Celia Eberle & Sherry Owens exhibit at The Gallery at UTA

The Gallery at UTA presents two exhibitions:

Main Gallery:
Jill Bedgood / Celia Eberle
January 21 – February 22, 2020 
Reception: Friday, January 24, 5:30 – 8 p.m. 

Enclosed Gallery:
Bridges: Works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Senga Nengudi, Sherry Owens, Linda Ridgway 
January 21 – April 4, 2020
Reception: Friday, January 24, 5:30 – 8 p.m.

Jill Bedgood Gallery Talk: Thursday, January 23, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. 
Celia Eberle Gallery Talk: Wednesday, February 12, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.

Gallery Talk by Jed Morse, Chief Curator, Nasher Sculpture Center: 
Tuesday, February 18, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. 

The Gallery at UTA is pleased to present an exhibition by Jill Bedgood (San Antonio) and Celia Eberle (Ennis) on view at the University of Texas at Arlington from January 21 through February 22. These two Texas-based interdisciplinary artists share a willingness to experiment with both materials and methodology to create works, which curator Benito Huerta describes as “personal and intimate no matter what the scale – from tiny, inches-long objects to wall-sized installations.” 

Jill Bedgood crafts objects using iconography that alludes to memory, heritage, and important life events. Often using cast hydrocal to create book-like forms, she examines the idea of memorialization of moments or things that we value. Of these works she states, “The cast relief mementos provide immortality, reminding one of the weight of possessions and baggage of memories., as well as the transience and temporality of life versus these precious objects.” 

Bedgood received her M.F.A. in mixed media sculpture and art history from the University of Texas, Austin. She has exhibited in solo exhibitions throughout Texas: several at Women and Their Work Art Space, at the Laguna Gloria Art Museum and the Austin Museum of Art, all in Austin, as well as Blue Star Art Space in San Antonio, Fox Fine Arts Center at UT El Paso, and recently at ArtScan Gallery in Houston. She is the recipient of several honors including the 2017 Texas Art Award, a Mid-America Art Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, an Art Matters Grant, and a New Forms Regional Initiatives Grant. She has been an artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome, the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Bellagio, Italy, the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts in Sweet Briar, Virginia. 

Celia Eberle’s work references personal and collective experience as a treasure trove of knowledge and narrative. She often uses materials such as bone, wood, coral, and stone in pieces that examine the balance between man and nature. As Eberle states, “We have always used and abused nature to the extent that we could, and we have always been afraid that she will fail or turn on us, because she does. We forget that we are nature too. In this regard, ideas concerning plunder, loot, and treasure, as well as fetishism and preciousness, inform the use of materials and appearance of my work.” 

Eberle received her B.F.A. degree from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX. Born in Sulfur Springs, she currently lives and works in Ennis, Texas. Her art has been exhibited extensively in Texas, as well as in Chicago, New York and Oregon; with recent solo exhibitions in galleries in Houston and Dallas. Her mid-career retrospective, In the Garden of Ozymandias, debuted at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont in 2014. Recently, she was awarded a 2019 Individual Support Grant from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation. She was also awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a Nasher Sculpture Center Microgrant, and a Dozier Travel Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art, among other awards and honors in the past ten years. Her work has been collected by the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas A&M University, the Longview Museum of Art, and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, along with numerous private collectors. 

In association with the exhibition, the artists will discuss their work in individual hour-long gallery talks starting at 12:30 pm in The Gallery at UTA. Jill Bedgood will speak on Thursday, January 23 and Celia Eberle will speak on Wednesday, February 12. There also will be a reception on Friday, January 24 from 5:30 to 8 pm with brief remarks by both artists beginning at 6:30 pm. The exhibition, reception, and talks are free and open to the public. 

Gallery hours are 10 am until 5 pm Monday through Friday and noon until 5 pm on Saturday. The Gallery is located in the Fine Art Building, room 169, at 502 S. Cooper Street, Arlington, TX. For more information, contact Benito Huerta or Patricia Healy (817) 272-5658 or www.uta.edu/gallery.