Exhibitions & Collections

Current Exhibitions

Earlie Hudnall, Jr.: Homeward

December 16, 2023 – March 30, 2024

Earlie Hudnall, Jr. is a Houston-based photographer whose subject matter focuses on documenting the everyday life of African American communities in the South. Born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Hudnall began photographing while serving as a Marine in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. In 1968, he relocated to Houston to attend Texas Southern University (TSU) and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Education. While attending TSU, he found the encouragement to continue photographing from well-known TSU faculty members, including art professor John Biggers and professor of philosophy Dr. Thomas Freeman. After graduating, Earlie made Houston his permanent home and worked as a staff photographer at TSU from the 1970s until 1990. In 1990, he was hired as the university photographer, a position he held until his retirement in 2019. 

Earlie’s accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts from Art League Houston in 2022 with an accompanying exhibition and catalog titled Drawn to Communities. A selection of previous solo and group exhibitions includes the Holocaust Museum, Houston, Texas; Houston City Hall; Houston First Corporation; Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan; African American Art Museum, Dallas, Texas; Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois; and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York. He is represented by Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery (PDNB Gallery) in Dallas, Texas. 

The cinematographer, James Laxton, an Academy Award winner for Best Picture in 2017, Moonlight, mentioned Earlie as visual inspiration on how the film should depict African-Americans both aesthetically and symbolically. A Time Magazine article written by Paul Maokley in August 2020 spotlighted Earlie’s 40+ year career as a documentary photographer. 

Homeward features 40 silver gelatin prints with a focus on photographs taken in Houston’s wards. Some of Earlie’s most well-known images, such as Flipping Boy, are joined by images on display for the first time in Earlie’s career. A free gallery guide with an essay by renowned Dallas-based art historian and curator Phillip Collins is available for visitors. 

This exhibition is generously funded, in part, by Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund, the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation, the City of Beaumont, Jefferson County and the members of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. Additional funding provided by HHH Investments, Kellie & Dr. John Fowler, and Kim & Roy Steinhagen.

To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Ceramista del Preciosismo:

Angélica Delfina Vásquez Cruz 

from the John Gaston Fairey Collection of Mexican Folk Art

September 30, 2023 – March 30, 2024

Angélica Delfina Vásquez Cruz, also known as the Ceramista del Preciosismo, is a potter from Santa Maria Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico. Her parents, Delfina Cruz Díaz and Ernesto Vásquez Reyes, taught her how to create toys, jars, pots and pans. She also studied with Mexican artist Teodora Blanco. In 1978, Cruz began creating her own work based on Oaxacan mythology, culture and folklore. Early in her career her fatherin- law Antonio Garcia Reyes (father of Irma Blanco and wife of Angelina Reyes) took credit for her work and sold it as his own. She is now an advocate for the rights of women, and many of her works celebrate women. 

Cruz has taught her daughter and granddaughter how to create ceramics, continuing the familial genealogy of artists. Cruz does not paint her work, but instead developed a process using “agobes,” her term for natural colored substances, such as stone or volcanic ash, which she uses to add different hues to her pieces. 

Vásquez has exhibited at the Mexican Fiesta at Millville, New Jersey in 2004, the Popular Art Museum of Oaxaca in San Bartolo Coyotepec in 2003, the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. in 1999, the Eyes Gallery of the Mexican Fine Arts Center in Philadelphia in 1998, the Chicago Museum’s Celebrating Life exhibition in 1993, the annual Day of the Dead exhibitions in Oaxaca de Juárez, the International Ceramics Festival in Aberystwyth Arts Center, Wales and at the Museum of the Cats in California in 2008. She was awarded her SNCA (National System of Art Creators) designation of “Creator Emeritus” on March 2009. She also received the National Arts and Sciences Award in the “Arts and Traditions” category in 2008.

This exhibition is generously funded, in part, by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund, the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation, the City of Beaumont, and the members of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. Additional funding provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Contact

Art Museum of Southeast Texas
500 Main Street
Beaumont, TX 77701

(409) 832-3432

Hours

M–F: 9am – 5pm
Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: Noon – 5pm
Closed major holidays

Admission is always FREE.
Donations accepted.