Danette Dufilho will be the featured speaker at the next general meeting on August 1, in the VAL Gallery at 7:00 pm. A resident of Dallas, Danette began her current position as Assistant Director of Conduit Gallery in 1999. In 2002 she took the reins as the curator of the gallery’s Project Room, a small exhibition space dedicated to showing the work of unrepresented and emerging artists. Installations in the Project Room have included the work of Bradly Brown, Michael Velliquette, Ellen George and Portuguese video artist Vasco Arauj, as well as Marina Pavlutskaya, Coleman Miller- and opening July 28- David van Ness. In 2005 she curated a group show of Texas and California artists, Coming Together, at the Michael Martin Gallery in San Francisco, California. We were honored to have Danette serve as the juror for Fresh Ideas 2006, and are looking forward to her insights in August.
Juror’s Statement
Since 1978 the Visual Art League has championed a thriving art community in Lewisville of and for artists, collectors, supporters and students. Large scale exhibitions such as the Fresh Ideas juried competition can be most telling of the talent and diverse range of artistic practice benefiting from a community art center as engaged and thriving as the Visual Art League.
Initially, what I found very exciting is that this would not be an exhibition juried from slides. Walking into the exhibition spaces to jury the competition, I knew I would be able to make the most informed decisions possible with out question as to the intent or representation of each work of art.
As to how or why I was interested in certain works and not others, I will say that what first struck me was the high level of execution of the works and their presentation. This, I assume, became in the process of looking, a measuring stick by which the works were judged, not by my own set of aesthetic criteria but by one another.
The range of what was chosen was as rich as the range that was entered. My intent was not to choose a work to fill a quota for genre or style but to showcase works that surprised me in some way through subject or composition. To this end, you will notice a show of many colors, moods and proficiency levels.
The award winning works stood out as complete thoughts that represented the collectiveness of proficiency in the media, thought to composition and my own emotional response as the viewer. It has been an honor and a fantastic learning experience for me to be involved with the Fresh Ideas Juried Exhibition for 2006. Thank you to Meg Smith and the entire staff for the opportunity to enter this rich community of artists and art supporters.
Danette Dufilho, Assistant Director at Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas.
