October 6 - March 30, 2024
Major was born in New Iberia, Louisiana. She attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana, where she received a BFA degree in painting (1991). She went on to study at Rutgers University, where she received an MFA in sculpture (1995).
Major has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, including exhibitions in Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Washington D.C., and Alabama. A selection of her awards includes a Joan Mitchell Center Artist in Residence (2016), Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency Fellowship (2015), Pollock-Krasner Foundation Artist Grant (2008), and Artist in Residence – Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1992).
Her work can be found in private and permanent collections, including the Francis Greenburger Collection (New York, NY), the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, LA), the US Art in Embassies – Brazzaville, Congo Frederick Weisman Foundation (Los Angeles, CA), and the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC).
Angélica Delfina Vásquez Cruz, also known as the Ceramista del Preciosismo (born 20 September 1958), is a potter from Santa Maria Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico. Her parents, Delfina Cruz Díaz and Ernesto Vásquez Reyes, taught her how to create toys, jars, pots and pans. She also studied with Mexican artist Teodora Blanco. In 1978, Cruz began creating her own work based on Oaxacan mythology, culture and folklore. Early in her career her father-in-law Antonio Garcia Reyes (father of Irma Blanco and wife of Angelina Reyes) took credit for her work and sold it as his own. She is now an advocate for the rights of women, and many of her works celebrate women. Cruz has taught her daughter and granddaughter how to create ceramics, continuing the familial genealogy of artists.
Vásquez has exhibited her works at the Mexican Fiesta at Millville, New Jersey in 2004, the Popular Art Museum of Oaxaca in San Bartolo Coyotepec in 2003, the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. in 1999, the Eyes Gallery of the Mexican Fine Arts Center in Philadelphia in 1998, the Chicago Museum’s Celebrating Life exhibition in 1993, the annual Day of the Dead exhibitions in Oaxaca de Juárez, the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth Arts Center, Wales and at the Museum of the Cats in California in 2008. She was awarded her SNCA (National System of Art Creators) designation of “Creator Emeritus” in March 2009. She also received the National Arts and Sciences Award in the “Arts and Traditions” category in 2008.”
Reception: October 6, 2023 | 4:30–8:30 pm
500 Main Street
Beaumont, 77701 TX
(409) 832-3432
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