News

Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas is pleased to announce the opening of Moonlight on the River, a solo exhibition of new work on paper by Stuart Arends. An opening reception for the artist will be held Saturday, January 5, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm. The exhibition continues through Saturday, March 16, 2019.

Moonlight on the River will be Arends’ first exhibition with the gallery. The title of the exhibition and the body of work comes from the German improvisational acid rock band, “Electric Moon”, and Dekooning’s 1960 painting, “Door to the River”.  The thoughts regarding this body of work has to do with the Abstract Expressionist’s idea of accessing the flow, or “river” of creativity through the “door” of improvisation, spontaneity, and the unconscious. 

Moonlight on the River is an ongoing series that the artist began in 2016. They are each watercolor, ink, and pencil on tracing paper measuring 14 X 17 inches. The tracing paper allows the watercolor to sit on the surface. The paper is stretched first, then re-moistened and worked “wet on wet”.  When dry it remains wrinkled and slightly distressed, which is an important element in the work.

In the viewing room will be a small selection of work from throughout Arends career - a continuation of the artist’s 30-year investigation of the box-form.

Stuart Arends work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Villa Panza, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, MASI Museo in Lugano, the Tucson Art Museum, the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the Werner Kramarsky Collection, and the Lannan Foundation. His work has been written about extensively in exhibition catalogues and publications such as THE Magazine, VOGUE Italia, Art in America, Tema Celeste, The Washington Post, Artribune, The New Art Examiner, ARTnews, Artforum, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Brooklyn Rail.

The artist received his MFA from Los Angeles’ Otis Art Institute in 1981. He is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2013), a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship Grant (1991 & 1990), and a Roswell Artist-in-Residence Grant, RAIR Foundation, New Mexico (1983). Arends was born in 1950 in Waterloo, Iowa and currently resides in New Mexico.

Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1845 Levee Street; Suite #100; Dallas, Texas 75207. Gallery hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and by appointment.  For more information please call 214-369-0169, or email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com, or visit www.hollyjohnsongallery.com.