James Drake, Dancing in the Louvre
Robert Polidori, Selections from Parcours Muséologique Revisité
Hadar Sobol, Go
Large Gallery
James Drake
Dancing in the Louvre
James Drake, renowned artist and recipient of the 2011 Texas Medal of Arts Award in the visual arts category, will feature his large scale charcoal drawings and white cut-outs in the large gallery of The MAC. Drake’s work spans a variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture and video. The MAC will exhibit Drake’s monumental, charcoal drawings based on his interest in borders — literally and metaphorically. Alluding to historical references, Drake delineates boundaries attributing to personal prejudices, political barriers and their visceral outcomes. Drake’s most recent work, a series of “white cut-outs”, are elegant works on paper masterfully created using only an X-Acto blade. The subtractive nature of this work creates a striking contrast to the layering of materials common in the charcoal drawings.
James Drake received his BFA and MFA from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. In 2011, Drake was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts Award in the visual arts category. The Texas Medal of Arts Awards, the signature event of the Texas Cultural Trust Council, spotlights and celebrates the creative excellence, exemplary talents and outstanding contributions by Texas in selected categories, ultimately featuring the best in Texas. Drake’s work is part of many private collections and permanent museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Dallas Museum of Art. Drake is represented by Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas, Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans and Moody Gallery in Houston.
Square Gallery
Robert Polidori
Selections from Parcours Muséologique Revisité
World renowned photographer, Robert Polidori will exhibit Selections from Parcours Muséologique Revisité in the Square Gallery of The MAC. This series of photographs is part of a project spanning a quarter of a century to capture the restoration of the royal palace of Versailles. These images are congruent with his larger body of work, revealing his reoccurring interest in the idea of an interior space retaining the personality and soul of its previous inhabitants. Polidori displays each room as a vessel, empty of life but maintaining a historical legacy.
In Selections from Parcours Muséologique Revisité, Polidori examines the significance of restoring an important historical site. In an effort to keep France’s vibrant history alive, each room in the palace is carefully restored to mirror its original state. What Polidori sees is a “historical revisionism” or an appropriation of our contemporary world view onto the restoration process, diluting the historical accuracy.
Robert Polidori was born in Montreal, Quebec and now lives and works in New York City. His work has been exhibited internationally and across the United States. A staff photographer of The New Yorker, Polidori has received numerous honors, including a World Press Award for his coverage of the building of the Getty Museum and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography in 1999 and 2002. Polidori is the author of several books, most recently Parcous Muséologique Revisté, an epic three volume collection of his Versailles prints published in 2009 by Steidl. Polidori’s work is part of many museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Biblioteque National, Paris and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Polidori is represented by Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans.
New Works Space
Hadar Sobol
Go
Israeli-born, Dallas-based artist Hadar Sobol will exhibit her installation in the new works space of The MAC. Hadar’s Bachelor of Design from The Israeli University for Fashion and Textile Design has prepared her for working in the delicate craft of embroidery. Sobol’s immersive installation combines video art and embroidery on vintage linen and paper. The use of embroidery and linen deliberately references traditional female roles. Sobol strives to achieve a full range of expression by shifting the decorative, delicate and “proper” traditional technique of embroidery towards the expressive, spontaneous and even impulsive edge. The attempt to use this medium out of its traditional context symbolizes the conflicts defining a modern woman’s life. Using imagery of female figures and religious symbols, Sobol draws spiritual and visual inspiration from Torah Wimples used in the religious ceremony of bar/bat mitzvahs. Sobol uses her fascination with the Eastern European cloth wimple to comment on family, religion, nationality and femininity.
Hadar Sobol earned her Bachelor of Design, Textile Design with excellence in 1997 from The Israeli University for Fashion and Textile Design, Tel Aviv. Sobol was the Associate Designer and Producer with Rakefet Levi, the most prominent Performance Art Designer in Israel. Sobol has recently attended life drawing and mix media classes at Collin County Community College (Spring Creek) and Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. She has received numerous awards from juried exhibitions in the Dallas area. Hadar Sobol is represented by Valley House Gallery in Dallas.