From The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

"For the eighth iteration, Annette Lawrence is the first MODERN BILLINGS artist to share a solo presentation of images.

I’ve always been intrigued by the sheer size of billboards. As a child, the larger-than-life scale of New York subway advertisements and the overwhelming bombardment of Times Square billboards made a lasting impression. The billboards along Texas highways play a strong horizontal counterpoint to the verticality of my earliest visual influences.

In selecting images for MODERN BILLINGS, I strove for quiet in order to stand out against the noise. The images of open journals offer an understated moment for busy travelers, something for those with sensibilities not often rewarded by billboards. Stacks of open journals at the scale of billboards hold a larger-than-life-size hint at introspection, a paradox. –Annette Lawrence

Annette Lawrence’s art transforms raw data into drawings, objects, and installations. The data accounts for and measures everyday life. Her subjects of inquiry range from body cycles to ancestor portraits, music lessons, unsolicited mail, and journal-keeping. She addresses questions of text as image, and the relationship between text and code. Her work is grounded in examining what counts, how it is counted, and who is counting. Her process is one of making and unmaking, looking, and waiting. She recognizes things that go unannounced, remain steady and continuous, are unremarkable on the surface, and develop meaning over time.

Lawrence’s work has been widely exhibited and is held in museums and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art; Rachofsky Collection; ArtPace, San Antonio; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin; American Airlines; and Dallas Cowboys. She received a 2018 MacDowell Fellowship, the 2015 Moss/Chumley Award from the Meadows Museum, and the 2009 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Award from the Dallas Museum of Art. Her work was included in the 1997 Biennial of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. She is an alumnus of the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Skowhegan School. She received a BFA from the Hartford Art School and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Originally from New York, Lawrence lives and works in Denton, Texas, and is a recently retired Professor of Studio Art in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas.

Her work has been widely exhibited and is held in museums and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art; Rachofsky Collection; ArtPace, San Antonio; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin; American Airlines; and the art collection of the Dallas Cowboys. She received a 2018 MacDowell Fellowship, the 2015 Moss/Chumley Award from the Meadows Museum, and the 2009 Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Award from the Dallas Museum of Art. Her work was included in the 1997 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Originally from New York, Lawrence lives and works in Denton and recently retired from her post as a Professor of Studio Art in the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas.

Site Locations

Title: Mar. 17-24 04 Location: 1316 Jacksboro Hwy 76114

Title: Aug 1-7 Location: 3800 E Lancaster Ave 76103

Title: Jun 28-30 Location: 2130 Jacksboro Hwy 76164

Title: Sept. 17-23 Location: 2810 E Lancaster Ave 76103

Title: May 17-23 03 Location: 2130 Jacksboro Hwy 76164

Title: October 23-31 Location: 3800 E Lancaster Ave 76103"