LIZ CONCES SPENCER
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A native of Pasadena, Texas, Liz Conces Spencer earned her art degree from the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1975. Since that time she has shown her work extensively in galleries, alternative spaces, festivals and competitive exhibitions.
Lyrical allegories and strong, brilliant color led jurors to select the work of Liz Conces Spencer for the 2005 University of Houston Women’s Archive and Research Center’s cover. The image “ In the Garden of Flowers and Souls” is central to the poem/art piece “Remembering You”, a memory of and tribute to Conces’ sister Barbara. The triptych is scheduled for inclusion in the Archive in 2006.
Her landscape fantasy “Fenceline” was selected to represent the Houston Heights Association’s 2005 Spring Home Tour. Later in the year, she joined Archway Gallery, Houston’s oldest and most established artists cooperative, the 17th Fine Art, a collective of contemporary artists, and Church Street Gallery of Rockport, a new gallery in the coastal town of Rockport, Texas.
A painting trip to Mexico has resulted in Conces’ signing with Art and Philanthropy, a gallery in the seaside resort Punta Mita, which straddles the landpoint at which the beautiful Bay of Banderas rejoins the Pacific Ocean. Her artwork will be available in the gallery early in March, 2006.
In the fall of 2005, Conces was commissioned to paint a mural for New/Nuevo Heights, an education outreach program, at a local church. Past commissions include the 1998 major public commission for the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The principal piece "Herald" salutes the urgency and sometimes the triumph of the work completed behind the scenes by medical researchers. In all, the commission consists of three paintings, parallels of artistic process and scientific exploration. The pieces are installed in the research division of the Center.
A product designer for over ten years, Conces designed an internationally marketed line of infant apparel and accessory items. She was Art Director for Little Feet Industries, which manufactured licensed products for Gerber Childrenswear, Gerber Products Division, Binky, SanRio, Crayola and the World Wildlife Fund. Conces created, licensed and owns copyrights to over one hundred published infant designs.
Her illustrations have also been commissioned and published by numerous clients, including upscale Houston restaurant Charley's 517, the Wentletrap Restaurant at the Tremont Hotel and Luigi's on the Strand (both in Galveston) and the Houston Galleria. She most recently illustrated “The World of Deaf Infants”, published by Oxford University Press in 2004. She is developing two children’s illustrated books which include her own poetry and writing.
Throughout her career, Conces has been active in art education. A Winant Clayton Volunteer in 1975, she developed and supervised a summer art program for 300 underprivileged children in London. She taught at Houston's St. Thomas High School and Incarnate Word Academy, developing curriculae for both schools. She has conducted continuing education classes and seminars for the Museum of Fine Arts - Houston, the University of St. Thomas, St. Luke's United Methodist Church, and the City of Richardson, Texas. In 1999, Conces and the Wesley House, a community outpost of the United Methodist Church, received project funding from the Cultural Arts Council/ Houston for her afterschool art program for underprivileged youth. She now teaches art in inner-city schools for City Artworks, a non-profit enrichment program, and at Project Row Houses in a program funded by the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts. In 2005, she joined the staff of Young Audiences of Houston.
In 1996, she cofounded the White Oak Artists Collective. During a seven-year exhibition period at the Firehouse in Houston’s Heights area, the group contributed funding to charitable and educational organizations in addition to showcasing Texas artists. Beneficiaries of donations to date have been local chapters of the Girl Scouts, the Houston Heights Association, the Greater Houston Education Project, St. Thomas High School and Parents as Care Managers, Inc.
Conces has worked in the advertising industry since 1996 until the present. She was Broadcast Production Coordinator for McCann-Erickson Southwest until 2000, when she joined J. Walter Thompson/Houston (JWT) as Broadcast Business Manager.
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| 206 Main Street | Marble Falls, Texas, 78654 | 830.693.5973 phone | janey@jspacegallery.com Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 11-5 or by appointment |