The Nature of Nature
Artists: Teresa Foster, Susan Justus and Donna Zarbin-Byrne
Curator: Bonny Leibowitz
Dates: December 2 – December 24, 2023
Artist Reception: December 16, 6-8pm
The Nature of Nature brings together three artists, Teresa Foster, Susan Justus and Donna Zarbin-Byrne whose work speaks to the essence of nature’s unbounded qualities. The exhibition explores how the artists engage and interact with nature, processes, found objects and a host of materials to contextualize their work as markers of circumstances, observations, history and their unique sense of presence and identity.
Teresa Foster works with papers she has a historical and personal relationship with. She employs a process she developed, with natural stains and the effects of the sun which interact and develop effects over time. This way of working allows her to be in concert with nature in ways that honor memory and the beauty of the unpredictable.
Susan Justus has a keen sense for found objects, finding beauty in their history, decay and regeneration. She often researches her findings, making associations with her deep connection to her Southern roots and the land, specifically, the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. Memory and object are intertwined in these works she describes as the infinite small experiences of life. Follow Justus @scjustus.studios
Donna Zarbin-Byrne delves into the landscapes of the Chihuahuan desert of West Texas and the West Maui mountains, connecting material sites with an internal process. Her recent projects intertwine beauty and destruction with grief and hope in response to the impact of extreme climate conditions on Maui and Texas. An avid gardener, she incorporates plants, photographs, and poetry with various processes such as bronze casting, patinas, and handmade paper that echo patterns and ecosystems found in nature. Follow Zarbin-Byrne @donnazarbinbyrneart
Bonny Leibowitz, is an artist working in 2D and 3D installation, a teacher, mentor and curator based in Dallas.
@bonnylibowitz
@one_on_one_bonnyleibowitz
About the Artists
Teresa Foster
Foster is a native Texan born in Haskel who spent most of her preschool youth with her grandparents on
their cotton farm. Foster earned a B.S. degree in Art Education from East Texas State University. After a 13-year stint with Boys Clubs
of America in Arlington, Foster was hired as an art teacher in Fort Worth ISD. At Arlington Heights High School, she developed and
grew a very successful Advanced Placement program in Art. Here achievements at FWISD include various teacher awards from 1988-2014, the Angela D. Paulos Teaching Chair for Excellence in the Visual Arts in 2008, and a Scholar Teacher Award in 2010. Her students were winners and so was she. Now retired she continues to work in the studio every day.
Her work was shown for many years at the Lenora Rolla Heritage Museum Art Show in Fort Worth. She and a student had a two-person show at the Fort Worth Community Art Center. Foster has also shown work at the Grand Prairie Art Show, International Society for Experimental Artists show in Michigan, Preservation of the City Show in Fort Worth, Big Gay Art Show in Sedona, Arizona, and State Fair of Texas Fine Arts Professional Category this year and last. She completed a residency and show with Michael David in New York in 2020. Her work is also on two utility boxes from the East Lancaster Traffic Control Cabinet Public Art Project in Fort Worth. In addition, she had work shown in the Global Warming Exhibit at the Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My piece “Tornado Warning” was added to their permanent collection.
Susan Justus
Susan Justus has a keen ability to find objects, both natural and man-made, that have a unique ability to communicate the infinite small experiences of life. Through the process of her art and research, she reveals associations with their common attributes such as beauty, history, decay and regeneration. Memory and object are intertwined in these works.
Justus had her first solo exhibition at the Goldmark Cultural Center Pop up Series in 2022 in Richardson, Texas. Her work has also been included in group exhibitions in Dallas, Texas: the Janette Kennedy Gallery at Southside Lamar, The Bonny Studio Student Shows, and multiple The MAC Member Exhibits.
Prior to pursuing art full time she completed 108 hours of coursework in the Masters Program in Landscape Architecture at The University Texas at Arlington which has provided a foundation for her art studies. While in attendance at the University she was honored to receive the prize for “Most Visionary” in the Edmund N. Bacon International Competition.
You can follow Justus on Instagram @scjustus.studios
Donna Zarbin-Byrne
Donna Zarbin-Byrne is an interdisciplinary artist based in Dallas, TX, and Maui, HI. Originally from Chicago, she earned her BFA and MFA from The University of Texas, San Antonio with a concentration in ceramic sculpture and pre-Columbian art history. Recent solo exhibitions were at Arts Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX., and at Hawaii Pacific University, O’ahu, HI. She has exhibited her work nationally from The Jewish Museum, New York, NY to The Schaefer International Art Gallery, Maui, HI. Collections include the City of Houston, Civic Arts Collection, and the John Peace Print Collection, University of Texas, San Antonio. Numerous commissions include public art for the City of Evanston, IL, and San Antonio, TX. She has been honored to receive an Individual Artist Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Art through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and has been awarded grants and exhibitions through the Artist in Education program, Illinois Arts Council. Zarbin-Byrne co-founded Artisan Restoration International, which provides custom restoration and design services across the globe.
You can follow Zarbin-Byrne on Instagram @donnazarbinbyrneart