HMAAC ORIGINATES SOLO EXHIBITION OF DAVID MCGEE’S WORKS ON PAPER
NOVEMBER 4, 2017-JANUARY 13, 2018
According to HMAAC CEO John Guess, Jr., “To us, it does not get better than originating an exhibition that involves David McGee and Benito Huerta. They represent an epicenter of the multicultural Texas world; both brash, thoughtful, aesthetically on top of their game, and of course, swaggering in representation.”
McGee’s thought-provoking paintings seek to upend the surface, image-obsessed world we inhabit to arrive at a greater, underlying truth. He is known to incite, confuse or arrest his audiences; expect no less from him in this exhibition. The works in this exhibition represent McGee’s work of the last couple of decades, investigating issues of stereotyping by employing references drawn from literature, music, and the history of European art.
This exhibition is graciously sponsored by HEB, Leslie and Brad Bucher, Cecily Horton, Denny and Sissy Kempner, Melanie Lawson and John Guess, Jr. and the Board of HMAAC.
About David McGee
Born in Lockhart, Louisiana, David McGee received a BA from Prairie View A&M University in 1985. David McGee collaborated with the Menil in 2005, curating Deep Wells and Reflecting Pools, a selection of works from the museum’s archives and collection. His work has been the focus of solo exhibitions at DiverseWorks, Houston (2007, 2004), Texas Gallery, Houston (2005, 1995, 1994), Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence (2001), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (1998), Galveston Arts Center (1996), and Project Row Houses, Houston (1994). McGee’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and is held in the collections of The Menil Collection, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Providence, Addison Gallery; Philips Academy, Andover; Dallas Museum of Art; and Harvard University Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About Benito Huerta
Benito Huerta has a B.F.A. from the University of Houston, an M.A. from New Mexico State University. He was co-founder, Executive Director and Emeritus Board Director of Art Lies, a Texas Art Journal. He is a Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington where he has been Director / Curator of The Gallery at UTA since 1997. The gallery in 2007 was the recipient of the College Art Association’s Exhibition and Catalogue Grant for Points of Convergence: Masters of Fine Arts, which was the main exhibition for the CAA conference held in Dallas in 2008. The Telling and The Told represents Huerta’s fourth presentation of works at HMAAC, including with his curation of Contemporary Latino Artists in 2014, a Retrospective of the Work of John Hernandez in 2016, and his own Works on Paper in 2015.
ABOUT HOUSTON MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE
The mission of HMAAC is to collect, conserve, explore, interpret, and exhibit the material and intellectual culture of Africans and African Americans in Houston, the state of Texas, the southwest and the African Diaspora for current and future generations. In fulfilling its mission, HMAAC seeks to invite and engage visitors of every race and background and to inspire children of all ages through discovery-driven learning. HMAAC is to be a museum for all people. While our focus is the African American experience, our story informs and includes not only people of color, but people of all colors. As a result, the stories and exhibitions that HMAAC will bring to Texas are about the indisputable fact that while our experience is a unique one, it has been impacted by and has impacted numerous races, genders and ethnicities.
