May 11- June 16, 2007

opening reception for the artists:
Friday, May 11, 2007  6 to 8 PM

Michael Tole
Some Queer Noisy Pendulum (The Faberge Paintings)

The common thread that weaves throughout Michael Tole's work is that he captures moments and never stages his subjects. They are painted as they are found, whether they are the gift-filled shelves of a country store, El Paso on a snowy Christmas or multi-colored Febergé eggs. For the Fabergé Paintings Michael shot hundreds of photographs of the extravagant orbs at The Old World showroom in the Dallas Galleria.
Awkwardly cropped and sometimes out of focus these images are the source material for a collection of paintings that are technically masterful and offer a unique view of how an artist's eye sees the world.
Michael Tole received his B.F.A. from The University of Texas at Austin on 2002 and currently lives in Dallas. This will be his third exhibition with Conduit Gallery.
On April 30, 2007 Michael Tole was awarded the 2007 Hunting Art Prize, a cash award juried from over nine hundred entries from the state of Texas.

image: Michael Tole, Untitled (five eggs), 2006, oil on canvas 60x80"






W. Tucker
Lost & Found

W. Tucker's idiosyncratic and charmingly unassuming paintings have a duality of expressiveness due to the quirky line drawings and collages he creates as well as the materials he paints on. The work is simply composed on old and used wood panels. At other times the works are chosen from a collection of found materials that may include old table tops, cabinet doors, and pieces of scrap wood and metal.
These items may be assembled, using their surface as the background for the painting or covered with texture and paste. What emerges to cover these backgrounds is unplanned. Line drawings, markings, painted strokes and scribbles are made with oil, lumber stick, resin stick, charcoal, graphite and ink. Tucker received a BFA from New York University and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

left: Untitled, 2006, mixed media on wood, 30x31"
right: Elephant Alone, 2005, mixed media on wood, 17x14x4"

PROJECT ROOM

Joshua Smith
The Suburbs of Emerald City

The Suburbs of Emerald City is a mixed media installation composed of seventy-seven fabricated ceramic geodes with interior cast resin monopoly houses. The geodes mimic both the phenomenon of naturally occurring crystalline formations, the product of millions of years of heat and pressure, and the rampant seemingly overnight suburban tract housing developments throughout the state and nation.

Joshua Smith received an MFA from The University of Dallas in Irving, Texas in 2006 and in the same year was awarded the Outstanding Emerging Artist Award given by Sculpture Magazine. Joshua Smith lives and works in Dallas, Texas.

left: Emerald Palisades, 2006, ceramic, resin & paint, 31x25x10"
right: Emerald Cleraing, 2006, ceramic, resin & paint, 8x11x5"