Houston based artist, Cara Barer blurs the line between object, sculpture, and photography. She salvages discarded or obsolete books and transforms the books into sculpture by using water, clamps, string, staples, and glue. She then photographs the sculpted books, capturing the extraordinary grace and beauty of their altered forms. Barer’s sculptures and their accompanying photographs are a lament for eras … Cara Barer: Obsolescence

Large panoramic photographs of landscapes or groups have been around since the invention of photography. Unlike today and the ease of taking a “pano” on a cell phone, panoramic photographs were taken on special cameras beginning in the 1840s. Capturing these large-scale photographs was a very involved and complex process. By the late 1890s and early 1900s, mass-produced panoramic cameras … A Larger View: Historic Panoramic Photographs

In this exhibition, Houston-based artist Anna Mavromatis displays her mastery of printmaking, book arts, and fashion design to stitch together stories and reflections of her Greek heritage and family history. Narrated through the colors of her homeland, she shares personal memories, vintage photographs and mementos in her personal collection, and masterfully expands the artist book definition to include a wide … Anna Mavromatis: Material Culture

In the 1960s, as a new generation of artists challenged long standing definitions of fine art, elegant, traditional, deluxe livres d’artistes were considered no longer relevant. Two very different artists working independently, Dieter Roth in Europe and Ed Ruscha in Los Angeles, created radically innovative forms of self-produced artist books. Focusing on commonplace material and inexpensive production, Roth focused on … Ruscha & Roth: The 1960s Artist Book Revolution

In 1904, the State Epileptic Colony in Abilene was founded to help individuals with epilepsy through research, care, and isolation. More importantly, it offered a place for these individuals to work, live, and thrive. The institution, hospital, and complex was a state-of-the-art facility and consisted of an administration building, a power plant, a women’s and men’s hospital, four cottages, and … Creating a Community: The State Epileptic Colony in Abilene

The Grace Museum is collaborating with Abilene Christian University’s Introduction to Public History: Interpreting American Pasts course to create monthly exhibitions that coincide with different cultural heritage months throughout the year. These exhibitions highlight the narratives of various cultural groups that are integral to Abilene’s history while weaving these stores into the broader historical fabric of the United States. The … Cultural Heritage Exhibition – Independence Day

This exhibition will feature several hand fans from The Grace Museum’s permanent collection. Fans were not only a functional accessory to keep the wearer cool on the hottest of days, they were also an important style piece in a woman’s wardrobe. Hand fans have a long-storied history going back thousands of years into biblical and ancient Chinese and Japanese times. … Cooling Off with Style: Hand Fans From the Collection

For more than a decade, language has been the focus for Simeen Farhat’s sculpture. Her Inspiration first began with the prophetic words of poets of various Arabic languages. Later, she adopted the alphabet of Germanic and Romance languages, including English. As the subject matter moved from profound to text message jargon, the artist continued to stylize the elegant fonts in … Simeen Farhat: Scripted