So This is It

The lull before the storm... just like today's weather.

One opening this weekend at HCP on Alabama, one opening at Domy.

One museum opening at the Menil.



Why the rest and relaxation?

Kelly Flynn, President 1 + President 2, 2007
from International Discoveries @ Fotofest

Galleries and museums are gearing up for the Fotofest Biennial, stockpiling wine and cheese for the 7th and 8th of March and continuing through the month and into April.

There will be 114 openings at 114 locations in Houston-
including museums, non-profits, alternative spaces,
commercial galleries, retail and corporate spaces
and artists' studios.

Billed as "[the] first international Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art in the United States", Fotofest was founded in 1983 by documentary photographers and journalists, Frederick Baldwin and Wendy Watriss, and European gallery director, Petra Benteler. The first biennial was held in 1986 and eleven consecutive Biennials have been held every two years since.

In 1989 Fotofest extended invitations to Czech and Slovak photographers to exhibit in Houston, and provided the artists with materials to complete their projects in the post-Communist era. Organizers met with Vaclav Havel and dined with the newly elected democratic government. Subsequent biennials have focused on Russia, the Middle East and this year's spotlight on Chinese artists.

opening night at Warehouse Live, 2006

Artist Board members include the members of MANUAL- Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom, as well as HCP exec Allison Hunter, Galveston Art Center curator Clint Willour, senior CAMH curator Lynn Herbert, director of Community Artists' Collective Michelle Barnes and Diverseworks director Diane Barber. Kim Davenport of Rice Gallery, Dan and Joe Havel, Rick Lowe, Debbie Riddle, and university museum directors Alvia Wardlaw and Terri Sultan are members of the Community Board.

In the meantime I'll keep up with the punk rock shows and outsider alternative spaces, as well as artist profiles and calls for entries. Guess I'll have to clean the house on weekends.