For MORE
INFORMATION:
Debbie McNulty/713-523-9530
debbie@artleaguehouston.org
Photos and complete biographies available on request
2007 Texas Artist and Patron
of the Year Announced
Dixie Friend Gay and Gus Kopriva to
be Honored
HOUSTON
(February 14, 2007) Art League Houston proudly
announced today the selections of Dixie
Friend Gay as the 2007 Texas Artist of the Year and Gus Kopriva as Texas Patron of the Year. Each year, Art League
Houston honors those whose work or patronage has had a significant and positive
impact on contemporary visual art in Texas.
“Dixie Friend Gay and Gus Kopriva
are tremendous assets to the arts in Texas
and we are delighted to have them as our 2007 honorees,” said Billie Chasen,
Art League Houston President. “They demonstrate distinctive achievements in
visual art that we celebrate with this award. Both have worked for the
promotion of art to the community and used their talent to widen the audience
exposed to great art from Houston to Shanghai.”
In
1983 Art League Houston created the Texas Artist of the Year award as a dynamic
and informative annual project documenting Texas art history. Through this project,
tribute is paid to outstanding members of the visual art community.
Twenty-three artists and three patrons have received the award since its
inception.
Dixie
Friend Gay’s work has been shown regionally, nationally and internationally,
and is represented in corporate, individual and museum collections in Texas and across the
country. Her work has been featured in
numerous museum exhibitions, including the Bronx
Museum in New
York, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont,
the Amarillo Art
Museum, and the Austin
Museum of Art at Laguna
Gloria, among others. She is also known
for her public art projects including Houston
Bayou at George Bush Intercontinental
Airport, Terminal B (2002) and Sun Temple at Sylvan
Rodriquez Park
in Clear Lake.
Ms.
Gay currently is working on projects for the Port
of Miami, the new Indianapolis Airport
and the Woodlands, and is a finalist for the Houston Metro Solutions Public Art
Program. Dixie has been the recipient of
numerous awards including the 2006 Artist of the Year from the American
Institute of Architects, Houston Chapter, the 2003 Artist of the Year from
Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, the 2003 Texas State Artist of the
Year (Three Dimensional) Texas Commission on the Arts, and the prestigious New
American Talent 19 award (2004).
Additionally, her civic art project Houston
Bayou was recognized in the 2002 Art in America’s Art in Review. Gay grew up on a ranch in rural Oklahoma, lived in the NYC area for nearly a decade, and moved
to Houston in
1989.
Trained
as an engineer, Gus Kopriva began his visual arts career in 1981 as a Board Member
of the original Lawndale Art Annex at the University of Houston
working with artist James Surls. He balances a career as an Engineering
Director for Dow Chemical with an equally active career in the arts. He is a fervent
collector of Pre Columbian, Contemporary, German Expressionism, French Symbolism,
and American WPA art, has curated over fifty regional, national and
international exhibitions, and is the owner of Redbud Gallery. Kopriva is
currently organizing exhibitions focusing on Texas
visual art for museums in Cuba,
China, Peru, Germany
and Texas. He
has served on a number of boards in a variety of capacities, including Treasurer
for the former Houston Municipal Arts Commission, Project Manager for the Orange Show
Center for Visionary Art,
and Board Member Houston Leipzig Sister City Association, among others. In
addition to owning a gallery, as well as curating, collecting, lecturing and
serving on boards, Gus has organized major fundraising efforts for the arts,
including “Project Storm” a fundraiser for Katrina Needs, and has published
exhibition catalogues including “Houston Works” for the Leipzig-Houston Sister
City Association and “Broken Brushes: From the Kaiser to Hitler, German Paper
works from the Kopriva Collection.” Born in Baden-Baden,
Germany as a U.S. citizen in 1948, Gus has lived in Houston since 1962. He
has been married for 35 years to a former Art League Houston Texas Artist of
the Year (2001) Sharon Kopriva.
“The exuberance that Dixie Friend
Gay and Gus Kopriva have brought to contemporary art in Texas was a key reason they were selected,”
said Debbie McNulty, Art League Houston Executive Director. “We are committed
to making participation in contemporary visual art available to our community
through our exhibitions, outreach program and Art League School. I can’t think of a better way to
inspire people and families into participation than by paying tribute to the
talent and generosity of these two honorees.”
As
Texas Artist of the Year, Dixie Friend Gay will be featured in an exhibition at
Art League Houston this fall. Both
awardees will be celebrated at the annual gala which will be held in their
honor in November.
The
Inversion
-> Conversion Capital Campaign has been supported principally by The
Houston Endowment, Inc., The Brown Foundation, Inc., Kevin & Laurie Foxx,
Wortham Foundation, Inc., John P. McGovern Foundation, Vinson & Elkins,
Sara and Bill Morgan, Peggy and Allan
Port, Michael Cordua,
Billie and Marv Chasen and nearly 200 individual donors.
Art
League Houston programming is made possible through the estate of William G.
Daugherty, The Houston Endowment, Inc., City of Houston through the Cultural
Arts Council of Houston and Harris County, Joan Hohlt & J. Roger Wich,
Kevin & Laurie Foxx, Art Colony Association/ Bayou City Art
Festivals, The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Drew Baird, Becker Family
Foundation, the Ann Bengtson Memorial Fund, Norman & Kelly Bering,
Jack & Annis Bowen Foundation, Brad & Leslie Bucher, Marv & Billie
Chasen, Moriah & Rod Crosby, Darrell & Peggy Delahoussaye, Ray C. Fish
Foundation, Hugh & Berthica Fitzsimons, Kat Gallagher, Alice C. Boyd Gano,
Courtney Glasscock, Oliver & Nancy Goldesberry, Nick & Candice Goodwin,
Rob Greenstein, James & Ann Harithas, International Bank of Commerce,
Kinder Foundation, Susan Magnani, Mark & Gretchen Mazziotti, McCoy
Workplace Solutions, John P. McGovern Foundation, Betty Moody & Bill
Steffy, National MS Society Lone Star Chapter, Mark Nitcholas, Don & Crystal
Owens, Allan & Peggy Port, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Mike
Rudelson, Louisa Stude Sarofim, Fred & Wendy Schiller, Tahamia Spain, Steve
& Susie Streller, Texas Art Supply, Texas Commission on the Arts, Top
Drawer Lingerie, Jim & Beth Wiggins, Nina & Michael Zilkha, our
sponsors, members and volunteers.
About Art League Houston
Art League Houston cultivates
awareness, appreciation and accessibility of contemporary visual art within the
community for its cultural enrichment. For 58 years Art League Houston has
served the greater Houston
region through exhibition, education and community outreach programs. To find
out more about Art League Houston or the Texas Artist of the Year Award visit: www.artleaguehouston.org.
About Inversion -> Conversion
Art League Houston is in the
midst of a capital campaign to raise $1 Million for Phase II construction in
order to complete its new Art
League Houston
School, to improve the
exterior site and existing gallery, and to begin an endowment. Located on Montrose Boulevard,
the new School offers more space for educational and outreach
programs. The 6,000-square-foot contemporary building also includes an
area that houses a tenant operated coffee shop, called Inversion Coffee.