Having just finished their summer session, regulars to the public figure-drawing class showcase their work in Gallery 3.

The Center for Contemporary Arts is delighted to announce Oaxacan Gold, an art exhibit curated by the esteemed National Geographic contributing photographer, Greg Davis. Oaxacan Gold will highlight the beauty and uniqueness of Oaxacan culture through his ethereal photography and a stellar collection of Oaxacan folk art.

Reconstructions is an immersive art installation by Bryan Vause brought into being by pulling places and scenes from the artist's memory and recreating them using only second hand cardboard and duct tape.

Not another cowboy show…

The West Texas Photographic Society (WTPS) is a group of photographers ranging from hobbyists to professionals. They promote the enjoyment of photography and enhance the creative ability of the Abilene photographic community. Their annual member exhibition will feature photography from their current membership.

View the newest exhibition by the Western Artists Roundup!

Western Artists Roundup organization is a professional western art that has outspend professional artists in all mediums.

Art in Context by Terry Browder - Opening reception April 19. 2024, 5-8pm Jane Adams Breed Gallery

Artist member, Sandra J. Hastings brings us eye-catching photographs of two local lakes in her first solo exhibition at the CCA.

Celebrate the beauty of this earth with Kari Perkins, renowned costume designer and mixed-media artist. Inspired by an anonymous poem, Perkins has created beautiful silk and wood sculptures which will dance in the wind, inviting you to revel in the meditative nature of the exhibition.

Explore the unseen with Evynne Caffey's Through Their Eyes exhibition, focusing on the use of the infrared light spectrum in both photography and mixed media artworks.

Join us as Signature Artist Member and expressionist painter, Patty Rae Wellborn shares her distinctive style in a new body of work.

Experience Signature Artist Member, Peggy Shepherd’s vibrant photography for her second solo exhibition.

Join us in celebrating Cuban-American artist Rolando Diaz as he shares his body of work depicting the horses of the biblical Revelation.

Dive into a world of color and come see abstract paintings by niece/aunt duo Casey La Rue-Chavez and La Rue.

Texas Photographic Society is proud to announce the call for entry for By Hand: Alternative Processes, our fifth exhibition featuring hand-made photo-based imagery created using alternative photographic processes and historical printing methods. Our juror is acclaimed artist, educator, writer, and editor Christina Z. Anderson. This call is open to artists of all levels internationally.

By making the ordinary extraordinary, I seek to make the overlooked emerge instead as a resplendent focal point. In embracing the power of textiles as a fine art form, this installation seeks to bridge the divide between traditionally gendered crafts and elevate the status of soft sculpture within the realm of contemporary art.

The Center for Contemporary Arts is proud to present the 14th Annual juried Intercollegiate Student Art Competition for area college and university students!

The competition is open to students of Abilene Christian University, Cisco College, Hardin-Simmons University, McMurry University, Texas State Technical College, Angelo State University, Howard Payne University, Midwestern State University, South Plains College, and Tarleton State University. Entries may be submitted in any medium as long as the finished piece meets the size and weight restrictions of the category.

Through the lens of my camera, it has been my passion to observe the world around me. My friend and I recently completed an "Around the World in 80 Days: 81 and Still on the Run" adventure going to all 7 continents and seeing as many of the World's Wonders as possible. I use my photography to serve as a window into the world. There is a profound artistic beauty throughout the world, in the stunning landscape, the magnificent manmade structure, and capturing the feelings on the faces of the people I meet.

The Center for Contemporary Arts National - known as CCAN - is a national juried art competition of the Center for Contemporary Arts in Downtown Abilene, Texas. In 2023 the 7th annual national exhibition and competition received over 367entries submitted from 34 states across the United States. 192 works were selected for exhibition in the Center’s Jane Adams Breed Gallery and Gallery 3.

Over $7,000 is awarded annually to artists in 11 media categories, one juror’s award, and a best of show.

Sloane-Duncan’s paintings explore the tensions between public and private, and question whether we can ever fully be known by another person. She investigates the strategies we as humans use to veil or mask our truest selves and the reasons why we hold back and keep parts of ourselves private, even from those closest to us. The self-portraits raise questions essential to Sloane-Duncan’s practice: How and why do we use personal embellishment to shape others’ views of ourselves? Are self-adornment and interior decor forms of expression or manipulation? 

The Community Vitality Project is an exploration of how well we express ourselves, and how personal and engaging the expression is. What I seek is to photographically tease out places that give me a sense of attraction and dynamism.

From the fall of 2019 to the spring of 2022 I lived in Spain working as an English language teacher in elementary schools. Six months into my experience the COVID-19 pandemic hit and choosing not to return to the U.S. meant the rest of my time on the Iberian Peninsula would have an added layer of complexity. Along with the expected challenges brought on by linguistic, cultural and bureaucratic differences, the pandemic and all the restrictions put in place by the Spanish government to help curb it opened me up to a deeper level of solitude than I was already in as an expat.

Hollie Brown presents her first solo exhibition since becoming an artist-member of the Center for Contemporary Arts with a site-specific installation in Gallery 4.

Hollie Brown currently lives in Abilene, Texas. She teaches at ACU and McMurry University. She received her M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from the University of California, Riverside in 2017. Brown also runs Little Shop of Hollies, a small business she started in 2020.

“My own personal memory as a dancer contributes to the existing space I am creating through experiences of discipline, practice, balance, and relaxed fluid faculty of control. I try to capture this through various materials, the movement of my own body as well as the memory of movement that can become distorted and transparent. I enjoy using various materials such as charcoal, chalk pastel, acrylic and textured surfaces.”

The West Texas Photographic Society (WTPS) is a group of photographers ranging from hobbyists to professionals. They promote the enjoyment of photography and enhance the creative ability of the Abilene photographic community. Their annual member exhibition will feature photography from their current membership.

The jackrabbit is the primary subject of Stricklin’s current work and will be on view at the Center for Contemporary Arts in mid-May. Her solo exhibition, Jackrabbit Journey features more than two dozen sculptures and a dozen or so two-dimensional works that center around the jackrabbit, or the hare as the subject.

As a career medical illustrator, I have always been a technical, representational artist yet over the years, have developed eclectic tastes in painting subjects and how we traditionally view them. I am drawn to detail and how light and shadow visually affects objects and color within a still life, no matter what angle. I try to create depth and excitement in a painting by balancing the lights and darks within the colors and the overall composition. My goal is to draw the viewer into a painting and to spend time enjoying that painting.

Drinking The Sun is an exhibition presented by the Artist Membership of the Center for Contemporary Arts. Based on the poem, The Pond, by Mary Oliver, the exhibition includes works that evoke Summer and memory and childhood - unique to each artist. Painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, video, mixed-media, and installation works are combined to create a dynamic exhibition that will transport the viewer into memory.