THE RODEO SHOW: Linda Blackburn, Rima Canaan Lee, Donna Howell-Sickles, Jo LeMay Rutledge

15 January - 20 March 2021

Overview

Exhibition: Friday, January 15 – March 20, 2021

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 30, 2021, from 12 - 7pm (Reserve here)

Featuring the artwork of Linda Blackburn, Rima Canaan Lee, Donna Howell-Sickles, Jo LeMay Rutledge. The exhibition will be on display January 15 - March 20, 2021, with an opening reception on January 30th, 2021 from 12 - 7pm.

THE RODEO SHOW is a group exhibition showcasing women artists who create work informed by Western culture, which is distilled in popular stock show and rodeo events. Since 1896, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo has been known as the most authentic western lifestyle experience. This celebrated event is a unique display of Texas culture that highlights the history of Fort Worth as the vital center of livestock commerce for the entire nation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rodeo will not be taking place in 2021. The only other time this event was canceled was in 1943, near the height of World War II. In order to share the spirit of the rodeo in a year when the arenas will be quiet, Artspace111 has been inspired to present artworks created to spotlight Western culture and give patrons the opportunity to experience rodeo nostalgia through visual art.

*Artspace111 is currently open Wednesday - Friday 11-5 and by appointment. To make an appointment to view the exhibition or artwork by our represented artists, please email Art@Artspace111.com or call (817) 692-3228.

Linda Blackburn

Linda Blackburn, born in 1941 in Baltimore Maryland, has lived and worked as an artist in Fort Worth since 1966. In 1962, she received her BFA in painting from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in painting from the University of California at Berkeley in 1965. Her compositions portray a cartoonish innocence which includes comedic characters mimicking old Western Films. The simplistic landscapes and vivid palettes almost shield the often dark realities of the Old West. Her work is in public and private collections including the Modern Art Museum Fort Worth, the Amarillo Art Center Museum, Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC., Southwest Craft Center, San Antonio, The Crescent Collection, Dallas and DFW Airport.

Rima Canaan Lee

Rima Canaan Lee was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and grew up in Hamburg, Germany. She earned a B.A. in American Literature and English from Harvard University and a Ph.D in Comparative Literature from Yale University. Lee credits her obsession with photography to her study of literature, stating that she is, “interested in how the photograph relies on the simultaneity of vision versus the sequentiality of language to construct meaning.” With her extensive knowledge of art history, literature, and film studies, her images portray a layered composition of rodeo culture and juxtapose form and movement for a complex narrative.

Donna Howell-Sickles

In her paintings and drawings, Donna Howell-Sickles has used the image of the cowgirl and taken it beyond the constraints of portraiture. In 1972 Howell-Sickles earned her BFA at Texas Tech in Lubbock and has been creating a career in the Western Art genre ever since. Howell-Sickles herself identifies with the self-reliant and hard-working spirit of the cowgirl. In 2007 she was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame by the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. Howell-Sickles’ work is a part of the art collections of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Booth Western Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Fine Art, Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West, the C.M. Russell Museum, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

Jo LeMay Rutledge

Jo LeMay Rutledge has always been artistically motivated. Attending the University of Texas, but leaving the art department her sophomore year, led her to the world of Fashion and a job at Neiman Marcus. She became a wife and a mother after, keeping painting as an interest and a hobby. It wasn’t until Rutledge took a course by master painter Dennis Blagg, that she began to really think seriously about art. At the age of 58, she threw herself in the Western Art genre. However, Rutledge knew she would have to put a different spin on her paintings to make them stand out. With that, she began to articulate the reality of Western Culture, painting mangled garbage, old equipment, and sweaty animals.