FORT WORTH, TEXAS.-Two life-long friends have teamed up for the first time on an exhibition of their work. Enduring Pattern: Anne Allen and Elaine Taylor opens at Gallery 414 in Fort Worth on Saturday, December 3, 2005 with a reception from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. The exhibition will showcase recent works on paper by each artist, and will include drawings by each artist done directly on the walls of the gallery. Anne Allen’s new drawings explore her ongoing interest in pattern. Working from sources as varied as tiny hairnets, machine-made paper doilies, or Spirograph forms, Allen explores the attraction, origins and rewards of these forms by transforming them into large-scale drawings. Beginning with an enlarged projection of the form, Allen repurposes and romanticizes these everyday objects, rendering them in charcoal, graphite or oil pastel. A drawing entitled Twist, displays a now six foot long hairnet, pulled and twisted once across its middle. Allen’s doily drawings look at contemporary paper doilies, referencing the pleasures of the original crocheted doilies, now translated as machine-made, disposable decoratives for entertaining.

Elaine Taylor's work over the last decade encompasses installations, sculpture and recently, a return to drawing. In this exhibition she is represented by a new body of works on paper that have evolved from her sculptural forms. Taylor's artwork is an examination of a simple circular shape which provides a framework for exploring nuances of line, space and value. Minimalist in their appearance, her pieces suggest various interpretations. These images are both soft and crisp; exact without being specific. Moving through variations on a theme, they are rigorous formal exercises that have a power that belies their simplicity.

The artists first met more than thirty years ago when they were assigned to carpool to an art class together at what was then the Fort Worth Children’s Museum (now the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History). Life-long friends, they have found that their work on paper has evolved along similar paths. This will be the first time since high school that these artists have exhibited together. Their work shares a strong belief in the power of draftsmanship, and formal exploration.

Allen has a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.F.A. in metals from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Solo exhibitions include Four or Five Large Drawings, the Gallery at Rivendell, New Paltz, NY. Group exhibitions include Small, and Big, both NRH Gallery, and Schema: A Drawing Show, Carrillon Gallery, Tarrant County College South. Allen is a curator and arts administrator and has been Director of the Arlington Museum of Art since 2001. Taylor earned a B.A. in Theatre with a minor in Music from Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas and her M.A. and M.F.A. in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She teaches at local area community colleges and is the Gallery Manager for the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. She has shown her work at various residencies including the Connemara Conservancy in Dallas. Enduring Pattern continues through January 8, 2006. Please note the gallery will be closed December 24 and 25.

Gallery 414 is made possible through the generosity of Razz Fiesler. Gallery 414 is
located near Fort Worth’s museum district and is open weekends from 12:00 until 5:00, and by appointment only.