Light in the Way
March 29th - April 27th, 2023
Wright Gallery, School of Art & Architecture // Texas A&M University // College Station, TX
Light in the Way is an exhibition of new works and site-specific interventions for the Wright Gallery at Texas A&M University by Tulsa-based artist Shane Darwent (born Austin, TX). Darwent is a current awardee of both the Tulsa Artist Fellowship and Joan Mitchell Fellowship. Supported by Texas A&M’s Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, the exhibition is on view March 29th through April 27th, 2023, at Wright Gallery in the School of Architecture, and School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts. The opening reception will be held on Wednesday, March 29th from 3-4:30 PM, which immediately follows an artist talk by Darwent from 2-3 PM in Wright Gallery.
Adapting the vernacular of illuminated, commercial storefront awnings into free standing sculptures, wall friezes and hybrid photographic objects, Darwent conjures uncanny tableaus of shopping center landscapes. Alongside these works, Darwent will create new, photographic interventions while on site in College Station. Commercial facades, boxwood bushes and roadside architecture will serve as the source material for mural scale photographs installed in the gallery. Large-scale reproductions of the built environment, mapped on top of the already existing walls of the gallery will create a haptic confusion of light and shadow, while the awning-based works, themselves lit from within, will continue to unravel - or illuminate - our sense of place and perspective.