“From Dijon to Dallas” exhibit at SMU through Aug. 29

DALLAS (SMU) — The Pollock Gallery of the Division of Art at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts will present the exhibition “From Dijon to Dallas,” August 10-29, 2015.

The exhibition features two artists chosen through a newly established exchange between the Division of Art at SMU Meadows School of the Arts and École Nationale Supérieure d’Art (ENSA) of Dijon, France: Meadows alumna Melissa Tran (M.F.A. ’14) from Dallas and Hugo Capron from Dijon.

The exhibition is part of a postgraduate fellowship program launched in 2015 by the Meadows School and ENSA. Each year, an artist will be selected from each institution to spend a six-week residency on exchange at the other, which will include studio and living spaces and an exhibition in each location.  Capron is serving as an artist-in-residence in Dallas in July and August, 2015; he is currently working on his exhibit and will meet with art students at the beginning of the semester. Melissa Tran will be in residence at ENSA in Dijon in September and October, 2015. Following the Pollock exhibition, ENSA will host an exhibition of the two artists’ work at Le Consortium Contemporary Art Center in Dijon in October. The artists were selected through a nomination process at each university, and the final selection was made by Astrid Handa-Gagnard, director of FRAC Bourgogne in Bourgogne, France.

Dallas and Dijon are official sister cities. The World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth notes on its website that “the majority of the visitors to Dallas from Dijon, and vice versa, are students or professors who participate on a short-term exchange program between the cities.”

“I am so pleased to launch this collaboration with a noted French art school,” said Noah Simblist, chair of the Meadows Division of Art. “Professor Michael Corris has taken the lead on this project and we hope that this can be the beginning of many different levels of engagement between ENSA and SMU for students, faculty and alumni.”

“This postgraduate fellowship program is a first for ENSA Dijon and we are so delighted it happens with Dallas and SMU!” said Sophie Claudel, director of ENSA. “I had several occasions to visit Dallas these last years when I was living in New York; it is a very interesting cultural territory for art students. We are looking forward to welcoming Hugo and Melissa in Dijon in September for the exhibition at Consortium.”

About Melissa Tran

Melissa Tran is a visual artist originating from New Orleans, La., who works with lens-based processes, performance and interactive installations. Her Meadows M.F.A. focused on interdisciplinary studio arts. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Houston’s School of Art with a major concentration in photography/digital media and a minor in art history. In Houston, Tran’s work has been exhibited as part of the Fotofest Biennial and shown at spaces including the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston Center for Photography and The Jung Center of Houston, and has been screened at DiverseWorks Artspace and in Aurora Picture Show’s 14th and 15th Annual Extremely Shorts Film Festival. Tran’s work also was selected by jury to exhibit in the 2013 Texas Biennial at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and took part in a larger work through the Dallas Collective commissioned by the Biennial for Ballroom Marfa in Marfa, Texas. In addition, her video Elle Be Jay was selected via a worldwide competition as one of 44 audio and video files to be beamed into space by The Aphids, an Australian art collaborative, for their “Forever Now” project.

About Hugo Capron

Hugo Capron, who lives and works in France, turned toward painting during his studies at ENSA in Dijon. His research is focused in public space and its relationship to painting. He is also interested in architecture and abstraction. He has been particularly influenced by Japanese approaches to space and by the dérive, a notion described by the French theorist Guy Debord and the Situationists as an unplanned journey through urban space. He has exhibited at Galerie Interface, l’Athénéum, and Les ateliers Vortex in Dijon, at Le Génerateur in Gentilly, France, and at Yada Gallery in Nagoya, Japan. He received a prize at the Global Groove festival and was selected for the Festival Diése in Dijon.

A reception for “From Dijon to Dallas” will be held at the Pollock Gallery on Saturday, August 29 from 6 to 8 p.m. with the artists in attendance.

The Pollock Gallery is located on the first floor of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, 3140 Dyer St. on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 1-5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more information, call 214-768-4439 or visit www.smu.edu/Meadows/AreasOfStudy/Art/PollockGallery.

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