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Commentary by Jim Valone Artist's Biography Exhibition Checklist Past Exhibitions )
Debutante #3, 1999 Maple with mahogany base 71 x 29 x 20 in. (Photo: Ansen Seale))
Serena, 2002 Cedar, redwood and mahogany, 15 1/2 x 40 x 20 1/2 in. (Photo: Ansen Seale)
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Angelica, 1999 Maple, 80 7/8 x 18 x 39 in. Collection of Valley House Gallery, Dallas (Photo: Tom Jenkins)
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Beryl, 2003. Mahogany with wenge base 29 x 17 x 22 in. (Photo: Ansen Seale)
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Life Model, 2003. Maple, mesquite, pecan, oak, mahogany, poplar and cherry, 92 x 18 x 11 1/2 in. (Photos: Ansen Seale)
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Philip John Evett: The Aura of the Past/Future February 5–April 18, 2004 
Ken Tomio Curator, Tyler Museum of Art The Tyler Museum of Art is pleased to present Philip John Evett: The Aura of the Past/Future. This exhibition bears testimony to how a chance encounter can lead to an opening night - a high point in museum life. When TMA director Kimberley Bush Tomio and I were visiting Valley House Gallery in Dallas one day last year, we saw a fabulous wood sculpture of a seated angel called Angelica. The work was created by Philip John Evett, an artist with whom we were unfamiliar, but whose works displayed at the Gallery sculpture show inspired us to learn more about him. After our research and a studio visit confirmed our spontaneous desire to bring Evett's work to Tyler, we were able to schedule the exhibition from February 5 through April 18. Were it not for Valley House Gallery and its director and curator, Kevin and Cheryl Vogel - ardent supporters of Philip Evett - we might never have found this incredible talent. We thank them for their support of Evett and of this exhibition. Philip John Evett: The Aura of the Past/Future consists of thirty-nine sculptures and twelve ink drawings. The sculptures can be divided into four groups: twenty pieces in a variety of woods, four in cast bronze, three in welded aluminum and wood, and two in stoneware. All of Evett's sculptures are meticulously crafted and are expressive of figurative forms. Most of the forms are anthropomorphic; others are of recognizable objects from our daily life. Some of his sculptures make reference to the almost canonical exactitude of modernist forms while others express gestural freedom - equally modern, or shall we say contemporary Ð that opens up to the future. Whatever their forms imply (and they imply many things for different viewers and for the same viewer at different times), these sculptures seem imbued with past art forms and at the same time pre-empt the future that inhabits those forms. For me, Evett's forms elicit a vertigo of simultaneously experiencing the distinctive quality of the past and the radiance of the future yet to come; hence, the exhibition's title - Aura of the Past/Future. Yet, I fully acknowledge that this is the artist's present, the tertium quid that defines the past and the future where we feel his presence ever so strongly. We are fortunate to include two essays in this catalogue. Although they vary in length, both open important vistas in understanding Philip Evett's work. The first is by Donald S. Vogel, artist-father of the above-mentioned Kevin Vogel, and founder of Valley House Gallery. The second essay is by Jim Valone, a Denver artist who was Philip Evett's colleague at Trinity University in San Antonio. Both essays explore the form, content and the method of the artist's work. We thank both men for contributing to our publication. Of course, we are most grateful to Philip Evett, who, through his creations, has opened our eyes and minds to a new reality of formal beauty and made this exhibition possible. Exhibition Checklist | Past Exhibitions | Current Exhibitions | Future Exhibitions | Back to Exhibitions |