Artists plea for climate change awareness in Wright Gallery show

Texas artists Carol Flueckiger and Robin Germany make a powerful plea for awareness of climate change, and a call for each individual to act accordingly, in “Notes from the Desert Aquarium,” a new exhibit Jan. 21 – March 10, 2020 at the [Wright Gallery] (http://www.arch.tamu.edu/inside/services/wright-gallery/) , Langford A on the Texas A&M University campus.

An opening reception is scheduled at the gallery at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Both artists teach in the Department of Art at Texas Tech University.

Flueckiger’s solar powered paintings (cyanotypes) and Germany’s large format photographic prints of the Gulf of Mexico tell a story about light and shadow, seen and unseen, submerged and sunburned.

The exhibition also includes digital prints, cyanotype processes, mixed media, paintings and book arts. These experimental explorations offer layered compositions at the intersection of the stark physical and cultural landscapes of Texas and the south plains. Thrift store culture and historic readings embellish the narrative with lost lessons on religion and science in a broad dialogue about beauty, loss, transformation and renewable energy.

In Germany’s photographs, the viewer is confronted with two disparate environments: underwater, and barely above the waterline of the Gulf of Mexico, at the crux of two worlds.

“I am interested in what escapes us, what is obscured, the gaps and blank parts of our understanding,” she said. “I am seeking the stories in the water, unknowable stories of life and struggle, stories that are inextricably intertwined with ours and laden with implications for our future.”

Flueckiger’s work draws heavily on the absence of water in the desert environment of the plains in and around Lubbock.

Implications of the destruction of the environment caused by fossil fuel-based means of transportation are created through the use of the opposite: an individual’s power to transport herself independent of using destructive fossil fuels. A bicycle, shoe skate or typewriter - each is combined with a windblown tumbleweed.

The Wright Gallery is open weekdays 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.; to schedule a weekend viewing, call (979) 458-0538. To learn more about past Wright Gallery exhibits, email ​wrightgallery@tamu.edu​ or visit ​ http://bit.ly/WrightGallery​.

The ​Wright Gallery​ is committed to honoring diversity in all its forms; providing a venue for emerging and established artists; featuring works by women artists and artists from other underrepresented groups; promoting dialogue on topics of social and cultural importance and serving as a center for campus and community visual arts engagement, education and enjoyment.

The gallery's 2008 renovation was made possible by a generous gift from James Wright, a retired senior partner with Page Sutherland Page who earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas A&M in 1954, and his wife Mary. ​The 2,400 ​square-foot gallery began hosting exhibitions in 2015 under the direction of a faculty-led arts committee.

Richard Nira

rnira@arch.tamu.edu