Window Dressing XLVIII Diana Sexton: Water for Dead Tulips
Exhibition Dates: September 15 - 21, 2025 (visible 24 hours/day)
Artist Reception: Friday, September 19th, 7-9pm
Diana Sexton creates complex multi-media installations that combine elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, video, and action art in order to explore ideas of connection and meaning- making. Deeply rooted in the discipline of semiotics, Sexton’s interest in meaning-making is largely concerned with the imperfect conversions between the realms of experience, memory, and communication. The present installation works serve as a multi-disciplinary experimentation in language construction, aiming to synthesize an artistic language capable of expressing deeply personal elements of the human experience. Sexton’s installations are centered around large-scale abstract paintings, in which raw canvas serves as a field for vibrant color and urgent mark-making. Successive layers of paint testify to the organic development of the painting, mimicking the ongoing confluence of experience and memory, while various drips, splatters, drawn marks and sgraffito echo the physical presence of the artist in motion. Surrounding the paintings are frameworks of assemblage sculpture, made from found objects and recycled materials that introduce a subtle language of surface, form, and accumulated history. The delicate process of assembling these installations, which requires the careful balancing and stacking of objects and paintings together, creates a temporal dimension to the work. Sexton uses the forces of gravity and friction as mediums with which to create a continuous tension, inviting the viewer to engage with the work as still-present action rather than a static object. Sexton’s work, as a result of an intentionally intuitive and stubbornly personal process, stands as a rejection of the ideas of superficial connection and relational performativity. Instead, the work presents a sense of raw-edged confessionalism that aims only for deep, authentic connection.
Bio
Diana Sexton is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker working in Austin, TX. Sexton received her Associate of Arts from Austin Community College and is currently completing her BFA in painting at Texas State University. Her work has been shown in galleries across central Texas, including McLennon Pen Co. Gallery, Lockhart Post Gallery, Throughline Gallery, and the FL3X Space at Texas State University, and she has won several awards for her work. When not on set or in the studio, she can be found reading, playing with her cats, or dangling from a trapeze.
Exhibition Dates: September 15 - 21, 2025
Artist Reception: Friday, September 19, 7-9pm
Exhibition is viewable 24 hours/day
ICOSA Collective Gallery
916 Springdale Rd, Bldg 2, #102, Austin, TX 78702
www.icosacollective.com
dianasextonart.com
Instagram: @leviathansweaters
Image: Window Dressing I, Gabel Karsten
About
Window Dressing highlights the work of new members, emerging, local, and underrepresented artists with short-run shows on view while the main gallery is closed for installation. Window Dressing artists will explore the potential of our storefront window space, experimenting with the possibilities of limitation. Exhibitions are on view 24/7 through the gallery’s front glass.
Would you like to apply for a Window Dressing Show?
We are always accepting WD proposals and our committee meets twice a year to determine scheduling.
Selection Process
Your application will be kept on file for one year. Applicants will be made aware that they may be considered for an ICOSA exhibition at any point for one year following the submission of their application.
How to Apply
Please email the following to info@icosacolective.com with “Window Dressing Proposal” in the title:
Proposal
CV
Portfolio website URL
Three images of your work
*Incomplete applications will not be considered
Questions?
Contact us at info@icosacollective.com