Outdoor sculptures coming to Texarkana
Colorful steel sculptures concocted by welding found objects together are coming to Texarkana for a six-month outdoor exhibit.
Through a partnership between the city of Texarkana, Texas, and the
Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, about a dozen George Tobolowsky sculptures will be situated at various points around town. The Texas-based Tobolowsky had an exhibit at the Regional Arts Center and various outdoor spots here nearly five years ago.
“It will be a public art exhibit that will be here starting in June through December,” explained David Orr, director of planning and community development for Texarkana, Texas.
While most of these sculptures, which merge scrap metal and industrial objects to create something entirely new, will be here temporarily, one piece will remain to be placed in a yet-to-be-determined location.
A $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant paired with a $15,000 Communities Foundation of Texas grant and what amounts to a donation or discount from Tobolowsky himself will enable one sculpture to remain in Texarkana, the director explained.
“So in total, we’re looking at about a $40,000 piece of art,” Orr said. That NEA grant is tied to funds made available through the city’s work on an arts block between the Perot Theatre and the RAC. It’s for a public artwork.
Because of this permanent art piece to be put here, TRAHC decided to organize another exhibit of his work, explained Brian Goesl, executive director at TRAHC. The public will see this work all over town at such spots as Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Texarkana College, University of
Arkansas Hope-Texarkana, the RAC and elsewhere downtown.
“Everybody should get a good dose at some point,” Goesl said about seeing these sculptures around town.
Orr said the sculptures for Texarkana will partly come from works now displayed in an exhibit at Centenary College in Shreveport, La., and from the artist’s Mountain Springs Sculpture Studio in Texas. And he said the neat thing is that the sculptor is allowing Texarkana to exhibit some pieces ahead of their showing elsewhere.
“That was really nice of him to do that,” Orr said.
Goesl points out that the last time Tobolowsky art was in town, it was for three months. This time it’s twice as long.
“They’re going to be installed here for a while,” he said.
Tobolowsky, who lives in Dallas, will be part of the Venice Biennale for Architecture and Sculpture this year in Italy. He participated in the Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art 2017. Among his honors, he received a Hometown Hero award from Fox 4 News in Dallas and a 2012 Award for Excellence in Creative Arts from the Dallas Historical Society.
He’s had solo shows all over Texas and in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, New York City, Switzerland and elsewhere. His exhibit here in 2013 was titled “Bending the Rules—The Art of George Tobolowsky.”
Find out more about the sculptor at GeorgeTobolowsky.com.