Celebrate the beauty of this earth with Kari Perkins, renowned costume designer and mixed-media artist. Inspired by an anonymous poem, Perkins has created beautiful silk and wood sculptures which will dance in the wind, inviting you to revel in the meditative nature of the exhibition.

Explore the unseen with Evynne Caffey's Through Their Eyes exhibition, focusing on the use of the infrared light spectrum in both photography and mixed media artworks.

Join us as Signature Artist Member and expressionist painter, Patty Rae Wellborn shares her distinctive style in a new body of work.

Experience Signature Artist Member, Peggy Shepherd’s vibrant photography for her second solo exhibition.

Join us in celebrating Cuban-American artist Rolando Diaz as he shares his body of work depicting the horses of the biblical Revelation.

Dive into a world of color and come see abstract paintings by niece/aunt duo Casey La Rue-Chavez and La Rue.

Texas Photographic Society is proud to announce the call for entry for By Hand: Alternative Processes, our fifth exhibition featuring hand-made photo-based imagery created using alternative photographic processes and historical printing methods. Our juror is acclaimed artist, educator, writer, and editor Christina Z. Anderson. This call is open to artists of all levels internationally.

By making the ordinary extraordinary, I seek to make the overlooked emerge instead as a resplendent focal point. In embracing the power of textiles as a fine art form, this installation seeks to bridge the divide between traditionally gendered crafts and elevate the status of soft sculpture within the realm of contemporary art.

The Center for Contemporary Arts is proud to present the 14th Annual juried Intercollegiate Student Art Competition for area college and university students!

The competition is open to students of Abilene Christian University, Cisco College, Hardin-Simmons University, McMurry University, Texas State Technical College, Angelo State University, Howard Payne University, Midwestern State University, South Plains College, and Tarleton State University. Entries may be submitted in any medium as long as the finished piece meets the size and weight restrictions of the category.

Through the lens of my camera, it has been my passion to observe the world around me. My friend and I recently completed an "Around the World in 80 Days: 81 and Still on the Run" adventure going to all 7 continents and seeing as many of the World's Wonders as possible. I use my photography to serve as a window into the world. There is a profound artistic beauty throughout the world, in the stunning landscape, the magnificent manmade structure, and capturing the feelings on the faces of the people I meet.

The Center for Contemporary Arts National - known as CCAN - is a national juried art competition of the Center for Contemporary Arts in Downtown Abilene, Texas. In 2023 the 7th annual national exhibition and competition received over 367entries submitted from 34 states across the United States. 192 works were selected for exhibition in the Center’s Jane Adams Breed Gallery and Gallery 3.

Over $7,000 is awarded annually to artists in 11 media categories, one juror’s award, and a best of show.

Sloane-Duncan’s paintings explore the tensions between public and private, and question whether we can ever fully be known by another person. She investigates the strategies we as humans use to veil or mask our truest selves and the reasons why we hold back and keep parts of ourselves private, even from those closest to us. The self-portraits raise questions essential to Sloane-Duncan’s practice: How and why do we use personal embellishment to shape others’ views of ourselves? Are self-adornment and interior decor forms of expression or manipulation? 

The Community Vitality Project is an exploration of how well we express ourselves, and how personal and engaging the expression is. What I seek is to photographically tease out places that give me a sense of attraction and dynamism.

From the fall of 2019 to the spring of 2022 I lived in Spain working as an English language teacher in elementary schools. Six months into my experience the COVID-19 pandemic hit and choosing not to return to the U.S. meant the rest of my time on the Iberian Peninsula would have an added layer of complexity. Along with the expected challenges brought on by linguistic, cultural and bureaucratic differences, the pandemic and all the restrictions put in place by the Spanish government to help curb it opened me up to a deeper level of solitude than I was already in as an expat.

Hollie Brown presents her first solo exhibition since becoming an artist-member of the Center for Contemporary Arts with a site-specific installation in Gallery 4.

Hollie Brown currently lives in Abilene, Texas. She teaches at ACU and McMurry University. She received her M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from the University of California, Riverside in 2017. Brown also runs Little Shop of Hollies, a small business she started in 2020.

“My own personal memory as a dancer contributes to the existing space I am creating through experiences of discipline, practice, balance, and relaxed fluid faculty of control. I try to capture this through various materials, the movement of my own body as well as the memory of movement that can become distorted and transparent. I enjoy using various materials such as charcoal, chalk pastel, acrylic and textured surfaces.”

The West Texas Photographic Society (WTPS) is a group of photographers ranging from hobbyists to professionals. They promote the enjoyment of photography and enhance the creative ability of the Abilene photographic community. Their annual member exhibition will feature photography from their current membership.

The jackrabbit is the primary subject of Stricklin’s current work and will be on view at the Center for Contemporary Arts in mid-May. Her solo exhibition, Jackrabbit Journey features more than two dozen sculptures and a dozen or so two-dimensional works that center around the jackrabbit, or the hare as the subject.

As a career medical illustrator, I have always been a technical, representational artist yet over the years, have developed eclectic tastes in painting subjects and how we traditionally view them. I am drawn to detail and how light and shadow visually affects objects and color within a still life, no matter what angle. I try to create depth and excitement in a painting by balancing the lights and darks within the colors and the overall composition. My goal is to draw the viewer into a painting and to spend time enjoying that painting.

Drinking The Sun is an exhibition presented by the Artist Membership of the Center for Contemporary Arts. Based on the poem, The Pond, by Mary Oliver, the exhibition includes works that evoke Summer and memory and childhood - unique to each artist. Painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, video, mixed-media, and installation works are combined to create a dynamic exhibition that will transport the viewer into memory.

Four up-and-coming artists will exhibit art that portrays the feelings and experiences of young queer individuals. Artworks will not follow a central theme but instead aesthetically align.

Ruhala’s exhibition will be a site-specific installation comprised of thirteen (4’x7’) panels of drywall which will visually envelop the space of Gallery 4. The subject of the site-specific installation is primarily Eli and his former partner’s dog companions standing in for them. Documenting them is evidence of the artist’s family, and through the action of drawing and painting a meditation on love is taking place. This narrative, cued by Ruhala’s complex visuals and intertwined figures will provide insight into queer domesticity.

In celebration of Earth Day, two local artists are creating an exhibit featuring trash, plastic, and other recycled materials at the Center for Contemporary Arts. Refuse Reformation, a two-person exhibition opening at the Center in late March, are works created by Kari Perkins and Larla Morales. The art featured in the exhibition is made entirely from recycled materials and reclaimed plastics. Unitedly, the artists wanted to create an exhibition that sends a message: one about the overuse of plastics and underutilized resources.

“In the last few years, I have spent a lot of time at Lake Kirby photographing birds. My exhibit will feature Birds of Lake Kirby, highlighting the variety and beauty of winged wildlife that can be seen around the shoreline.

While showing bird photos to people in Abilene they often respond with something like, “That was at Kirby? I had no idea those birds were out there!” I want to use this exhibit to promote Lake Kirby Nature Park and raise awareness of the wildlife, especially birds, that can be see there “

Abilene Creative Art Club was formed in April 1933 and actively plays a vital role in the Abilene creative community, supporting artists and enhancing the fine arts in Abilene and surrounding communities. The club’s mission is to unite and foster the creative artists in the Abilene area, present stimulating programs at monthly meetings, and sponsor artistic events that further public interest in the creative arts.

Surreal Perspective is a solo exhibition by Anthony Brown that features works created by the artist’s use of combining images he captures while traveling around the country and making new landscape scenes with a vivid and lively palette. This exhibition features some of Brown’s most recent work as well as some of his past work.

50 images were selected by famed photographer, Keith Carter for Texas Photographic Society’s 35th Annual Members Only Show. First Place was awarded to Becky Wilkes, Second Place to Michael Mulvey, and Third Place to Laury Sahakangas.

This selection of work creates unique comparisons to the present through exploration of different visual themes and composition in each piece. They share a distinct textural quality inherited from the magazine printing process, as well as a uniform use of stark color choices throughout.