Hooks-Epstein Galleries

SUMMER ‘25 EXHIBITION

CURRENTLY ON VIEW
LYNN BENNETT-CARPENTER’S “UNSHADOWED LANDSCAPES”

Lynn Bennett-Carpenter’s handwoven drawings in “Unshadowed Landscapes” unify the distinct actions of drawing and weaving, inviting viewers into a creative process that mirrors the cycle of creation, destruction, and reintegration. Beginning with hand-drawn and painted imagery on soft wood, Bennett-Carpenter then slices the surface into thin strips and weaves the fragments together on a floor loom. The result is a transformed surface—woven drawings that explore the symbolic and emotional power of trees as central figures in her work.

Lynn Bennett Carpenter
“Belle Isle | Central Avenue”
2021
handwoven drawing on basswood with acrylic and ink, woven with cotton
36 x 24”

SAVE THE DATE 6.28.2025

HAYUN SURL
“Liminal Figures”

The artwork of Hayun Surl explores cultural fluidity and adaptation, using ceramics as a form of record-keeping and self-examination. In “Liminal Figures”, Surl reflects on the in-between spaces—between identities, places, and experiences—where meaning is shaped and reshaped. These ceramic forms inhabit this threshold, capturing the tension and reciprocity between interior and exterior, content and container, and self and society.

Hand built and high-fired, the physical vessels function as enduring metaphors—records of memory, influence, and belonging shaped by, and still shaping, Surl’s evolving Korean identity. Through intuitive and deliberate decisions, each gesture in clay is a layered response to presence, contemplation, and transformation, allowing the past to inform the present in enduring, evocative ways.

Image:
Hayun Surl
“Guardian 7”
2025
ceramics
48 x 17”

SAVE THE DATE 6.28.2025

LYNN BENNETT-CARPENTER
“Unshadowed Landscapes”

Marcelyn (Lynn) Bennett-Carpenter earned her B.F.A. in Drawing and Painting from the University of Colorado (Denver, CO) and M.F.A. in Fiber at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, which is the largest hand-weaving studio in North America (Bloomfield Hills, MI).

Bennett-Carpenter’s artwork has been featured in numerous group exhibitions; her work will be in the upcoming 2026 exhibition, “Material Girl”, at the Muskegon Museum of Art (Muskegon, MI). In 2023, she was a resident artist and workshop instructor at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Deer Isle, ME). She has also been a workshop instructor at the Penland School of Craft (Bakersville, NC).

Image:
Lynn Bennett-Carpenter
“Janus”
2024
handwoven drawing on basswood with acrylic, ink, and gold leaf woven with lurex and cotton
5.5’ x 4’

We are very proud to announce the completed commission of the official portrait of Texas State Representative Senfronia Thompson, by Hooks-Epstein Galleries artist, Kermit Oliver. The portrait was presented this past Monday, June 2, 2025, at the Texas Capitol on the lady day of Texas State Legislature. In addition, Oliver was recognized with a resolution acknowledging him as a significant Texas artist.

Hooks-Epstein Galleries and Kermit Oliver have been honored to work alongside House Democratic Chair, and his staff, and to coordinate this surprise portrait for , which will be displayed in the Capitol. We were also honored to accompany Kermit Oliver’s daughter, Kristy Oliver, for the unveiling.

In Texas political circles, Rep. Thompson is considered to be a living legend. Rep. Thompson is the longest-serving woman in the chamber's history and in any state legislature nationwide. For over 50 years, she has been a civil rights icon, a champion for women, and a defender of children. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master's in Education from Texas Southern University; a Juris Doctor from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, and a Master of Law in International Law from the University of Houston.

ON VIEW | WARD SANDERS

“Opus 4”, 2025, assemblage: discarded piano and pump organ pieces, 44 x 8 x 4”

Ward Sanders explores the lingering presence of music through the physical remnants of early 20th-century instruments in “Piano Pieces”. The concept of the exhibition emerged after Sanders dismantled two upright pianos and an old pump organ from this era of the early 1900s; he was struck by the sense that the soul of the music still resided in their worn and weathered parts.

Ward Sanders earned a B.S. in Biology at Sul Ross University (Alpine, TX) and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Arizona. He was a high school educator in Biology and Art for 33 years in Houston, Lytle, and San Antonio. In 2018, Sanders participated in the group exhibitions, “The Art of Found Objects: Enigma Variations”, at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas (Beaumont, TX) and “Art Vinyl” at the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX). His work is in numerous private and public art collections.

Sanders was featured in both of Robert Craig Bunch’s publications, “The Art of Dreams, Visions, Other Worlds: Interviews with Texas Artists” and “The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists”.

𝑷𝑰𝑨𝑵𝑶 𝑷𝑰𝑬𝑪𝑬𝑺

Save the Date for the opening of Ward Sanders’ “Piano Pieces” on May 17th!

2:00pm – 4:00pm
Robert Craig Bunch + Artists Book Signing

5:00pm – 7:00pm
Opening Reception

Ward Sanders explores the lingering presence of music through the physical remnants of early 20th-century instruments in “Piano Pieces”.

The concept of the exhibition emerged after Sanders dismantled two upright pianos and an old pump organ from this era of the early 1900s; he was struck by the sense that the soul of the music still resided in their worn and weathered parts. The interplay of the observable and the imagined forms the foundation for “Piano Pieces”; with this body of work, Sanders seeks to restore a sense of dignity and presence to the once-sounding mechanisms.

Drawing on the structure and repetition found in musical composition, each piece becomes a visual opus—a variation on a theme—assembled from the same source materials and united by a quiet reverence for their shared history. The result is a visual symphony—works that resonate with memory, materiality, and the silent echo of sound once played.