Rockport Center for The Arts has an Intriguing New Exhibit

Currently showing with free admission at the Rockport Center for The Arts is an exhibition of work by Evelyn Contreras which utilizes digital, mixed media, and printmaking. Titled “The Fragile,” this show incorporates Chicano cultural lexicons alongside references to highbrow and lowbrow art movements. Through color, form, and light, an optical experience is generated by Contreras which drives viewers to consider space and materials differently.

“I tend to examine the handmade in tandem with digital technologies to evoke a surreal experience,” Contreras told RockportArtCenter.com. “My work is highly fragmented which illuminates description over the narrative. My research, through a physical nature, privileges materials, light, and technology. On the surface, I’m interested in the multiple and patterns. Encouraging phenomenological effects which make the viewer look at space and materials differently.” Contreras is the Rockport 2020 Artist-in-Residence, teaching workshops and producing works for the month she is in town. “The Fragile” opened on October 23 and runs through November 21.

Photo: Courtesy of Rockport Center for the Arts

Rockport Center for The Arts is a non-profit organization located at 406 S Austin Street, and it’s open six days a week, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This is their new home after the original was unrepairable after Hurricane Harvey. Admission is free. The Center includes an indoor portion and a sculpture garden, and hosts various exhibits, lectures, performing arts, workshops, and classes for children and adults, and more. It first began in the 19th century as groups of Rockport artists shared artistic interests. Later, key artists here were instrumental in pioneering the Texas Coast aesthetic.

Although the 2020 event was canceled for obvious reasons, typically The Rockport Center for The Arts has hosted The Art Fest since 1969. It has since become tremendously popular, featuring over 120 artists selling their works to 10,000+ art buyers. This fundraising event paves the way for the Center to provide free and low-cost programming to the public.