July 15 - September 4
Second Floor
Opening Reception July 15, 6–8 p.m.

Abstraction is the process of manipulating or removing recognizable characteristics in order to reduce the image to a set of essential characteristics. The resulting simplicity is often deceiving because abstraction is one of the most challenging methodologies for creating art. Relying on the formal qualities of art and skewing subject matter puts technique and materials in the forefront. Delicately balanced compositions and refined surfaces are the mark of a master of abstraction.

Three exhibitions in the second floor galleries will feature non-objective abstract artwork in clay, found objects, metal and paint.

DAVID A. DREYER: NATURAL ABSTRACTION

David A. Dreyer’s large paintings and sculptures reference natural forms observed and then refined to essential forms through an elaborate process of observation and reduction.

RANDALL REID: HIDDEN STORIES

Randall Reid refers to his carefully crafted square constructions as “earth symptoms” made from bits and fragments from the natural and man-made environment.

MARLA ZIEGLER: BLACK & WHITE

Ceramicist Marla Ziegler focuses on form and surface when constructing her low-fire clay abstractions. For this exhibition she has reduced her color palette to black and white in order to emphasize the rhythmic forms and geometric shapes of her sculpture.

Sponsored by

Portia and S.M. Moore
Anca Pacuraru, D.O.
Carol Windham

July 29, 2010 - June 30, 2011
History Gallery
Opening Reception July 29, 6–8 p.m. with historian Dr. Don Frazier

There was a time when high-tech was low-tech, and the history vault at The Grace is a reminder that maybe those weren't such simpler times.

Tools for Modern Living: Treasures from the History Vault showcases once-prized possessions of thoroughly modern Abilenians from the early 1900s.

See cameras, radios, kitchen appliances, television sets, telephones and office equipment, along with a few mystery objects.