SHERMAN — The Austin College Department of Art and Art History is hosting an exhibit by one of its own. Professor of Art Tim Tracz’s “Real Portraits” are on display in the Johnson Gallery of the Wright Campus Center through December 11. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Tracz, Craig Professor in the Arts and a member of the Austin College faculty since 1986, teaches photography and digital imaging. The photographs in the exhibit are parts of three distinct bodies of work from three periods of past image making, he explained. “In all the imagery I am interested in taking advantage of the photograph’s generally accepted capacity to be telling truths. I am also taking advantage of the photographer’s ability to control that truth to portray a highly particular ‘reality.’”

The exhibit includes color prints, black and white portraits, and digital collages. “The color prints are the oldest, and the most recent, due to the fact that these “social landscapes” continue to interest me since their inception nearly 30 years ago,” Tracz said. “The black and white portraits evolved from the color work. The digital “portrait collages” had their inception most recently, and sprung from my desire to merge portrait and environment in seemingly unlikely, or unusual, ways—but with the added feature of controlling temporal context as well as spatial.

“Real Portraits” also will be displayed at Texas A & M International University’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Gallery in Laredo, Texas, in spring 2010.

Tracz earned a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Fine Arts degree at Tyler School of Art. His work has been included in solo and group exhibitions across the United States. His work also has been included in various publications and he has served as juror for many juried exhibits.

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges that Change Lives.