Davison’s art ponders the ethereal at Dallas museum through June 22

Ethereal places blending fantasy- and science fiction-like imagery with the divine embody the art of Dick Davison, a professor of [visualization] (http://viz.arch.tamu.edu/) at Texas A&M whose work is being shown at Dallas gallery through June 22, 2012.

Davison imagines the architecture of heavenly places and explores how art can reflect the divine in “Heavenly Architecture: Concepts and Construction,” an exhibit that opened April 14 at Dallas’ [Museum of Biblical Art] (http://www.biblicalarts.org/) .

“The visible world, reality as we perceive it with our eyes, is indeed a great mystery,” said Davison. “The more one pursues the understanding of things visual, the more one is awed by the subtlety and complexity of visual reality as well as the apparatus, namely the eye and brain, that processes that information.”

Exhibition curators associate Davison’s style with the classical interpretations of Renaissance architect [Andrea Palladio] (http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Andrea_Palladio.html) and 18th century Italian artist [Giovanni Piranesi] (http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/piranesi.html) , combined with contemporary perspectives of filmmaker [Tim Burton] (http://timburton.com/) and Swiss surrealist [H.R. Giger] (http://www.hrgiger.com/) .

“Davison’s work is fresh and bright,” said Scott Peck, museum curator. “These are mindscapes…exploring other realms, the realms of the spirit world and dimensions of the multi-verse.”

Davison's scholarly interests include design communication, drawing, painting, and color theory. He has taught art at the Texas A&M College of Architecture since 1981. Co-coordinator of the Department of Visualization’s graduate programs, he holds an undergraduate degree in environmental design from Texas A&M, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California-Irvine, and an Master of Fine Arts from Washington University.

The artist's work has been featured in exhibits at the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Amarillo Arts Center, the Austin Museum of Art and the El Paso Museum. It is also part of permanent collections at the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Art Museum of South Texas (Corpus Christi), Arkansas Arts Center, Baylor University and the Frito Lay Corporation.

Since its 1967 inception, the MBA, through sculpture installations, drawings, fine prints, oil paintings and archaeological exhibits, has aimed to be a cultural crossroads, utilizing art for tolerance and understanding. Dedicated to the notion that the understanding of Biblical themes is critical to art history and the understanding of the humanities and Western Culture, the museum serves all backgrounds and denominations.

The Museum of Biblical Art is located ( [see map] (http://g.co/maps/twvu3) ) at 7500 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas 75225.