Press Release:
Debra Barrera
Menina
April 8 – May 13, 2017
Reception for the artist Saturday, April 8, 6-8 pm
Artist Talk Saturday, April 15, 3 pm
Moody Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Debra Barrera. Menina features photographs, drawings, and sculpture and marks her third exhibition with Moody Gallery since 2012. The exhibition will be on view April 8 - May 13, 2017 with a reception for the artist on Saturday, April 8 from 6-8 pm. An Artist Talk will be held Saturday, April 15 at 3:00 pm.
"Menina is a collection of works inspired by two rooms in my childhood home: the formal living and dining room. These rooms were decorated by my mother and filled with opulence and ornamentation; paintings of faux Dutch still life, gold tassels hanging from lamp shades, and pistachio green velvet pillows. Rarely used, the rooms became monuments to lavish events that never took place and a stage set for far away places utopic and unattainable.
My memory of girlhood is like these rooms. Surrounded by gendered customs of taciturn and decorum in hopes of something wonderful. The title of my exhibit, Menina, refers to Velasquez' Las Meninas; a painting I first saw alongside my mother when I was still a child. I felt a connection with the Infanta and myself. We were both young girls surrounded, adorned, and imposed by a timeless aesthetic persistence: a non-confrontational beauty in the wake of a power we did not know we possessed.” -Debra Barrera, 2017
Debra Barrera was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and currently lives and works in Houston, Texas. She received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Houston and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art and in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, and Rice University Public Art in Houston where she completed a permanent installation in the Brockman Hall for Physics and Astronomy in 2015. Barrera had a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2013 and was selected by the Director of the museum, Bill Arning. Her work has been featured in the Blaffer Art Museum's Window Into Houston exhibition series in 2012 and has been exhibited in many group exhibitions including at Circuit 12 Contemporary in Dallas, Gaddis Geeslin Gallery, Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, the Oak Cliff Cultural Center in Dallas, Unit B Gallery in San Antonio, Blue Star Contemporary Art in San Antonio, and Alabama Song in Houston.
Moody Gallery is located at 2815 Colquitt, Houston, Texas 77098. The gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:30-5:00, and Saturday, 11:00-5:00. For more information, please contact Moody Gallery at 713-526-9911 or by email at info@moodygallery.com.