April 13 - May 18, 2024
From Conduit Gallery:
“Conduit Gallery is honored to announce a solo exhibition of paintings and lithographs by Fort Worth-based artist, Billy Hassell. The exhibition will be Hassell’s ninth solo exhibition at Conduit Gallery. In literature, paths, or the concept of a path, have been used as metaphors to explore themes about life, especially about choices made. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” for example, from and with which the concept of “the road less travelled” is most strongly associated, could be taken literally as a story about a path not taken or metaphorically, as it most often is, as a non-conformist choice about one’s life. By titling his exhibition Path, Billy Hassell employs the idea of the path to symbolize, in a general way, his own journey through life and also, and more literally, the gathering and the holding still of, some of the places he has been to and seen along the way. From his ventures, Hassell has been able to explore and depict every corner of the Texas landscape; east, west, north and south – as well as regions further afield. Through it all, Hassell’s respect and appreciation for nature are caringly rendered with his stylized and masterful compositions and palette. In his 2014 New York Times article, Michael Hoinski, dubbed Fort Worth-based artist Billy Hassell “Mother Nature’s Stylist”. With a focus on nature, conservation and the environment, Hassell works with paintings, color lithographs and watercolors and sits clearly in the lineage of the Texas Regionalists of the early and mid-twentieth century. Billy Hassell’s (b. Dallas, TX 1959) journey to becoming an artist began during his childhood in Dallas where he explored the wild areas and creeks of his East Dallas neighborhood. His imagination was fueled by the colors and geometric patterns of the turtles, snakes, lizards, frogs, and any other creatures he could fit in his pockets to carry home. As he began to draw the creatures, the beginning of his artistic and life’s work began. Hassell earned a BFA from the University of Notre Dame and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His works can be found numerous notable museum collections such as the Menil Collection, Houston, TX; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Wichita Falls Museum, Wichita Falls, TX; the U.S. Embassy in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the University of Texas, Austin, TX; Ellen Noel Museum of Art, Odessa, TX; The Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; and the Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX. Hassell’s passion for preserving the beautiful scenes of the outdoor world extend to conservation, creating artworks for organizations including The Nature Conservancy, Ocean Conservation, Texas Parks and Wildlife and Audubon Texas, for use in fundraising efforts.”
Reception: April 13, 2024 | 10:30 pm – 12:30 am
1626 C Hi Line
Dallas, 75207 TX
(214) 939-0064
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