of local artists Hardy Allen, 

Zymora Eikner and Daniel Tesfai.

The exhibition opens January 21, and a reception will be held Saturday, January 22, from 3 to 5 p.m. at The Collective. The exhibition continues through February 26.

Many of Eikner’s paintings reflect her fond memories of spending time on her grandpa’s tobacco farm in Virginia and scenes of wheat fields with mountains in the background. The retired public school teacher plans to paint even more memories when she gets settled in her new home in a local senior facility.

“A 4” Christmas poinsettia in an 8” pot that I nurtured for four years grew into a plant as high as my house,” she said.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t survive the freeze last year,” she lamented, “but I have a photograph that I can use to paint it.”

Allen’s highly detailed art, rendered in charcoal and graphite, recalls significant scenes from his boyhood and family. Allen, also retired, studied under John Biggers at Texas Southern University for one year and is grateful for what he learned. Biggers encouraged him to pay attention to details and to invest the time in creating his piece.

“Biggers said that we could all paint the same picture, but each would be different. It means to me that no other artist can do what I do,” Allen explained.

The youngest of the trio, Tesfai, a lifelong artist, studied art at TSU. His acrylic on canvas paintings speak to the gentrification of cultures that don’t easily survive our western civilization.

“Some cultures are being swallowed,” he said, “and we dismiss them because we don’t understand them. Art is a medium which gives those cultures a voice and the hope to live on.”