To Be Someone Must Be a Wonderful Thing

October 17-November 14, 2009
Artist Reception Saturday, October 17th, 5-8 pm

Emerging Dallas artists including Erick Maybury, Alejandro Diaz-Ayala, Bryan Ryden and Rachel Strum explore the idea of success in an exhibition featuring paintings and installation works.

Alejandro Diaz-Ayala will be showing his graffitied, expressionistic and hazed portraits of friends and family along with other new works of pop portraiture, including "Porky the Pig." Diaz's art is highly influenced by his Mexican heritage, people he has encountered and collective images from the streets of Oak Cliff.

Bryan Ryden received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the University of North Texas in 2009. Ryden explores form and texture via his abstract collages, drawings and paintings.

Erick Maybury creates dioramas which allow him to deal with personal and sociological issues. Using profuse colors, flashy and poorly produced juvenile figures, and lucid dream-like landscapes, he prods at his own generation's "disturbing" values in a humorous style.

Rachel Strum's installations investigate our interconnectedness. Adjoining small sculptures with string, balsa wood and other natural elements to build impermanent worlds, she sees the relationship between structure and string as a metaphoric representation of how conversations, dreams and feelings connect us culturally and personally.