The Meadows Museum, SMU, announces that Du Chau has won the 2024 Moss/Chumley North Texas Artist Award. The award is given annually to an outstanding North Texas artist who has exhibited professionally for at least 10 years and has established a proven track record as a community advocate for the visual arts. The award brings a $3,000 cash prize.
Chau is a Dallas-based ceramic installation artist whose work is inspired by childhood memories and organic patterns. The repetition seen in his abstracted works signifies reoccurring memories and their importance. Utilizing clay and piano wire, Chau says his work “is anchored by allusions to fruit, herbs, and berries, deeply significant to his relationship with his parents and Vietnamese heritage.”
Du Chau has curated more than 50 national and international exhibitions. He is a co-founder of Goldmark Cultural Center and was essential in transforming Dallas office buildings into studio spaces. Chau has played a pivotal role in bringing resident artists to Goldmark Cultural Center and he helped create the Anthony Okonofua International Artist Residency. Additionally, Chau has led several artist lectures, talks, and workshops both nationally and internationally.
“I am deeply grateful to the jury for choosing me to receive the 2024 Moss/Chumley Award,” Chau said. “This recognition is a profound honor, affirming my artistic path. I remain steadfast in my dedication to furthering the art world and supporting fellow artists.”
Chau’s works have been exhibited in several museums and galleries across the United States, including the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX; the Fodsick Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY; and Reeves House Visual Arts Center, Woodstock, GA. His works are housed in the collections of the Alfred Art Ceramic Museum, Alfred, NY; the University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX; and various other institutions. Chau’s work has been recognized with international residencies, including the 2017 NCECA International Residency Award and the 2016 Ceramics Residencies Exhibitions Teaching & the Arts (CRETA) Foundation residency. He was also a Visiting Scholar at the University of Port Harcourt and Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria in 2019.
Ashlyn Lee, assistant registrar for the Meadows Museum and jury member, stated, “Chau’s unwavering dedication to the North Texas art community is epitomized by his development of the Goldmark Cultural Center, which provides affordable artist studios to over 170 artists, as well as Chau’s profound impact in teaching emerging students at Dallas College’s Brookhaven campus for over two decades. Chau’s remarkable contributions exemplify the spirit of artistic excellence and community engagement that the Moss/Chumley Award celebrates.”
The jury for the 2024 Moss/Chumley Award included Lee, as noted above; Vicki Meek, 2023 Moss/Chumley recipient; artist and educator Jessica Baldivieso; Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief, PATRON Magazine Terri Provencal; educator, artist, change advocate & arts administrator Dr. Marta M. Torres; the Meadows Museum’s Cristina Aldrich and Olivia Turner.
Moss/Chumley Memorial Fund and Artist Award
The Moss/Chumley Memorial Fund was created in 1989 by Frank Moss and the Meadows Museum as a tribute to Jim Chumley; Moss’s name was added to the fund upon his death in 1991. Moss and Chumley were two Dallas art dealers who made outstanding contributions to the visual arts in North Texas during the 1980s. The pair operated the Nimbus Gallery on Routh Street from 1980 to 1987 and the Moss/Chumley Gallery at the Crescent Court from 1986 to 1989, where they showcased numerous new artists.
Established in 1995, the Moss/Chumley Artist Award is given in their memory. The award—which carries a cash prize of $3,000—is open to artists working in any medium who live in one of the eleven North Texas counties: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise.
Past recipients include Vicki Meek, Tamara Johnson, Alicia Eggert, Bernardo Vallarino, Carolyn Sortor, Giovanni Valderas, Sedrick Huckaby, Annette Lawrence, Darryl Lauster, Christopher Blay, Stephen Lapthisophon, Frances Bagley, Isabelle du Toit, Juliette McCullough, David McCullough, Noah Simblist, Catherine Chauvin, Ludwig Schwarz, Janet Tyson, David Dreyer, Marie Van Arsdale, Sherry Owens, Kaleta Doolin, David Hickman, Tracy Hicks, Mary Vernon, Marilyn Waligore, Susan Kae Grant, and Bob Nunn.
About the Meadows Museum
The Meadows Museum is the leading U.S. institution focused on studying and presenting the art of Spain. In 1962, Dallas businessman and philanthropist Algur H. Meadows donated his private collection of Spanish paintings and funds to start a museum at Southern Methodist University. The museum opened to the public in 1965, marking the first step in fulfilling Meadows’s vision to create “a small Prado for Texas.” Today, the Meadows is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain. The collection spans from the 10th to the 21st centuries and includes medieval objects, Renaissance and Baroque sculptures, and major paintings by Golden Age and modern masters.
