The University Gallery at Texas A&M University – Commerce is hosting an exhibition of art pieces entitled Meta by Charles Michael Reid, who received his Master of Fine Arts from A&M Commerce in 2007.
Reid, who is currently a gallery director at the House Gallery in London, was unable to attend but provided a statement about his pieces.
The exhibition is comprised of 12 pieces, the majority of which are oils on canvas, but also included mixed media pieces, and even an audio piece. His works are dominated ‘text forms,’ as he calls them.
“What began as visual utterances of text incorporated into paintings, excerpts of poems, myths, and parables, became these active visual elements that evolved both on the two-dimensional surface and beyond,” Reid said.
However, there are also biological and anatomical elements littered throughout his pieces.
“I have been fascinated with language for much of my life,” Reid said. “Perhaps more easily apparent at first glance, my ongoing interest in biology, anatomy and other fields of science has become the visual vocabulary by which I invite my viewers to enter my work. The resulting imagery, an amalgam of hybridized, anthropomorphic forms and shapes, borders on science fiction.”
Eric de Llamas, who is a graduate art student, President of the Art Club, and the gallery coordinator, offered a bit of insight into Reid’s work.
“I’m really impressed by the abstraction of the language and text in his work,” de Llamas said. “It started out as more visible but he found that the more abstract it became the more it helped to improve his art.”
The Meta exhibition will be in the University Gallery from September 27th to October 21st.