Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House will host the summer shows of the Nacogdoches Photography Club and Watercolor East Texas July 19 through Aug. 19.
Amanda Breitbach, assistant professor of art/photography at Stephen F. Austin State University, serves as juror of the annual Nacogdoches Photography Club exhibition, themed “New Beginnings.” Names of the prize winners and honorable mentions will be announced at the show’s opening reception at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 19, at the downtown gallery.
Breitbach is a photographer whose research focuses on relationships between people and land and the intersection of art and science. Projects have focused on conflicts between wildlife and oil development on the Texas Gulf Coast. Breitbach grew up on a family farm and ranch in eastern Montana. She served as an agroforestry volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in West Africa for two years and has worked as a newspaper photographer/reporter and a freelance writer and photographer. She earned bachelor’s degrees in photography and French from Montana State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Watercolor East Texas will present its 35th Annual Retrospective Show featuring artwork of past winners. Overall retrospective winners will be selected to highlight. Cole Art Center gallery/exhibition coordinator Erik Ordaz Lozano serves as show juror. A closing reception will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18.
Ordaz earned an M.F.A. from SFA and also teaches ceramics and professional practices in the School of Art. Prior to coming to SFA to pursue a master’s degree in ceramics, Ordaz, who is originally from Mexico, was associated with the second-best ranked Mexican public university, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, where he traveled to pottery communities throughout Mexico to help artisans incorporate design concepts that translated into better and safer production practices.
The Cole Art Center is SFA’s historic downtown gallery located at 329 E. Main Street. For information about the shows, call (936) 468 5500. Gallery hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.