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Fort Works Art will present Inside a Thought, the debut solo exhibition of Fort Worth artist Wes Coke, opening September 19th during Fort Worth Fall Gallery Night.Coke’s paintings begin with the human figure but are less concerned with depicting a specific story than with creating a space for observation. The exhibition takes its title from this interior space; not a particular thought or prescribed perspective, but the experience of being somewhere within one. Coke leaves his paintings deliberately unresolved, allowing the relationship between figure, space and viewer to remain open.
Coke’s background in bronze sculpture at the University of North Texas informs his attention to the figure and to the physical structure of a composition. Bodies may anchor an image, recede into the surrounding space, or become one element within a larger visual field. Scale, balance, and negative space shape how each painting is experienced without dictating a single interpretation.
“What struck me about Wes’s work is the confidence in what he leaves unresolved. The result is a body of work that can feel calm while carrying an underlying sense of tension.
EXHIBITION DETAILS:
On View: September 19 – October 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 6–9 PM
Fort Works Art | 2100 Montgomery Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107
About the Artist:
Wes Coke is a Fort Worth–based figurative oil painter whose professional artistic practice began in 2018 through commissioned sculpture and creative work for private clients. A graduate of the University of North Texas, where he studied bronze sculpture, Coke brought that understanding of the human form into painting when he began working in oils in 2020. Since then, Coke has developed a distinctly figurative practice centered on the human experience, moving between realism and more expressive approaches to explore gesture, atmosphere, and the moments that exist between action and reflection. His work reflects the evolution of an artist who began in three dimensions and found a new language for the figure on canvas. He lives and works in Fort Worth with his wife and daughter.
About Fort Works Art:
Fort Works Art is committed to bringing life, vitality, and energy to the art scene in Fort Worth, TX. They are a resource for both seasoned collectors and the everyday individual. Existing somewhere between a gallery, a cultural center, an event space, and a museum, Fort Works Art exists to create the development of cross-disciplinary cultural programming that reinforces Fort Worth's emergence as a major creative force.
About Gallery of Dreams:
Gallery of Dreams exists to champion contemporary artists and spark creative experiences for positive community impact. We envision a community where contemporary artists and an engaged public enhance their creative capacity through relevant, diverse, and accessible experiences and conversations. It exists as a space in the Fort Worth community to bring together a diverse range of people to address cultural, political, and other relevant experiences that affect our daily and future individual existence.
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