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Kristen Cliburn, The Hour Between the Dog and the Wolf II, 2018
Kristen Cliburn, Of the Dove I, 2022
Kristen Cliburn, Of the Pelican I, 2022
Kristen Cliburn, Of the Heron I, 2022
Kristen Cliburn, Of the Dove II, 2022
Kristen Cliburn, Cloud Chord I, 2022

Press Release

Cris Worley Fine Arts is proud to announce our fourth solo exhibition with Houston-based artist, Kristen Cliburn. The exhibition, entitled The Receptive Eye, opens with an artist’s reception on Saturday, August 27th, from 5 to 8 pm. The artist will be in attendance.

Kristen Cliburn’s transcendent paintings have often been discussed in relation to those of the Color Field movement of the 1960’s and 70’s whose collective pursuits focused on color as a subject in its own right. “The Responsive Eye,” which was the title of the 1965 exhibition at MOMA, and the off-shoot movement known as the “The Perceptive Eye” were subsequent progressions, with the latter focusing specifically on perceptual inquiries as they pertain to color.

Acknowledging both “responsive” and “perceptive” approaches to color, Cliburn has honed her painterly endeavors around the receptive process of engagement between painting and viewer. She says, “The Receptive Eye, is about a certain kind of receptivity, of letting a thing work upon you; as in the definition to receive: to assimilate through the mind or senses: to permit to enter: to acquire, experience. This work explores the dynamic relationship between what we see and how we interpret visual information as it relates specifically to color and light intensities in painting.” Using spray guns, Cliburn’s paintings are devoid of the artist’s hand, no brushstrokes exist to signal human intervention, time and weight are suspended by an unseen gravitational force leaving the viewer the space to receive essential visual information in its purest sense of the word.

Kristen Cliburn received her BFA in Painting at the University of Texas, Austin and her MFA in Painting from the University of Houston. Since 1998 her work has been included in over 50 group and solo exhibitions, throughout the US and abroad, most notably in Texas, California, New York, and Queenstown, New Zealand. She has participated in exhibitions juried by Rock Hushka (Curator of Contemporary & Northwest Art – Tacoma Art Museum), Irene Hofmann (Director & Chief Curator – SITE Santa Fe), Dave Hickey (Independent Art Critic), Larissa Harris (Curator – Queens Museum of Art), and Miranda Lash (Curator of Contemporary & Modern Art – New Orleans Museum of Art). Among her achievements, Cliburn was a resident at the Blue Mountain Center for the Arts, NY. Her works can be found in the permanent collection of UT Southwestern Medical Center, and she prominently featured in the canonical publication, Texas Abstract: Modern/Contemporary by Jim Edwards and Michael Paglia.

Cris Worley Fine Arts is a Dallas, Texas based contemporary art gallery located in the Dallas Design District. With over 20 years of experience, Cris Worley is dedicated to promoting innovative work by contemporary artists at various stages of their careers.

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