DEBRIS: All I Want Is Everything

October brings the fall’s real meaty exhibits to Houston galleries and museums, between the explosion of spectacle in September and the blockbusters of November (actually this year’s November looks a little slim). Coming when Texas finally cools down for Thanksgiving, the Artcrawl “this is the Houston I miss living out in the Woodlands” in the warehouse district and a Claude Wampler “critics go on about glowingly without ever managing to put their fingers on what exactly she does” performance at Diverseworks look to be the best bets. New York photographer Nan Goldin’s photo essay The Ballad of Sexual Dependency at the Museum of Fine Arts will be supreme for photo nuts.

In the past twenty years Laura Lark and Mark Flood have evolved their practices drastically, riled most Houston art critics and curators, and lived well on top of their bad reputations. This October they will split the gallery at Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery Flood (who once fronted the band Culturcide) will display his recent ‘lace’ paintings which have gotten good press here and in Dallas. Lark will definitely have some portraits up, but I’m not sure if it’ll be pointillist realist or intricately detailed patterning- either way I know they’ve taken forever to make. Check out Moody Gallery this month too for Houstonian Michael Bise’s 17-foot long drawing and a few more for good measure in Tomorrow. (4520 Blossom St.) in the West End for what promises to be a gathering of “every drunk that’s ever been around art” and more.

All the ol’ hippies and bikers and punks who braved the original incarnation of the Axiom (2524 McKinney St.) will be out Friday, October 12^th for a full-on, two day reunion show. They’re bringing back members of dead horse and The Awful Truth among many, many others. The organizers are coy about where the show will be, so keep your eyes peeled. Since the Infernal Bridegroom Theater Company went down this might be the first event at the venue, but no one should expect it to go out so easily this time either (its first recorded death is 1992). Stop on down off Dowling to see what makes this hole in the wall in the middle of a burned out neighborhood so irresistible; then try to find the show somewhere else!

At the Art League Houston on Montrose they pick horses and ride them. Their Patron of the Year for 2007 is Gus Kopriva (of G Gallery in the Heights) and his wide ranging taste and enthusiasm as an agent of change began back in the 80s when the city’s non-profits were getting their legs under them, and continues today. This fall Kopriva brought an exhibit of Houston artists to Lima, Peru. It hangs in the National Gallery- ample space for the 62 artists he whittled the list down to. In the past decade the gallerist has made similar expeditions to Shanghai, China and Leipzig, Germany in addition to producing dozens and dozens of exhibits and catalogs for young artists- and old. October 26^th, 6-9 pm at the Art League this very, very tired man will curate an exhibit of buddy Wayne Gilbert’s sculptures and paintings- all made with his morbid medium, cremated humans.