Hudson (Show)Room Exhibition: Outline

Emily Joyce, Matthew Sontheimer, and Hills Snyder
06.28.01

About the Artists

Emily Joyce was born in 1976 in Arlington Heights, Illinois. After receiving her
BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and studies at the Glasgow School
of Art in Scotland, Joyce was invited to participate in the Core Artists-in-
Residence Program at the Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
TX (1999-2001). Last year through the Core program, she was awarded the Eliza
Randall Prize. Her work has been recently featured at the Inman Gallery,
Houston, TX; Donna Beam Gallery, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV;
Galveston Art Center, TX; and the Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX. She made
her New York debut last year with a solo exhibition at sara meltzer gallery. Joyce
currently resides in Houston, TX.

Hills Snyder was born in 1950 in Lubbock, TX. A tenured Texas
artist, Snyder has exhibited widely throughout the state with recent solo shows at
Angstrom Gallery, Dallas; Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio; and James Gallery,
Houston. His work has also been featured in New York and Europe, including his
1998 exhibition, Gloville, at the Casino Luxembourg, Forum d'Art
Contemporain. He was the recipient of an Art Matters fellowship in 1996 and
1990, and a Mid-America/NEA fellowship for sculpture in 1995. In 2001, Snyder
was awarded the first ArtPace Travel Grant. His work is found in numerous public
collections including the Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX and The Microsoft
Collection, Redmond, WA. Snyder currently lives and works in Helotes, TX.

Born in 1969 in New Orleans, LA, Matthew Sontheimer currently lives and
works in Houston, TX. He received his BFA from Stephen F. Austin University,
Nacogdoches, TX and was awarded an MFA from Montana State University,
Bozeman, MT. His work has been shown throughout Texas and the United
States including exhibitions at Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Dunn and
Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX; Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX;
Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX; and the Contemporary Art Center, New
Orleans, LA, among others. This year his work was featured in the Subject
Plural: Crowds in Contemporary Art at the Contemporary Arts Museum,
Houston, TX, and two of his drawings were acquired for the permanent collection
of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

About the Exhibition

Coinciding with San Antonio's Contemporary Art Month, ArtPace presents
Outline, an exhibition in the Hudson (Show)Room featuring three Texas
artists, Emily Joyce, Hills Snyder, and Matthew Sontheimer.
Linking the artists' work is reliance upon contour and silhouette to form images.
This emphasis on the edge results in refined images in which detail is removed,
so that the reference is at once recognizable and abstract. Indeed, the artists,
whose authorial mark-making seems far from their concerns, find their sources in
existing material: a signature (Sontheimer), craft stencils (Joyce), or newspapers
and flags (Snyder). In this manner the artists both hint at a narrative and deny a
conclusive interpretation. The enigmatic results can be read formally, with sly
references to pop art and minimalism, but also accept narrative interpretation.
For the exhibition each artist will present a major wall-bound work accompanied
by a selection of smaller works.

Emily Joyce forms her colorful compositions from adhesive vinyl cut
in the shapes of craft-store stencils. By presenting only a fragment of the figure
or by layering multiple pieces, Joyce stalls viewers' recognition of the images.
With her particular stencils, Joyce creates a system that allows her to subtly
reveal a quality of innocence and wonder.

In Empire, Hills Snyder cuts two rectangular forms into the
wall. The geometric outlines are in fact based upon the Texas flag and the
French flag. Stripped of their color and lone star, the flags appear as minimalist
abstractions. Recognition occurs only after time or perhaps after noticing the
San Antonio Express News and a Parisian newspaper lying on the floor
marked with dust from the wall cutting. Snyder's work quietly evokes historical
associations.

Matthew Sontheimer etches a cryptic script directly into the wall, only
to cover his marks with a coat of house paint. He diligently inscribes his
messages in a specialized alphabet he created using sections of his father's
signature. The text meanders in an erratic ribbon across the wall, resembling not
language as much as a graph-reading gone wrong. Sontheimer reworks one
language to create another which is literally self-contained. His private
considerations and questions are readable to the viewer only as hints of tension
and ease.

Exhibition Dates

June 28 ugust 26, 2001

Opening Reception

Thursday, June 28, 2001, 6:30-8:00 PM

Gallery Walk-Thru with the Artists

Thursday, June 28, 2001, 7:00 PM

Brown Bag Lunch

Wednesday, July 11, 2001, 12:00-1:00 PM

Join us for a tour of Outline and a brown bag lunch provided by Pecan
Street Deli. Please call ArtPace for additional information and to make
reservations.

Event Location

All events held at ArtPace, 445 N. Main Avenue. Free parking at N. Flores and
Savings Streets. ArtPace is open to the public Wednesday thru Sunday, 12-5
PM, Thursday 12-8 PM, and by appointment. There is no charge for
admission.

About ArtPace

ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art | San Antonio serves as an
advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for the creation of significant art
projects. We seek to nurture emerging and established artists and to provide
opportunities for inspiration, experimentation and education. Through our
International Artist-in-Residence Program, we invite nine artists annually to
participate in a two-month residency which supports the evolution of new ideas in
art. Our broad range of panels, lectures, artist talks, and studio visits cultivates
diverse audiences for contemporary art and provides a forum for ongoing
dialogue.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org