IN THE OJAC CELLS SERIES OF EXHIBITIONS

The subjects of Willie Binnies’ paintings and objects are familiar to us and often unremarkable. Yet the manner in which the artist depicts them makes the mundane mysterious, encouraging us to re-evaluate them while engaging our curiosity. In short, Binnie has a knack for making the familiar, unfamiliar. Using a limited or monochromatic palette and source images derived from films, photography, and historical imagery, he provides an enigmatic narrative simply by isolating a single object in his compositions—a fully-suited astronaut lounges in a lawn chair, an entrance to a brutalist-style bank facade beckons us, a depiction of a snowman innocently smiles back at us.

For his Cell Series exhibition, Binnies constructs a life size wishing well in one gallery—standing in stark contrast to the prison cells that likely heard a fair share of wishes and regrets. Within the other cell gallery, a series of his signature black and white paintings depict “objects of desire” that a past inmate might wish for—a plate of enchiladas, the palms trees near a beach, and other objects we routinely take for granted in our lives.

Willie Binnie was born in Dallas, TX in 1985, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Williamstown, MA. He has had solo exhibitions at Keijers Koning, Dallas; LMAKgallery, NY; Paul Loya Gallery, LA; Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA; as well as participated in numerous group exhibitions at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Wilding Crane Gallery, LA; HVW8 Gallery, LA; the Rachofsky House, Dallas; The Public Trust, Dallas; Dallas Contemporary, Dallas.

Generously sponsored by McGinnis Family Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas and Dr. Larry Wolz

WILLIE BINNIE, Black Sun (Pink), 2024, black gesso and acrylic stain on canvas, 87 × 87 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Keijers Koning Gallery, Dallas, TX.

Mel Ziegler: Clear Skies offers equal representation of Ziegler’s current solo practice alongside his decade-long creative partnership with artist Kate Ericson. This is the first exhibition juxtaposing Ziegler’s work with work from the Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler Foundation archive.

As a collaborative duo, Ericson and Ziegler created a substantial body of public projects, site-specific installations, and mixed-media sculptures, all marked by a keen social conscience and understated humor.  In 2005, a traveling retrospective exhibition titled America Starts Here, was organized by the Tang Teaching Museum and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As described by their respective curators, Bill Arning and Ian Berry, “Ericson and Ziegler redefined public art in a way that was welcoming to a diverse set of communities. Rather than impose a conspicuous work of art upon a site or situation, the artists devised projects that altered sites subtly, using poetic language and their idiosyncratic wit to illuminate mainstream American contexts and highlight individual community issues.”

Mel Ziegler was born in 1956 in Pennsylvania. Ziegler began his undergraduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, later transferring to the Kansas City Art Institute to complete his BFA in 1978 and earning an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1982. From the late 1970s until her death in 1995, Ziegler collaborated with his partner, Kate Ericson. In addition to his ongoing studio practice, Ziegler has served as Professor of Sculpture at the University of Texas in Austin, and Chair of the Art Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. In 2014, Ziegler established the Sandhills Institute—a civically-engaged art program and residency integrated in and around the agricultural community of Rushville, Nebraska. Ziegler currently divides his time between Santa Fe, NM and Rushville.

Generously supported by OJAC Members.