Exploring Internal, External Worlds

Explore the internal and external world of the modern artist in two exhibitions — "Meredith Jack: Back in Black" and "This Rejection of the Conqueror: Works by Robert Pruitt."

The Art Museum of Southeast Texas hosted a joint reception Friday for exhibitions by Meredith "Butch" Jack, Emeritus professor of art at Lamar University, and Houston artist Robert Pruitt. The opening included gallery talks with both artists, giving attendees insight into the artists' works.

"Meredith Jack: Back in Black" featured a variety of metal and stabilized foam and multimedia sculptures — each piece in the collection like an abyss in the white-walled gallery.

Jack's take on the ancient Minoan snake goddess assumes the form of a pair of large, snake-crowned obelisks — "Snake Woman 1" and "Snake Woman 2." The black sculptures seem to defy gravity as they tower over the spectator, threatening to topple.

The "Tondo" series, made of stabilized foam and assorted media, hang on the gallery walls like shields of honor, proudly displaying the absence of color chosen by their maker. The use of organic materials, such as small tree branches incorporated into the work, make some of the pieces, such as "Tondo 33," resemble dark windows, offering a view into a nocturnal world created in Jack's mind.

Jack's use of rigidized foam solved the problem of many of his works, being cast or welded metals, being too heavy to hang on gallery walls. The artist said the deviation from metals to the lighter foam media, commonly used in modern architecture, makes it possible for him to make hanging sculptures.

The artist manipulates the material into forms that cause the mind to grasp for familiarity. Some appear like weapons, others like dream catchers, such as "Tondo 29," and still others resemble enlarged mixed-media microchips that merge the organic and the machine, like "Tondo 24."

Robert Pruitt's exhibit, "This Rejection of the Conqueror," comprises sculptures, paintings and "ready-made" installations. The collection, as the title suggests, comments on the post-colonial, post-cultural mind of the modern African-American artist. Inspired by the works of post-colonial writer Franz Fanon, the exhibition explores the artist's identity by examining the internalization of Western and American culture while staying aware of his African roots.

In the ready-made installation "Thinking Cap," a black ball-cap appears to float on a pillow of blue light like a mystic crown, while "Dome" shows the underside of a hat leafed in gold, the allegorical headdress or crown of the modern African-American.

Pruitt's technical abilities are on display in a series of large Conté charcoal drawings on hand-dyed paper of African-Americans in various guises. The gaze of the young man in "Superbad Garveyite," captures and draws one in — the caped figure asserting an unsure authority. This may be due to the fact that it is one of only a couple of the figures in the collection whose gaze is cast upon the viewer — others have their eyes covered or focused on some distant object or location.

"The Throne Room" features a variety of paintings and mixed-media sculptures and ready-made installations. The collected works in the room appear to be individual pieces, but are, in fact, part of the larger work. Each piece is focused on a central drawing of "Oba," a king-like figure, resting on his throne with his subjects and treasures before him. Headdresses decorated with artillery are aimed at Oba — a hard-hat of industry and an oversized and fully automatic braided wig — like brilliantly colored snakes waiting to strike.

The incorporation of science fiction and Russian space-age elements also lend to the concept of the pastiche identity of the modern African-American. African headdresses offset by Cosmonaut badges and emblems, such as in "Two Sistas," show the many masks of the artist's identity and how they add up to the "individual."

Both exhibitions are on display at AMSET through April 8. Admission is free.

For more information call 832-3432 or visit www.amset.org.