Get Your War On

Drop off a tangentially "war" related piece at the Art Car Museum today or tomorrow to be included in their new show... more HERE.

Ha ha..

Ha ha ha... It took me a couple of days to find this blog about a blog HERE...

I wonder if it is Anthony Thompson Shumate? He sure has a hard-on for Matthew Barney with all the "cream-master" jokes!

I'd prefer not to be referred to as 'whitey'- especially by a German like 'Shumate'; the tenuous Irish identity in America is informed as much by rejection as by assimilation. As the balance of political power shirts here in Houston from the traditional domination by 'Texan' land owners to the rich of other backgrounds it will be interesting to see adjustments to the political landscape... weren't we supposed to redraw the City Council spots by now? "Once the population of the City of Houston exceeds 2.1 million" passed a while ago!

Saturday Morning Cartoons

a little Robert Pruitt for ya... ranked #3006 in the world by artfacts...

They just mad cuz they kaint get between us, 2002

Shadowboxing, 2007

Egungun, 2006

Waiting on the Mothership, 2007

Save Our Shipley's

Some photos from last night's opening at the Lawndale...

Emily Sloan, SOS

Jaime Wentz and Kurt Mueller, Round Up

House Painting by Erin Curtis

Today at the Lawndale

Hop into a western! Round Up by Jaime Wentz and Kurt Mueller will be filming scenes with anyone who wants to be in their new film from 1-5pm today. Check out their last film from the Nohegan summer camp in Austin, it's a horror flick.

Loaded Up on The Sevens (and sixes and eights)

Man! Everyone is having an opening next week, who knows how this turf war will pan out. Everyone wants to grab the momentum at the beginning of the fall season, but why fight about it? We could all get along with a little coordination around here but the lack of press releases and schedules in August loaded next weekend with at least 9 openings a day. Pick your pony!

All openings September 6th from 6-9pm (give or take an hour)

Ellen Orseck (@ O'Kane)

North Downtown- Diverseworks: new David McGee paintings and drawings, Sasha Dela curates the archives, Rachel Cook hands out cake and sentiment. Vine Street (Fotofest): Clint Wilour curates a photo show. UH Downtown (O'Kane): Sumo wrestlers and cupcakes!!! Sweet!

Main @ Alabama- CTRL Gallery: artists from Bryan, TX, Vancouver and Iceland. Inman: colorful Texans Emily Sloan and Richard Ruello. Finesilver: Three slick installation/ intricate construction sculptors. Kinzelman: some dude named Conrad Bakker.

Richmond- McClain Gallery: decadent fantasyish collage paintings (kinda on the CTRL aesthetic)

River Oaks- Meredith Long: Sporting and Wildlife (no joke)

All openings September 7th from 6-9pm (give or take an hour)

William Cannings (@ Anya Tish)

The Big Block (4411 Montrose)- Barbara Davis: uber-pastiche craziness. Joan Wich: A Dutch painter who loves blue. Wade Wilson: who knows, they didn't update their site. Anya Tish: blown out tires of steel lacquered in candy coating. Peel Shop: fragile and luxurious things from London's Royal College of Art.

University of Houston- Blaffer: two shows, one about bluebirds in West Texas and the other a survey of a Saatchi painter.

Montrose- Art League Houston: two exhibits by Dixie Friend Gay. Glassell: for Glassell grads, Practice Makes Perfect!

West End: Poissant: Subdued destruction as aesthetic coherence. Booker-Lowe: Same Aboriginal art time, same Aboriginal art channel.

Richmond- Sicardi has an opening, but I'm not sure if it is Friday or Saturday.

All openings September 8th from 6-9pm (give or take an hour)

Pang-Chieh Hsu (@ Hooks-Epstein)

Midtown- Sonja Roesch: a painter who doesn't paint.

Richmond (Gallery Row)- All of 'em! Hooks-Epstein: A realist Chinese drawer. New Gallery: Abstracty painter (kinda like the McClain show) Moody: Suzanne Bloom, Ed Hill, MANUAL War and Peace and Quiet. McMurtrey: a modernist painter. Goldesberry: jewelry, I think... More photos and painting and stuff as well!

River Oaks- Texas: The same guy putting his photos of cowboy boots and bluebirds at the Blaffer.

North Downtown- CSAW: One show of graffiti, another of interdisciplinary UH kids.

Heights- Super Happy Fun Land: more paintings for punk rock kids and hippies. Art Car Museum: get your war on...

Just Announced

new show at the joanna Gallery just announced!

The Joanna's Drawing Show
The Joanna
4014 Graustark
Opens Friday, September 21st, 6-9 p.m
Through Oct. 6th, Saturdays only from Noon-4:00
713.825.1976

Michael Jones Mckean, Seth Alverson, Pat
Phipps, Cheyanne Ramos, Sebastion Forray, Norberto
Gomez, Jeanne Cassanova, The Rick Brothers, Caleb,
Sean Carroll, Reggie Rachuba, Fran Giampietro,Katie
Haught, Eric Pearce, Rachelle Vasquez, Michael
Harwell, Rene Cruz, David Wang, Milo Espinoza, Cohd
Raody, Jenny Schleif

Yves Klein

Is this Yves Klein as "horrible and offensive" as these body art performances? More? Less?

Don't get fleeced

Eastman Gallery is a sham, man. Artists should know- don't pay to play.

"Artists Alive and Well" is in the process of getting jacked by this gallery owner- who asks artist to provide their own booze and doesn't keep regular gallery hours... by appointment only.

Div

That cake looks good...

As Diverseworks watches themselves grow up into venerable institution land, enjoy this history of the space by Kendall Curlee. Former director Michael Peranteau, who helmed the organization from 1984 until 1995 was integral in pulling Diverseworks up by its bootstraps to become a nationally recognized space, fighting back floods and fires and surviving through two moves to bring the space to its current location on the Docks where it has gathered a community including Vine Street Studios, O'Kane Gallery, and Artcrawl among others.

At the head of a protest to save the University of Houston Sculpture Department back in 1992, check out Peranreau and artist Dean Ruck in this early 90s article from the Daily Cougar:

ARTISTS TRY TO SAVE ART DEPT. FROM PENDING PROGRAM CUTS
by Annette Baird (Daily Cougar Staff)

"Don't GAG the Arts" is the message the Houston arts community wants to convey to the administration of UH. About 40 people, including current students, former students and concerned people, met Tuesday evening at DiverseWorks to discuss ways in which they could defend the programs and make their protests seen and heard.

Michael Peranteau, co-director of DiverseWorks and organizer of the protest, said they wanted to be positive and supportive. "This is a community response separate from the UH Art Department, but with members from the department in it," said Anne Katrosh, a prospective MFA student in sculpture. If UH closes the 3-D programs as is proposed, the impact will still be felt 10 years from now, said Dean Ruck, an affiliate artist and art instructor at UH.
"UH fosters a good arts community by bringing in new people. We need to keep watering the roots," Ruck said. GAG is a political action group that was formed during the Republican National Convention in Houston last summer. Their slogan is "Don't GAG the Arts".

"We come out of the woodwork when something needs to be done in the arts community," he said. A parade of art cars decorated with everything from fruit to books will drive from the Lawndale Arts Center to UH at noon, Aug. 5. Speakers will be at UH to defend the programs and protest the cuts. Peranteau said one of the reasons for starting the protest campaign was because he does not want to live in the fourth largest city in America with only one small accredited sculpture program left (at Rice University). "People coming out of high school are going to leave Houston if there is no comprehensive art program," Peranteau added.
A letter writing campaign has already been started by David Jacobs, dean of the Art Department, Peranteau said. Katrosh said she has written a letter to Alexander Schilt, chancellor of the UH system. "There is an increasing tendency for students to have a broader background. A university serves not just technological needs, but mankind at large."

Keijiro Suzuki - real (art)world

some pics from the recent Diverseworks show and attempted reality programming The Real (art)World... in Keijiro Suzuki's corner, Emptiness Under Metaphysical Unconsciousness.

By the Way- Happy 25th Birthday D-Works! Since 1982, second oldest non-profit in town and highest national profile for sure!

Oh Good

Well at least Artforum is listing the Lawndale show...

"House Painting", Erin Curtis, Mezzanine Gallery

Nudity with a Side of Paint

Why post this body art stuff? Just for the photos...

Billy Melbert sez:

need vaginas and missing photo supplies...

a. i need willing models for one of my projects. your face wont be in there. if you wanna help me out i'll give you details. i promise its funny. b. i am missing my digital light meter (like a point and shoot gun) AND i am missing the head to my super expensive tripod. if you want to show me where babies come from and/or know where my missing shit is, please let me know. thank ya. ps why did some girl just pat and rub me on the back? i hate using the internet where people also drink.

Billy Melbert

Breaking News- CSAW Defunct

This morning, in a move that evicted two artists from the building with only one week's notice (barring an appeal), Houston City Judge Barra ruled that the Commerce Street Artists Warehouse Bylaws are invalid and that property manager Maggi Battarino has full authority over tenants.

This move ends the community of artists that had controlled their membership, exhibits and rules since the mid-Eighties when artists Mark Flood and Rick Lowe, among others, opened the CSAW gallery.

RIP CSAW... send off solo show for graff artist COLOR ONE "No Haters Allowed" and group show "Spatial Poetry" featuring Noora Aslalmam, David Damico, Chad Erpelding, Luisa Hernandez, and Zack Zwicky opens September 8th 6-9pm

SOS Lawndale

Diverseworks doesn't need the push, since their opening next Thursday is represented by three entries on glasstire- including glasstire.com editor Rachel Cook's performance piece where she gives people slices of cake. I hope it's red velvet.

On the other hand Lawndale Arts Center has fallen into a PR black hole, with a dearth of info on glasstire and spacetaker and a blip buried in arthound. What gives? Green-screen cowboy action got you down? Austin artists reaching out to the Gulf Coast uninteresting to ya? What the fuck...

Lawndale Arts Center
Round Up by Jaime Wentz and Kurt Mueller,
House Painting by Erin Curtis
SOS by Emily Sloan
and sculpture by Carl Suddath

Opening Thursday August 30, 2007
6:30-8:30 pm
free beer

and then on Saturday up in the Heights:
Muscle and Blood at G Gallery September 1
from 6 til 9pm (301 East 11th)

Sad Day (And We're Next)

Today is the second anniversary of Katrina's entrance into New Orleans, and Bush is there this morning (too little too late). Between the broken levees (and films about broken levees) and the 10% jump in Houston's population (and the jump in murders) Texans should be mad as hell at the lax federal infrastructure- 'cause we're next. Don't expect to be compensated for anything if your house gets blown down, don't expect any food, water or help after the hurricane, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get on down the road. Here's some destruction to remind you of the past and your own possible future.

Riding My Coattails As I Ride Robert's

Artforum rolls out a new issue on Wednesday, and Bruce Hainley has written a review of the great Menil Collection exhibit Robert Rauschenberg: Cardboards and Related Pieces. Hainley is comfortable with phrases like "solar anus" and "sibylline, antifreeze-green atmospherics" and printing large passages of other narrative elements including this illustrative bit from the horse's mouth:

For over five years I have deliberately used every opportunity with my work to create a focus on world problems, local atrocities and in some rare instances celebrate men’s accomplishments. I have strained in collecting influences to bring about a more realistic relationship between artist, science, and business, in a world that is risking annihilation for the sake of a buck. It is impossible to have progress without conscience. In doing this, I have had to concentrate almost exclusively on gloom and filter joy, investigate cruelty and suspect all changes. This is my responsibility, but it is exhausting.

After a while + the resistance a desire built up in me to work in a material of waste and softness. Something yielding with its only message a collection of lines imprinted like a friendly joke. A silent discussion of their history exposed by their new shapes. Labored commonly with happiness.

Boxes (1971)

Unfortunately Hainley digresses frequently, his discussions of Warhol's time capsules and Jasper Johns' sales in 1962 eclipse the work the review is meant to carry. Read mine instead! First printed back in May, I thought it was a little late at the time; the show had been up for months. Oh well, at least I'm not as lax as Artforum!

Whose article is better? Hailey or Carroll?

Numbers Game

How many visitors to the MFAH have seen the Red Hot: Asian Art Today exhibit?

as of August 12th
40,000

Yang Zhenzhong, Lingh and Easy 2002

HP at HCP

The Houston Press was at the Houston Center for Photography for at least five minutes last Saturday, here's a slideshow of people in a crowded room for ya.


Eileen Maxson, Tonite Reprise 2006

Props if you spot Eileen Maxson in town from Pittsburg!

Fer Tha Ladies

Terror Cat Studios

Missed it

How did I miss that? Project Row Houses had their opening for the Summer Public Art Projects last Saturday, and the exhibit is up until September 9th. This summer PRH farmed out their row house exhibition spaces to local art students, but since they are a little lax on their website, I'll have to stop by some afternoon to figure out who's in the show!

New CORE Kids

Mequitta Ahuja, Boogie Woogie 2005

The CORE program, where out-of-towners are encouraged to move here and meet all the rich collectors in town while they work on art in their nice, clean studios, have announced their new members: Mequitta Ahuja, William Cordova, Kara Hearn, Andres Janacua, Lauren Kelley, Nicholas Kersulis, Sergio Torres-Torres, and Jeff Williams. Art writers this year: Meredith Goldsmith, Jennie King and Andrea Liu.

Lauren Kelley is the first Houstonian to be included in the program since 2001! Congrats!

Opening September 7, (6-8PM) at the Glassell School look for Jeff Ward's show Practice Makes Perfect: Repetition as a Form of Scholarship among Glassell Studio School Alumni featuring Bobbye Bennett, Kathy Brown, Ibsen Espada, Judith Freedman, Emily Grenader, Catherine J. Leachman, Amy Lorino, Maureen McNamara, David Ubias, and Lillian Warren.

See Ya Jimmy!

Competent administrator, aspiring photographer and installation troubleshooter Jimmy Castillo is leaving the Lawndale Arts Center for greener pastures (and paychecks) with the Houston Arts Alliance. He will be sorely missed down on Main Street where he saw the transition between Chelby King (now also at HAA), interim director William Betts and now Christine West, formerly of the Galveston Arts Center.

From the bureaucratic ashes of the CACHH (Cultural Arts Coalition of Houston and Harris County; what a mouthfull) the HAA will try to harness the monies coming out of that 1% tax the city has been getting from the hospitality industry. Even though organizations have been around since the turn of the century, no one really knows what these guys do for the city besides run the redundant website artshound.com. Ideas? More public art, more adventurous public art and even temporary or revolving outdoor sculpture. Will they do it? They have a good shot since hiring outsider Jonathan Glus from the Pasadena Office of Cultural Affairs to try and make the HAA more visible. Just no floats made out of flowers, please.

Getting High with YAR!

Up on the 12th floor in downtown Houston, we shot some photos for HATER Magazine.

More later!

Coming to a backwater near you

Is this a good idea?

"Tiny Neutrino of the Pacific Neutrinos is starting a new scrap raft project for the purpose of bringing entertainment and artistry to the Gulf towns on a stage and show raft.

Those involved will learn and assist with the building of a raft or rafts, depending on how many folks show up. Rafts are constructed from mostly recycled materials. A scrap raft is safe, can handle the ocean coast, and is a home like no other.

If you are someone looking for a lifestyle without rent and utility bills, that involves some personal effort and of course the talent to make the project work, this is an opportunity to learn and enjoy the Neutrino lifestyle and share your talents at the same time. Live the Bohemian lifestyle you've been seeking. Be a troubadour and bring smiles to people as we entertain and share our talents."

A Little Rene Cruz for Ya

three ghosts

sandwich dudes

max overdrive

sideshow

penny beards

french ghost

Rene Cruz is a Houston artist who has worked with the Domy Books Sketch Klubb, American Wandering Club, artstar Houston, God's Temple of Family Deliverance, Spain Colored Orange, Buffalo Bayou Art Park and Commerce Street Artists Warehouse.