November 19 - February 5, 2023
From the Galveston Arts Center:
“Galveston Arts Center (GAC) presents the exhibition The Word Is Not Lucky by Eileen Maxson on view from November 19. A reception in conjunction with Galveston ArtWalk will take place on Saturday, November 26 from 6 to 9 PM with artist talk at 6:30PM. Maxson’s exhibition processes the flooding of her parent’s home and the passing of her grandfather through video and photo-based works that sift through the physical “stuff” of memories, remaking them as probing and sometimes humorous portraits of herself and her family. With levity throughout, Maxson confronts herself and her family with the material excess of American life while working to connect the dots between what they had and the forces of nature that took it away. This exhibition continues through February 5, 2023.
Also on view through January 8, 2023, the exhibition Party Line by Fort Worth-based artist Kris Pierce explores the intersection of virtual and physical identity through a real-time gathering of sources from social media platforms and across a series of new multi-media works and paintings. Concerned with how we project and perceive our own reality, Pierce reflects on the trend of main character syndrome; a TikTok phenomenon where people imagine and act out scenarios playing the “main character” in a fictionalized version of their lives. Pierce’s exhibition will remain on view through January 8, 2023.
GAC’s galleries are open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 5 PM. For information and hours for ArtWalk participating spaces, please visit: https://www.galvestonartscenter.org/artwalk
These exhibitions are supported in part by an award from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
About the Exhibition:
Eileen Maxson’s exhibition, The Word Is Not Lucky, processes the flooding of her parent’s home during Hurricane Harvey and her grandfather’s passing, two years earlier, through an unlikely coincidence. Both events happened on her birthday, August 27.
In video and photo-based works, Maxson sifts through and wrings out images, media, physical “stuff,” and memories, remaking them as probing and sometimes humorous portraits of her family. With levity throughout, Maxson confronts herself and her parents with the material excess of American life while working to connect the dots between what they had and the forces of nature that took it away.
In Small Claims, a series of 304, 8.5 x 11-inch prints, Maxson recasts the pages of her parent’s insurance claim into an epic, chronological accounting of family purchases 1950-2017. Spanning the memorable to the mundane, this photographic typology encompasses a lifetime of lost possessions.
In the video My Mom Knows Her Stuff, Maxson blindfolds and challenges her mother to identify, by touch alone, her “tchotchkes” that survived the flood. From wine-drinking Christmas dolls to Santa’s trash can filled with fake fruit, the exercise goads her mother’s wit while she proves a close connection to her things.
In other works, Maxson takes a somber tack. For example, The Word Is Not Lucky, a video portrait of Maxson’s father, tells his compressed life story, an archetypical picture of the American Dream underpainted by his father’s combat service during WWII and late-diagnosed PTSD. While the video 8/27/XX finds Maxson searching for her grandfather’s memories of war through a mini-DV tape that survived the flood.”
Reception: November 26, 2022 | 6–9 pm
ArtWalk Reception; artist talk at 6:30 PM
2127 Strand Street
Galveston, 77550 TX
(409) 763-2403
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