Seven weeks, July 12 to August 30
Texas Sculpts IV
Bold forms. 13 Texas artists. One unique exhibition.
Texas Sculpts IV is a unique, juried exhibition that brings together 13 sculptors from across Texas—ranging from emerging talent to seasoned, award-winning artists. This bold collection highlights the diversity of materials, methods, and creative visions shaping contemporary sculpture today. The result is a rare opportunity to experience a wide spectrum of artistic voice, process, and potential—all in one curated exhibition.
You’re invited to the opening reception on Saturday, July 12, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Come as you are—bring a friend or the whole family—and enjoy an afternoon surrounded by bold, inspiring sculpture. Many of the artists will be present, happy to discuss their work, share their process, or simply connect.
This free event is open to the public, and refreshments will be served.
Pull up a chair for our Lunch and Learn artist talk
Wednesdays, July 23 & August 13
12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Join us for a casual midday conversation where you'll hear directly from the artists about their work and what inspires them to create.
Each session offers a relaxed, behind-the-scenes look at the creative process. You're welcome to bring your lunch—or not. Whether you come with a sandwich or just your curiosity, everyone is invited to spend the lunch hour surrounded by art and conversation.
This event is free and open to the public. A $10 donation to the ArtCentre, in support of Texas Sculpts IV, is always appreciated.
A juried exhibition of emerging and established Texas sculptors
Now in its 4th year, Texas Sculpts IV brings together artists gaining momentum and those whose work has shaped the sculptural landscape in Texas for decades. This dynamic mix of fresh perspectives and seasoned vision—carefully selected by a panel of collectors and arts professionals—defines the power and depth of this exhibition.
The result is a rare opportunity to explore a wide spectrum of artistic voice, process, and potential in one cohesive, curated experience.
A preview of the over 30 works in Texas Sculpts IV. From above: Robbie Ellis, Heavy Lifting, 2017, wood, steel, paint, found objects, 77 × 27 × 51 inches; Larry Whiteley, Big Bad Brass Nest, 2025, brass, 8 × 20 × 6 inches; Fari Rahimi, Back to the Start, 2024, powder-coated steel, acrylic glass, 3D printing, 45 × 45 × 11 inches.
Sponsorship helps bring Texas Sculpts IV to life
Texas Sculpts IV is made possible through the generous support of sponsors who believe in the power of art to inspire, challenge, and connect communities. If you or your business would like to support this one-of-a-kind exhibition—and be recognized as a champion of the arts in Texas, please click the button.
Meet the sculptors shaping this year's exhbition
These 13 sculptors represent some of the most compelling voices in Texas sculpture today. Individually, their work speaks to mastery of material, clarity of vision, and a deep commitment to craft. Together, they form a powerful survey of contemporary sculpture across the state—inviting collectors, curators, and art appreciators alike to experience what’s possible when concept and craftsmanship align.
Scroll below to read their bios.
Cody Arnall
Lubbock, Texas
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Cody Arnall is an Associate Professor of Sculpture at Texas Tech University. Arnall’s research interests include traditional and nontraditional sculpture approaches, installation, and interdisciplinary approaches in visual art. Through material selection and manipulation, his work addresses human intervention in environments and impending doom.
Recent exhibitions are a solo at Box13 Artspace and inclusion in the 8th annual Sculpture Month Houston exhibition, Solid State, both in Houston. Cody has also shown at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN; Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, PA; Contemporary Art Museum Plainview, Plainview, TX; Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO; Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA; K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX; CICA Museum, Gimpo, SKR; Site:Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY; Barrister’s Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Durango Arts Center, Durango, CO; Pump Project, Austin, TX; Terminal 136, San Antonio, TX; Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN; Brigham Young University, Provo, UT; DEMO Project, Springfield, IL; Living Arts, Tulsa, OK; the American University Museum, Washington, DC; and The Shed, Galway, IE. He has also participated in residencies at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY and at Vermont Studio Center in Johnson VT.
Arnall was born and raised in Tulsa, OK. He received a BFA in Studio Art from Oklahoma State University, and an MFA in Studio Art from Louisiana State University. Prior to his appointment at TTU, Arnall spent two years as a Full-Time Instructor at the Paducah School of Art & Design in Paducah, KY. He is also a member of the international artists' collective, Expanded Draught and a founding member of the artist run gallery and studio space, CO-OPt in Lubbock, TX.
Melissa Auberty
Glen Rose, Texas
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Melissa Auberty is a classically trained painter and sculptor who studied art at Southern Methodist University while working as a graphic designer, earning her BFA in 1979 with an emphasis in painting and a minor in art history. At SMU, she was shaped by the rigorous, traditional curriculum of the 1970s—life drawing, stone lithography, color theory, and critiques—with mentorship from celebrated professors like DeForrest Judd, Jerry Bywaters, and Dr. Alessandra Comini.
Her creative career began at American Airlines as a graphic designer and photographer, producing publications and taking full advantage of the job’s most irresistible benefit: global travel. Eventually, she left to explore the world independently, spending time in the South Pacific, West Indies, Europe, and New York, where she studied at NYU and managed an art gallery. There, she curated street video art, collaborated with local creators, and immersed herself in the energy of the New York art scene.
In 1987, Auberty relocated to Los Angeles and opened Atmosphere, a gallery on La Cienega Boulevard featuring contemporary art alongside Bauhaus and European decorative design. Her expertise led to press coverage and loans to the Museum of Modern Art. A highlight came in 1988, attending the auction of Andy Warhol’s estate and later publishing a piece titled “Selling Andy” in Art In L.A. Magazine.
Returning to Texas in 1992 marked a turning point. Inspired by the rural landscape and her own roots, Auberty returned to painting with renewed vigor. A breakout 2000 group show, Three Women, One Show, introduced her expressive blue horses—dynamic, large-scale, gestural works that became a signature. Representation and solo exhibitions followed, including One Hundred Horses, Shelter, and Ritual, alongside group exhibitions and sculpture commissions.
Her work has continued to evolve: abstract oils, figurative studies, bronze sculptures, and expansive canvases influenced by the wildlife and natural beauty surrounding her studios in downtown Dallas and on a family ranch near Glen Rose. Recurring themes include horses, deer, antlers, bones, and the big Texas sky—often rendered in her enduring muse: the color blue.
Melissa Auberty’s work is held in numerous private and corporate collections. She exhibits and sells through galleries in Dallas, Fort Worth, Midland, Glen Rose, and directly through her studio, Blue Horse, and website, bluehorsestudio.com.
Ellis Barber
Waco, Texas
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Ellis Barber is a second-year graduate student with a concentration in sculpture at The University of Mississippi. Working primarily with fabricated steel, his sculptures delve into stress anxiety. His work not only represents these ideas and their effects, but they also serve as protectors that shield and comfort him.
Robbie Barber
Waco, Texas
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Robbie Barber is currently Professor of Art at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and has taught Sculpture there since 2000. Born in Williamston, North Carolina in 1964, he was raised on a farm near the Roanoke River in Martin County. He received his BFA degree from East Carolina University in 1987 and his MFA degree from the University of Arizona in 1991. He has gained notoriety as a sculptor working in a variety of media, and is the recipient of numerous awards. These include a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship and a Southern Arts Federation/NEA Fellowship in Sculpture. He has exhibited at Redbud Gallery in Houston, Texas, Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, New York, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Art in Auburn, Alabama, Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo, Japan, to name a few.
Melissa Drumm
Dallas, Texas
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Experimenting with different materials and techniques and their combinations has been a longstanding fascination. It is in the process of working through an idea and relying on disparate ideas along the way that bring together a painting or sculpture. One of the most active parts is in the development of the idea, whether drawing by hand or a CAD program. Integrating parts helps strip away and tone down any extraneous components.
Using my own inventive wax and blowtorch process to draw on large roofing sheets of copper led to teaching myself to weld from YouTube. The chosen YouTubers were carefully vetted over time with a few mishaps. It is the mishaps that are usually the most informative. Although classically educated as a Painter and Printmaker, it is fun to learn from many different possibilities online. Working in copper, aluminum, iron, lost wax cast bronze and hot rolled steel has produced welded, laser cut, poured and cast pieces. One large work, Deconstructing Gutenberg, is permanently installed outdoors of the Phillip Johnson Cathedral of Hope Interfaith Peace Chapel in Dallas, Texas.
More recently, my work has involved the use of concrete shaped over chicken wire macquettes for large outdoor sculpture. Concrete is a newfound exploration, and its qualities continue to surprise. Molding, shaping, drying, and engraving concrete makes for a fast paced and exciting process which best suits my nature. Images to follow as the learning curve reaches a higher apex in shape and form. The adventure of learning new techniques and materials has always brought the most joy to my practice. Also, installing sculpture with earthly elements intertwines manmade work with the natural world and the new concrete works will continue to be completed as part of a soft and hardscape.
Howard Greisdorf
Plano, Texas
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I have always believed, contrary to popular opinion, that “art is in the eye of its creator.” Whether others consider the work to be artistic has mostly been a commercial enterprise depending on the “quantity of others”. With that said, my work over the past 80 plus years has included pen and pencil drawings, paper-mâché, ceramics, jewelry, essays, paintings, acrylic skins, miscellaneous constructions, and published works. The mission has always been to please my own interests at a particular point in time.
This current series of painted wood constructions stems from my personal outlook on the future of mankind and its basic preference for living and working in rectangular spaces. Historically, that premise has proven to be accurate considering the efficiency and functionality of rectangular spaces, the psychological comfort provided through stability and predictability, construction practicality, ease of navigation that offers clear boundaries, and the influence of architectural factors that dictate a sense of normalcy through the use of squares and rectangles.
I have taken that historical premise and projected it into a future where earthly habitation may no longer be sustainable as we know it. With the advent of increasing threats from pollution, climate change, uncontrollable pandemics, and nuclear holocaust, continued existence for homo sapiens, as we know the species today, may need to rethink its earth-based living habits and/or find it necessary to settle elsewhere in the universe. Scholars, already attuned to the existing and potential threats, are starting to suggest the need for an exodus from the planet by the year 3000.
This collection represents an architectural vision of that habitable future. Each maquette consists of a stationary sustainability port (black) purposed for supplying clean air, clean water, power generation, and waste recycling to an assembly of attached cubes (red). Each cube, designed for public space, living space, offices, shops, classrooms, laboratories, medical or manufacturing space, will be transportable and designed to attach or detach from another cube and/or a sustainability port.
Whether stationary or in orbit, each structure will be self-sustaining and reconfigurable as needed to support the inhabitants. The title of each maquette speaks for itself, whimsical as that may be.
Aron Kapembeza
Dallas, Texas, and Zimbabwe
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Aron Kapembeza is one of Zimbabwe’s most accomplished and widely represented stone sculptors. Introduced to the artform by his aunt, renowned sculptor Colleen Madamombe, Aron began carving off-cuts as a child. Under her guidance, he learned the fundamentals of sculpting and developed the confidence to carve larger stones, eventually establishing his own distinctive style.
Focused on human figures—especially women of all ages—Aron draws inspiration from his upbringing surrounded by strong female influences. Without formal training, he relies on instinct and the natural characteristics of each stone. “Just let the stone speak to you, and finish the rest,” he says. His work is defined by expressive detail and graceful, flowing lines.
Aron has exhibited extensively across Zimbabwe, Europe, Asia, North America, and Canada. His international career includes over 50 exhibitions and several solo shows in the Netherlands, where he also taught sculpting—becoming the first Zimbabwean sculptor to do so in Europe. In 2007, he worked for three months at Gallery De Buffel in the Netherlands.
His sculptures are held in private, public, and corporate collections around the world. He has permanent installations at the Muttart Conservatory and various botanical gardens in Canada and Korea, and his work is regularly featured in U.S. botanical garden exhibitions. Aron also mentors emerging artists and conducts workshops wherever he travels, sharing his passion for sculpture with students, patrons, and collectors alike.
Stephen Lee
Dallas, Texas
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Stephen Lee is a Korean-American sculptor based in Dallas Texas. He studied sculpture at Occidental College in Los Angeles and industrial design at California State University, Long Beach. After a career of 20+ years designing a wide range of consumer products and retail merchandising at companies such as KitchenAid, JCPenney, and Samsung, Lee returned to making sculptures in 2021 and has been gaining recognition professionally. His small scale sculptures are showing at prominent art fairs nationwide and has been awarded public art commissions in Texas and Oklahoma.
Carmen Menza
Dallas, Texas
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Carmen Menza is an interdisciplinary artist creating fine art and technology-based installations utilizing light, language, interactive software, and music composition. Her work explores themes of time, perception, current political and social climates, and human connection. Her installations have been created for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Dallas Aurora Light & Sound Festival, Meow Wolf, UTSW Clements University Hospital, Baylor University Medical Center, RO2 Art, Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art, Octavia Art Gallery, and more. Her films have screened at the Dallas International Film Festival, Dallas Video Festival, and KERA. She is a TACA New Works Fund Grant recipient, a Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs- Arts Activate Grant recipient, and a Cedars Union Artist Residency recipient. She is a founding member of Texas Vignette, a non-profit organization that amplifies the work of women artists throughout Texas, and received her BFA in jazz guitar performance from the University of North Texas.
“We believe in the power of sculpture to move people—and in the importance of lifting up Texas artists whose work deserves to be seen and celebrated.”
Amy Darrow,
Exhibition Chair, Texas Sculpts IV
Fari Rahimi
Denton, Texas
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I am a contemporary sculptor using a range of media and technology. I’ve worked largely with glass and steel, but also have included processes like 3D printing and unexpected materials like hospital supplies in my pieces. The elemental significance of material drives my work. For instance, steel and glass represent the conflicting themes of oppression and empowerment from my feminist perspective. The contrast of these materials elicit opposing feelings of power and fragility from the viewer.
In addition to materiality, community is also important to my work. I was in the first cohort of artists at the Cedars Union, a nonprofit arts incubator in Dallas. While I was there I met artists, curators, collectors and supporters, which led to collaborations and connections that are still going strong. In 2022-23, I co-founded a group called Woman Life Freedom, a collective of artists focused on showing solidarity with women of Iran. We had an exhibition at the Irving Arts Center, the Fort Worth Arts Center and Tin District Arts Gallery in 2023. Over 35 artists participated and the events were covered by media such as the Dallas Morning News, Glasstire, and NBC. Later in 2023, members of Woman Life Freedom gathered together to paint a mural on the side of Full City Rooster at 1810 S Akard St, Dallas. Being an Iranian woman is a challenging experience, and banding together has eased the feelings of loss and longing we share.
Larry Solomon
Plano, Texas
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After high school, I had the opportunity to study fine art in Paris, France.
On my return to South Africa, I studied at the Johannesburg School of Art and began my career in graphic design and silk screening. Rising through the ranks of management, fine art took second place to other forms of creativity in the leadership of teams within the corporate world.
In 2013, I stepped down from an executive position in Corporate America to invest time in pursuing my God-given talents to paint and sculpt. As a pragmatist, I love to create art to serve a purpose and meet clients’ needs.
I enjoy making clients’ artistic ideas come to life, so please commission me to work with you.
With my passion to serve others less fortunate, I am donating 50% of all art sales to a not-for-profit organization, My Possibilities, serving individuals with special needs.
Please check out this very special organization: mypossibilities.org.
Kat Warwick
Dallas, Texas
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Kat is a local sculptor, raised in Garland, and currently residing in Dallas. Kat Warwick
holds a BFA from the University of North Texas and has continued to educate herself in
the fine art of sculpture through a variety of other avenues. In addition to her studio
practice creating works for exhibitions, collectors, public art programs, Kat is an event
sculptor who loves to showcase her art form for folks in unexpected places. She also
teaches stone carving at The Creative Arts Center of Dallas. In 2023 Kat joined the
Board of Directors of the Creative Arts Center of Dallas as a teacher liaison to the
board and also became manager/curator for their gallery program.
Kat has works of art on loan and in permanent collections across the metroplex. She
routinely exhibits work and has a successful record of winning awards for her
sculpture. Kat hopes you enjoy her work and that it leads you to create stories and
contemplate wonderful possibilities.
Larry Whiteley
Dallas, Texas
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Larry Whiteley is a Dallas-based sculptor who transforms brass and steel into organic, lyrical works of art. Inspired by the textures and quiet intricacies of nature, his pieces blur the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, and design. Known for turning raw metal into delicate forms—branches, birds, trees, and nests—Whiteley brings a poetic sensibility to both ornamental and functional work.
His talent has attracted the attention of top designers, architects, and creatives across the country. In 2021, he created an 18-foot inverted Tree Chandelier for the Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Dallas—a dramatic entry piece that sparked further commissions in Texas, Colorado, and Florida. He has continued as a celebrated contributor to Kips Bay Dallas, with multiple bespoke installations.
In 2023, he partnered with Daniel Hourchard to craft a custom brass and steel floral chandelier for a private garden, and collaborated with Tanner Morgan of Morgan Madison Design on a suite of patinated brass elements for their Kips Bay space.
Whiteley’s long-standing creative relationship with design entrepreneur Brian Bolke began in the early 2000s, with his work featured in the Forty Five Ten collection. Their collaboration culminated in Whiteley’s sculptural contributions to The Conservatory at Hudson Yards in New York, and later locations in Dallas and Houston. In 2016, he was commissioned to fabricate ten sculptural Juliet railings for the Forty Five Ten flagship in downtown Dallas.
Additional commissions include the Ritz-Carlton Dallas Spa, Crescent Court Spa, Four Seasons Las Colinas, Reunion Tower, ExxonMobil Campus, Devon Energy HQ, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center. His work is held in private and public collections across the U.S.
In 2017, Whiteley was named Artist/Craftsman of the Year by AIA Dallas, recognizing his rare ability to fuse craftsmanship, beauty, and architectural presence. Whether crafting an 18-foot chandelier or a single brass nest, Whiteley brings collaboration, intention, and wonder to every project.
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Above: Kelly Steller Hrad, Tree of Life, 3-dimensional oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches; Kavita Patil-Doddamane, Divinity, acrylic on canvas - texture and drip technique, 24 x 36 inches; Marie Renfro, Sping-a-Bloom, collage, 15 x 15 inches, framed.
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