David Conn: Paintings and Prints, 2000 - 2016

September 8 - October 26, 2017

The Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall at BRIT is pleased to play host to local artist, master printmaker and founder of Shaw Street Studio, David Conn. This group of paintings and prints is a retrospective exhibition that starts with Blackstonian from the forest near the Mosel River in Germany and ends with winter scenes from his boyhood in Sussex, New Jersey. Following a realist tradition, Conn carves an image into a linoleum block using one tool. Then, by enlarging the image to a painting scale the lines between representation and abstraction are interwoven, creating a sense of being in and of the forest.  

BRIT will be open from 4pm – 9pm on Gallery Night, Saturday September 9, with a public reception from 6pm – 8pm and a gallery talk by the artist at 6:15pm. For more information about the artist, please visit http://shawstreetstudio.com/.

BRIT Members are invited to join us for Champagne and Conversation with the Artist on September 9 from 5–6 p.m. in the Oak Board Room. Seating is limited - RSVP is Required, please email membership@BRIT.org.  Not a Member? Not a Problem. Join Today.

Native to this Place: Earth and Sky
Featuring the Clouds and Grasses of Texas by Rebecca Zook

January 6 - February 17, 2017

Peace. Beauty. Light.

Three aspects that Texas artist Rebecca Zook consciously incorporates into her acrylic paintings. Though she portrays a variety of subjects, natural landscapes are a personal favorite. As a native Texan, she grew up with an appreciation of the unique beauty that Texas offers. Viewers often comment that they feel as if they could step into her paintings; as if the frame were a window to another world.

The Texas sky also holds great fascination for Rebecca. She has photographed clouds for close to 10 years, amassing a huge collection of source material, with the intent of creating a series of paintings based on them. She finally began that project in late 2015.

“If you stop and watch the sky for any length of time, you realize how quickly it transforms itself. Clouds spring to life, change shape and dissipate right before your eyes. Sunrises and sunsets are the most dramatic. Almost second by second the colors grow and fade. My paintings capture one brief moment of that perpetually changing beauty.”

Images of Nature by Denis Benjamin

October 25 - December 19, 2016

Join BRIT for the final show of the 2016 season, Images of Nature by Dr. Denis Benjamin, Resident Research Associate at BRIT.  Dr. Benjamin, who joined BRIT two years ago to curate the fungal collection, is presenting over thirty watercolor paintings of flowers, fungi and other subjects from the natural world.

Benjamin, born in South Africa, emigrated to the USA in 1970. He practiced pediatric pathology at the children’s hospital in Seattle and later at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth. He became a hiker and mushroom enthusiast, spending much of his leisure time on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. Now retired from medical practice he devotes his energy to natural history and documenting the wildflowers and mushrooms with photography and watercolors. The latter was inspired by a workshop with the noted Russian botanical artist (Alexander - Sasha - Viazmensky). He is author of Mushrooms: Poisons and Panaceas (1995, WH Freeman and Co. NY, NY) and Musings of a Mushroom Hunter: A Natural History of Foraging(2010 Tembe Press, Cle Elum, WA). He now lives in Fort Worth and he is a member of the High Country Artists in Cle Elum, WA and the Society of Watercolor Artists in Fort Worth.

The Nature of Things - Daphne Prairie by Deborah Paris

September 10 - October 21, 2016

BRIT is pleased to welcome back well-known Texas artist Deborah Paris to the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall. Paris’ exciting new exhibit of paintings and drawings, The Nature of Things: Daphne Prairie, will give the Fort Worth public a rare opportunity to see depictions of the untouched and historic Daphne Prairie located in east Texas. The exhibition will hang September 10–October 21 at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. An opening reception with light hors d’oeuvres and libations will be held on Fall Gallery Night, Saturday, September 10, from 4-8 p.m. A gallery talk by the artist will take place September 10 at 6 p.m. RSVPs are not necessary. 

For more information about this project please click here.

For more information about Daphne Prairie please click here.

The Hidden Gardens: BRIT Collections on Display

June 3 - July 20, 2016

BRIT is pleased to present paintings and works on paper by Carol Ivey and Deborah Mersky in the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall. For more than 20 years, these two friends have hiked and rambled together, in the Pacific Northwest and now in North and Central Texas. Despite their diverse approaches to creating art, they each have a vital interest in nature as artifact standing in for human feeling. The exhibition’s title, Call and Response, refers to emotional impulse driven by direct contact with the natural world.

In addition to the artists’ individual work, Mersky and Ivey present an experiment in collaborative work, drawing from a wide array of images, including specimens from BRIT’s Herbarium. These circular works embody the idea of Call and Response. Each of these pieces was sent back and forth between the artists with additions and deletions made in each studio using collage, printing, drawing, and painting.

Native to this Place 2016: The Plants and Prairies of North Central Texas; BRIT Collections on display.

January 18 - March 10, 2016

Join BRIT as we highlight some of the over 2,200 species of plants that call North Central Texas home. In this exhibition, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas presents just a fraction of that biodiversity with a selection of our herbarium specimens and library materials. Exhibit specimens were selected in part from the Master Plant List for Texas Range and Pasture Plants, which will be used for the 4H and FFA plant identification competition held during the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo in January.

Most of the species you will see here are truly native to this place and to the prairies that once grew all around us. 

Communicating with Plants

November 7, 2015 - January 7, 2016

Best of Texas Clay 

September 12 - October 22, 2015

BRIT is pleased to welcome Best of Texas Clay to the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall for FWADA’s 2015 Fall Gallery Night. Best of Texas Clay, produced by The Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild, is the 3rd bi-annual exhibition featuring extraordinary clay works from across Texas! This year, in honor of BRIT, the exhibit will feature a botanic theme represented by sculptural and functional ceramic creations. Best of Texas Clay is juried by Daphne Roehr Hatcher. Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild is an organization of three dimensional clay artists, from novice to professional, who offer the communities in which we live and work their talents, skills, and art.

Also joining us on September 12 will be The Fort Worth Art Collective who will bring their pop-up art gallery concept to BRIT for this Fall Gallery Night. FWAC combines raw space and raw talent, showcasing a list of invited local artists in a unique, temporary opportunity to enjoy a variety of innovative work.

Dreaming Forward Riverside: A Legacy of Change

May 29 - July 9, 2015

The quiet, oak-shaded neighborhood of Riverside, located northeast of downtown, has long been a low-profile corner of Fort Worth. That’s changing with the efforts of Dreaming Forward Riverside, a project that harnesses the energy of Carter-Riverside High School students to revitalize their community.

Dreaming Forward Riverside, directed by local nonprofit Fellowship of the Arts, is partnering with universities, corporations, the City of Fort Worth, and BRIT (the Botanical Research Institute of Texas) to design walking corridors, pocket parks, and community gardens around Riverside as part of a unified effort to improve the neighborhood.

The Fort Worth community is invited to see Dreaming Forward Riverside’s vision at an exhibit in the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall at BRIT. The exhibit will feature Carter Riverside graduate Jocelyne Armendariz's work “Blowing on a Dandelion Seeds of Hope,” which was selected as the logo for the organization. This unique exhibit will also include pieces from poster and sculpture competitions that gave students the opportunity to tell their Dreaming Forward Riverside story, historic photographs of the neighborhood, and design boards detailing plans for future projects in the Riverside neighborhood.

Luther Smith - Where I Live:  North Texas Landscape

March 28 - May 7, 2015

BRIT is excited to welcome well known Fort Worth photographer Luther Smith to the Madeline R. Samples exhibit hall this spring. In this new exhibit, Where I Live:  North Texas Landscape, Smith, who has been photographing the north Texas landscape since he moved here with his wife and dog in 1983, explores the creeks and wild spaces adjoining neighborhoods and highways—landscape that has been formed by natural flooding, the human need to control the environment and neglect. This exhibit also documents the paths and play areas created by children in these natural areas and examines the colors and textures inherent both in the landscape and in the process of making photographs.

To see more of Smith's work, please visit: http://www.luthersmith.net/

Deborah Paris - Lennox Woods - The Ancient Forest

March 29 - May 8, 2014

Lennox Woods - The Ancient Forest is a multi-year project by artist Deborah Paris to explore and record the pristine beauty and magnificence of Lennox Woods Preserve in northeast Texas, one of the most pristine old growth forests in the state. Underwritten and sponsored by Galerie Kornye West of Ft. Worth, TX, the project will encompass forty works of art to be exhibited in multiple venues in 2014 and beyond. A film documenting the project has been commissioned and will be shown at the exhibitions, and a blog will chronicle the course of the project, recording what happens in the Woods, in the studio, and elsewhere in connection with this unique, multi-disciplinary project.

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas is thrilled to be a part of Lennox Woods and welcomes the public to join them in exploring this stunning exhibit. Lennox Woods and BRIT will be participating in the Spring Fort Worth Art Dealers Association Gallery Night on March 29, 2014.

Fort Worth Independent School District Invitational Art Teacher and Student Art Show 2014

May 20 - July 21 2014

Billy Hassell - Ephemera:  Winged Creatures of Texas

August 29 - November 13, 2014

Ephemera: Winged Creatures of Texas, a new show by well-known artist and environmentalist Billy Hassell, will grace the walls of the Madeline R. Samples Exhibit Hall August 29 - November 13. The expressive paintings, watercolors, and other works on paper featured in this exhibit employ a colorful graphic style and explore the interrelationships of native plants and the birds and insects they support. Make a point to come out and spend some time with Billy's colorful, stylized work that is "informed and inspired by observations of nature".  

To see more of Billy's work, please visit the Campbell Gallery in Fort Worth or www.billyhassell.com.