Sarita Westrup: a tender line
May 13 - June 17,2023
From Cluley Projects:
"CLULEY PROJECTS is pleased to announce a tender line, a solo exhibition by Dallas-based artist Sarita Westrup. Westrup is one of two winners of the 2022 Cluley Projects open call for proposals that takes place annually. The exhibition will be on view May 13th through June 17th, 2023, at Cluley Projects, 2123 Sylvan Avenue. An opening reception will be held Saturday, May 13th from 4 – 7 PM. The gallery is open weekly Wednesday through Saturday, 12 – 5 PM and by appointment.
“The U.S-Mexican border es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms, it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of
two worlds merging to form a third country — a border culture.”
— Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)
Reflecting on memories of growing up in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border, fiber artist Sarita Westrup translates “border culture” sensibilities into her practice of experimental weaving. By crafting fenced patterns and enclosed structures that appear in cylindrical shapes, she creates channels and passageways out of once impermeable planes. Her sculptures depict abstracted representations of movement, establishing paths that declare their own horizon line. In doing so, Westrup creates a dynamic visual language of and for the borderlands.
As she crossed the border into Mexico (and back again), Westrup saw agave plants, rocks smoothed by the Rio Grande, and the raw concrete of immigration checkpoints. These childhood memories surface within the artist’s chosen media of metal, mortar, reed, and Tampico fibers (which come from the agave plant). Traditional North and Central American processes are also employed through the use of cochineal, a vibrant dye derived from crushed cochineal insects. Such material familiarity grounds Westrup’s artistic practice in the in-between of border towns’ political, cultural, and ecological realities.
In the exhibition, a tender line, Westrup continues her rich experiments in sculpture, basketry, and drawing. Her tunnel-like forms fill their environments, stretching onto the walls and sprawling out onto the floor. Inspired by her transient experiences and aspirations for a borderless future, the works mimic the imposing walls and fences in the South Texas landscape and reimagine them as migratory bodies. The use of baskets – a domestic tool meant for transporting, carrying, cradling – conveys nuanced themes of agency, tenderness, and concepts of home.
a tender line will feature new sculpture, drawing, and site-specific installation. The exhibition’s programming will also include a workshop led by Westrup on sculptural basketry weaving techniques used in the making of her show.
About the Artist Sarita Westrup is a craft-based artist and art educator of mixed Mexican descent based in Dallas, Texas. Rooted in weaving techniques and bricolage, her sculptural basketry works are inspired by her upbringing in the Rio Grande Valley on the Texas-Mexico border. Westrup received her MFA in Fibers from the University of North Texas (UNT) in 2016.
Her work as been shown at venues such as the Greater Denton Arts Council, Blue Spiral Gallery in Ashville, North Carolina, and was featured in the Nasher Windows series at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Most recently in 2022, she was the first artist in residence at Arts Fort Worth’s Emerging Artist program and was accepted into the American Craft Council Emerging Artists Cohort and received a $10,000 accelerator grant. Westrup’s residency at Arts Fort Worth culminated in her first solo exhibition, The Tension of Connection, hosted in 2023 at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.
About Cluley Projects and Erin Cluley Gallery
Erin Cluley Gallery’s satellite gallery Cluley Projects opened in April 2021 and is housed in an 1100 sq ft space on Sylvan Avenue within walking distance from the Belmont Hotel. Cluley Projects will act as an incubator space focusing on regional artists and providing a platform for discovery and mentorship.
Erin Cluley Gallery opened its doors in West Dallas in 2014, igniting a creative movement and acting as a hub for visual arts and community engagement. After nearly five years on Fabrication Street, the gallery moved its main operation to Riverbend – a development in Dallas’ Design District celebrating the intersection between culture and commerce."
Reception: May 13, 2023 | 4-7 pm
Cluley Projects
2123 Sylvan Avenue, Dallas TX 75208
Dallas, Texas 75208
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