‘Mystery of Art’ exhibits features college prof’s art at Wright Gallery

“Mystery of Art,” an exhibit featuring drawings and paintings by Russell Reid '89, a member of the Texas A&M College of Architecture faculty, will run Nov. 17 - Dec. 20 at the Wright Gallery, located on the second floor of the Langford Architecture Center's Building A on the university's College Station campus.

A reception for Reid will be held at the gallery 5 – 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18.

Reid’s art, which graces museum collections in Austin, Los Angeles and New York, reflects his background in architecture and graphic design, as well as his experience working as a stained glass window designer in Italy. He worked professionally in visual communications and large-scale graphic design for more than 25 years and today serves as an assistant professor of practice in the departments of [visualization] (http://viz.arch.tamu.edu/) and [landscape architecture and urban planning] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu/) at Texas A&M.

The mystery of art, Reid said, lies in its elusive nature.

“One might be overwhelmed, swept off one's bearings,” he said. “There is nothing comparable to such an encounter, except a religious experience, or the experience of a symbol in a dream or vision, and these perhaps are really one and the same,” he continued. “Such an encounter always has a taste of the incommensurate.”

Reid began drawing and oil painting in his early teens, worked in commercial art and advertising in his late teens and 20s, and went on to study art as a Bachelor of Fine Arts student. Eventually, he focused on the art and science of design, earning [Bachelor of Environmental Design] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/undergraduate/) and [Master of Architecture] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/graduate/master-architecture/) degrees at Texas A&M in 1989 and 2001, respectively.

Between degrees he gained experience as a stained glass designer and mural artist in the United Kingdom and Italy, where he also studied English literature and art, then returned to College Station, where in 2001 he designed and hand-painted a 7,200-square-foot [mural] (http://www.mesart.com/artwork.jsp.que.artwork.eq.4774.shtml) on a College Main Street parking garage.

His artistic influences include modern stained glass artist [Johannes Schreiter] (http://www.derix.com/en/artists/Johannes-Schreiter/31/) and [Richard Haas] (http://www.richardhaas.com/) , who creates murals that adorn numerous public buildings in the United States.

“Mystery of Art” is one of seven [exhibits] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2014/11/10/wright-gallery-seven-exhibits/) at the Wright Gallery during the 2014-15 academic year.