Howard Payne University is hosting “Above and Below I-10: Cross Country 2015,” a national art exhibition that will run through March 27.  The I-10 show is on display at the Dorothy and Wendell Mayes Art Gallery in the Doakie Day Art Center on campus.

Christopher Shade, juror for the exhibition, selected 52 two-dimensional works by 31 artists from around the country to participate in the show.  He collaborated with Professor David Harmon, chair of the HPU Department of Art, to install the exhibition at HPU.

Shade, a native of Austin, currently resides in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, where he teaches drawing, painting and color theory at Montclair State University in New Jersey.  He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the Yale University School of Art and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from The University of Texas at Austin.  Shade has had solo exhibitions in galleries in Austin and Dallas and group exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Germany, Mexico, South Korea and New Zealand.  He has taught plein air painting in Paris, France, and has curated numerous group shows.

The exhibition was open to all living U.S. contemporary artists residing above and below Interstate 10, the southernmost transcontinental highway starting in Los Angeles, California, and traveling through several states, including Texas, and ending in Jacksonville, Florida. The main purpose of the show was to represent the American theme of connectivity of land, road, transportation and travel.

The pieces from the gallery were sent by artists from California, Texas, Virginia, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Georgia and Tennessee with a variety of media represented.  The exhibition was limited to two-dimensional works, resulting in watercolor, acrylic, drawing, collage, photography and mixed-media pieces.

Alec Dartley, an artist from New Jersey, took the first place award with an ink drawing titled “Exploding Tree.”  Michael Lee, a New York artist, placed second with a mixed-media piece titled “In Between,” while Alyssa Fanning, an artist from New Jersey, received third place with an oil painting titled “Shift.”

“The work is extremely varied from abstraction to realism and everything in between,” said Harmon.

Visitors can view the exhibition through March 27, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  The gallery is closed during HPU’s Spring Break, March 9-13.

Photo cutline: Chandler Condra, a senior from Fredericksburg, views the pieces at HPU’s “Above and Below I-10: Cross Country 2015” national art exhibition. Photo by Emily Peisker.