B.S. Houston Art Blog

New @ the temporary space.

2010-04-01T16:19:00.000-05:00

Hello,

Hope this announcement sounds interesting to you to visit new exhibition at the temporary space.
Please take a brief look at the announcement here.
Or you can also visit the temporary space website for more details about the project and the temporary space.
Hope you can come to enjoy the exhibition on April 9, 7 pm - 10 pm!
looking forward to seeing you! Please spread the words out, if you can! This will be very interesting exhibition!!!

Here is the press release:

Press release-

Emergent Behavior: Project for a Houston Biennial

Opening reception: Friday April 9, 7 pm – 10 pm

On View: April 9 – April 25, 2010 by appointment only

the temporary space

1320 Nance Street

Houston, TX 77002

832-867-9207

www.thetemporaryspace.com

manager@thetemporaryspace.com

This exhibition presents a project for an imagined Houston Biennial of contemporary art curated by participants in Raphael Rubinstein's Virtual Curating course at the University of Houston School of Art. This virtual biennial includes 52 international artists working in a variety of mediums.

The title "Emergent Behavior" is borrowed from systems theory in which it is used to describe a phenomenon of independent parts working together, and not predictable on the basis of their properties. An emergent behavior can appear when a number of simple entities operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective.

Unlike many biennial exhibitions that begin with a predetermined curatorial theme, the artists in this show were selected through an empirical process. Over the course of several months the curators refined a selection that includes established artists who have created significant new bodies of work within the last two years as well as younger recently emerged artists. Much of the work in the exhibition involves the scavenging of social detritus. This can be seen, for instance, in the drawings of Aurel Schmidt, the paintings of Mark Flood, and the videos of Cameron Jamie as well as in the work of seminal figures such as Mike Kelley and Jacques de la Villeglé. The exhibition also focuses groups of younger artists working in Iran and Houston.

The presentation at The Temporary Space will involve not the actual works of art, but diagrammatic representation of works by each of the artists in the exhibition. In addition to the physical installation, the Emergent Behavior project can be viewed at www.houstonbiennial.com.

Curators: Danilo Bojic, Michelle Chen, Jeremy Deprez, Sebastian Foray, Jason Giroux, Chuck Ivy, Brittney Ragsdale, M'kina Tapscott, Tala Vahabzadeh

Press Releeeaze

2010-03-25T08:36:00.002-05:00

PERFORMANCE ART HOUSTON ART EXHIBITION BRINGS TOGETHER NEW PERFORMANCE ART FROM YOUNG EMERGING HOUSTON ARTISTS

PERFORMANCE ART HOUSTON curated by Julia Wallace
March 27, 2010, 8:00-10:00pm (one night only), free
El Rincon Social, 3210 Preston, Houston, Tx 77003

Houston, Texas, March 5, 2010- Performance Art Houston, an art exhibition curated by Julia Wallace, presents new performance-based work from young, Houston performance artists on March 27, 2010 at the alternative art space, El Rincon Social. The exhibition will include a number of live art pieces, interactive art experiences, and performance based video art.
The pieces are being presented here in a traditional art exhibition for the first time. Many of the works were originally created for various alternative art events. Most of the pieces were created for Performance Art Night, a monthly event at Notsuoh, that has become notorious for its shocking, provocative, yet often touching performances, often invoking the criticism that this is not art. Performance Art Houston will bring these shocking, provocative and touching pieces together and place them in the context of an art exhibition.

Artists include: Patrick O’Brien Doyle, Jacob Calle, Travis Kerschen, NICKTEEL, Brian and Stevie McCord, Aisen Caro Chacin, Bethany Fort, Sway Youngston, Julia Claire Wallace, John Zambrano, Emily Sloan, John Richie and Melanie Jamison. The exhibition includes works that explore the shocking, intimate, sexual, provocative, simple and spiritual.

Patrick O’Brien Doyle will be showing two conceptual interactive pieces that use participants as a medium to create art pieces. Jacob Calle has created shocking video of his “stunts” including drinking and vomiting his own blood. Bethany Fort will perform a piece in which she destroys a designer bag, using its pieces to create multiple wearable items for attendees. Sway Youngston has created a dramatic movement exploring human relationships. John Zambrano will collaborate with local musicians for an expletive laced vocal piece. Aisen Caro Chacin has created an interactive video piece, in which audience members are invited under a giant sheet. Julia Claire Wallace will present performance based video work that shares her quest for spiritual understanding through sometimes shocking means, such as urination and masturbation. She will also do a live interactive performance exploring sex and pride. John Richie will give a passionate speech imploring attendees to vote him as the next World Emperor. Melanie Jamison will enlist the help of attendees to create a participatory sound piece. Travis Kerschen will share video projection piece. Brian and Stevie McCord will have live sex during the exhibition in the privacy of a white “fuck box”. Daniel Adame will share a slow piece, using his breath to inflate a large bag around his head.

About the Curator- Julia Claire Wallace is a young Houston Performance Artist, recently graduated from the University of Houston with her BFA in Painting. She made her first exciting television debut as the ‘soda specialist’ in Wayne Dolcefino’s Houston Art expose. She is one of the founding members of sexyATTACK, Houston’s favorite guerrilla surprise dance piece. She served as a facilitator for Performance Art Lab, Houston’s most mischievous art collective. Wallace is also the creator and curator of Performance Art Night, a monthly performance art event. Please visit the Performance Art Houston Blog located at www.performancearthouston.blogspot.com

Press Contact- Julia Wallace, 832-317-5185 juliaintherye@aol.com.

Directions- El Rincon Social is located at 3210 Preston (between Roberts and Velasco Street)

Melange is opening Monday!!!

2010-03-05T15:34:00.000-06:00

Winners Paint Bridges (Video)

2010-02-17T18:45:00.001-06:00

Winners Paint Bridges (Video)
Originally uploaded by DerekShumate

The New Temporary

2010-02-08T17:19:00.001-06:00

- Genesis by Terry Suprean
- Vince Shlomi's Bidden Tongueby PERSUASION
- Planed Debris: Texas Noise and Ambient (environment #2)
organized by Chin Xaou Ti Won

the temporary space
1320 Nance
Saturday, February 13th, 7 pm – 11:30 pm
Performance begins at 8 pm
thetemporaryspace.com

the temporary space is pleased to announce their 2nd exhibition project, a collaboration with Chin Xaou Ti Won. Our series of collaborative exhibition projects focuses on visual and experimental engagements; #2 features installations, experimental sound, performance and special projects.

Genesis is a group of multi-faceted works by Houston artist Terry Suprean. Suprean investigates his personal relationship with his father as a discussion of the symbolic presence of “god” in patriarchal society.

Vince Shlomi’s Bidden Tongue is a video assemblage work by curatorial collaborative PERSUASION.

Planed Debris: Texas Noise and Ambient (environment #2) will feature 7 experimental music bands selected by Chin Xaou Ti Won. Planed Debris spotlights ambient, drone and noise musicians creating sound collages and musical environments. Artists include: Zer0-sum, Concrete Violin, Endless Blinding Sunshine, Chin Xaou Ti Won, Bret Shirley, T.E.F and Bonus.

+ Review and critique session will be scheduled for further critical engaging discussions. Please inquire @ thetemporaryspace.com

Temporary Persuasion

2010-01-06T18:40:00.001-06:00

Michael Dee, Song of Myself, still from dvd loop, 2008

Michael Dee, Here it Comes Again, still from dvd loop, 2005

Persuasion
January 15, 2010
8-10 pm
the Temporary Space
1320 Nance, Houston, TX 77002

About Persuasion:

Hybrid Moments:
“When new creatures rape your face
Hybrids open up the door.”>

We will be displaying works by various artists according to a system of self-applied rules and limitations.

First of all, no begging from corporations, individuals, or institutions.
Begging has put art in a sorry place.
For that reason, original works are de-prioritized. Multiples, copies and bootlegs are ok.
cf., Walter Benjamin “Art in the age of Mechanical Bull-riding.”

We take courage in the samizdat tradition of self-published literature during the Soviet and other totalitarian regimes.

Is this Hell freezing over?

2009-12-09T13:02:00.003-06:00

'cause that frost last week wasn't the end of it...

N [pronounced nnn] gallery debuts its first exhibition Cooler than Usual of frozen works by twelve local artists.

The gallery is a new 3.8 cubic feet at 0°C exhibition space conceived of to provide artists with a colder and smaller venue for experimental exhibition.

Cooler than Usual is a diverse of group of works specifically created to be exhibited in this unconventional space.

Daniel Adame
Elia Arce
Hagit Barkai
Claudia Cruz
Nancy Douthey
Ian Fernandez
Haden Garret
Jack Hukill
Melanie Jamison
Gary Parkins
Jon Read
Tyson Urich

Curated by Aisen Caro Chacin

View Larger Map

Join us for a warm opening reception
8:00 PM
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
N
Apartment 2’s freezer,
2005 Vermont St.,
Houston, TX, 77019.

The exhibition will be on view through December 23, 2009 by appointment.

www.Nfreezer.blogspot.com

Fuck Yeah

2009-12-07T17:14:00.000-06:00

New Work By Jack

Project Gallery

Friday, December 11th

6-10 p.m
the joanna

4014 Graustark, Houston

713.825.1803

That's the Good Shit

2009-12-03T21:31:00.001-06:00

Frankly, I Don't Give A Damn

2009-11-30T13:17:00.002-06:00

What do Wayne Dolchefino and rancid leftovers have in common?

They're both unwelcome finds a week after Thanksgiving.

Donald Lipski (photoshopped, not really there)

Wayne Dolcefino (aka Dolcefinko) has a penchant for taking on the artworld in late fall. What can explain his perennial Houston Art Alliance bashing that sprung up last year? At first it seemed like an easy target, a populist lashing of an intellectual group known for muddying the waters of progress. Then it looked like a limited-government outburst, lamenting money being spent on art in such a dire economic climate. Hell, it wouldn't have been out of character for the art expose to simply be a potshot at Jonathan Glus, HAA director, after clocking him as a mark. The whole time I defended the artworld as above this kind of dressing-down at the hands of a slack-jawed yokel.

This time around, as Dolcefino searches for fodder for his grist mill, I have a change of heart to admit. He's right. We're spending too much money on crappy art. In this town, if you can hang around long enough, wear the right clothes and make the right friends then you too can receive an HAA grant and embezzle all the money. The real problem lies in the selection committee, who continues to make bad decisions.

The Water Pump civic art piece at the Sabine Street Pump Station is a travesty. It is ugly as hell and rather obtusely useless. Yes, you can take a quick shower after you go skating at the Jamail Skatepark next door, but skaters don't take showers after skating. You're thinking of swimmers, douchebag. No one at HAA thought this was an impractical and boring art project? WTF?

Bush sculpture at the airport

Airport art is a stupid idea in the first place. All those sculptures at IAH? Last time I was there I only saw one- unlit, in the dark at 6 pm- and it was pretty boring. The best airport art in Houston (sorry Art Guys) is the Jim Love airplane at the arrivals gate at Hobby Airport. Let's just make 100 of those twice as large and throw 'em everywhere.

no, not that horse.

Sharon Engelstein's curt response to Police Chief Harold Hurtt weighing in on the aesthetic tip ("he cares little and knows even less about art. Let the experts do their job.") does little for her cause, but I do hope that the project is built. Even if the whole HAA project is a bust in the eyes of the money counters at least it supports a group of artists who add a lot to the artworld with their presence. One benefit of the organization not in dispute is the amount of times their employees and associates are in the society pages, raising awareness of all the artists who don't get grants in the eyes of the gentry. Ha ha.

I couldn't even watch the videos, Dolcefino's voice is a little too acid for me, but I did read the articles on 13 Undercover. Last year I was with the HAA and the artists involved, as Dolcefino went after morality issues, Glasstire, the Performance Art Lab and, indirectly, me. This economic impact survey is still a version of the "Where's the Beef?" meme that Dolcefino operates in, but this sequel is definitely better. With a lack of ambition, taste or decision-making skills the Houston Arts Alliance has bumbled millions and will probably continue to do the same. Microloans and technology grants would be a step in the right direction, actually showing up to see other shows in town and talk to people could lead to a new perspective, and installing public art in accessible residential and commercial centers would let people know that you exist. Britt was too nice with his assessment of the Lipski sculpture.

Watch this clip of Annise Parker promising to revive the Westheimer Street Festival and praising the art scene as the best part of Houston's cultural landscape. She led the Dolchefino expose in 2008, but this year she's no where to be seen. Will Parker gut the HAA and still be able to tout the art world's success in Houston?

FVH Interviews Mayoral Candidate Annise Parker from Free Video Houston on Vimeo.

Spiritual America and the Immeasurable Distance

2009-11-29T19:48:00.004-06:00

pic via Essdras M Suarez/Boston Globe

Matthew Day Jackson: The Immeasurable Distance
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
5216 Montrose Boulevard
Open Tues. – Saturday (10 am – 5 pm), Thurs. (10 am- 9 pm), and Sun. (12 pm- 5 pm)
Through January 17, 2010

With a bushy russet beard, wearing disheveled clothes and riding a BMX bike, Matthew Day Jackson pedaled back and forth across Marfa. His brown eyes cast a friendly glow on any face he came across in the windswept West Texas town. As he went from house to house meeting, greeting, drinking and laughing, Jackson built up the kind of goodwill that usually follows gurus, gamblers and ice cream trucks. Five years after those sun-parched days in the desert his mind is ensconced here in Houston at the Contemporary Arts Museum as “The Immeasurable Distance”- a fitting title for his collection of resin-soaked memorabilia by an earnest mind let loose.

Overtly curious, with a wide-ranging appetite for pop culture, Jackson’s work toes the line of conceptual art without engaging in the pretension that plagues esoteric aristocrats like Vanessa Beecroft and Matthew Barney. At first glance Jackson’s artworld bona fides are firmly intact, but his childlike guile keeps even the most mortifyingly informed insiders on their toes spinning bullshit into gold thread. Composed of readymade elements, each with their own set of innuendoes, Jackson’s work is sculpture, painting and installation- a coherent context holding various disciplines together. Within his mind pulsating like a thick bass line, everything moves together. Gone are the days of the categorical museum, Jackson is bringing back the reign of the wunderkammer.

Garden of Earthly Delights (Spiritual America), 2008

Matthew Day Jackson’s work came to town in 2008 as a part of Toby Kamps’ “The Old, Weird America” and returns this year as a solo show courtesy Bill Arning, who first arranged for “The Immeasurable Distance” to be exhibited in Boston at MIT while he was the director. Both curators see his work as a call for social progress, a break from the cyclical nature of human existence. In “The Old Weird America” Jackson’s Garden of Earthly Delights (Spiritual America) was an edgy, dark take on fallibility and legitimacy. Tenuously based on Hironymous Bosch’s triptych of the same name and a recent exhibit by the king of art thieves Richard Prince, Garden consisted of a group of black-framed modified posters and a snaking vitrine filled with oddities. An Evil Dead poster is cut into a psychedelic landscape, zombies cheering on Sputnik in grey wool suits. The title character from the 1977 film Sasquatch becomes Joseph Beuys scaring a caravan of cowboys forwarding a river. Hopper and Fonda from Easy Rider roll upside down across the USA. Fake taxidermy fairies, Wally Wood’s Disneyland Memorial Orgy, astronauts and the ’68 Olympics all make appearances in this sprawling installation. Without a serious leap of faith the elements may remain inert but with the right mix of faith and paranoia the aesthetic experience becomes a reprieve from heavy handed messages and a DIY journey to one’s own sense of understanding.

“The Immeasurable Distance” is that experience writ large, and I must recommend getting really high on weed before attempting to fully enjoy the virtuoso stonership that the exhibit displays. If nothing else you’ll need to do it just so you can see the human visages on rock faces across America that Jackson spent months and thousands of miles documenting. Conceived as a response to the artist’s residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “Distance” looks at science as a layman, far enough from the content to appreciate the aesthetics of categorization, preservation and simulation. Study Collection is a long steel shelving unit with a series of series; mock-ups of American missile systems from Fat Man and Little Boy to Cruise missiles, skulls morphing out of geometric forms and crude human limbs fused to tree branches. It is an amazing work to take in, the viewer walking back and forth examining objects, measuring differences, making references and noting new elements. Looking to the past, August 6th, 1945 documents Hiroshima and Washington DC on the last day of WWII, when atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. The streets are paved in lead, and buildings are nothing more than charred stumps in jagged geometric patterns. Through reversals and reexaminations Jackson takes on the legacy of the American 20th century from a myriad of perspectives.

The issue of immeasurability comes to the fore in Tensegrity Biotron, a large cube divided by mirrors and lit by neon tubes. Casts of the artist’s bones hang suspended in the case and as one looks through the box mirrored angles extend into infinity, multiplying bones and bright neon lines into the thousands. Keep staring. Further and further into space. All things considered, Jackson may search for the long look that carries us into the future but inside his earnestness is a clear grasp of the here and now, the disjointed realities of contemporary life that keep us tied to this earth and our own problems. The artist’s intent fades into the subconscious as the viewer’s context adds meaning to the objects and ideas presented to it. If the new century of art has anything to bring to the table, it is a better sense of our selves instead of any single narrative striving to lift humanity out of the mire of boom and bust, truth and lies or right and wrong. Jackson brings it to us today.

What'cha Been Doin'?

2009-11-23T10:04:00.001-06:00

I've been making crepes.

Follow me on Twitter

melangecreperie

Like The Ear Cut Off: A Tribute to the Life of Jacob Scanlan

2009-11-16T21:55:00.006-06:00

A Tribute to the Life of Jacob Scanlan
Like The Ear Cut Off

Opening Friday, November 20th
6 – 9 pm

On View by Appointment November 20 – 29, 2009

Apama Mackey Gallery
628 East 11th Street
Houston, TX 77008

Join us in celebrating the life of artist Jacob Scanlan this Friday, November 20, 2009, from 6 – 9 pm at Apama Mackey Gallery, curated by Sean Carroll and Mark Hougham from the collection of the Scanlan family. Through Scanlan’s poems, paintings, origami and photographs we hope to reveal the intense zeal and creative mind that touched his family and friends.

Untitled

Artist and writer Jacob Scanlan, aka JKOP, was born in Houston on November 29, 1979, and studied philosophy and poetry at the University of Houston. He delved into street art and public paintings that were bold, bright, and passionate. As a regular on the punk scene and with a keen ear for early hip hop, he quickly immersed himself into a chaotic lifestyle, making friendships with the most infamous graffiti writers in downtown Houston. Gaining insight and experience, he set out to make a name for himself on many fronts. He folded intricate origami and painted graffiti-influenced expressionism. He took thousands of photographs of his life, his friends and his environment. After a near fatal bout with Encephalitis, writing was one of the many catalysts he used to express the turmoil he felt deep inside. All of his poetry was written during the aftermath of his illness. An avid reader, he was influenced by the works of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Riding-Jackson. His studies in philosophy have given his poetry and art a rare and vibrant perspective.

Untitled (Burning Bible)

For Scanlan art was an emotional force. He viewed artistic creation as the freeing himself from society. He felt that art was rooted in daily experience; that it grew into something beautiful and personal. This collection portrays Jacob’s life; full of love and romance. Scanlan was a guest poet on The Spoken Word, a Rice University radio show and had poems published by Our Time Is Now, Poetry Motel, Rag Shock, Lone Stars magazines, and Poetry Junction website. His poems "Physiognomy" and "Equation" were featured in the anthology The Great American Poetry Show by Muse Media Publishing.

Self Portrait with Twombly

Scanlan died on Tuesday, September 23, 2008, at the age of twenty-eight, of residual complications of encephalitis. During the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the stress of living in those conditions and the strain of his medications took its toll on his body, and he succumbed. A friend found him the next morning. Over the next several months his parents gathered dozens of poems, paintings and delicate origami sculptures along with thousands of photographs that detailed his life in the past decade. At the opening we will release Scanlon’s book of poems and essays, The Grammar of a Nightmare. A portion of all sales will benefit a fund set up at the Menil Collection in Scanlan’s name.

at the CC

2009-11-16T21:52:00.001-06:00

Chiahui Nahui-Aztec Art & Performance

2009-11-16T21:49:00.001-06:00

Youre invited! Come out!

When:
This Sunday Nov. 22, 2009
1pm - 6pm

Where:
The Ripley House
4410 Navigation
Houston, Texas 77011

Admission: Free!

Please help us spread the word for our show by forwarding to other friends!

Thanks & Peace be to you!

www.skeez181.com
Sent from my iPhone

We Love Parkour

2009-11-09T18:17:00.004-06:00

This weekend come visit the Westheimer Block Party for TWO DAYS full of great bands on stages at Avant Garden, Mango's Cafe, Austin Layne, La Strada and Numbers inside and out. See great sculpture and performance from the Northside, Museum District, Montrose and East End. The weather in Houston is rarely so beautiful as 70 during the day and 50 at night, get out and enjoy it!

Plus come visit me outside Numbers (300 Westheimer) Saturday and Sunday at Melange Creperie, where I will make you awesome crepes. I have a sweet Krampouz crepe maker and quick hands. We'll have crepes with Nutella and bananas, roasted zucchini, Parmesan and pesto, ham and cheddar and more! Oh yeah, and galettes (buckwheat crepes) are vegan and gluten-free.

What should you see? Chin Xao Ti Twon play at noon Saturday at Austin Layne; Defend the Ghetto will be outside at Numbers at 4:10 or so; at 5 you've got to pick between Young Mammals at Numbers and Muhammid Ali in Mango's; if you like metal go see PLF at 7:15 at Mango's or if you like hip hop check out Perseph One at Austin Layne at the same time. At night there's a show at Numbers with Dead Prez and The Eastern Sea on Saturday ($15) and Japanther too! Sunday the Texas Southern Jazz Ensembles played an extended set at 2:30; Ben Wesley is on at 5 upstairs at Avant Garden; at 8 pm head back over there to Avant Garden for Two Star Symphony at 8 pm! Come out to the Block Party. Its a party.

Info at freepresshouston.com

DEBRIS: No Room For More

2009-10-30T21:05:00.001-05:00

It feels like Houston is a small town outside of Detroit in the artworld; no jobs and no satisfaction. For too long this town has been a producer, not a consumer, and now as fortune turns away from us a black heart is revealed as the oozing center of the scene, the structure and the soul. For all the cats and kittens gobbling cheese and slurping wine at openings their shallow agendas suck the air out of the room. In like fashion even a purchase is a strong-armed exchange of influence perpetuating bourgeois respectability that simply makes me sick. The navel-gazing bored wives and ex-wives who open galleries operate on this exchange and drag their circle of friends into the money pit of art, like the Avon lady gunning for a pink Cadillac, without a shred of decency. For every big wig buying his way into the echelons of Houston’s plastic surgeon elite or cementing his place as a cuntbag with too much money to spend there is a gallerist willing to suck their toes- and an artist ready to lick their balls.

If our alternative spaces insist on selling off their spaces to bad artists with bank accounts, if our minor museums persist in spinning bullshit out of New York halfwits, if the MFAH dumbs down their programming and reaches into the history museum for content, if the CAMH doesn’t wise up and start a collection- then I don’t want any part of it. In a moment of weakness I relish the work on the walls, the game of aesthetic b.s., the meandering society of artists ducking in and out of shows, but soon enough I am reminded of the dark heart of the whole thing. I’ve been working crap jobs for too long and applying for too many art jobs to be happy about it all. I’ve had three art jobs in the past few years and they have all imploded in short shrift. I worked for a gallery for a week before the owner lost his backing and cut me from the payroll. I wrote online for a site for three months before the budget wasn’t there for me anymore. Last month I was offered a job at a non-profit that disappeared before I even started. I can’t help it that I’m crushed. Maybe I am just unemployable. Maybe I write and speak too frankly to maintain the glassy-eyed stare necessary for artworld sustenance. One way or another I’m sick of it. Curating, writing, painting, blogging, buying art and bullshitting are still my favorite hobbies- but that’s all they’ll ever be. Screw this shit. I’m gonna go be a street vendor.

DEBRIS: Next To What I Believe

2009-10-29T10:11:00.001-05:00

You can’t run before you walk and you can’t have a cultured city without street culture. Why was Houston turned down for an Olympic bid in 2010? Because a bunch of people got sick on street food a century ago. In 1901 dozens were sickened by tamales in Market Square downtown. The city quickly passed strict health regulations that sent food culture indoors up to this day. The surge of taco trucks in the last decade- and the subsequent connoisseurship of their fare- demonstrates the confluence of needing more gastronomy in Houston and a desire for quick, good food eaten on your feet. Some of the best barbacoa and lengua around comes on a paper plate with tomatillo salsa in a squeeze bottle. Finding the diamond in the rough is like navigating the back alleys of New Orleans- even if you need “beware of pickpockets and loose women” it’s usually worth it. Despite the proliferation of quality Mexican food on wheels, the myriad of cultures in Houston is not represented in street food like it is in the restaurant world. Where are the falafel trucks, the crepe stands, the hot dog vendors and meats-on-a-stick popular the world over? We need to take a serious look at our jaded approach to street food and our city’s regulations on them. Austin is experiencing an explosion of street food, borne along by a maturation of their quirky identity, plentiful festivals and tourists. Why can’t we?

Since that fateful day in Market Square street food has been a bust in Houston- but what about other vendors, buskers and performers? Even in Los Angeles immigrants sell oranges on street corners and Spiderman tries to goad you into dropping five bucks for taking a picture with him. Not here on Buffalo Bayou. The presence of police surely has an impact, but the ambition- or desperation- doesn’t seem to be there. Festivals are always a good place to tinker with peddling wares, and I would like to encourage any artist reading this to show up and set up at the Westheimer Block Party this November 14th and 15th to see what it’s like to put your work in front of the public. I guarantee it won’t be what you expect. Start a jug band and take over the street corner. Put little paintings in a suitcase and set up in front of the Museum of Fine Arts. Execute a performance piece in the middle of a gallery’s opening-- if you dare. Leave a sculpture in your front yard-- hopefully something that will stop traffic. The more things to see on the street, the more people will get out of their cars to see them. Or buy them. Or eat them. There’s no way to go but up for Houston’s street culture- and there’s nothing holding you back from creating it.

DEBRIS: The Left Bank

2009-10-28T11:04:00.002-05:00

Houston is known as the major supplier of automatic weapons for street wars in Mexico, a key hub for sex slaves in America, a conduit for counterfeit goods, warehouse and distributor for the drug trade, flashpoint for religious fervor, haven for illegal labor, producer of massive amounts of pollution, center of overcrowded and discriminatory jail practices, cesspool of the unwashed masses and purveyor of “screw”- a wholly deviant and dangerous subculture. Throw in a serial killer with a colorful nickname and you’re in London in 1888. Swap Codeine syrup in a styrofoam cup for absinthe in a sugared glass and we’re in Paris in 1849. These metastasizing burgs were known as unholy hells in their salad days, and Houston has nearly reached the heights of disreputable notoriety each of these cities experienced before blossoming into icons of the modern age.

We’ve always had an identity problem, mostly stemming from the fact that Houston is simply new; only a little over 50 years ago that the population climbed above a million people. We’re nearly a century behind New York City, Paris housed a million people on the day the Allen Brothers landed in Buffalo Bayou and London had a million people before they even got around to taking a census during the American Revolution. We share a lot with these forbearers, but one thing has to change- every great city has had a model to aspire to, a paradigm to create.
Built with a set of freeways like the spokes of a monstrous concrete wheel, dappled with parks and green spaces, fiercely liberal in the center and rabidly conservative at the fringes, Houston has a lot more to do with Paris than you may think. We have a bayou running west through the center of town, they have a river running east. There is a boisterous self-identity that comes with living on the north or south side of this boundary in both cities. Prussians gave Parisians the bistro, they gave us the kolache.

A lot of the lore of Paris is centered in the Left Bank, packed with cafes and parks near the river and housing a cluster of universities. It is known as the seat of intellectual life for the city, attracting scholars, painters, writers, daydreamers and hustlers. On the south side of Buffalo Bayou sits Houston’s left bank, with Montrose as the heart of its intellectual life. The bars, galleries, bookstores and garden parks draw students from the University of Houston, Texas Southern University, St. Thomas and Rice. In the 18th century the universities of Paris served different communities from all over the country, seasoned with a dash of foreigners all too eager to embrace the shaping of their adopted city. Today Houston’s universities served different communities in the same way, but they collide in the streets along Westheimer every weekend at night. There are no cobblestones to tear up in revolt against the world, but nonetheless form follows function in the exploration of any cultural analogies. More than Napoleon III’s deputy Haussmann could tame the populace of the urban world with grand boulevards, Houston’s centralized freeway system, triumphantly efficient in its ability to move massive amounts of people and goods into or out of the city, has blunted the effects of radical thought- but has not prohibited the organic growth of a culture that proves Houston, in the midst of derision, is something to be proud of.

REALly

2009-10-27T11:23:00.002-05:00

Arsgratia Artis sez:

blaffer has canceled the student show but the students have not. large scale guerrilla installation. all volunteer. one nite only. you must take responsibility for your own work or actions/interventions. curate your own show. invite anyone. work together!

Type:
Causes - Protest
Network:
Global
Date:
Friday, December 4, 2009
Time:
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location:
120 Fine Arts Building Houston, TX 77204

please send this event through your networks, in order for it to work we need to have an audience + participants. it would be great if all floors are open and the courtyard/hallways filled with art/activities. if there are any musicians or performers interested please invite them as well. Lawndale had Black Flag play back in the 80's when it was still part of U of H

Click It

2009-10-01T13:52:00.000-05:00

2010 Exhibition Call for Artist and Curator Proposals

Box13 Artspace is currently accepting proposals for the 2010 calendar year (January, May, July, September, November 2010) for exhibitions in its two downstairs galleries (~1000 sf each), the window box gallery, and an upstairs gallery. Media artists interested in the Green BOX should contact Michael Henderson at michael@box13artspace.com. Artists and curators are invited to submit recent (or proposed) experimental works not previously shown in Houston.

Exhibition and performance proposals will be reviewed and selections made by a committee of artist resident members of BOX 13 and potentially guest curator(s) for exhibitions/performances.

BOX 13 will accept proposals twice per year to discuss and make programming decisions for the BOX for no more than 18 months into the future from the meeting date. The next upcoming submission deadline for review is October 16, 2009. This is a postmark date.

BOX exhibition/performance space floor plans can be viewed and downloaded as pdf.

All proposals must be submitted in digital format on CDs and DVDs only. Additionally all requested material may be posted to a single page on a website and the link may be submitted. No paper materials will be reviewed. The BOX is committed to the reducing our environmental impact when possible and streamlining the application and review process.

For more information, to make an appointment to view the galleries or to inquire about proposal drop off please email Elaine Bradford, our exhibition coordinator, at e_bradford@yahoo.com.

Submission Criteria

1. Letter of intent or exhibition proposal in a Word document or PDF file. In 500 words or less. Please be sure to include:
a. Contact information
b. Title and description, concept and physical details
c. Requested gallery space and any requests for equipment or special installation requirements*
d. Any budgetary concerns*
*BOX 13 does not have a budget for assisting artists with expenses at this time..
2. Resumé(s) or CV(s) for all proposed participating artists each in its own Word document or PDF file.
3. Images. NO MORE THAN 15 digital images in jpg format. Numbers should be used in the file names beginning with 01.jpg. Each image must be 1MB or SMALLER. Any files not meeting these requirements may not be viewed when considering your proposal.
4. Video. Video samples may be submitted on DVD or CD. Videos must be ready to play on a computer using Windows Media Player or Quick Time.
5. Corresponding numbered list of submitted images and/or videos in a Word document or PDF file.

Submissions may be mailed to:
BOX 13 ArtSpace
Attn. Exhibition Proposal
6700 Harrisburg Blvd
Houston, TX 77011

BOX 13 Artspace
Address: 6700 Harrisburg Blvd, Houston, TX 77009
Website: http://box13artspace.com/
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 1-5pm, and by appointment

Umm... Sorry

2009-10-01T13:12:00.003-05:00

Sorry to be AWOL... I've been taking care of Tish after her surgery and my computer crapped out at the same time... a week without the internet... I've got the sweats and the shakes...

Annise Parker for Mayor and against Art

2009-09-24T12:34:00.002-05:00

WTF?

skip to :21...

"I won't fund museums we can't afford..."

If this hardass is elected we can expect a tough few years for local arts funding; after hearing from people that she only wanted to fund permanent public art (and was specifically against other, more temporary forms, development grants, etc) I was skeptical of supporting Parker- but her involvement in the Wayne Dolcefinko hubub last year was not a fluke. She's taking her art-hatin' to the airwaves in an effort to sew up outer-loop support that may not like her position as a prominent LGBT politician.

Weak!

Thievery

2009-09-21T13:35:00.000-05:00

Have you seen this art car? Last week it was stolen from it's home in Garden Oaks.

Art Cars are always a labor of love and this one especially. AC-8 was built by Johnny Rojas for his wife Cynthia.

via HeightsBlog

Down on the Block

2009-09-21T13:06:00.002-05:00

Check it... shows up through October at Alabama and Main

Collected Works, Inman Gallery

candy in the back, Wayne White

Jochen Plogsties

Katy Heinlein at CTRL

John Sparagana

ditto

Sasha Pierce from far away

Sasha Pierce up close

Open to interpretation!

2009-09-18T10:03:00.002-05:00

A/V Swap contributor Sharad Patel answers questions after A/V Swap Austin & Best of A/V Swap screening Sept. 7th at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.

The Best Of The A/V Swap is tonight!

artists reception at 7:30

screening at 8 pm

Q&A with filmmakers, artists and musicians to follow

Rice Media Center

Preview of The A/V Swap!

2009-09-17T10:42:00.002-05:00

Michael Rodriguez / Chris Knutson

screening this Friday at 8 pm, over at Rice Media Center- come see!

Where the hell is 9th street?

2009-09-15T13:44:00.000-05:00

Artist as Performer at HCP

2009-09-15T12:33:00.002-05:00

Hi Jaimie Warren!

William Lamson

Kara Hearn

Jaimie Warren

hi Michael!

Robert and Shana Park-Harrison

Diane Decruet

through Nov 5
Houston Center for Photography

POKE! at Fotofest Headquarters

2009-09-15T12:19:00.003-05:00

Curtis Mann, Thought, Collective, 2007

Christopher Baker (sorry blurry!)

Marivi Ortiz

Jon Rafman (found google street view images)

Penelope Umbrico

ditto

through Oct 24
Fotofest

Blissy August

2009-09-15T12:15:00.001-05:00

Summer Fest Video by Mark Armes and Osker Koronado

Tonight is Mad Too

2009-09-12T13:57:00.002-05:00

Check it...

Art Car Museum
140 Heights Blvd

The H Gallery
The New Arcadians: Photographs from Summer Camp
2356 Rice Blvd
4 - 6 pm, Artist talk 5 pm

1724 Gallery
Frances Trotter
1724 Bissonnet

Redbud
Hiraide Suguru: Still Pachinco?
303 East 11th Street
6 to 9 pm

Nine From Pharos

Nau-haus
Scott Woodard: The Land Within
223 E. 11th Street
6 to 9 pm

the joanna
4014 Graustark
SATURDAY SALE

Best of the A/V Swap is next Friday!

2009-09-12T13:49:00.001-05:00

Best of The A/V Swap 2009

Houston, Austin, Buffalo and New York

September 18, 2009

Rice Media Center

8 pm

The way the A/V Swap works is quite simple and intuitive. A/V Swap projects are collaborations that begin with a film or song that is traded between artists to complete; we hope to provide a forum where artists can showcase their talents by manipulating audio and video they would never otherwise encounter. In this "swap" we anonymously pair composers and filmmakers, hoping to expand their creative horizons. This year's Houston artists include Ahmad Squad, Bexar, Chin Xaou Ti Won, Jody Cochran, David Courtney, Face and Russ Kuhner, Fumblz Fingerz-Nacha, Justin Giardina, Scott Gordon, Philip Hays, Chuck Ivy, Kanude, Travis Kerschen, David Lowy, Shawna Mouser, Ron Ochoa, Sharad Patel and Andrew Edison, Phara, PR!MO, Patrick Renner, Michael Rodriguez, Stephanie Saint Sanchez, Aimey Stinchcomb, Everett Taasevigen, The Art Guys, Thousands, Eric Todd, Vanessa Voss, Ramon West, Able Windham and Ruben Ybarra. Over thirty more artists from New York and Texas participated in this year's swap.

The A/V Swap was born in 2004 to give artists an outlet to create innovative works that enrich Houston's cultural diversity- and the A/V Swap has grown exponentially in the last six years. Inspired by a love of film and desire to form an artistic community, the A/V Swap was born and has now expanded to include four cities. Landmark Theaters hosted the A/V Swap in 2004 and 2005, a bootleg event at the now defunct Landmark Greenway Plaza, with beer and cigarettes in the theater after midnight. The event grew to demand a larger venue and premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2006 to a crowd of more than 350 Houstonians, becoming the most successful local film screening in MFAH history. Through the success of the first two years of the swap, an increasing number of artists submitted their work. In 2007, the 4th A/V Swap was held at the Angelika Houston and a midnight viewing at the River Oaks Landmark Theatre. For the A/V Swap 2008, we were invited by the Houston Downtown Alliance to participate in Houston Theater District Day. Many thanks go out to Houston's dedication to support for the arts.

This year the A/V Swap is proud to be screening films at the Rice Media Center, founded in 1969 by Dominique de Menil and an evolving haven for experimental film for 40 years. Many inspired events have happened at Rice Media Center; Andy Warhol premiered Lonesome Cowboys, Dennis Hooper performed the Russian Dynamite Death Chair Act and Spike Lee was hosted for a screening of Do The Right Thing followed by a "spirited debate" with the crowd. The founders' intent was that the Media Center provide a channel through which different peoples of the world could communicate- and for four decades it has lived up to their vision. The A/V Swap is pleased to be working with another exemplary innovator to bring you this event, KTRU, Rice Radio.

Houstonist Flick Photo of the Day

2009-09-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

waterproof, herbinhouston

via Houstonist

Friday, Rainy Friday

2009-09-11T12:03:00.005-05:00

Don't let the blues get'cha down! Go out and see some stuff...

John Sparagana, Sleeping Beauty

John Sparagana, Sasha Pierce, & Katy Heinlein
CTRL gallery
3907 Main Street
6-9 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 31

Nina Bovasso, Working in the Dark (Please Please Please)

Collected Works
(work by more than 30 artists from private collections)
Inman Gallery
3901 Main Street
6-9 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 31

CANCELLED
Discovery Green
1500 McKinney
6pm - 9pm

Joe Mancuso, White Marble Rose, 2007

Paul Fleming and Joe Mancuso
Barbara Davis Gallery (the Big Block)
4411 Montrose
6:30-8:30 pm
Sept. 11 through Oct 17

Dawolu Jabari Anderson
...tales of new dimensions in time and Black space
Joan Wich & Company (the Big Block)
4411 Montrose
6-8 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 10

William Cannings: Inflatable Infatuation
Anya Tish Gallery (the Big Block)
4411 Montrose
6-9 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 10

DF Casa, Orfeo Quagliata, Mauricio Limon, Emilio Chapela, Graciela Fuentes and Iker Ortiz
Peel Gallery
4411 Montrose
6-9pm

Wynne Greenwood, Hot Topic

Now that I’m by myself...
Brian Bress, Wynne Greenwood, Laurel Nakadate, and Yuki Okumura
DiverseWorks
1117 East Freeway
6-8 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 24

Jim Tozzi & Dave Bryant are Mister Meatball & the Doo-doodler
Domy Books
1709 Westheimer
7-9 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 22

Jawshing Arthur Liou: Improbable Waves
Poissant Gallery
5102 Center Street (near Washington and Shepherd)
5-9 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 10

Jon Pylypchuk

Josephine Meckseper

Blaffer Gallery
University of Houston Art Department
6-8 pm
Sept 11 through Oct 14

The Trilogy: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Miller Outdoor Theater
100 Concert Drive
8 pm

Vanina, Vanini
1961, featuring Sandra Milo
MFAH Brown Auditorium
1001 Bissonnet
7 pm

Lawndaly Lawndaleness

2009-09-11T10:29:00.003-05:00

From the latest round of shows! Oodles of Nathaniel Donnett, Jabari Anderson, Emily Sloan, Elaine Bradford, Seth Alverson, Chuy Benitez, Mark Schatz, Jahjehan and Joe Ives and Adela Andea :)

after the rain

I assure you, that's Seth

Mark Schatz

Jabari Anderson

ditto

Chuy Benitez

Elaine Bradford

Emily Sloan's giant lamps

curator Clint Wilour and photog Divya Murthy

Nathaniel Donnett and Dean Liscum

what's that green glow?

it's everywhere!

Adela Andea

hey little joe!

Ives installation

see ya!

Fresh from the Free Press

2009-09-11T10:26:00.002-05:00

Untitled (Sisyphean Task), 2009

by Divya Murthy

While Devin the Dude performed on the main stage at Summerfest, Frank Olson, Johnny DiBlasi and Matt Keller were attracting a significant audience toiling away in the sweltering heat. While festival-goers tuned in, turned on and dropped out, at the top of the hill Olson and Keller endlessly repeated a performance piece referencing the unyielding absurdity of an endless chore.

Set under the shade of a tree and surrounded by teeming crowds, Untitled (Sisyphean Task), attracted onlookers, cheerleaders and catcalls. While one performer unsuccessfully attempted to move an old heavy television with broken wheels up a 12-foot ramp, another made lackadaisical loops around the structure. In case there was not enough emphasis on cyclical behavior, Keller and Olson both painted purple Os on their back; their sweat washed the paint down in rivulets. As they continually exerted themselves, jocks in polos and hippie girls in flowery dresses looked on, their minds spinning with circular humdrum. A video looped on the television, playing video of CDs spinning in the players, scenes from action films and screensaver-ish self-generating computer images.... READ MORE

Spread teh Word

2009-09-10T12:49:00.001-05:00

(Annise Parker look-alike cop smashing PAL's performance piece, 2008)

DeluXX

2009-09-10T11:51:00.002-05:00

Unique Artist Studio 1000 sq.ft. (Montrose)

Date: 2009-09-06, 10:59PM CDT
Reply to: comm-jxjfe-1361878987@craigslist.org

This artistically designed space is a stand alone warehouse at grade level, approx 1000 sq. ft. with carpeted stage, tiled kitchen (appliances included) bath, air conditioning/heating, walk-in closet; washer/dryer on site, off street parking, good lighting from large metal windows and privacy.
One year lease available for $850/mo. plus $400/deposit.

Location: Montrose
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

(check the comments for the real scoop on this winner)

Tonight!

2009-09-10T09:22:00.003-05:00

Lee Walton, Let's Push Things Forward, 2008

POKE!
Chris Baker, Curtis Mann, David Oresick, Marivi Ortiz, Brian Piana, Jon Rafman, Penelope Umbrico, Lee Walton
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.
6-9pm
Sept 10 - Oct 24
Fotofest Headquarters
1113 Vine Street

Wayne White
BIG 'LECTRIC FAN TO KEEP ME COOL WHILE I SLEEP
5-7 pm
Sept 10 - Oct 18
Rice Gallery
Rice University, 6100 Main Street

Ace Skates on Thursdays

Thursday, September 10
Begins at 7 pm
At The Catastrophic Theatre office
540 Sul Ross


A new work by Truman Phelps that will move you...LITERALLY. Ace Skates
on Thursdays chronicles a day in the life/existential journey of a 12
year old boy as he skateboards around his neighborhood. The audience
will follow Ace's route as each scene takes place at a different venue
within walking distance. How kick ACE is that?!

Written by Mr. Truman Phelps
Directed by Mr. Philip Hays
With performances from Mr. Jared Doreck, Mr. Salvador Chevez, and the
lovely Ms. Veronica Blanco

Performances are the last three Thursdays in September (the 10th,
17th, and 24th) and begin at 7pm. The show will start at The
Catastrophic Theatre office.

*IMPORTANT NOTE* One free popsicle is included with the purchase of a ticket.

Tim Roda, Untitled #61, 2005

Jaimie Warren, Dancing in the Late Night, 2008

Artist As Performer
Ok Hyun Ahn, Diane Ducruet, Kara Hearn, William Lamson, Robert and Shana Parke-Harrison, Christopher Pickett, Tim Roda and Jaimie Warren
6-9 pm
Sept 10 - Nov 5
Houston Center for Photography
1441 Alabama

Anthony Masullo, 4018, 2002

Anthony Masullo
6-9 pm
Sept 10 - Oct 28
Texas Gallery
2012 Peden St (behind River Oaks Theater)

Scorpion Child * Emeralds * Spain Colored Orange
starts at, like, 10 or something.
Rudyard's Pub
on Waugh

photo by Allison Hunter, included in IKE

HIWI: IKE
The Book (Signing)
7 - 9 pm
Domy Books
1709 Westheimer

Last day for Waymaker Gallery's Saving Sisyphus

Houston Lyceum: Eloquence
CAMH
6:30 pm
This lecture series revisits identical topics—but with a contemporary take—from Houston’s earliest cultural institution, The Houston Lyceum, founded in 1854 as a precursor to the first public library. “Eloquence” will be presented by Dr. Mike Fain, Director of the University of Houston Forensic Society.

Missed it!

2009-09-09T17:37:00.003-05:00

Wednesday, September 9, 2009
2:00 - 2:30pm
Menil Park

John Evans is dead!!! Funeral will be filmed at Menil Park in Montrose at 2pm
Wear black, wear funk, freak it up!

About the movie:
3 years in the making, Honky Tonk Blood is a mochumentary / dark comedy about Montrose TX starring John Evans, Southern Backtones, Sideshow Tramps, Johnny Falstaff, 2 Star Symphony, The Flammin' Hellcats, The Hates, Scattered Pages, and many many others Houston artists... And YOU!

SOOPER Snooterday

2009-09-08T08:18:00.001-05:00

SUPER SATURDAY!!! It's the Super Saturday Sale. Support young Houston artists. Have a couple of drinks. Super affordable work. SUPER ATTITUDES. Golf Cart tours of the Menil and Rothko!!!!!!!!

Even Weirder Bank Robber!!!

2009-09-03T12:54:00.002-05:00

Now the bike riding bank robber was weird enough, but check out this fool who robbed two banks dressed like a space alien and lookin' like Frank Black ROFL

Behind the Times

2009-09-03T10:59:00.003-05:00

Michael Stravato for The New York Times

Looks like Kate Murphy finally got out to see the recycled scrap houses Dan Phillips makes, 8 months after a flurry of publicity launched the Phoenix Commotion into the local consciousness. Since then the Bone House has burned to the ground and risen from the ashes. Well, even if New York is behind the curve, at least they have someone writing in Houston.

Michael Paulsen /Chronicle

From Lisa Grey's January chron article comes this great quip from Phillips:

“You know The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche?” Dan asks.

It’s another sentence I never expected to hear from a builder. I nod uncertainly.

“You know how he described the two strains of culture? There’s the Apollonian culture, where everything is crisp, tidy and perfect. And there’s the Dionysian culture, where everything is passionate and organic.

“If an Apollonian is hanging a picture, he gets out his level and his measuring tape and precisely centers the picture on the wall. If a Dionysian is hanging a picture, he takes the picture, holds it up to the wall, and goes, “Hmmm. Does this look about right?”

“Our building industry is entirely Apollonian. Architects pre-think their design, specifying these ideal materials and aiming to create these idealized shapes. They’re at a disadvantage. They work off in an office, drawing blueprints. They can’t get feedback from the materials and let the designs evolve.”

phoenixcommotion.com

Cuts Like a Knife

2009-09-02T19:49:00.003-05:00

whadda you see?

Terri Sultan's move to Long Island really let down a few people in Houston who saw her as a big talent in a backwater town, but her debut curatorial action at the Parrish Art Museum (of a show that was critically lauded in Houston) gets a beatdown in the Wall Street Journal, completely deserved for the uselessness that is Jean-Luc Mylayne;

Just because an artist gets high on his own inflated oratory is no reason a curator has to participate in a folie à deux. The museum here neither serves a public skeptical about the opacity of contemporary art nor does Mr. Mylayne any favors by framing his modest, if persistent, achievement under crushing layers of grandiloquent hokum.

Complete with 5 dolla words, y'all :)
via WSJ

Blind Item

2009-09-02T18:45:00.001-05:00

"In a scene that would most likely appeal to the Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí, several works attributed to him are currently on display next to a disheveled tie rack at a Salvation Army Family Thrift Store in a seedy industrial neighborhood [in Houston, Texas]. The pen-and-ink drawing, crucifix sculpture and set of six lithographs are laid out in a glass case among the kind of crystal and brass tchotchkes more typically found in thrift stores. The shelves are lined with black fabric stitched with the words “I ♥ Jesus” in gold."

via NYT
wtf?

The James Surls Lecture

2009-09-02T18:10:00.002-05:00

Lawndale
August 27,2009

John Runnells, James Surls, Charlie-Jean Sartwelle

Keijiro Suzuki

ahem...

CAMH Director Bill Arning

Bert Long Jr.

B. Davis

Surls with Elaine Bradford's crochet over his shoulder

good crowd! canopied by Emily Sloan's "lamps"

Mike and Jack

Hana Hillerova and Howard Sherman

afterparty at B. Davis

Hi Aisen!

Louise sez:

2009-09-02T16:31:00.001-05:00

The Artist's Eye: John Runnels on Twombly’s Rose Paintings

Menil Collection

Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, 3 p.m.

Born near Hot Coffee, Mississippi, John Runnels received his B.F.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1985 he co-founded Mother Dog Studios, an alternative studio and exhibition space in downtown Houston. Runnels has worked as Co-Director of Buffalo Bayou ARTPARK, and with the University of Houston Sculpture Department and the City of Houston to establish an international
artist-in-residence program. He was commissioned by the City to design a series of text-based sculptures called “Portals” along Buffalo Bayou’s Sabine Promenade. Currently, he is working on a public art project for the City of Phoenix.

Woody At Summerfest (and more people too)

2009-09-02T15:34:00.002-05:00

he started building it Thursday

piece by styrafoam-painted-in-iron piece

it was about 24 feet tall

and then people started coming

the view from behind

and from the front (click to enlarge)

see it in the top corner?

the cozy window

buh bye!

y mas people at summerfest :)

Art Car Museum sez:

2009-08-31T13:25:00.002-05:00

Annual Open Call Exhibition theme is:
“Planes, Trains, Cars and Bikes”
Bring us your artwork from 11am-6pm
on Sat. September 5th or Sunday Sept. 6th.

**Rules are: One piece per artist. Maximum size is 4’x4’. Space is
limited to the first 200 entries.

Exhibition opening is Sat. Sept. 12th from 7-10pm.

Art Car Museum

Mega Fight Blog

2009-08-31T12:45:00.002-05:00

Cody Ledvina, of the festival hotties and under 200 blogs,
is back with a new round of sorted ridiculousness for ya

Mega Fight Blog

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

2009-08-31T09:27:00.002-05:00

Please come and help us out!!! We need this place to be packed tomorrow!

-The Tontons

Travis sez:

2009-08-28T20:52:00.001-05:00

Cablegram for Mr. Alverson

2009-08-28T10:48:00.004-05:00

Woman Bending Over, Alverson, 2009

Eric Zimmerman (back on the interwebs) takes on Seth Alverson's hilarious work at the Lawndale right now:

The people that call Alverson’s paintings home are a kind of ‘”everyman“. Personalities that we all identify with on some level and have the unfortunate luck, in some cases, of being caught in less than flattering moments. The situations are hilarious. A woman in small green athletic shorts bends over and reveals the “cottage cheese” on the back of her thighs. Exquisitely painted, the legs are repulsive, humorous, and absolutely beautiful all at once.

Check it before you wreck it HERE

Ceeplus sez:

2009-08-28T10:26:00.002-05:00

Due to circumstances beyond our control.....
Making Moves Party is literally having to make moves and change venues!!!

THE EVENT HAS MOVED!!!!!
to the Green Room @ Warehouse Live
813 St. Emanuel Street
Yeah!

Hope to see all party people out in full effect!

If not.. Please have a fun and safe weekend.

Cheers!
Reprogram Music Multimedia

I don't think that's what it'll look like

2009-08-27T23:38:00.001-05:00

umm... afterparty at notsuoh!

[performanceartlab]

Preview of the A/V Swap!

2009-08-27T14:20:00.002-05:00

Gene Loves Francine, Neil Carroll and Kanude, 2009

check out the A/V Swap this Saturday for Houston Artists: The Good, the Bad and the Dirty
Saturday August 29, 8 pm
Rice Media Center

...and the Best Of 2009 Friday, September 18th!

theavswap.com

It's All Connected... Lecture Day

2009-08-27T11:40:00.003-05:00

Gregory Carter will lecture about his exhibit at the Midtown Art Center this Thursday, August 27th at 7 pm. Carter's paintings have blossomed in the past few years, integrating collaged sections of maps, patterns referencing European and African decoration, screened and painted photographs and an inspired sense of composition.

James Surls will be at the Lawndale Art Center at 6 pm Thursday to wax nostalgic about the 30th anniversary of the founding of Lawndale and the state of art in Houston today and yesterday. There will also be a reception at Barbara Davis Gallery where Surls' new exhibition, From 2009, is on display.

Both Carter and Surls had standing room only at their lectures, congrats y'all!!

Practicing a crude form of horticulture

2009-08-26T18:40:00.002-05:00

Tending to plastic bushes? Sounds good. Check out this clip from Dean Liscum's review of the Human Nature Planted show!

The official theme of the show is to “explore the human handprint in the natural world and how it positively and negatively influences the environment,” but the show resonates with current socio-political-economic turmoil. Nathaniel Donnett’s Myke’s Clubhouse captures the crisis from the vantage point of the forgotten poor and vulnerable; Cornell West accusing Obama of neglecting those most in need. Merging fantasy with nightmare, Donnett constructed a tree house and foreclosed it, with a red sign and a foreclosure listing in the paper. June Woest’s Pharmacy Domesticus forms a field of bamboo-like columns out of plastic prescription bottles, makes a visually stunning side-effect of our fascination with better living through pharmaceuticals. Lucinda Cobley’s tree+cipher proposes a vibrant new taxonomy for nature that makes one cry out for a new political discourse.

Check out the article HERE

Friday: Skulls, Goth Chicks, Octopi and the Pope

2009-08-26T18:13:00.002-05:00

THE EVENT HAS MOVED!!!!!
to the Green Room @ Warehouse Live
813 St. Emanuel Street

Little space, little rent

2009-08-26T18:01:00.000-05:00

Studio space to share! (Near downtown)

Date: 2009-08-25, 6:23PM CDT
Reply to: comm-dmttq-1342296782@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

I have a very cool space in a very cool building. Share approx. 350 sq. feet; 150./mo., 150. deposit plus utilities.

Houstonist Flick Photo of the Day

2009-08-26T17:45:00.001-05:00

Good Time Ice Cream
photo_doug

via Houstonist

Press Releezzee

2009-08-23T14:05:00.002-05:00

Turrell, Skyspace

(Media-Newswire.com) - Thanks to a multimillion-dollar gift from Rice University alumna Suzanne Deal Booth, Rice will install a work by celebrated American artist James Turrell on its campus. This is the single largest gift by a Rice alum for a piece of art and another milestone in the university's $1 billion Centennial Campaign.

An initial gift allowed Rice to commission the artwork last year. Turrell has submitted designs for a "skyspace"; an experiential work of art that fuses light and space.

The artwork will stand in front of Rice's Shepherd School of Music. One of the most important features of the installation will be its visibility, it can be seen from some high-rises around Houston and in the Texas Medical Center.

"When I thought about making this gift, it was never a question of whether or not this art would be public," Deal Booth said. "Of course it would be public. Access to art is so important, especially at a university. I want students and the community to be able to experience this extraordinary artwork as part of their everyday life."

The Meeting

Turrell has two other major projects in Houston -- the Live Oak Friends Meeting House and The Light Inside, an interior installation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Turrell piece will give us a reflective space. It says 'you are welcome here'. That's especially appropriate at Rice, where our campus is about contemplation and interaction."

"Art is my thing – it's what motivates me and directs me," Deal Booth said. "I connect with other people through art. This gift is a culmination of many of my interests, and I hope it will inspire others as my time at Rice inspired me." Greatly influenced by legendary Houston art collector and philanthropist Dominique de Menil, Deal Booth developed a deep appreciation for art preservation and philanthropy. With her recent gift, Deal Booth said she hopes to honor de Menil’s legacy and create her own. “Suzanne has given a transformational gift to Rice,” said Molly Hubbard, university art director. “The work by James Turrell will be monumental and will greatly enhance the momentum for the Rice public art program.”

Deal Booth has been deeply involved in building public art momentum. With her support, Rice has established a three-part collaboration with the museums of Houston: a postdoctoral program with the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston ( MFAH ); a biennial lecture series with the Menil Collection that brings top scholars to Houston to speak about their research, and funds to support small exhibitions at the MFAH that will be developed with a Rice art historian and a curator at the museum.

That collaboration contributes to the university's goal to engage more broadly with the city of Houston and also serves as a living laboratory and model for such interaction between universities and cities around the world. Deal Booth has contributed to the Rice School of Humanities' hiring of up to nine fellows each year from MFAH's prestigious Glassell School of Art. Those fellows have taught 33 studio classes and brought fresh talent and expertise to the campus. Deal Booth also supports the Biennial Menil/Rice Lecture Series, which were organized in 2006 as a collaborative venture between the Menil Collection and Rice's Department of Art History to link the university with neighboring cultural institutions.

"Suzanne's love of Rice and her commitment to Rice have helped make us a better institution, and it’s her gift and much more that made this possible," Leebron said. "We wouldn't be doing something of this scale -- we wouldn't have Turrell art -- if not for the person Suzanne is. She brings vision to everything she does and helped us define what we needed. She guided us to do something bold in the arts, not just something incremental."

A native Texan, Deal Booth graduated from Rice in art history. Beginning by working with de Menil then earning her M.A. degree in art history and a certificate in art conservation at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, Deal Booth has made a career of preserving art and history. She has worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Menil Collection and at the Museums of New Mexico with a grant from the Smithsonian Institution. A postgraduate fellowship, funded by the Kress Foundation, took her to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where she restored important 20th century paintings. She then moved to Los Angeles to work at the Getty Conservation Institute and later as a consultant for the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Deal Booth and her husband, David, created the Booth Heritage Foundation, which provides many cultural activities and community services, and founded the Friends of Heritage Preservation, a nonprofit organization that responds to critical preservation needs in the U.S. and abroad. They also established the Booth Family Rome Prize Fellowship for Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome. Deal Booth recently started a publishing company, Orsini Press. She also published an essay in the forthcoming "Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil" and occasionally blogs for the Huffington Post.

Nick Meriwether: Beard Drawing

2009-08-22T18:12:00.002-05:00

Nick Meriwether, Beard Drawing, 2009

via Drawing Rice

Wandering Around

2009-08-22T13:34:00.002-05:00

in the windows at the CAMH offices

Tim Gunn in there?

y...

in the joanna's yard

This A/V Swap is Here!

2009-08-21T12:32:00.005-05:00

The A/V Swap: Houston Artists

The Good, the Bad and the Dirty

August 29, 2009

Rice Media Center

8 pm

Best of The A/V Swap 2009

Houston, Austin, Buffalo and New York

September 18, 2009

Rice Media Center

8 pm

This fall The A/V Swap is back with a bigger and badder group of films, this time from both Texas and New York! 34 films by Houston artists and musicians will screen at 8 pm, Saturday, August 29nd at Rice Media Center in our The Good, the Bad and the Dirty show. For our second screening Friday, September 18th at 8 pm, The A/V Swap presents the Best Of 2009, a selection of collaborations from Houston, Austin, Buffalo, New York and New York City created this summer. Both screenings will start with artist's receptions at 7:30 pm and the Best Of 2009 screening will conclude a Q & A with participating filmmakers and musicians. This is the 6th annual A/V Swap, and we are glad to bring you more of the emerging filmmakers, aspiring composers, established artists and soulful songwriters that have made the swap a success in the past.

The way the A/V Swap works is quite simple and intuitive. A/V Swap projects are collaborations that begin with a film or song that is traded between artists to complete; we hope to provide a forum where artists can showcase their talents by manipulating audio and video they would never otherwise encounter. In this "swap" we anonymously pair composers and filmmakers, hoping to expand their creative horizons. This year's Houston artists include Ahmad Squad, Bexar, Chin Xaou Ti Won, Jody Cochran, David Courtney, Face and Russ Kuhner, Fumblz Fingerz-Nacha, Justin Giardina, Scott Gordon, Philip Hays, Chuck Ivy, Kanude, Travis Kerschen, David Lowy, Shawna Mouser, Ron Ochoa, Sharad Patel and Andrew Edison, Phara, PR!MO, Patrick Renner, Michael Rodriguez, Stephanie Saint Sanchez, Aimey Stinchcomb, Everett Taasevigen, The Art Guys, Thousands, Eric Todd, Vanessa Voss, Ramon West, Able Windham and Ruben Ybarra. Over thirty more artists from New York and Texas participated in this year's swap.

The A/V Swap was born in 2004 to give artists an outlet to create innovative works that enrich Houston's cultural diversity- and the A/V Swap has grown exponentially in the last six years. Inspired by a love of film and desire to form an artistic community, the A/V Swap was born and has now expanded to include four cities. Landmark Theaters hosted the A/V Swap in 2004 and 2005, a bootleg event at the now defunct Landmark Greenway Plaza, with beer and cigarettes in the theater after midnight. The event grew to demand a larger venue and premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in 2006 to a crowd of more than 350 Houstonians, becoming the most successful local film screening in MFAH history. Through the success of the first two years of the swap, an increasing number of artists submitted their work. In 2007, the 4th A/V Swap was held at the Angelika Houston and a midnight viewing at the River Oaks Landmark Theatre. For the A/V Swap 2008, we were invited by the Houston Downtown Alliance to participate in Houston Theater District Day. Many thanks go out to Houston's dedication to support for the arts.

This year the A/V Swap is proud to be screening films at the Rice Media Center, founded in 1969 by Dominique de Menil and an evolving haven for experimental film for 40 years. Many inspired events have happen at Rice Media Center; Andy Warhol premiered Lonesome Cowboys, Dennis Hooper performed the Russian Dynamite Death Chair Act and Spike Lee was hosted for a screening of Do The Right Thing followed by a "spirited debate" with the crowd. The founders' intent was that the Media Center provide a channel through which different peoples of the world could communicate- and for four decades it has lived up to their vision. The A/V Swap is pleased to be working with another exemplary innovator to bring you this event, KTRU, Rice Radio.

News on the What?@!?!?

2009-08-21T11:49:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah, march.
CLICK IT

Ytrap Retfa

2009-08-21T11:00:00.001-05:00

KAI/ROS, Dust 1921

Squirrels All Up In My Shit

2009-08-21T10:04:00.002-05:00

Give and Take, Dean Ruck and Dan Havel, 2009

CSAW

YAR!

Becks

CAMH

Squirrelizer

2 Things

2009-08-20T15:12:00.003-05:00

El Rincón Social

3210 Preston St.
Houston, Texas, 77003

Dirty-somethings

2009-08-20T12:11:00.003-05:00

Lawndale Openings!
Friday, August 21, 2009
6:30-8:30 PM
Artist Talks at 6 PM

Lawndale Art Center 30th Anniversary Exhibition
Curated by Clint Willour

John M. O’Quinn Gallery

Clint Willour takes a look at the last five years, since Lawndale’s 25th Anniversary Show and gathers new work from artists who have shown in each of Lawndale’s four galleries, as well as from The Big Show and the Artist Studio Program.

Me, Mine, and not Yours | Joe Ives and Jahjehan Bath Ives

Mezzanine Gallery

“I’ve grown tired of your company, I wish you would go away, I need a moment to myself, could you please be quiet.”

After years of living with someone these are things that we often think when our “other” walks into the room. What if we were no longer polite, what if domestic politics took over our house, what if we could simply employ the tactics of our childhood to gain that needed isolation? For their exhibition at Lawndale Joe & Jahjehan Bath Ives present an installation of sculptures and videos for the Mezzanine Gallery created by their antiheros who playfully make suggestions and recommendations of isolationist tactics that anyone can employ to gain some alone time.

Paper or Plastic? | Nathaniel Donnett

Grace R. Cavnar Gallery

Nathaniel Donnett addresses social issues and the human condition through narratives, codes, and symbols. He reconstructs materials while shifting through references and fluctuations in communication. Donnett’s series refers to the "brown paper bag test" used to separate darker and lighter skinned African Americans- creating division, ostracism and envy in the community. Paper or Plastic? explores the history and effects of the test, social residue and impact in contemporary society. The hierarchy created within the African-American community with issues of hair texture, skin tone, and the acceptance or rejection of African features as they relates to beauty. This work is a metaphor; a healing agent to analyze and confront personal baggage.

The Green™ cyber web | Adela Andea

Project Space

The Green™ cyber web is a kinetic installation incorporating the latest gadgets in a spatial web design using the geographic models of internet maps. Electronic components connected to power sources suggest a confrontation of virtual reality within the realm of environmental sustainability. Andea uses green cathode lights, skewing the question of what constitutes "green". Chosen for their symbolic meaning, these materials become wry subject matter, mitigating extremes between the resources of information and responsibilities for recycling, giving a different meaning to the phrase “residual value.”

the 'ol gang

Lawndale from 1979 | James Surls
August 27, 2009
6 PM

In conjunction with Lawndale Art Center's 30th Anniversary, Lawndale Art Center founder James Surls, presents a talk on the origins of Lawndale, its unique place in Houston's art community, and its relevance today.

Followed by a reception at Barbara Davis Gallery where James Surls's From 2009 is on view through August 29, 2009.

Never Can Spell It Right, But They'll Make It Right

2009-08-19T17:41:00.002-05:00

Chin Xaou Ti Won..live! Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Thursday, August 20
6:00 - 9:00pm
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
5216 Montrose
Houston, TX

Good Chron

2009-08-19T15:27:00.001-05:00

An art car enthusiast lights up his propane power
Aug 18 2009 9:55PM
Michael Paulsen/Chronicle

An art car enthusiast lights up his propane powered torch built into his art car entitled The Beach while gathering with a group of other art car enthusiasts on the Sabine Street Bridge in Downtown Houston.

via Chron

The Last 12 Hours

2009-08-19T10:09:00.002-05:00

Bike Ride through Willowbrook Mall

Still destroyed apartments in Galveston

Atoms of Atom

The Octopus Project, Truck

On the Edge of Town...

2009-08-18T10:06:00.002-05:00

FrenetiCore presents: 2nd Annual

Frenetic Fringe Festival

August 7-23, 2009

Fridays and Saturdays 8pm

Sundays at 7pm

Frenetic Theater 5102 Navigation Blvd. 77011

Tickets: $18 @ door/ $15 if purchased online

Only one weekend left!

Click here for the festival schedule

and to purchase tickets

Frenetic Fringe Festival Program 3

August 21-22 @ 8pm at Frenetic Theater

Two nights only! You don't want to miss this program--here's the lineup:

Alice and the Underground

Company: Mildred's Umbrella
Playwright: Janet Thielke

Director: Mark Carrier

Classic children's story characters join the Weather Underground

Tetsujin

Company: FrenetiCore

Filmmaker: Robert Thoth

Choreographer: Rebecca French

PAIN, PLEASURE, and a bunny rabbit

Company: Slump

Playwright/Director: Keith Reynolds

No actual rabbits will be harmed or pleasured

Forever Hold Your Piece (for now)
a.k.a. Bob Hope's Nightmare!

Company: Kinetic Architecture (New York)
Choreography: Rob Davidson

Buster Keaton meets butoh--sensual/comical/riveting

Easy Credit Theater

Choreography: Richard Hubscher

Houston's own king of Outsider Dance

What the Storm Brought Home

Playwright: Jere Phister

Director: Sara Draper

Musings of family secrets a hurricane drug up

Untitled

Director/Performer: Jim Pirtle

The avant performance legend himself

Two nights only!
Save $3 a ticket if you buy online-they're selling fast, ya'll!

Go to the website for more information

Bulb

2009-08-17T14:34:00.001-05:00

Calling All Artists - Deadline October 30, 2009

The Idea Fund provides cash awards to Texas-based, artist-generated or artist-centered projects that exemplify the unconventional, interventionist, conceptual, entrepreneurial, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices that occur outside of the traditional frameworks of support.

The Idea Fund will accept proposals from artists/curators focusing on the visual arts, performance, film, video, new media, social practice, and interdisciplinary projects. Grants are awarded for up to $4000. The 2010 deadline is October 30, 2009. For guidelines/applications and more information, visit www.theideafund.org.

Oh, Did I Forget That?

2009-08-17T09:54:00.002-05:00

I guess while I was all out of sorts in July I never posted pics from Sketch Klubb's show at the joanna. Here it is!

Katie gettin' Haught :)

Sketch Klubb

Britt innerview wid'em

NOT Sketch Klubb

Brims' Vids

2009-08-16T15:56:00.002-05:00

No Zoning @ the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston from Michael Brims on Vimeo.

Michael Brims has been making videos about shows around town, this one is cool 'cause it's got Jack in it.

167: Jason Villegas

2009-08-15T14:02:00.002-05:00

jason interviewed by kpft

party hearty

nestor thinking...

sabrosos, sabrositos!

shawna mouser checkin' it out

monster high school photo show in the back

hi bill!

Stolen from Jenni Becks

2009-08-14T14:39:00.000-05:00

LolaJRS
http://twitpic.com/dvwwc
Preview of @Spacetaker Parallel Universes
'Exquisite Corpse'- 60 artists!

Last Days of Bookstop

2009-08-14T12:54:00.002-05:00

Go to Bookstop today!!! Its [almost] the last day of Bookstop.

Closes September 15

From The Border To The City- Still Crazy

2009-08-14T11:43:00.004-05:00

Downtown Nuevo Laredo

Performance artist and Notsuoh patron Sal has been a fixture of the Houston underground art world for years; playing in bands, hanging out with Jim Pirtle and smashing televisions with a sledgehammer while dressed up like Tony Clifton. Examiner.com writer Don Juan Corzo caught up with Sal to speak about some of his even crazier adventures down in Laredo. Insanity ensues:

It was relatively early that chilly October night in New York City during the fall season of 2008 and a group of Houstonians were the main attraction for visitors in the facilities in the CUE Foundation Gallery on West 25th Street in Manhattan. It was the first visit to the Big Apple for local artist and poet Juan Salvador Macias as part of an art exhibition put together by fellow artist and bar owner Jim Pirtle. “I had the opportunity to go to New York with Jim driving a U-Haul truck with all the art for the NotsuoH show piled up in the trailer. I really couldn’t miss that experience,” said the artist, who quit his job at a local warehouse and sold his beat-up ’92 Saturn for $300 to barely cover his expenses for the trip.

Sal (as he’s known by friends and acquaintances around town) mostly displays a good-natured, frank attitude, but isn’t shy about expressing his spirit, both irreverent and mischievous. The Texas native is a curious mix of gypsy and Latino with hair that is dark, wavy and kind of shaggy anchored with a goatee that’s pointy at times. On occasions Sal dresses in black and seems to exude an aura of coolness, perhaps, comparable to the late country singer Johnny Cash. Paintings, drawings, craft pieces, poetry and prose are shared with his circle of artists, bohemians, and plain partygoers looking to satisfy their inner cravings with art and a mixture of spirits. But Sal has not always been the affable, creative artist that friends know around Houston.

...[In the 80s] Sal was known as “Red” by his buddies. “Laredo, in the words of Kerouac, it’s a no man’s land,” Sal shared. “You can do whatever you want. If you want drugs, if you want whores, if you to drink, any kind of debauchery, there it is, for the taking.” According to the Laredo native, the border town of Nuevo Laredo, on the Mexican side is the whatever-you-want-zone.
The life Sal led on this border area where he grew up in the 80’s and 90’s was saddled by vice. Just like drugs guided him to heroin to satisfy his craving for a greater high, crime was the channel for him to become a “coyote” as immigrant smugglers are called.

The Reckless Robber

2009-08-14T11:37:00.003-05:00

who the hell robs a bank dressed like that?

what nut robs 14 of them and rides away on a bike???

loco

"The Reckless Robber" via MFX

13 Boxes

2009-08-14T09:21:00.002-05:00

Hey Peoples,
Perhaps you might be interested in a space?

Also feel free to send any referrals of artists you think would be appropriate for BOXing to our website under opps they can read about what it means to be a member?
Michael Henderson is our members contact: ART_MHH (at) SHSU.EDU

Have a good one.

Sincerely,
Kathy Kelley

BOX13 Artspace
East End, Houston, Tejas

Houstonist Photo of the Day

2009-08-13T13:15:00.001-05:00

Huevo
T.B0ne
Lone egg sitting in the leaves by city hall.

via Houstonist

Hoy

2009-08-13T10:33:00.003-05:00

Black Hole, 2008

Opening Reception: Perspectives 167: Jason Villegas

Contemporary Farts Museum, Screwston

Thursday, August 13, 2009
6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
6:30 p.m. Artist talk with Jason Villegas

Jason Villegas has produced an exciting new site-specific work combining subtle, pornographic wall murals, soft-core sculpture, bear-sex performance, and cute video game videos. Join us for the artist’s walk-n-talk and wide opening reception celebrating Villegas’s first museum show. We’ll have a taco truck to help us welcome back this artist. Don’t miss it.

Beat Me, 2008
(disdended anus Michael Jackson performance)

First Pics, Now This?!?

2009-08-12T14:07:00.003-05:00

mas from Summerfest :)

Nancy Douthey, Grotto

Daniel Adame, Drawing

Johnny DiBlasi and Frank Olson, Sisyphean Task

Performance Art Lab, A Man Getting Dressed sponsored by McDonalds

link to videos of PAL's 10' x 100' Drawing

DEBRIS: How Y’all Doin?

2009-08-11T12:43:00.002-05:00

Another molting is underway in town; I see the signs of desperation everywhere. They’re at the market on Airline, outside the Fire Museum in Midtown, at Lee High off Hillcroft, on 45 and 59, in every parking lot. They say Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, California, Mississippi. There are thousands, but I can only profess to have seen a small sliver of their subtle symbols. Their reasons for being here are numerous, if not wide-ranging. There are jobs to be had. Like New York, except for the occasional Chihuahua state license plate. Houston as the air-conditioned city was a 20th century feat, but it remains to be seen what a doubling in the city’s size between 2000 and 2030 will do. Poised to surpass Chicago in population in the 2010 census, Houston will soon be the third largest city in America.

Houston’s artworld has always been driven by ex-pats from all places “lower 48” and across the world and it is richer for being so. While in this winding bayou, the binding force of Texas’ rich tradition of expressionism doesn’t touch all of its artists, but those who delve into it are better for doing so. Thirty years into the velvet revolution sparked by James Surls at the Lawndale Annex in the East End the evolution of characteristic Houston artists is a mature subject replete with heroes, villains and muses. Characterized as Imagist by Walter Hopps, enraptured with the battle between outside influence and outsider art, populist and vulgar, kitschy yet ashamedly folk, Houston artists have built a conscientious covenant with their environment, the wet, hot, green overgrowth punctured by steel and concrete. Ink has been spilled lauding and eviscerating individual merits- building a body of criticism that is sufficiently historical as to be said to exist. It won’t take long for it to be written into history books.

outside Box 13

In figures like John Biggers, James Surls, Lucas Johnson, Sharon Kopriva, Mel Chin and Mark Flood a protagonist is present for trials and tribulations. In every good story there is an apropos foil. To wit, the ideals and sensibilities of Jermayne MacAgy, Dominique deMenil, Alison de Lima Greene, Joe Havel and Linda Cathcart represent the other side of the city’s cultural coin, refined, intellectual and cunning. Stories flesh out a scene set to a rolling boil for decades. Transplants took sides in the local debate and Texans travelled and lived the world over. Surrealists, conceptualists, abstract expressionists and pop artists touched both sides of the debate in significant and real ways, a notion glazed over in petty territorial skirmishes. Modernism’s local distortion is manifest in confusion, terror and bliss in any and all media. The only thing that seems to fall flat here is smart commentary, the taste bends toward the sweet of emotion over the salt of thought. Visceral reality, tortured fantasy, it will all be part of a great story one day.

(when this was printed in the Free Press, I had neglected to delete one of those facebook lists people write, and it was printed too. i won't tell you what its for, its just another list)

Naked Lunch
The Wild Boys
Les Miserables
The Hobbit
Trainspotting
The Fuck-Up
A History of Paris
After the End of Art
The Magnetic Fields
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Big Sur
Catcher in the Rye
Roots
AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide
Team of Rivals
The Emancipated Schoolteacher

festival hotties

2009-08-10T14:47:00.001-05:00

y mas: check out Cody Ledvina's Summerfest project

festival hotties
bringing you the best from 50m and beyond

in yellow and in green

2009-08-10T10:04:00.001-05:00

in yellow and in green
Originally uploaded by herbinhouston

herb in houston spaceballed all his pics, but he's got some great shots of the PAL slip-n-slide! Click it!

Performance Art Lab at Summerfest

2009-08-10T09:56:00.003-05:00

pic by briandathewallflower

hellokitty2399

cosmopolitician

PLUS+++

julia sez:

we had a few difficulties and didnt get any pics of the performances other than the slip and slide, which really kills me because i fucking loved them, but i will post the pics asap.

if you see ANY pics of us holding up signs and doing things, let me know. we did a series of performances with signs that said:
kodak presents high fives, verizon wireless presents a ten minute meditation, mcdonalds presents a man getting dressed (like 80 people stood around and watched nick get dressed and undressed, while ian yelled, this is presented to you by mcdonalds!! holding up the sign. sooo funny.), frito lay presents free hugs, and target presents this kiss (claudia and ian made out behind that sign for awhile).

Abode on a Plain

2009-08-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

You are cordially invited to join The Art Guys
at the launch and screening of their new DVD anthology
“Home On The Range”

at the
Brown Auditorium Theater, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Thursday, August 13, 2009

6:30 pm

The Art Guys: Home On The Range

http://www.mfah.org/films.asp?par1=1&par2=633&par3=1103&par4=1&par5=1&par6=1&par7=&lgc=6&eid=&currentPage=

"The Art Guys present Home on the Range" is an Artful Thursday event cosponsored by KUHF 88.7 FM.
http://app1.kuhf.org/houston_public_radio-news-display.php?articles_id=1249678435

*******************************
For more information, visit

http://www.theartguys.com/DVD.html
or
http://www.microcinemadvd.com/product/DVD/989/Art_Guys_The_.html

*******************************

*******************************

Thank you.
TheArtGuys.com

Well well, Barry Whistler marries up

2009-08-09T12:23:00.002-05:00

Allison Smith, Study Hall, 2006

via NYT:

Allison V. Smith and Barry Whistler were married Saturday evening at the summer home of the bride’s parents in Rockport, Maine.

She's a photographer, he's a gallerist- it makes sense!
(she's been showing at his gallery for a decade, her family's oil money)

Good Stuff, People

2009-08-09T10:39:00.003-05:00

Patrick Renner's sculpture and Jacob Mustafa

This guy was just kinda laughing/crying

Nappage

Getting on in the evening :)

Skeez, b.s., DA

Summerfest Performance Art

2009-08-09T10:19:00.003-05:00

That was a hell of a day... more today too...

Nancy Douthey

Cleanin' the loo in style

City health inspector Jerry Bradshaw
(who has a twin brother named Terry Bradshaw, no joke)
wrote Nancy a commendation for her performance art

Daniel Adame

Matt Keller

Johnny DiBlasi's video getting pushed around

Frank Olsen

A Little Too Hot, A Little Too Cool

2009-08-08T08:34:00.003-05:00

Setting up for Summerfest in Eleanor Tinsley Park with a sweet backdrop

Woody and his hive

Heron in the grotto

Muff and Johnny, Sisyphean television pushers

across the Sabine Street bridge

at the skatepark

cool little spot

Kara came to town from Santa Fe

and Becca had flowers in her hair

did ya know it was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock?
(don't pray for rain)

Hey Developers, Finish Whatcha Start

2009-08-07T11:09:00.002-05:00

Or this will happen...

Ah, youth

Townhomes turned into toy tagger war at the corner of 45 feeder and Eichwurzel Street

Word Art

2009-08-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

Ha ha ha, silly spam...

Dearest,

Kind regards,I am julliet , tall, slim, fair and a very good looking girl that loves travelling and dancing, a student, that loves to be loved,kindly permit my contacting you through this medium ,I am compelled to contact you via this medium for obvious reasons which you will understand when we discuss details of my proposition. Pls I will like you to reply to me through my mail address mbogo.julliet4@yahoo.fr so that we will know each other very well, I am looking forward to your positive confirmation to enable us have an important discussion the we will start from there which will include my introduction, I will send my pics later.Thanks and God bless,

Summerfest Smooth

2009-08-06T11:26:00.001-05:00

FREE PRESS SUMMER FEST COMMERCIAL from mark armes on Vimeo.

ROAR. I is Notz In Herr. Allovitz gonn 2 my Hed.

2009-08-06T09:22:00.007-05:00

ROAR. I is Notz In Herr. Allovitz gonn 2 my Hed.

Summerfest
August 8+9, 2009
Eleanor Tinsley Park
Houston, Texas

Daniel Adame

Nancy Douthey

Woody Golden

Cody Ledvina

Frank Olson and Johnny DiBlasi

Performance Art Lab

Patrick Renner

Skeez 181

Article

Distinguishing tastes prevail in cooler climes, but in the thick, humid air of Houston no filter adequately separates the good from the bad, the new from the old, and the kitsch from the art. Fearful of the smell in their armpits and the vines growing in through their windows, arbiters of taste leave the city in droves during the summer, leaving Houston to the rats, the bats and the armadillos. For decades the summer has been a time to celebrate the undercarriage of art in Houston, the rough-and-tumble makers of all things expressionist and unwieldy. We invite you to experience the flavor of the warehouse shows and alleyway installations that mark Houston’s brutal summer in the midst of an all-new phenomenon, an actual summer music festival.

With public and performance art ROAR will work with the environment, the people the park and the heat. Michael Rodriguez seeks to anthropomorphize the world, and here at Summerfest will bring life to the park in his simple, humorous style. Woody Golden’s 24-foot hive will rise out of the crowd, providing a meditative space in the midst of madness. The Performance Art Lab will be out in full force, ambushing unsuspecting passersby with whimsy or terror. “The cult of performance Art” is out to convert you!

Always able to dominate spaces with his scrap and wood sculptures, Patrick Renner will be out with a new installation work in Eleanor Tinsley Park. Sisyphean questions about man and technology will not be answered, but thoroughly, exhaustively probed by the collaborative team of Frank Olson and Johnny DiBlasi. Jonatan Lopez, a summer resident at Project Row Houses, will tear himself away from his site-specific installations to bring his innovative metalwork to the public. Graff king Skeez 181 and his buds will be out enjoying the scenery, painting large works all day.

Look to the trees for Daniel Adame, where you may find the artist performing one of his physically exhausting pieces. Nancy Douthey brings her emotional performance art back from the West, where she recently wrapped up a tour of famous Land Art and tourist havens documented on the blog In Search Of the Center. Straight from the joanna, Cody Ledvina and Katie Haught spreading propaganda to the masses- just don’t trust it! We aim to adulterate your concert experience with the weird, wacky and wild art of Houston’s emerging scene.

B.S. Houston Art Blog

New @ the temporary space.

Press Releeeaze

Melange is opening Monday!!!

Winners Paint Bridges (Video)

The New Temporary

Temporary Persuasion

Is this Hell freezing over?

Fuck Yeah

That's the Good Shit

Frankly, I Don't Give A Damn

Spiritual America and the Immeasurable Distance

What'cha Been Doin'?

Like The Ear Cut Off: A Tribute to the Life of Jacob Scanlan

at the CC

Chiahui Nahui-Aztec Art & Performance

We Love Parkour

DEBRIS: No Room For More

DEBRIS: Next To What I Believe

DEBRIS: The Left Bank

REALly

Umm... Sorry

Annise Parker for Mayor and against Art

Thievery

Down on the Block

Open to interpretation!

Preview of The A/V Swap!

Where the hell is 9th street?

Artist as Performer at HCP

POKE! at Fotofest Headquarters

Blissy August

Tonight is Mad Too

Best of the A/V Swap is next Friday!

Houstonist Flick Photo of the Day

Friday, Rainy Friday

Lawndaly Lawndaleness

Fresh from the Free Press

Spread teh Word

DeluXX

Unique Artist Studio 1000 sq.ft. (Montrose)

Tonight!

Missed it!

SOOPER Snooterday

Even Weirder Bank Robber!!!

Behind the Times

Cuts Like a Knife

Blind Item

The James Surls Lecture

Louise sez:

The Artist's Eye: John Runnels on Twombly’s Rose Paintings

Menil Collection

Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, 3 p.m.

Woody At Summerfest (and more people too)

Art Car Museum sez:

Mega Fight Blog

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Travis sez:

Cablegram for Mr. Alverson

Ceeplus sez:

I don't think that's what it'll look like

Preview of the A/V Swap!

It's All Connected... Lecture Day

Practicing a crude form of horticulture

Friday: Skulls, Goth Chicks, Octopi and the Pope

Little space, little rent

Studio space to share! (Near downtown)

Houstonist Flick Photo of the Day

Press Releezzee

Nick Meriwether: Beard Drawing

Wandering Around

This A/V Swap is Here!

News on the What?@!?!?

Ytrap Retfa

Squirrels All Up In My Shit

2 Things

El Rincón Social

Dirty-somethings

Never Can Spell It Right, But They'll Make It Right

Good Chron

An art car enthusiast lights up his propane powerAug 18 2009 9:55PMMichael Paulsen/Chronicle

An art car enthusiast lights up his propane power
Aug 18 2009 9:55PM
Michael Paulsen/Chronicle