What It's Come To

Poker Face Chopped and Screwed
JeyStylezTV

What?

Married to the Sea

Alive and Dead

sexyATTACK from Jonathan Wing on Vimeo.
SexyATTACKin' the Glasstire 8-Ball of Cocaine, 2008



"oh, pardon me, was that my pelvis in your yogurt?"
@ Kroger on West Gray


sexyATTAcK will be out this morning (hipster morning; noon to 3pm) at the International Fest in downtown, if you're out and alive check it.








This afternoon at the Menil's Dan Flavin installation at Richmond Hall Warhol's screen tests will run from 3 to 7 pm, if you're in and dead check it.

If you see sexyATTACK take pictures of them and stare and slyly remark "that's coool" to the stranger next to you. If you come to see the Screen Tests bring something interesting, don't let the moment go wasted. They would've been seen in the midst of a party so the sterile screening in an empty space is kinda disheartening. Drive your motorcycle into the building. Bring a stereo and blast Easy-E. Make balloon animals for people. Hand out peonies. Dance. Talk. Bring lunch. I'm gonna bring paper and charcoal- hell, it's just like sitting in a life drawing class, y'know?

iFest: Eire
(happy jig-dancin' history version)
Saturday and Sunday (next week too), downtown Houston at Buffalo Bayou

MenilFest
((perfect day remix)
Saturday, Montrose, Mandell between Alabama and Richmond

Checkin' the Numbers

Biggest #s Mover in the Past Two Days
Indonesia

Average Time Austinites Spent Reading b.s.
3:00

Visitors from Saskatoon
1


you can't win 'em all

Weekend Pondering

so waddya say? you in?

Mango's
403 Westheimer @ Taft

We Miss You, Dale Stewart

reprinted from this week's Houston Press
pick one up

by Cathy Matusow

Houston artist Dale Stewart died Monday at age 34. He was brilliant, and he was my friend for more than two years.

Dale was fascinated by the world, and that made him a fascinating person. His obsessions were too many to count. He loved his family, adored his little girls Anna and Kate beyond all measure. He was captivated by spinning tops, engines, fans, records, record players, Steve Reich, Marcel Duchamp, Peter Greenaway, Go, chess, labyrinths, Pakistani Towers of Silence and Google Earth -- to name but a few.

His intellectual curiosity was so vast, he kept a log of every book he consulted during the three years he worked at the Harvard Law Library, while his wife Rebecca went to law school. He had the reference information for each book -- dated and listed in the order he looked at it -- bound together into two enormous volumes which he intended as a piece of conceptual art.

That work is a great example of the kind of obsessive, meticulous art he created, so different from -- and lesser known than -- the joyously haphazard works resulting from his collaboration with I Love You Baby.

Although his art has been shown in some Houston galleries, it hasn't been shown enough. Dale liked patterns, permutations, systems, math. He liked to get ahold of one idea and explore its every facet, which is what he was after with his series of hexagon works based on deconstructed cubes. Explorations of shape, line and color, the early hexagons are beautiful to look at, but Dale once told me that wasn't the point. He thought of their color pairings as random, each hexagon as part of a larger exercise. With time, the bold, bright geometric paintings gave way to faint, curving white chalk lines on hexagons finished in chalkboard. Those final works have an ephemeral quality that would make many a buyer beware.

Dale also had a sense of humor and a taste for wordplay. One work, an homage to his hero Duchamp, is a urinal filled with butterscotch candies. Another is a two-by-four with black stenciled letters that reads, "IF BOARD AFTER TWO HOURS TRY FOUR." It was inspired by the John Cage quote, "If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

Actually, that is exactly how Dale shared his interests with his friends. He would gladly give a dissertation on any of his fascinations at any time. And if you really did listen to him, you could never be bored, even if he decided the patio at Poison Girl was the best place to delve into the details of how an engine works.

I will never know anyone like Dale Stewart again, and there is no way to adequately express how much I will miss him.

Patrick Renner at Poissant Gallery

Whats that? Patrick Renner is having an opening this Friday and the gallery hasn't even sent out a press release and they just posted the info to their site today? Well that's news to me!

Patrick Renner: lorem ipsum
Poissant Gallery
Friday, April 24, 2009
6-9 pm
on view thru May 23rd.

Diana-Sofia's Got the Scoop

labotanica news
4.21.09

labotanica maps intersections of creative and social transformation. labotanica uses flexible, open-ended formats to engage the community to examine progressive cultural and social practices.

la@labotanica.org
http://labotanica.org
skype: labotanicaskype


- labotanica announces grants program for creative projects
- low lives call for artists
- labotanica seeks home in houston, texas
- labotanica magazine #1: classifieds, call for entries


~~~~~~~~
labotanica announces grants program for creative projects
labotanica's grants program offers small support for creative projects that intersect creativity and social transformation. Offered twice a year, grants are supported by ten dollar donations from the public. Grant awards vary depending on total donations contributed by the deadline. To apply, submit an online proposal and make a ten dollar donation via PayPal. The grants program is developed from a belief that funding should be accessible and reciprocal. labotanica funds small scale projects that have the potential to multiply and be much more. This money is seen as seed money to develop one time projects or projects that could seek more funding in the future. Works of all media and genres are considered, and applicants of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Potential projects could range from community gardens, murals, research, activism, writing, interventions, and workshops, among others. Grant deadlines are twice a year in January and July.
Next deadline: July 15, 2009/ Current balance: $200.00


~~~~~~~~
Low Lives: Call to Artists
Low Lives is a new exhibition of live performance-based works by artists from different parts of the world and projected in real time at FiveMyles in Brooklyn, NY; Diaspora Vibe Gallery in Miami, FL; and labotanica, Houston, TX. Low Lives is curated by Jorge Rojas.

Low Lives examines works that critically investigate, challenge, and extend the potential of performance practice presented live through online broadcasting networks. These networks, though seldom utilized for performance art, provide a new alternative and efficient medium for presenting and viewing performances. Low Lives is about not simply the presentation of performative gestures at a particular place and time but also about the transmission of these moments and what gets lost, conveyed, blurred, and reconfigured when utilizing this medium. Low Lives embraces works with a lo-fi aesthetic such as low pixel image and sound quality, contributing to a raw, DIY and sometimes voyeuristic quality to the transmission and reception of the work.

Artists selected to participate in this exhibition will transmit their work live through BlogTV, a platform that allows for anyone with a computer, webcam and internet connection to broadcast live. Interested artists are encouraged to visit BlogTV and their FAQ page to familiarize them with the site.

Submission Requirements:
-Artists interested can submit previously created works or new work to be considered through links to artist’s websites or other web destinations. Duration of works must be under 5 minutes to be considered
- Artist statement including how work relates to the theme
- CV - Email all submission materials to: keoqui@gmail.com

Important Dates: June 30th: Submission deadline; July 15th: Artists notified on selection; August 8th: Show opens at FiveMyles, Diaspora Vibe Gallery & labotanica- 6:00 – 9:00 pm (EST)

~~~~~~~~
labotanica seeks home in houston, texas
labotanica is searching for an office space, and home for our budding archive and for future public programs. We are are open to sharing space in existing offices, warehouses, studios and organizations. Please contact us if you’d like a new neighbor, or have ideas for a future home for labotanica, preferably donated space.

~~~~~~~~
labotanica magazine #1: classifieds, call for entries
The next theme for labotanica's proposition's series is Classifieds. We are seeking any classified ads you may have for love, work, and creative exchange. Select ads will be posted for free in a online/ PDF printed magazine available to the public in the summer issue of labotanica (July/ August). Ads must be submitted by July 15, 2009. There are no parameters for the ad. This is an opportunity for exchange, collaboration, and dialogue. Submit ad at: la [at] labotanica.org

Museo-Sluts

culture jamming outside the Rose; tongue jammed in cheek



Art Fag City sez: Systematic Dismantling of the Rose Art Museum Well Underway Even as Brandeis Claims Otherwise


Tyler Green sez: Spring Means the Caps Losing, Rampant Bloodletting and Deaccessioning


Artnet sez: the question is why fair organizers are having such trouble finding a new generation of collectors

20th Century MoMa

20th Century Modern Market
Lawndale Art Center's 14th Annual

April 22-26, 2009

Lawndale’s 20th Century Modern Market exclusively features design of the twentieth century.
This year’s Market will offer a variety of media including furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, textiles, objets d’art and fashion. Each year in conjunction with the Market, Lawndale offers a free public lecture pertaining to this important era in design.

Robert Summers,
Center for Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art
Lone Star Modern: Discovering the Origins
of Modernism in Texas Art
Free Public Lecture
TONIGHT! - Wednesday, April 22, 2009
7:00 PM

Preview Party
Friday, April 24, 2009
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Market Weekend
Saturday and Sunday April 25 and 26, 2009
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

5ifty5ifty Mod
Cool Stuff Houston
Don Browne
Forma Revivo
Houston Mod
The Lush Life Antiques
Metro Modern

Mid Century Modern/Metro Retro

Mid-Century & More
Retro Relics
Two Blue
Vintage Cufflinks and Watches
by McQueen
Wear It Again Sam

Funky?

Rabea Ballin
Fresh


April 24 - May 23, 2009

Joan Wich Gallery
Opening Friday, April 24
6 - 8 pm

DEBRIS: April tears May last for years

“The Broken Obelisk is concerned with life and I hope that I have transformed its tragic content into a glimpse of the sublime.” –Barnett Newman


“The only thing I care about is the expression of man's basic emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, destiny.” –Mark Rothko

Love is the new thing in art. Gone is the fame, the career, the rat race and the flight to New York. Of course that statement has wide blinders on it, but it’s just been so sad around here. There is much to mourn these days, and the art world in Houston is tinged with tragedy. So love, please, ‘cause it will never go away.


Leigh Boone was a tireless art supporter, a regular on the gallery scene, a valuable member of the team at the Houston Center for Photography and an arts volunteer working with many important art spaces. She was riding her bicycle to work at the corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy on March 30th when two fire trucks collided in a horrific twist of metal and fate. Boone was brought to Memorial Hermann in critical condition, firefighters were injured, a car was crushed, and the $1.2 million in damage was all for naught—the call was a fake. Leigh died on Good Friday after a twelve day battle for her life. That Easter morning the winds of a thunderstorm whipped a home fire in southeast Houston into a frenzy. Captain James Harlow and firefighter Damien Hobbs entered the house as the fire was dying down, but flames suddenly blasted through the roof and erupted sideways throughout the house. Both were killed. That afternoon, in San Francisco, California, art car enthusiast and metalworking artist Tom Kennedy was pulled under by a vicious undertow while body surfing and drown. Kennedy spent time studying sculpture at the University of Houston and working for the Houston Chronicle; he had traveled extensively building art cars in the past few years.


On the morning of Monday, April 13th, in front of the solemn Rothko Chapel where he had been married, artist and member of the “I Love You, Baby” art collective Dale Stewart took his own life. The park, lush with spring leaves on Live Oaks and a wall of bamboo behind Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk, was peppered with neighbors walking their dogs and students lying in the sun. Leigh Boone was 29; Dale Stewart was 34. That night mourners gathered at Poison Girl to pay their respects to Boone. Everyone signed a white bicycle with Sharpies and bought out the whole stock of I <3 LEIGH tee shirts before 11. At the end of the night the “ghost bicycle” was chained to a telephone pole at the corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy, surrounded by a growing memorial of flowers from well-wishers. On his way home from the event, Kevin Curry, a studio resident at the Lawndale Art Center who knew Leigh from her volunteer work, was the victim of a hit-and-run as he pulled his bicycle into his own driveway. He ended up with a huge gash on his forehead, chipped teeth and cuts and bruises on his face, but thankfully avoided a fractured skull.


That Saturday, two memorial services crossed paths at the Rothko Chapel, where services were held for Leigh and a procession of friends and family left flowers, letters and other tokens for Dale beneath the tree where he passed away. The rain poured down in sheets. The sky took on the pallor of Mark Rothko’s late paintings, created after the Chapel’s large voids and an aneurysm in his aorta, shortly before he slit his wrists in his kitchen after overdosing on anti-depressants in 1970. The city began to flood, and there would be more tragedy to follow. A man driving drunk along Greens Bayou answered his cell phone and swerved into the rain-swollen bayou, killing five children in the car with him. Painful reminders of the precious life we all lead, death will always follow us—and remembering our love for those lost may bring you solace.

Spacetaker's Got the Scoop!

6th Annual A/V Swap
Info Session
May 27, 2009

Call for Entries
Meeting
Volunteer

A/V Swap site

description
Join Sean Morrissey Carroll at the Spacetaker ARC for an informal information session to learn about the process and rules of the 6th year of this exciting collaboration!

What is the AV Swap?

Originally started in Houston TX, the AV Swap is an annual event that brings together the creative minds of musicians and filmmakers in an experimental collaborative event.

This year, the Swap is accepting submissions from New York participants who’s work can be shown at both the New York and Houston screenings.

Who can participate?

Anyone can participate! Whether you’re shooting on 35mm or your cell phone, whether you mix beats on Pro Tools or play the spoons, as long as you can get the pieces to us in the right formats, all are welcomed to join in on the fun.

How does it work?

FIRST
Participants either submit a video piece without a soundtrack or an audio piece without any visuals.(Pieces should be no longer than 5 minutes)

THEN...
The AV Swap Team spend the next couple of days to take the submissions and facilitate the swap. Filmmakers will be given a piece of audio that they will have to create an original short film for. Musicians will be given a short film to create an original soundtrack for. Eveyone is given 3 weeks to create these original pieces.

FINALLY...
The new pieces are submitted to the AV Swap Team who will prepare all the pieces for the screening.

New Houston A/V Swap Director Sean Morrissey Carroll has over 10 years of art event plannning.

The event premiere will take place in August with the first drop off days in June. (Looking for some volunteers who can help us make this event successful. So if you are great designing web pages or are interesting in becoming a hosting sponsor than please contact us back immediately.)

Houstonist Photo of the Day

OneEighteen

(click to enlarge)



via Houstonist

The Wandering Bill Arning

Britt from the Chron's got the new CAMH director Arning in frame.. no wait, over here... over there...

skip to :35

Sculpture Fest 2009 and Senior Block Students Art Exhibition

Nicky Auger
Christa Havican
Jeremy Haines
Marty Joyce
Shane M. Maberry
Tehmina Mazhar
Janet Rowe

Thursday, April 23, 2009, 5-10pm

South Park Annex - Sculpture Building

corner of MLK and Calhoun @ UH central campus
Houston, TX

A bit of sad news.... Kevin Curry

A bit of sad news....Lawndale studio resident Kevin Curry was injured in a bike accident early last Tuesday morning. Good news is he is home and doing ok. He was on his way home from the benefit for Leigh Boone and was hit by a car right outside of his driveway. The car didn't stop. He was taken by ambulance the ER at Hermann in the Medical Center and called Dennis early Tuesday morning. I made it up to the ER by 6 and Dennis was there soon after. They released him from the hospital later that morning. He has a huge gash in his head and cuts and bruises on the right side of his face (but no fracture to his skull), two chipped front teeth and a sprained ankle. We are stopping by daily, making sure he has a steady stream of folks checking in and to see if he needs anything. We're all really relieved that he was not hurt worse and are hoping he will be back up at Lawndale working soon.

Anita Garten made this wonderful suggestion. Would you all be willing to pitch in a little to help Kevin get a new bike? Although he has a car, he uses his bike to get around town, to and form Lawndale and to his job at the Museum of Printing History.

I will be looking into what is the best way is to do this through Lawndale, but please, in the meantime, let me know if you are interested in contributing something towards this effort. Thanks!

Help Kevin Get a New Bike

email cwest [at] lawndaleartcenter.org

or call 713.528.5858

A little Vasari, a dash of Saltz and a dollup of Greenberg

I gave a talk on art criticism to an Art Appreciation class on Monday at HCC

First a powerpoint with a little history of art history and a primer on Houston's art history,
then we just kind of talked about paintings and cartoons and googled for like 45 minutes.
It was fun telling them about Marat and David, Komar + Melamid,
Hirst and Chaney and the MFAH, John Biggers and Mark Flood.



this girl totally slept through class and I'm putting her picture online for that reason-
that's what you get, yo!

French Quarter Fest

a little vacation in the swamp...

apparently I walked right into a wedding...



like, in the middle of it.



Jacob sez: "Ahhhh... so they're not the same person."




horseradish and crab claws







cual metal es su guitar, yo.



Bo, the bog dartender at Pete's



stupid kid dying of alcohol poisoning