Artist James Drake to present lecture at SFA

James Drake, the juror for Stephen F. Austin State University's "Texas National 2011," will give an artist lecture at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 8, in the SFA Music Building, Room 160.

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - Internationally acclaimed artist James Drake, who is serving as the juror for Stephen F. Austin State University's "Texas National 2011," will present an artist lecture from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 8, in the SFA Music Building, Room 160. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The native Texan's 35-year career of creating sculptures, videos and drawings was recently recognized by the Texas Cultural Trust, which bestowed upon Drake the 2011 Texas Medal of Arts Award in Visual Arts on March 1.

Drake will be present at the 6 p.m. joint opening reception for "TEXAS NATIONAL 2011" and "James Drake: Recent Works" Saturday, April 9, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House. Both shows will run through Saturday, May 21.

Currently a resident of Santa Fe, N.M., Drake was born in Lubbock and later lived in El Paso. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles.

He has had over 80 one-person shows, including exhibitions at Site Santa Fe; the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, Cal.

He has been invited to participate in over 100 group exhibitions, including the 52nd "Venice Biennale"; "The Whitney Biennial" (New York); and the National Museum of American Arts, Smithsonian Institution.

Over 35 museums and institutions have included his work in their permanent collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, N.Y.), Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York).

"James Drake: Recent Works," which will be exhibited in the Reavley Gallery at The Cole Art Center, is a joint presentation of the SFA College of Fine Arts and School of Art. It is sponsored in part by SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and Nacogdoches Junior Forum. The pieces included in the exhibition are provided courtesy of Drake and Moody Gallery in Houston.

Regular gallery hours are 12:30 to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. For more information on Drakes' artist lecture on April 8 or his Nacogdoches exhibition, please call (936) 468-1131.