FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arte Gallery presents Contours in Conversation

Featuring Jean Frater, Paola Gracida, and Manuel Anton
December 5, 2026–February 6, 2027

DALLAS, TX — November 2026 — Arte Gallery is pleased to present Contours in Conversation, a group exhibition featuring Jean Frater, Paola Gracida, and Anton. On view from December 5, 2026, through February 6, 2027, the exhibition brings together painting and sculpture in an exploration of line, color, shape, and material.

Centered on Frater’s fluid abstract paintings, Contours in Conversation pairs expressive, evolving forms with Anton’s measured geometric compositions and Gracida’s refined contemporary ceramics. Together, the artists create a visual exchange between movement and structure, vibrant color and quiet restraint, surface and sculptural form.

Jean Frater expands the language of painting through works that treat canvas as a physical, malleable material rather than a flat image. Through folding, cutting, layering, weaving, and manipulating painted canvas, Frater produces sculptural compositions shaped by ripples, grids, stripes, and shifting color. Her work moves fluidly between painting, textile, and object, allowing gesture and material transformation to define each work’s rhythm and presence.

Anton’s geometric compositions introduce a counterpoint of structure and clarity. Through considered arrangements of shape, line, and color, the works create moments of visual order that both contrast with and respond to the fluidity of Frater’s surfaces. The dialogue between the artists’ paintings invites viewers to consider how abstraction can hold both spontaneity and control.

Paola Gracida extends this exchange into three dimensions through ceramic sculptures that examine adaptability, transformation, gravity, and resilience. Her refined forms test the limits of clay while holding a quiet tension between permanence and change. Gracida’s work introduces a tactile, architectural dimension to the exhibition, expanding the conversation from painted surface into physical space.

“Contours in Conversation brings together three distinct approaches to abstraction, each revealing how line, color, and material can become expressive forms of language,” says the curator. “Jean Frater’s sculptural paintings, Manuel Anton’s measured geometric compositions, and Paola Gracida’s ceramic works create a dynamic exchange between movement and restraint, surface and volume, precision and intuition.”

Installed together, the exhibition emphasizes the relationships that emerge across mediums: a painted line becomes a folded edge, a geometric plane finds an echo in ceramic volume, and color shifts from visual sensation to material presence. Contours in Conversation invites visitors to experience abstraction as an active exchange—one shaped by touch, structure, transformation, and the continually changing possibilities of form.

Exhibition information

Exhibition: Contours in Conversation
Artists: Jean Frater, Paola Gracida, and Manuel Anton
On view: December 5, 2026–February 6, 2027
Opening reception: Saturday, December 5, 2026, 5–8 p.m.
Location: Arte Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Website: artegallery.co
Press and sales inquiries: juan@artegallery.co | 469.401.0611