B.S. Houston Art Blog: 8/30/09

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Even Weirder Bank Robber!!!

Now the bike riding bank robber was weird enough, but check out this fool who robbed two banks dressed like a space alien and lookin' like Frank Black ROFL

Looks like Kate Murphy finally got out to see the recycled scrap houses Dan Phillips makes, 8 months after a flurry of publicity launched the Phoenix Commotion into the local consciousness. Since then the Bone House has burned to the ground and risen from the ashes. Well, even if New York is behind the curve, at least they have someone writing in Houston.

Michael Paulsen /Chronicle

From Lisa Grey's January chron article comes this great quip from Phillips:

“You know The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche?” Dan asks.

It’s another sentence I never expected to hear from a builder. I nod uncertainly.

“You know how he described the two strains of culture? There’s the Apollonian culture, where everything is crisp, tidy and perfect. And there’s the Dionysian culture, where everything is passionate and organic.

“If an Apollonian is hanging a picture, he gets out his level and his measuring tape and precisely centers the picture on the wall. If a Dionysian is hanging a picture, he takes the picture, holds it up to the wall, and goes, “Hmmm. Does this look about right?”

“Our building industry is entirely Apollonian. Architects pre-think their design, specifying these ideal materials and aiming to create these idealized shapes. They’re at a disadvantage. They work off in an office, drawing blueprints. They can’t get feedback from the materials and let the designs evolve.”

phoenixcommotion.com

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Cuts Like a Knife

whadda you see?

Terri Sultan's move to Long Island really let down a few people in Houston who saw her as a big talent in a backwater town, but her debut curatorial action at the Parrish Art Museum (of a show that was critically lauded in Houston) gets a beatdown in the Wall Street Journal, completely deserved for the uselessness that is Jean-Luc Mylayne;

Just because an artist gets high on his own inflated oratory is no reason a curator has to participate in a folie à deux. The museum here neither serves a public skeptical about the opacity of contemporary art nor does Mr. Mylayne any favors by framing his modest, if persistent, achievement under crushing layers of grandiloquent hokum.

Complete with 5 dolla words, y'all :)
via WSJ

Blind Item

"In a scene that would most likely appeal to the Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dalí, several works attributed to him are currently on display next to a disheveled tie rack at a Salvation Army Family Thrift Store in a seedy industrial neighborhood [in Houston, Texas]. The pen-and-ink drawing, crucifix sculpture and set of six lithographs are laid out in a glass case among the kind of crystal and brass tchotchkes more typically found in thrift stores. The shelves are lined with black fabric stitched with the words “I ♥ Jesus” in gold."

via NYT
wtf?

The James Surls Lecture

Lawndale
August 27,2009

John Runnells, James Surls, Charlie-Jean Sartwelle

Keijiro Suzuki

ahem...

CAMH Director Bill Arning

Bert Long Jr.

B. Davis

Surls with Elaine Bradford's crochet over his shoulder

good crowd! canopied by Emily Sloan's "lamps"

Mike and Jack

Hana Hillerova and Howard Sherman

afterparty at B. Davis

Hi Aisen!

Louise sez:

The Artist's Eye: John Runnels on Twombly’s Rose Paintings

Menil Collection

Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009, 3 p.m.

Born near Hot Coffee, Mississippi, John Runnels received his B.F.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi. In 1985 he co-founded Mother Dog Studios, an alternative studio and exhibition space in downtown Houston. Runnels has worked as Co-Director of Buffalo Bayou ARTPARK, and with the University of Houston Sculpture Department and the City of Houston to establish an international
artist-in-residence program. He was commissioned by the City to design a series of text-based sculptures called “Portals” along Buffalo Bayou’s Sabine Promenade. Currently, he is working on a public art project for the City of Phoenix.

Woody At Summerfest (and more people too)

he started building it Thursday

piece by styrafoam-painted-in-iron piece

it was about 24 feet tall

and then people started coming

the view from behind

and from the front (click to enlarge)

see it in the top corner?

the cozy window

buh bye!

y mas people at summerfest :)

Monday, August 31, 2009

Art Car Museum sez:

Annual Open Call Exhibition theme is:
“Planes, Trains, Cars and Bikes”
Bring us your artwork from 11am-6pm
on Sat. September 5th or Sunday Sept. 6th.

**Rules are: One piece per artist. Maximum size is 4’x4’. Space is
limited to the first 200 entries.

Exhibition opening is Sat. Sept. 12th from 7-10pm.

Art Car Museum