DEBRIS: Fire It Up

Kathy Kelley, Sketch for Suckling is Continuous, 2007

Man, performance art is kind of taking off. Look out for pillow fights, photo ops, water gun wars and street art coming your way in Montrose. Oh yeah, watch your bike, too. New art collectives Bootown and The Bench are fixin’ to use youtube and myspace to go under the radar and screw with the status quo. New ventures are coming out of the woodwork, last fall’s darlings the Joanna Gallery and Artstorm are popular enough to warrant visits from the Contemporary Arts Museum curators and Glasstire writers. The sky is the limit for upstarts and deviants- get out there and play!



The city is awash in photography and film, with everyone getting ready for the Fotofest Biennial March 7th. Check out the hub of the festivities at Vine Street Studios for a late night from 8-12 pm where a survey of Chinese photographers will take over the massive converted warehouse or sneak into the Meeting Place at the Doubletree Hotel Downtown where 350 photographers will be grilled by nearly a hundred reviewers. Good luck guys! Leave the pics of dogs in tutus at home! For the film nerds out there, you can still throw your hat into the ring with applications due for the Fotofest SWAMP Short Film Festival this February 29th; email swamp@swamp.org for more information. Screenings will be in April at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.



On February 9th a new city park will open at the corner of White Oak and Houston Avenue along the north edge of Buffalo Bayou, please join the BBAP in unveiling Kathy Kelley’s Suckling is Continuous installation. Constructed out of used tires and industrial debris, Kelley’s work looks like the polluted bayous of Houston have spawned hungry babies looking to suck the life out of wandering souls. Perfect for the intersection of the Heights and 5th Ward.



Photographer William Christenberry will be on more than the lips of every photographer in town, his emotionally grounded documentation of Southern living is currently on view in the Vivid Vernacular show at the Menil along with fellow big names Walker Evans and William Eggleston. Upping the ante, Moody Gallery will open an exhibit of photographs of Alabama and Mississippi February 23rd. Flickrheads better get their shutters to Kirby for this one.


from the Houston Free Press Issue 88

What To Do

Friends, I'm speaking on Cy Twombly, at the Twombly Pavillion over by the Menil Collection, this Sunday 3pm.

Think of it as a pre-pre-game Superbowl party.

Mark Flood

Pick It Up!

5 year anniversary issue out now!

See me collaged in up there?

Smokers Should Love The Blaffer and Chantal

The Belgians are known for strong beer and they'll be known for strong wills if Chantal Ackerman has anything to do with it.

D'est

The artist, whose videos are currently featured in a sprawling darkened installation of oodles of video screens at the Blaffer, sticks up for the smokers with the film Women From Antwerp in November in the far room on the second floor.

The film has also been shown as part of a play where four people smoke on stage and extinguish their butts on portraits of world leaders. Belgian collaborator Jan Fabre says of their work I am a mistake, "It was designed as a manifesto of sorts from an artist who is himself a heavy smoker, and who dies in the end from throat cancer...but the play now seems to have more relevance, with the whole world at war against cigarettes and smokers becoming a little like society's new negroes." A bit over the top, eh? Persecution over personal choice is bad, but not cause for that bullshit.

Come One and All

yup that's me making the night bright with a performance!

Skeez sez:

whats up homiez! I wanted to inform everyone that a friend of mine who occupies a room here at our art building will be leaving in March. So I'm giving everyone who is interested the heads up! Heres some info about the room to be rented:

-small cubical room with a keyed door (9ft X 9ft)
-central A/C.
-accessible internet signal.
-2 restrooms and a shower.
-breakroom and community sink.
-access to the building 24 hours a day.
-ADT security system.
-convenient parking.
-located near U of H central campus (I-45 & Cullen)
-asking rent $125 per month plus a down payment to secure sub-lease.

If interested or have questions concerning this space don't hesitate to hit me up!!

skeezr!
281.795.7397

have a nice weekend!!

Hard Labor

The o6, 2003 - 2004 Collection, maow
"It was too extreme for the Flicker Fusion Film Festival, thus was never aired."

Troy Schulze trudges through several descriptions of animated films at Diverseworks for the Houston Press HERE.

Nance Street Studios

Reply to: hoteltango88@yahoo.com
Date: 2008-01-31, 6:47PM CST


Only a couple of spaces left in this 1930, all masonry warehouse. Great space & location for any media. We have two painters, two photographers and a sculptor. If you want to join an active group of working artists call...

713.702.9932

The Nance Street Studios
For more info see...

http://nancestreetstudios.blogspot.com/

Dolores Huerta

straight up!!
who's comin with me?!!!
besitos,
tina

DiverseWorks 25th Anniversary conversation and tour

with Charles Snider (his accent is silly), Sixto and Diane Barber (her toy collection is awesome)

Jim Hatchett at the Art Car Museum

Jim Hatchett's performance-slash-painting at the Art Car Museum last month

New At The Menil

When will we get to see it?

Joe Goode, Torn Cloud Painting 60, 1971-76

Between Rene Magritte and Lucio Fontana the Menil loves their clouds and cuts.
MAN article HERE.

In two weeks the How Artists Draw show will open!

Max Ernst, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Kurt Schwitters, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, Jasper Johns, Michael Heizer, Robert Gober, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Georgia O’Keeffe, Piet Mondrian, Odilon Redon, Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Serra and Sol LeWitt. Try and beat that motherfucker.

Just Dessert, Please.

developing... Maggi Battalino removed from CSAW by the owners... discussion over dinner with Sean Duke and the family of Elva Dumas led to the other side of the story...

Houstonist Photo of the Day

colorful_sillouette
by andromeda8236

from outside the MFAH

Julian Schnabel Spars With Sean Young

Link HERE.

Julian Schnabel, the director of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, sparred with his lead actress Sean Young after stalling for a minute in a narcissus-style hair twirling moment. She went to rehab the next day...

Art Guys in Beaumont

Study for 101 Lawn Mowers, 1996

Opening February 1st at The Art Museum of Southeast Texas is the first leg of The Art Guys: Cloud Cuckoo Land's travels through Texas after its premiere at the Galveston Arts Center in December. Look out for the boys in Houston with an exhibit at Raven Grill for Fotofest in March and TBA events at the Contemporary Arts Museum.

Don't Forget

I don't care if you ride your bicycle to work at Whole Foods and care about your carbon footprint, don't forget about car culture. If you've ever been oh, let's say, on the 610 Loop on the southeast side at 1 in the morning then it's a little tougher to forget about.



Racing is big on the westside and outside the loop on any of those giant freeways with no traffic at certain times of the night. The other day I saw a completely custom Honda that had its exterior destroyed by a crash or two, he was still swerving through traffic like he was hot shit. Misogynistic, obsessive, paranoid and even violent, car culture is a marginalized and illegal subculture that fuels passions for the bored and the technically adept. Take a little time and hang out in parking lots of strip malls sometime, it's good for ya.


Back in the day


Three days ago

550 Comments

Quanell X, in a World War II-era railcar Monday,
was welcomed by leaders of the Holocaust Museum Houston to take a tour.

photo by Billy Smith II, Chronicle

Activist Quanell X has apologized to the Jewish community for previous virulent remarks with a visit to the Holocaust Museum and a statement:

"I apologize to every Jewish (Holocaust) survivor that may have heard anything I have ever said," Quanell said at the end of his tour, which culminated with his placing a stone at an outside memorial, a Jewish custom at a gravesite. "How could I say anything in a vile, malicious or repugnant manner to anyone who has been in one of these camps? I should have never threatened like that.

"I seek the forgiveness of every survivor who has heard the words I've said," he continued. "I did not say them in the proper manner to make the point I was trying to get across. I can see and understand how they might be utterly paranoid (of) a person such as myself."

Quanell's original words are from the Million Man March, when he said:

24-year-old Quanell X told the gathering that offended Jews "can go straight to hell," then expounded on his sentiments to a Chicago Tribune reporter.

"The real deal is this: Black youth do not want a relationship with the Jewish community or the mainstream white community or the foot-shuffling, head-bowing, knee-bobbing black community," Quanell said. "I say to Jewish America: Get ready ... knuckle up, put your boots on because we're ready and the war is going down."

The article in today's Houston Chronicle has already gathered 550 comments in 13 hours on their website, a panorama of opinions from Houstonians.

Football and Artists? Oil and Water?

Buffalo Bayou Art Park [ie Watermelon Flats] turns 21! Everyone is having an anniversary except for poor 'ol dead CSAW.

CORE at 25 Years Young

Amy Blakemore, Two Chairs


Read about the Glassell School's premiere program at a quarter of a century on ArtDaily today!

The Bench Collective

B.S.

Studio Help Needed -- ASAP!

Trent Hancock is looking for two people to stretch about a dozen large canvases. It could lead to a regular, part-time position doing general studio assisting. Hours are somewhat flexible, but definitely afternoons or evenings. Pay negotiable. CONTACT Monica Vidal at monicalvidal@hotmail.com if interested. Please state experience and pay requirements. Preference will be given to two people that apply together, as scheduling will be easier.

Thanks.

Bile!

Oi! Oi! Oi! Some Mondays just seem like they need some of the ol' humours...

All Around The Big Block and Out Into The Street

over at the BD, it's over.


Zaha Hadid
Damn that shit is sexy. Is it opulent and feminine or powerful and masculine?

well, it probably would feel like a Corvette in the living room.





Barbarella or Hans Wegner?






now on to next door!

Anya Tish- Beata Ewa Bialecka

Rene Magritte or Monty Python?


at Peel there was a collaboration by this photog guy...


and then downstairs!

Katie Kahn at Joan Wich

I love drawing on newspapers too... she must have had a lot of down time....


Gratitude, There's No Competition, 2007


The Other, 2007


Wade Wilson

Virgil Grotfeldt

Mike "No Fatties" Huckabee's Plan For The Arts

Education And The Arts

• I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to compete in a global economy.
• Music and the arts are not extraneous, extra-curricular, or expendable - I believe they are essential. I want to provide every child these "Weapons of Mass Instruction."
• Our future economy depends on a creative generation.
• We need to judge the success of our schools by the results we obtain, not the revenue we spend.
• Test scores rose dramatically when I was Governor of Arkansas because of my education reforms.
• I have been a strong, consistent supporter of the rights of parents to home school their children, of creating more charter schools, and of public school choice.
• We need a clear distinction between federal and state roles in education. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
  

I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to compete in a global economy. As I traveled the country and the world over the last decade bringing jobs to Arkansas, the business leaders I met weren't worried about creating jobs, they were worried about finding skilled and professional workers to fill those jobs.

In addition, I want to provide our children what I call the "Weapons of Mass Instruction" - art and music - the secret, effective weapons that will help us to be competitive and creative. It is crucial that children flex both the left and right sides of the brain. We all know the cliché of thinking outside the box: I want our children to be so creative that they think outside the cardboard factory. Art and music are as important as math and science because the dreamers and visionaries among us take the rough straw of an idea and spin it into the gold of new businesses and jobs. It is as important to identify and encourage children with artistic talent as it is those with athletic ability. Our future economy depends on a creative generation.

Music has always been an important part of my life. I still play bass guitar in my band, Capitol Offense.

As Governor of Arkansas, I undertook several initiatives to encourage arts in education. I passed landmark legislation to provide music and art instruction by certified teachers for all Arkansas children in grades one through six, forty minutes a week. As Chairman of the Education and Arts Commission of the States, I created a two-year initiative called "The Arts - A Lifetime of Learning," which promotes the benefits of arts education to all fifty states.

Students with strong art and music programs have higher academic achievement overall, are far more likely to read for pleasure and participate in community service, and are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior. These programs have a powerful effect in leveling the academic playing field for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The study of music improves math scores, spatial reasoning and abstract thinking.

[...]

I opposed the teachers' union and got the Fair Dismissal Law passed, which allowed us to terminate poorly performing teachers. To attract top talent, I raised teachers' salaries from among the lowest in the nation to among the most competitive. I created systems to make our schools accountable to both parents and taxpayers by insisting on transparency in how money is spent, efficiency in putting money into classroom programs rather than administrative costs, and clear responsibility of all employees for the tasks assigned to them.

[...]

We need to test teachers as well as students, replace teachers who aren't competent, and impose reasonable waiting periods for teachers to gain tenure. We should provide bonuses and forgive student loans for high-performing teachers to work in low-performing schools. Just as there are executives in the corporate world who specialize in turning around failing companies, we need teachers who are "turn-around specialists" for failing schools.

Typical employment procedures provide a disincentive for teachers and often discourage potentially good teachers from entering what I consider to be a noble profession. Educators and teachers should be involved in the design of compensation initiatives that encourage training and promote performance based on merit, so that our children can have the best education in the world.

[...]

As President, I will use my broad and deep expertise in education policy to lift up our children and America's economic future.

link HERE

Slippin'

Dammit, I've read this shit but I was doin' shit instead of posting it on the internet. I got scooped.

Is ACK! going over others' tags now?

Box 13 opens down in Eastwood... the Babylonian exile of CSAW begins... is that too dramatic?

...and then there were three on 11th Street...

The Spectacle of the Spectacle at the Station seduces Kelly....

A macabre auction is getting a boost- "It's not just for any collector," laughs gallery owner Betty Moody. "But there are always the Lester Markses of this world: great collectors who love quirky things. Somebody is bound to buy it."

"Describing Raymond Nasher as having anything to do with "greed-based individuation" sounds typical of a bratty, smarmy little Neo-Marxist with a mouthful of artificial distinctions trying to climb the Academic ladder. Go wash your mouth out with soap, little girl." What is this about? Tee hee.

The Contemporary Arts Museum, Sans Target

The 2006 National Design Triennial, Design Life Now, opened on Friday at the Contemporary Arts Museum with windshield wiper fluid Targetinis (no joke- they serve 'em at the Walker too) in tow. Here are some selected images from the show that was left off glasstire's listings while the design show at Barbara Davis was included. We've left the merchandising off the docket, so enjoy the gift shop, y mas.

Eero Saarinen Tulip Table in the corner of the exhibit, instead of 60s plastic this one's marble.
I guess that means it deserves a decadent chandelier.


Tish bought a cupcake!