Greg Reuter: Fundamental Facets
Sept 6 - Oct 12
Opening Reception: Sept 7

Rockport Center for the Arts opens its fall season of shows with an exhibit featuring new, sculptural works by Greg Reuter; who lives and works in Corpus Christi, Texas.  In Fundamental Facets, Reuter returns to his roots in ceramics and coastal subject matter.  His solo exhibition presents fundamental facets of Reuter’s artistic career, in terms of medium and subject matter, and introduces new work from the convergence of these foundations.  During four decades as a professor at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi (TAMUCC), his artistic mediums broadened from ceramics to include sculptural design, metal casting, and 3D printing.  The subject matter of his work also cycled from nature’s forces to religious imagery, found objects, and abstraction. 

Reuter earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.  He was awarded a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture and ceramics from the University of Hawaii, and in 1978 joined the faculty of TAMUCC teaching ceramics and sculpture. Reuter retired from teaching in 2018.  He has exhibited work at art institutions nationally and internationally.  His work is part of important private and public art collections, most notably the Art Museum of South Texas, the Art Museum of Querétaro, Mexico, and the Harte Research Institute.  He has lectured across the United States and in Germany, Japan and Mexico. 

In 1988, Reuter’s sculpture was featured in the gallery scene of the Hollywood film D.O.A. In 1993, his work was included in the exhibition Texas Between Two Worlds, which opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and then traveled to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi. In 2015 he traveled to Tokyo and showed his work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. During three separate stints at the Atelier Haus Hilmsen, he created sculptures which were exhibited in the Monchskirche Museum in Salzwedel, Germany in 2017.

For the last fifteen years, much of Reuter’s sculpture making has been inspired by the beach at Padre Island National Seashore.  He has used the textures and traced fossils found at the beach to create a variety of forms in bronze.  Recently, he has worked on a series of iron sculptures cast in Houston at the Keen Foundry.  During his years living in South Texas, Greg has created and collaborated on a number of public art pieces, including five for the city of Corpus Christi and two for TAMUCC.

About Fundamental Facets, Curator of Exhibitions, Elena Rodriguez states “Reuter’s work is an homage to every facet of living in South Texas. The tracks the birds make on the sand, the marks artists make on their canvases - all interconnected in a great chorus. Reuter’s work captures that harmony beautifully.”  Reuter adds, “Living on the gulf coast informed and inspired Monolith and Studio. Both of these largescale sculptures record the sublime beauty and devastation created by natural forces like tides, wind, rain, sun, vegetation, wildlife, as well as the efforts of humans to enjoy and withstand these forces.”

Vacuum-formed plastic tiles form the hollow house shape of Studio.  Each tile encases a composition of tools created by a group of Rockport artists.  The work speaks to the fragility of the built environment in the face of nature’s fury, more specifically Hurricane Harvey.  “I spent the night of the hurricane protecting my studio from wind and water. While relieved that my studio avoided major damage, I soon found out that my neighboring artists in Rockport suffered devastating damages to their homes and studios. I felt their losses keenly, and Studio responds to the strength and perseverance of Rockport artists. By continuing to create work, Rockport artists prove that a studio is simply a space for working and ultimately an artist’s hands, tools, and vision are the forces behind creation. Even if the walls fall down, art will still be made,” adds Reuter. 

Monolith collects the ephemeral textures of the beach and preserves them permanently in bronze. Combining the eye of a beachcomber and the judgement of an editor, Reuter selected and arranged the cast tiles to create a holistic view of the local coast.  The work’s stark composition presents the endless variety of patterns and nuanced marks created by nature and man on area beaches.

The exhibit will also feature raku-fired ceramic vessels which provided Reuter with an opportunity to incorporate more recent artistic methods into the type of ceramic work that first engaged his interest in art.  When creating these closed ceramic forms he intentionally left them unresolved and relied on sculpted, 3D printed, metal cast, and found object finials to finish the works.

Reuter’s solo exhibition, Fundamental Facets, opens to the public on Friday, September 6. An opening reception with the artist will take place on Saturday, September 7, from 4 to 7 PM. A gallery talk with Reuter will commence at 4:30 PM. Fundamental Facets will be on display through October 12, 2019.  The exhibit run will also feature an iron pour conducted by Reuter and three other artists, to be held Saturday, September 14.