Introspective
Steven Evans
Sun, Oct 20, 2019– Sun, Nov 24, 2019
Opening Reception:
October 20, 2019, 1-5pm
Jonathan Hopson is pleased to present Introspective, Steven Evans' first solo exhibition with the gallery.
“Now of all the bonds between homosexual friends, none was greater than that between friends who danced together. The friend you danced with, when you had no lover, was the most important person in your life; and for people who went without lovers for years, that was all they had.”
-Andrew Holleran, form “Dancer from the Dance,” 1978
“…Evans’s simple artworks synecdochally symbolize an era, conjuring both the feel-good spirit of disco and the staggering devastation on the plague years. They ignite this emotional terrain and invoke the feel of it all: the exuberant optimism of sexual and cultural revolution on the dance floor followed by the massive loss of life, and the death of faith that society and government will esteem and safeguard its citizenry.”
-Julie Ault, from “I’ll Take You There,” essay for “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution” exhibition catalogue, 2019
“Our role as artist is more controversial now because there are those, claiming the absolute authority of religion, who detest much of our work as much as they detest most of our politics. Instead of rationally debating subjects like abortion or gay rights, they condemn as immoral those who favor choice and tolerance. They disown their own dark side and magnify everyone else’s until, at the extreme, doctors are murdered in the name of protecting life. I wonder, who is this God they invoke, who is so petty and mean? Is God really against gun control and food stamps for poor children?”
-Barbra Streisand, from “The Artist as Citizen,” delivered February 3, 1995 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Following his recent one-person exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Steven Evans will exhibit new works in a variety of media: neon, confetti on canvas, photography, and sewn fabric. All works will be shown for the first time, in this, his first solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition opens October 20, 2019.
About Steven Evans
Born in Key West, Florida, Steven Evans earned a BFA in photography at the Atlanta College of Art, Georgia, and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada in 1989. Evans is an artist, writer, curator, and Executive Director of the award-winning arts organization FotoFest International, which founded and sponsors the first and longest-running international Biennial of Photography and New Media Art in the United States.
Evans has served as a panelist for the National Endowment of Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Prior to FotoFest, Evans worked with a wide range of artists and collaborators as Managing Director of the Dia:Beacon Museum in New York and as Director of the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in New York City, New York; Los Angeles, California; Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; and elsewhere, including most recently his inclusion in group exhibitions Macho Man, Tell It To My Heart at Artists Space, New York, New York, and Powerful Babies, Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today at Spritmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
Sun, Oct 20, 2019– Sun, Nov 24, 2019
Opening Reception:
October 20, 2019, 1-5pm
Jonathan Hopson is pleased to present Introspective, Steven Evans' first solo exhibition with the gallery.
“Now of all the bonds between homosexual friends, none was greater than that between friends who danced together. The friend you danced with, when you had no lover, was the most important person in your life; and for people who went without lovers for years, that was all they had.”
-Andrew Holleran, form “Dancer from the Dance,” 1978
“…Evans’s simple artworks synecdochally symbolize an era, conjuring both the feel-good spirit of disco and the staggering devastation on the plague years. They ignite this emotional terrain and invoke the feel of it all: the exuberant optimism of sexual and cultural revolution on the dance floor followed by the massive loss of life, and the death of faith that society and government will esteem and safeguard its citizenry.”
-Julie Ault, from “I’ll Take You There,” essay for “If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution” exhibition catalogue, 2019
“Our role as artist is more controversial now because there are those, claiming the absolute authority of religion, who detest much of our work as much as they detest most of our politics. Instead of rationally debating subjects like abortion or gay rights, they condemn as immoral those who favor choice and tolerance. They disown their own dark side and magnify everyone else’s until, at the extreme, doctors are murdered in the name of protecting life. I wonder, who is this God they invoke, who is so petty and mean? Is God really against gun control and food stamps for poor children?”
-Barbra Streisand, from “The Artist as Citizen,” delivered February 3, 1995 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Following his recent one-person exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Steven Evans will exhibit new works in a variety of media: neon, confetti on canvas, photography, and sewn fabric. All works will be shown for the first time, in this, his first solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition opens October 20, 2019.
About Steven Evans
Born in Key West, Florida, Steven Evans earned a BFA in photography at the Atlanta College of Art, Georgia, and an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada in 1989. Evans is an artist, writer, curator, and Executive Director of the award-winning arts organization FotoFest International, which founded and sponsors the first and longest-running international Biennial of Photography and New Media Art in the United States.
Evans has served as a panelist for the National Endowment of Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Prior to FotoFest, Evans worked with a wide range of artists and collaborators as Managing Director of the Dia:Beacon Museum in New York and as Director of the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in New York City, New York; Los Angeles, California; Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; and elsewhere, including most recently his inclusion in group exhibitions Macho Man, Tell It To My Heart at Artists Space, New York, New York, and Powerful Babies, Keith Haring’s Impact on Artists Today at Spritmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden.
