Experience the transformative power of connection, culture, and creativity with two exhibitions presented concurrently at The Arlington Museum of Art, showcasing the visionary works of Alicia Eggert and the de la Torre brothers.
(APRIL 1, 2025 – Arlington, TX) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – In collaboration with the University of Texas Arlington, the Arlington Museum of Art presents an exhibition featuring Alicia Eggert, as well as Einar and Jamex de la Torre, three profound artists whose practice explores language, encounters, and participation in this present moment. These artists are showing alongside each other for the first time since 2020, when their work was on display at the 50th anniversary exhibition of The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C.
Eggert’s participatory project Your Magic is Real and the de la Torre brothers’ installation Sub(liminal) were brought together and curated by University of Texas Arlington’s Associate Professor at the Department of Art and Art History Justin Ginsberg. Ginsberg says,“Bringing the de la Torre brothers back to Texas following their 2024 retrospective at the McNay Museum in San Antonio offers the DFW community an exceptional opportunity to engage with artists whose innovative work embodies their multivalent identities as Mexican Americans. Paired with Alicia Eggert’s interactive light and sound installation—previously featured in her first museum solo exhibition at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in 2024—these exhibitions encourage visitors, especially in today’s politically charged climate, to physically connect through touch and shared experiences, symbolizing the vital importance of cooperation and empathy in overcoming systemic alienation.”
The exhibition will be on view to the public from May 9, 2025 through June 1, 2025. Admission is free. No tickets required.
About Your Magic is Real
Your Magic is Real is designed to inspire wonder and to evoke the power of collaboration. This immersive light and sound installation was made in collaboration with James Akers, with music composed by Marco Buongiorno Nardelli. When people first enter the room, they encounter a stark space that is devoid of light and color. Handprint sensors on a central platform are spaced far enough apart that a single person can’t touch both sensors on their own. But when two or more people join together to bridge that physical and metaphorical divide, a small electrical current passes through their bodies to complete a circuit, and the room immediately begins to come to life. As soon as participants break their physical connection, the space immediately goes dark and silent once again. The longer participants hold hands, the more the room fills with light, color and sound.
About Alicia Eggert
Alicia Eggert (American, b. 1981) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice gives material form to language and time across a variety of mediums. She derives inspiration from physics and philosophy, and her work often co-opts the methods and materials associated with commercial signage to communicate messages that inspire reflection and wonder. She has made flashing neon signs that illuminate the way light travels across spacetime, billboards that allow Forever to appear and disappear in the fog, and signs that reveal the relationship between reality and possibility. These sculptures have been installed on rooftops in Russia, on bridges in Amsterdam, and on uninhabited islands in Maine, beckoning people to ponder their place in the world and the role they play in it.
Eggert has exhibited at notable institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, Triennale Design Museum in Milan, Everson Museum of Art, and Telfair Museums. Recent solo exhibitions include Galeria Fernando Santos (Porto, Portugal); University of Texas, San Antonio; Art Museum of Southeast Texas (Beaumont, TX); and UrbanGlass (Brooklyn, NY). Her work is held in collections including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at University of California, Davis, New Holland Island (St. Petersburg, Russia), Light Art Collection, and significant private collections. The artist has received a TED Fellowship, Long Now Foundation Fellowship, Hopper Prize, SR Foundation Washington Award, Harpo Foundation Direct Artist Grant, Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Microgrant, and Maine Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. Eggert is the Associate Professor of Studio Art at the University of North Texas.
About Sub(liminal)
The “liminal” in Sub(liminal) is defined as occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold. The word “subliminal” encompasses the stimulus, or mental process, below the threshold of sensation or consciousness; perceived by or affecting someone’s mind without their being aware of it.
This exhibition presents a collection of works that reflects the de la Torres’ recent years in terms of both practice and content. Their work spans both sides of the US/Mexico border—a physical construct that has become the subject of political manipulation and fear mongering. While they consider themselves “border artists,” their practice explores the complex identities that make up their multicultural/international experience, and how the question of personal identity can be multi-layered and difficult to define. Texas, with its significant Tejano cultural presence, is no stranger to this discourse.
About the de la Torres
Collaborating brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre were born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1963 and 1960, respectively. In 1972, their family moved suddenly to the United States, transitioning from a traditional Catholic school to a small beach town in California. Both attended California State University at Long Beach, where Jamex earned a BFA in Sculpture in 1983, while Einar opted out of pursuing an art degree. Today, the brothers divide their time between the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Mexico, and San Diego, where their experiences as immigrants and their bicultural identities deeply influence their narrative and artistic practice.
The de la Torre brothers have been collaborating since the 1990s, developing a distinctive style that blends blown glass sculpture, mixed media, and installation art. Their work presents a multifaceted and often humorous view of life, marked by a multi-layered baroque aesthetic. They take an additive approach, continuously merging materials and meanings. Their influences range from religious iconography and German Expressionism to Mexican vernacular arts and pre-Columbian art. In the last 15 years, they have expanded their practice to include photo mural installations and Lenticular printing as key components of their work. The brothers have received numerous accolades, including the USA Artists Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the California Art Council legacy awards. They have presented 18 solo museum exhibitions, 9 major public art projects, and participation in 4 biennales.
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About the Arlington Museum of Art
A thriving visual arts museum in the heart of North Texas, the Arlington Museum of Art (AMA) is constantly in motion, with ever-changing exhibits and experiences that unite art, technology, innovation, and education. In keeping with our growing reputation for ground-breaking exhibitions and programming, coupled with our hometown pride, in 2024 the new AMA opened in the heart of Arlington’s Entertainment District.
The AMA serves our community and visitors as a new kind of arts destination, presenting the world’s great masters alongside the very best of contemporary art and evolving genres of experiential art. Our unwavering commitment to fostering creativity, conversation, and connection brings together diverse art, artists, and audiences of all ages, transforming them through the power of art. For more information, visit arlingtonmuseum.org/news.
| Media Contact
Natalie Neale Arlington Museum of Art natalie@arlingtonmuseum.org 817-275-4600 |
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