Selected works by Roberta Harris

June 2–September 5, 2017

What do we do when we wing it? Well, sometimes we trust ourselves to fate, we let go, probably unprepared, and we do the best we can. We improvise as if we were an understudy in the wings of the theater who didn’t quite learn all the lines, we push on.  We try to fly! We join our feathered friends and at times get a new perspective, an elevated look at a broader landscape.

These collected works by Roberta Harris, dating from 1995 to the present, firmly acknowledge the artist’s gutsy embrace of color and an energetic layering of a variety of materials to bring movement and message to the canvas. Her work is joyful and uplifting. It also takes us back in time with the simple and forthright imagery of birds, vines, leaves and flowers and paper cut out with precision. We see the lushness of a rich and steaming landscape and we encounter whimsy as well as thoughtful, poignant memories of challenge and resolution. A ladder appears suggesting a path to a new place, possibly a higher order. And the birds, sitting, hovering, flying, beckon each of us to courageously take wing as they do.

Born in New Jersey, Roberta Harris grew up in Houston. She was chosen for the Independent study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art and studied at Parson’s School of Design, Hunter College, University of Texas, and received a B.A. degree from the University of Houston. She has been a visiting lecturer at the Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth; the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; Brookhaven College, Dallas; University of Houston and the Menil Collection, Houston. Reflecting on her work, Harris states, “Throughout my career, through a variety of media, my mission as an artist has been to inspire hope and its corollaries — dialogue, joy, encouragement, strategy, peace, kindness, and imagination. This approach is not the least bit sentimental. Given the challenges that we face, hope demands courage, commitment, endurance and renewal – the best expressions of the human spirit.”  

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist

Photos by Dawn Baxter