SMU Art Division Partners with Regent Properties
Alumni and students to be featured in exhibition at Legacy Central in Plano
Artist Juan Negroni prepares one of his works for transport to the Regent Properties Professional Practice exhibition. Photo by Christian Vasquez.
The Division of Art in SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts announces an exciting new partnership between Regent Properties and SMU’s Pollock Gallery.
Regent Properties has opened its doors for SMU alumni and current students to exhibit their work and create site-specific pieces for Regent’s Legacy Central mixed-use development in Plano, Texas. TheRegent Properties Professional Practice exhibition will take place from December 6, 2018 to February 15, 2020 at the Regent Properties Legacy Central project, 6600 Chase Oaks Blvd., Plano, Texas 75023. A public reception for the first phase of the exhibition will be held on Thursday, December 6, from 4 to 6 p.m., with an interactive performance presented by participating artists Xxavier Carter and Travis Iurato and by arts writer Allison Klion.
This partnership, which will continue as an educational initiative of the Pollock Gallery through 2020, provides SMU students opportunities for hands-on experiences working as professional artists. With the support and guidance of the SMU Division of Art faculty, students learn concrete skills to take their studio practice into a professional context. A group of nine students and alumni were selected to take part in the exhibition. They went through each step of preparing art for a large-scale group exhibition, including preparing a portfolio of their work, managing external timelines, installing work, and getting ready to speak to the public about their artistic practice.
“Through this partnership, Regent Properties will reinforce its commitment to supporting both the arts and educational initiatives in our community,” said Jeffrey Dinkin, managing partner of Regent Properties. “Tenants and patrons of our spaces will benefit from exposure to this dynamic exhibition of new work by an emerging generation of artists.”
Participating artists include Nathalie Alfonso (M.F.A. ’20), Elizabeth Betzen (M.F.A. ’20), Xxavier Carter (M.F.A. ’19), Justin Chong (B.F.A. ’20), Leah Flook (M.F.A. ’20), Elizabeth Han (B.F.A. ’20), Travis Iurato (M.F.A. ’20), Josh Jalowiec (B.F.A. ’19) and Juan Negroni (M.F.A. ’17). The exhibition is curated by Sofia Bastidas, SMU Pollock Gallery director and curatorial fellow.
“We are thrilled about this new partnership, and we look forward to working with Regent Properties to provide our students with a comprehensive professional experience that will teach them necessary skills to advance their artistic careers,” said Bastidas.
About Legacy Central: Legacy Central is a heavily amenitized and lushly landscaped mixed-use project featuring nearly one million square feet of office space anchored by Samsung’s Texas headquarters, and features 700 multi-family units being built by Trammel Crow Residential, a state-of-the-art 25,000-square-foot fitness center, a conference facility designed to accommodate 300 people and retail amenities including a food hall offering a wide range of eateries. Given its progressive architectural style, highlighted by beautiful colorful murals painted by Adrian Torres throughout the campus, Legacy Central is an ideal canvas to house the unique, one-of-a-kind artwork created by SMU alumni and current students. “Regent could not be prouder to house this exhibition,” said Dinkin.
About the Pollock Gallery at Southern Methodist University: The Pollock Gallery plays a significant and valuable academic role in the Meadows School of the Arts as a vehicle for the study and examination of art beyond the artist’s studio, providing students within Meadows’ Division of Art a dynamic and professional arena for exploring aspects of art in the world.
About Regent Properties:Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Regent Properties was established in 1989 as the real estate arm of the Kohl family office with the mission of developing and investing in undervalued real estate. Regent and its principals have acquired, developed, financed and/or managed over $3 billion in real estate transactions nationally, encompassing more than 22 million square feet of retail, commercial, residential and mixed-use projects and 13,000 acres of master planned communities representing 31,000 lots. Regent’s assets under management total greater than $1 billion.