September 6 - October 27

Friday, September 6, 2024, 6-9 p.m. (CST) 5 Points Art Gallery + Studios demonstrates its broader art community reach, welcoming four out-of-town artists—Claudia Maysen (Keller, TX), Drék Davis (Monroe, LA), Frank D. Robinson (Memphis, TN), Rhonda Gray (Chicago, IL) and Rose Hill (Sonoma, CA)— in two concurrently opening and running exhibitions, Playthings and Assembled.

Playthings, Claudia Maysen’s solo exhibition at 5 Points Art Gallery + Studios, investigates the social, economic and political systems that enable gun violence in America. Maysen, a multidisciplinary artist whose work uniquely blends abstraction with representation, explores and creates dialogue around social issues within our communities from a vantage point of, both, a Latina who immigrated from Mexico as an adult and American citizen. Maysen draws from her rich experiences of navigating transgression disguised as freedom, oppression masked as values, and apathy behind inaction.

The body of work within Playthings encompasses installations, paintings, videos and sculptures, all of which reflect on the pressing and precarious issue of American gun violence. An oversized chessboard and a ceremonial-looking stacking game transform observers into chess pieces and then Jenga players, to unfurl the rules of a pastime that is not about winning but about who loses first. Gilded-framed still-life vases with flower-resembling bullets contemplate the transmission of toxic beliefs across generations. Neon-hued doll faces scream of the dehumanization endured by victims of this modern-day plague. The totality of the mixed, multi-media and interactive works prompt a question: Can we redefine the rules and create our own narratives in the face of adversity?

The process of stacking, layering, and putting pieces together transfers into the group exhibition, Assembled. Featuring four artists— Drék Davis, Frank D. Robinson, Rhonda Gray, and Rose Hill— Assembled plays on assembly, reassembly, assemblage, and the transcension of singular and multiple objects’ original form and purpose within the artists distinct artistic approaches. Davis’ repurposed matter wooden chairs, Robinson’s logo-laden assemblage portraits, Gray’s shell, beaded, and accoutrement- embellished sculptures, and Hill’s meticulously mended fractured clay tablet interplay to create a dynamic and diverse dialogue on construction and new narration.

The tactile inter and intra play between Playthings and Assembled are on view until Sunday, October 27, 2024. The collective in-person artist talk will occur at 7 p.m. (CST) opening night.