The work of contemporary artist Linda Ridgway to be featured in Cole Art Center

Linda Ridgway's "A Perfect Six" is cast in bronze and will be featured in the exhibition "Linda Ridgway: A Song Only to Herself," which opens Friday, Feb. 8, the Reavley Gallery in The Cole Art Center in downtown Nacogdoches.

NACOGDOCHES - The Stephen F. Austin State University College of Fine Arts and School of Art will open the exhibition "Linda Ridgway: A Song Only to Herself" with a reception at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

The show, which is featured as part of the College of Fine Arts' University Series, includes bronze sculpture and drawings on paper, according to John Handley, director of galleries for SFA.

"Ridgway is an important contemporary artist living in Texas whose work is widely known and appreciated," Handley said. "Her work is in the collections of several prominent art museums in Texas. I first saw her work while living in the San Francisco Bay area at the John Berggruen Gallery."

The subjects of Ridgway's prints, drawing and sculpture are directly related to childhood memories of her own mother reading from Robert Frost's writings, according to information at www.lindaridgway.com. "Her work acknowledges and celebrates a path of self-revelation with text-based works of crocheted lace transformed through the print process, resulting in eloquent and poignant statements about time and experience," the site says.

Ridgway will attend the opening reception and will speak about her work.

The exhibition, which will run through March 30 in the Reavley Gallery, is sponsored in part by the Nacogdoches Junior Forum and the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts. All exhibitions, receptions and gallery talks are free and open to the public.

The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. in downtown Nacogdoches. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.