STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The work of artist Trey Burns will be featured in the exhibition “Lagoonoogal” in the art gallery of Tarleton State University’s Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center in Stephenville, Oct. 3-27.
The multimedia installation considers water and the larger vena cava systems of development. A series of videos continue Burns’ recent work exploring the landscapes of infrastructure and the ways they vine through our daily lives.
A turquoise lagoon sits in high contrast to the surrounding sod and brown, a wave pool churns behind a highway wall, a water treatment plant’s uncanny offerings feed back into a river — the exhibition documents these and other regional landscape specimens as artifacts of dreams and aspirations.
The sculpture and architectural interventions in the gallery speak to larger ideas of the built environment and its entanglements with nature.
Burns is an artist and writer whose work explores filmmaking, built environments and histories of place. In 2018 he cofounded Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, a Dallas nonprofit that highlights temporary projects in an outdoor setting.
After receiving his MFA from the Savannah College of Arts and Design in 2008, Burns has shown his work at the Ecole Nationale d’Architecture in Paris, Malaquais Gallery in Paris, Pavillion Vendome in Clichy-la-Garenne, France, St. Paul’s Cultural Center in Chicago, Wassaic Projects in Wassaic, N.Y., ex ovo in Dallas, and Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn.
Tarleton’s art gallery is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State University is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of approximately 18,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. For 125 years, Tarleton State has been committed to accessible higher education opportunities for all while helping students grow academically, socially and professionally through programs that emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.