If you’re a regular at the State Fair of Texas, there’s a chance you’ve never seen or noticed an exhibit that has been around for nearly 2 decades. It’s the State Fair Sculpture Garden Invitational, a public art exhibit featuring sculptures that change every year.
“It’s the best-kept secret of the fair, and it doesn’t need to be a secret,” exhibit curator and sculptor Laura Walters said.
The exhibit includes sculptures from 29 artists with works that range from colorful to whimsical to contemporary.
“It’s called Three Squares,” metal artist Stephen James said as he installed his large-scale metal sculpture of 3 connected squares along the lagoon at Fair Park. “It really kind of speaks to that basic quality of the interconnectedness that maybe we all have.”
The sculptures are placed along and near the lagoon at Fair Park, from the Old Mill Inn to Discovery Gardens.
“We like to call this ‘Sculptor’s Way’,” Walters said. “You can get your corny dog, grab a beer, glass of wine, and kind of stroll down this less populated side of the fair.”
“Yeah, this is off the beaten path,” Perkins said. “There are a lot of people that I think are surprised, and that’s what we want, we want them to go, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know that was there!'”
Both Perkins and James construct their metal sculptures at the Bill J. Priest Center at Dallas College. They’ve both shown their work at the fair before.
“I grew up coming to the fair,” James said. “You know, it’s a real kind of privilege to be a part of that community and be able to show your work here at this venue…and it’s just a wonderful sort of homecoming for me in a way.”
Comments are closed.