Cecil Howard 50 Year Retrospective
September 7th
Opening Reception 6pm
McCray Gallery
Exhibit runs through October 5
Cecil taught art in Kansas before accepting a position at Western New Mexico University where he first taught ceramics and basic art and was Director of the Francis McCray Gallery. The development of the Fine Arts program led to a later teaching emphasis on sculpture and painting. He retired in 1994 after 31 years in the Department of Expressive Arts, having been chair for several years. He is a recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1999, and served on the Capitol Arts Foundation Board of Directors for many years. He has exhibited and received numerous awards in painting, sculpture, and crafts on regional, national, and international levels, and he acted as a juror for several exhibitions in the Southwest.
His artwork is included in both private and public collections. A large collage is on permanent exhibit in the New Mexico Capitol Art Collection in Santa Fe and an assemblage is in the foyer of WNMU’s Fine Arts Auditorium. Several of his pieces were part of successive traveling art exhibitions produced by the New Mexico Museum of Art.
Initially recognized for his collages and assemblages, Cecil has more recently focused on painting in acrylics, producing colorful canvases. His subjects are sometimes representational, sometimes abstract, or often a combination of the two, for intentional ambiguity. Once, a friend jokingly described his work as that of a “baroque surrealist.” His studio is in Silver City.