Karla Garcia is a Mexican-born, Dallas based artist whose research into her history and place informs her work. Utilizing primarily terra cotta clay in a very direct approach—resisting adornment or decoration and leaving evidence of the artist’s hand—Garcia creates elaborate installations interpreted from desert landscapes. These landscapes evoke far west Texas including the surrounds of El Paso and Juarez as well as the Chihuahuan Desert. For her Cell Series exhibition titled When the Grass Stands Still, the artist researched the regional environs of the museum’s region of Texas. Coordinating with the OJAC’s Robert E. Nail Jr. archivist, Garcia studied historical images and books relevant to the natural landscape as a resource for a new body of work for her installation. Garcia suggests that the sculptural forms “exist as part of the land, teaching and reminding us of our personal and cultural history and being part of the land.”

The Cell Series of exhibitions is generously supported by McGinnis Family Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas, Kathy Webster in memory of Charles H. Webster,

Lucy & Fowler Carter, Margaret & Jim Dudley, Jenny & Rob Dupree, and Dr. Larry Wolz.