FEATURED ARTISTS:

Lane Banks
Candace Briceno
Jerry Cabrera
William Cannings
Jane Eifler
Mary Emma Hawthorne
Tom Hollenback
Jeff Mueller
Julie Shipp
Charlotte Smith
Dustin van Orne

Show Offs II will open to the public December 1, 2006, and will be on view through January 13, 2007. An opening reception for the artists will be held Friday, December 1, 2006 from 5:00-9:00p.m. ???????

Guest curated by Robert McAn, the exhibition will feature new and emerging artists from across the state of Texas, including artists from Austin, Cedar Creek, Denton, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Lubbock, and San Antonio. Included in the exhibition- Lane Banks, Candace Briceno, Jerry Cabrera, William Cannings, Jane Eifler, Mary Emma Hawthorne, Tom Hollenback, Jeff Mueller, Julie Shipp, Charlotte Smith, and Dustin van Orne.

Featuring painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, and more, Show Offs II will examine some of the newest techniques and artistic devices being employed by new and emerging Texas artists.

Works in the exhibition range in content and visual representation from the sublime to the absurd. The sublime Titianesque skyscapes of Julie Shipp seemingly hold the viewer in abeyance, searching for the internal source of their glorious illumination. Jeff Mueller on the other hand considers the absurd ramblings of contemporary society, by incorporating in his paintings what he calls "the last uncensored media"-text found in bathroom stalls. In Jerry Cabrera's work the modulations of color and light create a rhythmic a nd dynamic line that pulsates across the picture plane. And if you have ever wondered what it would be like to combine Donald Judd and Dan Flavin-then look no further than the sculptural works of Tom Hollenback. Using florescent plexiglass and steel support structures, Hollenback creates works that, without the aid of electricity, seem to glow from within. Lane Banks black, white, and gray paintings create a sense of tranquility and order, and are a quite retreat from the more rambunctious works in the show. William Canning is the illusionist-he makes the real look fake, or perhaps the fake seem real, as he blurs the lines of perception in his inflated steel sculptures representing everyday objects. Jane Eifler's masterful use of oil on canvas brings to mind the work of Henri Matisse, while maintaining a naiveté of paint-by-numbers. Mary Emma Hawthorne's "Cornell-ish" works take collage and homage to a new level, while Dustin van Orne plays with our senses and sensibilities with his tongue in cheek, yet intellectual sculptures. Candace Briceno's mixed-media sculptures are fanciful re-creations of the natural world, with special attention paid to moss, spores, and wetland species. And lastly, Charlotte Smith's glorious paintings seem to defy gravity as tiny droplets of layered paint fill canvases like stalagmites in Technicolor.