Self identity: Dallas College faculty show art

Kathy Windrow is the curator of “self unfixed: picturing identity,” the new exhibition at the Bath House Cultural Center. Wind- row is an art and art history professor at Dallas College Eastfield Campus and an adjunct professor in art history and theater at Southern Methodist University.

The main purpose for Windrow with this exhibition is to highlight local talent, according to Enrique Fernández Cervantes, visual art coordinator and curator at the Bath House.

“This show is about how the artist sees herself or himself from different points of view, not only [the] color of their skin, their cultural identity, their gender identity. The different types of identity are being explored with this exhibition eloquently,” said Fernández.

To show the process of self-identity is important, according to Windrow. For that reason, some of the artists have more than one piece in the exhibition, which includes with 38 artists and 60 pieces of art, according to Fernández.

“Katy is great at identifying where an artist is, perhaps, in the middle of having, of creating a series of multiple pieces that are part of a longer process,” Fernández said.

However, Dallas College is represented not only for Windrow at this exhibition. Chong Chu, one of the 38 artists at the exhibition, teaches at Brookhaven Campus. He is a painting professor in the Art Department at that campus, according to Fernández .

Other artists from Dallas College includes David Wilburn and Tina Medina. Wilburn is a professor at Eastfield Campus Art Department, and Medina is an art professor at Mountain View Campus.

“Many of these artists are faculty members from the Dallas College,” Fernández said.

The process for this evolution of the self identity might last months or even years for some of the artists. One of these artists is Tina Medina, who according to Hernandez, has been exploring the immigration topic for years and her work in this exhibition has a strong influence on that concept.

“A vital concept that she wants to understand better and maybe through repetition – and through re-exploration of concepts that she has been attracted to. . . . Her work becomes stronger and stronger as a collection or as one or two pieces. Even though they’re quite strong and as important, and as serious as a larger body of work, they become even more powerful,” Fernández said.

The exhibition has artists from different cultural backgrounds like African American artists, Native American artists, Latino/ Chicano artists and Asian American artists.

The “self-unfixed: picturing identity” exhibition opened on March 25 and will run to April 29 and coincides with the Dallas Art Month. In 2013, the Dallas Art Month was launched by former Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings because he thought it was a great necessity for exposure of local talent, according to Fernández .

April is the month when awareness and appreciation for local artists, organizations and fostering learning is celebrated.

“So every year, we host art programs that are meant to be a part of that big celebration that we do every year,” Fernández said.

For more information about the exhibition, visit: bathhouse.dallasculture.org/self-unfixed-picturing-identity/.
For more information about fine art classes, visit: www.dallascollege.edu.