Works by Mexican artist Miranda to show at Cole Art Center

The exhibition "The Tenderness of Egocentrism: Drawings by Manuel Miranda" shows in the Reception Gallery at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House Oct. 24 through Jan. 2.

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The pen and ink drawings of Mexican artist Manuel Miranda will be featured in an exhibition that opens Saturday, Oct. 24, in the Reception Gallery in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

"The Tenderness of Egocentrism: Drawings by Manuel Miranda" opens with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Joseph M. Bravo curated the show.

"These pen and ink drawings reflect a discrete body of work within the artist's oeuvre," writes Bravo. "These artworks represent a series of archetypal characters that are a satire of the follies of the human condition. Dancers, butterfly catchers, jugglers, performers and other eccentrics are examined as an exploration of the diversity of the human experience and the fracturing of caricatured identities that imply the risk of madness.

"The figures are both the observers and the observed, self aware yet delusional, conflicted in their identities and their relationships to each other," Bravo continues. "They examine the dualistic nature of humanity and its inherent contradictions between egocentrism and social engagement. They function as an emotional X-ray rendered in an intuitive style that reflects the immediacy of unfiltered gesture produced through noncognitive automatism."

"The Tenderness of Egocentrism: Drawings by Manuel Miranda" shows through Jan. 2. Opening the same night are two other exhibitions. "The Devil You Say! The Saintly, and Not So Saintly, in Folk Art" will show in Reavley Gallery through Jan. 16, and "25 Veinticinco: Mexican-American Prints from UT San Antonio" will show in Ledbetter Gallery through Jan. 2.

The exhibitions are free and open to the public. They are sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts and the Nacogdoches Junior Forum.

|The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For additional information, call (936) 468-1131.