwatercolors #pomologicalwatercolors #pomology #botanicalillustration #nationalagriculturallibrary https://www.instagram.com/p/COIZN8xJvan/?igshid=1am8c8xe6orze

[artsleaderuh]

@Glasstire : "It’s impossible to ignore Rachel Jones’ work. Her pungent, tangy hues and brilliant, buzzing color combinations evoke a synesthesia-like viewing experience" Lauren Moya Ford reviews Rachel Jones: A Sovereign Mouth, at 12.26 in Dallas through December 19 https://t.co/aE3YU5qULB https://t.co/KnEF9AfdxQ (via Twitter http://twitter.com/Glasstire/status/1339283160736157696)

[artsleaderuh]

@Glasstire : At Flatbed: Endangered Birds Take Flight in Suzi Davidoff’s Latest Work by Lauren Moya Ford https://t.co/SLOWYTz8x8 https://t.co/M2TCuiGCcI (via Twitter http://twitter.com/Glasstire/status/1338229965658198018)