Presented by FieldGuide Financial
January 9 - February 22, 2026
McKelvey Charitable Fund Gallery
Reception Saturday, January 10th 5-7PM
B. Shawn Cox - Mixed-Media, Painting, Drawing and Installation
Hanging by a Moment, presented by FieldGuide Financial continues B Shawn Cox’s ongoing exploration of perception, imbalance and cultural subtext. Earlier work requires the viewer to move past or physically engage with the work to perceive unique moments and fragmented images using a lenticular printing process that captures multiple images in one work. These challenge a viewer to capture an understanding by physically passing by the work. The Moment is illusive as the viewer never really can pin down a singular moment in the work. In the newer pieces, Cox celebrates a frozen instant just before or just after inevitability —this exhibition narrows its focus to the fragile space of now.
The title speaks to suspension and an effort to understand an in-between. To be hanging by a moment is to exist without guarantees or definite perceptions. Cox draws on his ranching childhood to create a central metaphor: the idea of being bucked off—thrown from certainty, routine, or control. Rather than dramatizing the fall, the work dwells on what follows the “buck”…the choice to stay present instead of rushing toward dread or from regret is most illusive.
Using ballpoint pen on mylar, the figures are the sum of a hatching process which in itself is a mediative exercise. This approach echoes earlier shows where Cox investigated perception and meaning, but here the message is quieter, introspective and more intimate. The work asks what it means to remain awake inside instability. How does one recognize that the moment after losing footing can also be a place of clarity? There is a somber, quiet essence in these pieces.
Living in the moment in this context, is not a simply a slogan or meme—it is a necessity. When you’ve been bucked off, the future can feel illusive and the past too heavy to carry. While we can choose to distortedly walk on by or celebrate and own these moments in life. The only control that remains is internal. Hanging by a Moment honors that state of awareness suggesting that presence itself can be a form of balance. Meaning is often found not in control, but in the courage to own what is happening in the instant of now.
Austin-based multimedia artist B. Shawn Cox mines his West Texas ranching roots to create vivid, pattern-rich portraits that both celebrate and question iconic Western imagery. Working in oil, lenticular prints, and mixed media, Cox layers floral fabrics, bold color, and graphic pattern over archetypal cowboys, cowgirls, and other familiar figures, offering witty yet poignant commentary on nostalgia, identity, and American social mythology. FORT WORKS ART+2The Commerce Gallery+2
His work has been widely exhibited and collected across the United States in both private and corporate collections, informed by his background in architecture and law and an evolving studio practice of more than three decades. The Commerce Gallery+2Dimmitt Contemporary Art+2
Paper constructions
Repurposed printed materials are deconstructed, transformed into constructs with insights of narriatives of social subtext, literal subtext and palimpsest.
Duality Icons
Adapting lenticular technology, appropriated and adulterated figurative iconography playfully challenge learned constructs as well as social and personal mythology.
Mixed Media Painting
Exploring deconstructed portraiture of western and the nostalgic past Intertwining predetermined feminine and masculine elements, floral and hard graphic elements as well as unexpected colors and patterns.