Two important, nearly diametrically opposed exhibits are opening on Saturday. Both are well worth close inspection.
One is at William Campbell Contemporary Art on the West Side. Pieces of Space collects several of Scottie Parsons’ vibrant color fields. Inspired equally by science and spirituality — and Diebenkorn and Rothko — the Wichita Falls oil painter creates thick impastos that are somehow simultaneously geometric and fluid, finished and unfinished, deep and flat. Obscure texts also pop up in Parsons’ planar explorations, lending a sense of both primitivism and the avant-garde to her otherwise familiar color-dominated imagery.
The other exhibit is at Gallery 414 on the Lower West Side. Metaphors and Dark Corners features the journalism-inspired photography of Fort Worth commercial artist Lou Chapman. Whether in black and white or color, most of Chapman’s photos of landscapes and buildings have a fuzzy warmth about them. Hazy borders funnel viewers’ gazes toward the centers of his tableaux, making viewers feel as if they’re looking through a partially foggy lens. Good, groovy stuff.
The opening reception for Pieces of Space is 6-8pm Sat at William Campbell Contemporary Art, 4935 Byers Av, FW. Admission is free. Call 817-737-9566. The opening reception for Metaphors and Dark Corners is 6-9pm Sat at Gallery 414, 414 Templeton Dr, FW. Admission is free. Call 817-336-6595.
