Lawndale Art Center Exhibition
The Big Show is an ambitious open-call juried competition of artists practicing within a 100-mile radius of Lawndale.
This year's juror, Valerie Cassel Oliver @casseloliver reviewed over 1,000 entries to select 105 works by 93 artists.
The Big Show 2026
Lawndale Art & Performance Center
Friday, June 12 7 - 9 PM
On view through August 15!
Galleries are open Wednesdays-Saturdays from 11 AM - 5 PM, with some closures on holidays, please check our website.
Valerie Cassel Oliver is the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Prior to her position at the VMFA, she was Senior Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston where she began in 2000. Cassel Oliver holds an Executive MBA from Columbia University, New York; an M.A. in Art History from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and a B.S. in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Beyond her curatorial endeavors, she has previously worked in the field as a Program Officer at the National Endowment for the Arts (1988-95) and as Director of the Visiting Artists Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1995-2000).
The Big Show 2026 media sponsor is @glasstire
My name is Tre Bruce Thurston III, a Houston based artist creating without limits. I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Art has always been natural to me not something I chose, just something I’ve always done. It’s how I think, how I process, and how I express what can’t always be said out loud.
I work in all mediums I feel creativity isn’t meant to be boxed in. Some ideas come out as portraits, some as abstract, some as surreal, it all depends on the feeling behind the piece. My work is expressive, raw, and real. Every piece is a reflection of life, emotion, and the world around me. I’m inspired by life itself. Experiences, people, energy, struggle, growth.
It all becomes part of my work and progress. Art, to me, is more than just something to look at. It’s something to feel.