Marliyn Jolly

Big Empty Head

August 25 - November 18, 2018

Arlington Museum of Art

Arlington, Texas.

Images courtesy Paul Jolly

Big Empty Head occurs on the occasion of Jolly’s retirement as painting department head at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she taught for 23 years. Featuring all recent work, the exhibition presents drawing, painting, and sculptural assemblage that explore themes relating to impermanence, cycles of the seasons, and the awkwardness and uncertainty of being an imperfect being.

Installation images coming soon.

My catalog essay for the exhibition can be read here.

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Marilyn Jolly lives in Dallas, Texas. She earned her MFA in Painting at the University of Oklahoma in 1983. She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but spent her childhood in a number of states and foreign countries as an “Army brat”. This nomadic childhood influenced her thinking in appreciation of different cultures and points of view. 

Her work has been exhibited in numerous regional, national and international exhibitions including one-person and two-person exhibitions at the Centro Cultural Paraguayo-Americano, Asuncion, Paraguay in 2004 and 2005, the Santa Reparata International School of Art, Florence, Italy in 2007 and 2004 and in group exhibitions at the Painting Center in New York City in 2004 and Centro Cultural Tomasa Valdes, Mexico City in 2001. She has had one-person exhibitions at the Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas, Handley Hicks Gallery, Fort Worth, Texas, the Leslie Powell Gallery in Lawton, Oklahoma, Conduit Gallery and June Mattingly Gallery in Dallas, Texas, Mainsite Gallery, Norman, Oklahoma, a three-person exhibition at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center and two-person exhibition at the Haggerty Gallery, University of Dallas, Irving, Texas in 2011 and a three-person exhibition at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, Texas in 2012. 

She has shown in group exhibitions at the Irving Arts Center, Irving, Texas, Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, Texas, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, Women and Their Work, Austin, Texas, D W Gallery, Dallas, Texas, Ventura College, Ventura, California and the Univ. of Wisconsin, Whitewater, Wisconsin. She is an Associate Professor of Painting at the University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas. Jolly's work is included in the collections of the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas, The Belo Corporation, Dallas, Texas, Southern Progress Corporation, Birmingham, Alabama, Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christie, Texas, Dr. Gilberto Cardenas, Institute for Latino Studies- Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana and in the university collection at the University of  Texas at Arlington.