You’ve spoken! In this occasional series we highlight one of most popular articles among Fine Art Today readers. This week we revisit the dynamic tandem of Felica House and Dana Younger, whose joint exhibition turned heads and drew readers.
Husband-wife tandems in the art world are always a fascinating — and often successful — story. Two partners will soon mount a joint exhibition in Texas that will juxtapose themes and the body.
Julia C. Butridge Gallery in Austin, Texas, is excited to be presenting husband-wife artistic team Dana Younger and Felice House in “Sum You Some Me.” Opening on August 13 and on view through September 10, “Sum You Some Me” will showcase 20-plus artworks including paintings, sculptures, and drawings that “focus on juxtaposed themes and the human body,” the gallery writes. “The art addresses some of society’s most fundamental contrasts: masculine versus feminine, natural versus cultural and the part versus the whole.
“With her paintings, Felice House, assistant professor in the Visualization Department at Texas A&M University, hopes to provide a counter-narrative to common passive female representations that are pervasive in art history as well as contemporary figurative painting. ‘For this exhibition, I chose to focus my work on the head and shoulders of the woman,’ said House. ‘I put women’s power center in the portrait rather than using the art to portray her sexuality.’
“While House focuses on the female head and shoulders, Younger’s sculptures deconstruct the male body by displaying only fragments of it, and at times, in vulnerable positions. His work culminates in a reflective examination of self, the only portrait he includes in this exhibition. Different mediums contrast and appear more striking due to their range in scale from small to monumental size. Working in harmony, the art all reflects a common theme and a desire to have viewers look at themselves and the world around them in a different way.
“‘The resulting tension between superficial beauty and philosophical provocation creates an expansive and fertile interpretive space within which the viewer can project and reflect on his or her own senses of self, nature and wholeness,’ said Stephen Caffey, art historian and critic. House and Younger have held exhibitions all across the country, but this will be their first joint exhibition in their hometown of Austin, Texas.”
To learn more, visit Julia C. Butridge Gallery.
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