Public Gallery installation, Waiting for Robot, explores cultural threats of propaganda and manipulation
DALLAS, Texas (May 3, 2022)—The Nasher Sculpture Center announces Nasher Public: Celia Eberle, on view July 23 – October 2, 2022, in the Nasher Public Gallery.
Celia Eberle’s Nasher Public installation addresses issues of power, propaganda, and the threat of manipulation through her installation of Waiting for Robot (2022), a giant robotic hand puppeteering a number of tiny dancing sculptures to a soundtrack of original techno music. Nearby, a floating castle of bones titled Promise (2022) represents escapist dreams of superior wealth, the promise of a heavenly afterlife, and a reason to keep dancing, as the artist describes. Evoking cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and classic children’s puppet shows, Eberle’s installation questions who is pulling the strings on our perceived reality.
About Celia Eberle
Celia Eberle grew up in the Piney Woods of East Texas. She received her BFA with Honors from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1974 and dates her professional career from her inclusion in Women of the Big State, juried by Lisa Phillips in 1986. Eberle began developing her theories regarding the interrelationship of behavior patterns, myth, and the persistence of images while a member of the historic co-op 500X Gallery from 1987-1992. She has had more than seventeen solo exhibits, and her work has been included in shows in Buffalo, New York; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago. She has garnered awards that include the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, the Nasher Sculpture Center Microgrant, the Dozier Travel Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art, and an M-AAA/NEA Fellowship. In 2014, she held a one person exhibit at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont. In 2017 she was included in Commanding Space: Women Sculptors of Texas at the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, and To See is to Have at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio. Public collections include the Dallas Museum of Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, and the J. Wayne Stark Gallery at Texas A&M.
About Nasher Public
Nasher Public is an ongoing, two-pronged public art initiative which aims to generate access to public art by North Texas artists at the Nasher and throughout the greater Dallas community. The project launched first at the Nasher in a newly formed gallery, presenting monthly exhibitions, followed by an ongoing series of offsite exhibitions in partnership with area businesses.