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In Memoriam - Artist Damian Priour

Austin, Texas, artist, Damian Priour, best known for his elegant sculptures created from limestone and glass, passed away on September 15 at age 61 after a long battle with cancer. A seventh generation Texan, Priour was born on Padre Island, where the Gulf tides and weather became an influence on his artistic career. In the 1970s Priour made his first sculpture from fossil-laced native Texas limestone and glass. Priour writes, “In my sculpture, glass becomes a metaphor for water. It alternatively pools in rivulets and in powerful current flows that join together to carve up immense slabs of limestone.”

Priour received a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin in 1972 and completed studies in design at the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. His work has been exhibited and collected throughout the world, including the Corning Museum of Glass; Columbus Museum of Art; Blanton Art Museum, Austin; City of Austin Convention Center; Corpus Christi International Airport; and Charles A. Wastum Museum of Fine Arts, Wisconsin. It is in the corporate collections at McDonald’s World Headquarters and Equitable Company, New York; as well as private collections. He has taught classes at the Pilchuck Glass School and Centro del Art in Monterrey, Mexico.

Damian, who collected chairs, created The Texas Chair Project in 2007, a unique artist exchange. Priour created 100 miniature chairs using his signature combination of glass and limestone and mailed them to fellow artists throughout Texas, inviting each artist to design their own chair to be returned to him in the same 8 x 8 x 8 inch box in which his gift was sent. The project garnered an overwhelming response; Priour received 80 chairs from his colleagues—such as Kate Breakey, David Hesser, Sara Hickman, Jesus Moroles, Margo Sawyer, Bob Schneider, James Surls, Sydney Yeager, The Art Guys, and 71 more. The Texas Chair Project went on exhibit at the Austin Museum of Art in 2009.

Priour is survived by his wife, Paula, and three children. For more information, click here

| Posted 11 Sep 15

 
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