A Fine Line features approximately one-third of the 300 drawings in the Old Jail Art Center’s permanent collection. Spanning the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries, this exhibition showcases a broad range of both artists and media.
Works by 71 artists, from internationally recognized Amedeo Modigliani, John Sloan, and Andy Warhol to the talented artists of the Fort Worth Circle, are brought together to underscore the diversity of the collection. A Fine Line also highlights the OJAC’s impressive holdings of works by contemporary artists, alongside those underappreciated in the artistic canon.
While the majority of works are on paper, novel substrates of wax, plywood, cloth, and faux ivory are also introduced. Mark making ranges from conventional graphite, ink, and pastel to the use of copper, soot, and even flames. As such, this exhibition challenges long-held hierarchies and expands our understanding of what constitutes a drawing.
Certainly, drawing is no longer just a precursor to other types of visual art. The singular works in this exhibition offer not only compelling images but creative entry points into meaningful conversations. Drawing’s ability to transcend a fixed set of materials and conventions has ensured the art form’s vitality and power to stimulate change.
Funhouse, curated from the museum’s permanent collection, celebrates the use of humor and levity in art—a much-needed diversion in our lives. Through humor, artists provide a comfortable entry point for ideas, perspectives, and topics that we typically avoid or may never consider. In other cases, works are nonsensical—much like our “normal” realities or unexpected events can be. Works in this concentrated exhibition require the engagement of the viewer. The interaction between object and viewer completes a work, often with surprising, thoughtful, and enlightening results.
Ann Glazer considers the ideas and techniques associated with the centuries-old craft of textile embroidery while employing modern technology and research guided by her “faith in intuition” to create “textiles of our time.” The results are large tapestries containing, what appears to be, ancient symbols and iconography. Motifs of animals, insects, and plants can be easily be identified, while at times Glazer combines or morphs them into abstract shapes and designs. Often details appear to have disintegrated due to age and wear, yet on closer examination the anticipated traditional stitches have been replaced by digital pixel images printed or collaged directly onto rich velvets and fabrics. As a result, Glazer’s “tapestries” offer cryptic meaning along with engaging and intriguing imagery.
Glazer lives and works in Dallas and New York City. She received a BA from Brown University and an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and has been awarded fellowships from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited at numerous institution and galleries across North and Central America.
The 2025 Cell Series of exhibitions is generously supported by National Endowment for the Arts, McGinnis Family Fund of Communities Foundation, and the Charles E. Jacobs Foundation with additional funding from Jay & Barbra Clack, Joe & Susie Clack, Jenny & Rob Dupree, and Kathy Webster in memory of Charles H. Webster.
