Say howdy to Halles Art Barn, a creative space making its Round Top debut during the 2025 Winter Antiques & Design Show.
Say howdy to a creative space making its Round Top debut during the 2025 Winter Antiques & Design Show. Halles Art Barn finds its home in Halle 9, one of the numerous vendor spaces at beloved Round Top venue The Halles.
The new gallery, directed by Round Top Show Guide’s Candice Cowin, is split between a pair of artistic entities: Steve Wrubel Collection and Texas Artists Today. The former will showcase a permanent installation of the noted Dallas photographer’s bronc-bustin’ Rodeo series. The latter, curated by PaperCity executive editor Catherine D. Anspon, will rotate exhibitions every two months.
Let’s dive deeper into Halles Art Barn.
California-raised and “Texas-braised,” Steve Wrubel spent 25 years in fine art and commercial photography before shifting to a career capturing images of his passion: the American Rodeo.
Wrubel’s work is part photographic and part surgical, taking the subjects of his images and superimposing them onto separate backdrops using digital techniques. In the artist’s Rodeo series, images of cowboys on bucking broncos are removed from the familiar backgrounds of cheering crowds, and recontextualized against rolling country plains and blue skies. With vibrant colors and remarkable clarity, these reimagined photos reveal “the beautiful dance that until now has remained hidden in the raucous nature of the sport,” reads a statement on the artist’s website.
Steve Wrubel’s “Cheyenne,” 2024, will be at Halles Art Barn: Steve Wrubel Collection
Steve Wrubel’s “Rio with Clouds,” 2024, will be at Halles Art Barn: Steve Wrubel Collection
Steve Wrubel’s “Rocker,” 2024, will be at Halles Art Barn: Steve Wrubel Collection
Steve Wrubel’s “Kaycee Field,” 2024, will be at Halles Art Barn: Steve Wrubel Collection
Steve Wrubel’s “Aurora,” 2024, will be at Halles Art Barn: Steve Wrubel Collection
Wrubel turned his focus toward the American Rodeo beginning in the summer of 2019, photographing ranches and national rodeo events including the Riggin’ Rally, the Gold Buckle Knockout, and the National Finals Rodeo. His quests have taken him through Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington — putting tens of thousands of miles on his Ford pick up truck on the way.
“I always have my camera in the passenger seat, ready to capture landscapes and dynamic cloud formations, which I sometimes use for the backgrounds in my art.” Wrubel said in a 2022 interview with PaperCity. “The drive is all part of it. I can’t imagine flying from state to state and town to town rather than driving every mile — looking, smelling, feeling, and touching the land and sky that is the American West.”
“Driving that land from state to state … allows me to feel a tiny bit of what the cowboys feel as they drive from city to city looking for those belt buckles. I think that’s an important part of understanding the look and feel of the culture I am striving to capture.”
The other half of Halles Art Barn is home to Texas Artists Today. The gallery is named after curator Catherine D. Anspon’s 2010 book of the same name, a survey of 62 leading contemporary talents in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. Texas Artists Today will introduce a new artist to Round Top every two months.
See Steve Wrubel Collection and Texas Artists Today at Halles Art Barn, The Halles, 1465 N. Texas Highway 237. More on The Halles here and here.
