clayton hurt
ABOUT THE ARTIST
|
Clayton Hurt is a Dallas based artist who has worked as an Adjunct Professor at Collin College, Tarrant County College, Hill College and also at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth with the on-call installation crew. He served as President of 500x Gallery in Dallas where he was a due paying member for five years. There he exhibited, collaborated, and assisted many great artists that make up this DFW art community. In 2010 Clayton received the Kimbrough Award from the Dallas Museum of Art. He received his MFA at Texas Christian University in 2007 and his BFA at The University of North Texas in 2005. Clayton also studied art at Brookhaven Community College from 1999 to 2002, where he received a League of Innovations Purchase Award for Blues Man in 2001. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in 1999 and also attended W.E. Griener Arts Exploratory Academy Middle School. Clayton has worked in the past as an assistant to artists such as Frances Bagley, Cameron Schoepp, Linda Ridgway and Harry Geffert, to name a few. Son of artist Cindy Hurt and Richard Hurt, Clayton got to grow up on construction sites and being surrounded by art and local DFW artists/family.
|
ARTIST STATEMENT
|
Clayton Hurt’s art spans many media, and though it appears eclectic, there are strong motifs running throughout. The dog sculptures have a gritty nature, as they come from used leather work gloves. The leather that forms them links to the glove “paintings,” which have become higher-end objects, made from colored manufactured leather used for fashion and furniture design. The tension between the abstract compositions and the connotations of the real-world material and daily actions of the animal forms ultimately comes back to the notions of struggle and humor present in Hurt’s work.
|
