Artist Talk & Opening Reception: Interstice by Colleen Toutant Merrill

Colleen Toutant Merrill opens her exhibition Interstice at the St. Edward's University Fine Arts Gallery on Thursday, September 3, with an artist talk and reception that evening. The show runs from September 3 through September 24.

Toutant Merrill describes the interstice as the space that intervenes between things, and the exhibition works that gray area: how public influence and social structures impede our most personal relationships and overall quality of life, with particular attention to notions of morality and gender ideals within the family and the home. Found textiles are collaged into abstract forms that suggest bodily complexity and play with memory, intimacy, and care. The Day in & Day Out series draws on obscure imagery and metaphors from children's literature and folklore to ask how historical morals mirror contemporary ethics. Interstice I and II, Big Red, and Plebiscite lean into the nuance between the power of the binary, using organic form to break the X/Y axis of quilting and weaving as a metaphor for resistance; the RYB series also tackles reductive binary power structures.

The Fine Arts Gallery at St. Edward's functions as both a teaching gallery and an exhibition venue, showing work by professional artists, faculty, alumni, and students. The opening reception on September 3 runs from 5:30 to 8:00 PM, with the artist talk from 5:30 to 6:00 PM and the reception following from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The exhibition continues through September 24. Admission is free and open to the public, and free parking is available. The gallery is located in the Fine Arts Center at 3001 S. Congress, Austin, TX 78704.