Richmond, Midtown

Renee Lotenero, A sculpture made from the bedroom floor tiles, 2007

Renee Lotenero at McClain is a very pretty show, her collage/pastiche/drawings have great compositions and jarring levels of blurred reality between physical and representational; ceramic tiles and plastic grass, photographs of ceramic tiles and plastic grass and drawings of varying trompe l'oeil and sketchiness that look like ceramic tires and plastic grass are also references to places- mostly defined by where around the world (like the Honolulu Airport) she picked up her materials for the piece. A little candy in the back gallery- two John Chamberlains that sold between the end of the last show and the opening yesterday...

Emily Joyce, Double Steal: J.P., 2007

This collage/pastiche/drawing thing is contagious apparently, as Inman Gallery has also caught the bug. Emily Joyce (not Emily Sloan, sorry Norby) at Inman stuffs collage textures and animals into her seemingly die-cut acrylic splatters and splashes. Robert Ruello sticks with the solid hard edge abstractions, a little more representational than his gallerymate. CTRL is also up on the collage/pastiche/drawing vibe with Heimir Bjorgulfsson's Icelandic take on LA, a disjointed view of lush utopia. Finesilver is going for the the gusto, bringing out the big guns, blah, blah blah... there is a really big gun made out of styrofoam by Jason Rogenes. Two more environments are by Rebecca Ward and DC kid Dan Steinhilber. Dan made a cool inflated environment and his everyday material sculptures are firmly tongue-in-cheek, but he also put a couple of uninspired swings together in the gallery- nearly the same as a high-schooler piece at the CAMH this spring- ouch.

We Don't Like It Here...

The best thing about this post making the myspace rounds are the kids' drawings, which are probably real..

via Free The Children of Texas' Hutto Prison: A former prison is now being used as an ICE detention prison for hundreds of children (many of them U.S. citizens) whose parents’ legal status is in question. The corporation running operation makes $7,000 a month, courtesy of Homeland Security and Williamson County gets a buck a day per kid for acting as the "provider."

drawings from the ICE detention center in Taylor, Texas

Mary Ellen Kersch spoke at a Williamson County meeting in opposition: "Beyond the morality issues of County involvement in the Taylor prison, there are some other concerns that I would like to ask this Court to consider. I asked two attorneys -- one with expertise in contract law and the other in state and municipal law -- to review the agreements the County has with both ICE and CCA, and they raised some serious red-flags.
"First, there could be legal issues with County involvement in the detention of the category of individuals being held at the Taylor prison, since the County has no specific grant of authority from the state allowing it to hold this type of prisoner.
"Secondly the County's contract with Homeland Security establishes the County as the party responsible for the terms of the contract. CCA is simple the subcontractor. The County should not be surprised to be named and runs a risk of being held liable, in any lawsuit brought against the operation of the Taylor prison. Such lawsuits could be brought on behalf of the detainees, for a myriad of reasons, as well as by ICE, itself.
"There is a major concern regarding the fact that the County agreement with ICE specifies how funds are to be spent. If CCA, who is receiving and spending (and accounting for) those funds, doesn't perform to ICE's satisfaction, the County could end up being responsible for the refund: that has happened elsewhere.
"One thing that seems curious is that ICE could have contracted directly with CCA to do exactly what they're doing. They didn't need the contract with Williamson County, but our involvement certainly gives them added assurance of recovery.
"Certainly, CCA looks pretty safe, from a financial viewpoint, at this moment. And given that they are collecting approximately $7,000 per prisoner a month, no wonder! However, we could feel a lot better if a bond were in place. I can't help but remember Enron, and they ended up leaving a lot of people in a state of devastation. It also doesn't comfort me that CCA's CFO was formerly associated with the Arthur Anderson firm (the financial advisors to Enron).
"For $12-$15 thousand monthly, we are taking on a lot of risk. Not only is the County's involvement in the Taylor prison bad on moral grounds, and a blight on our community's reputation, it is a high-risk/low-gain business deal. Please exercise the 120-day notification clause and get us out of this unequal, and very unwise, partnership."

Guess I Missed It

Tonight there is another opening to add to the list, this one at the Holocaust Museum is more gruesome than most:

Hartheim "Mercy Death" Clinic

Before the Nazis made murder efficient in the gas chambers, there first were the unspeakable "mercy deaths" to purge Germany of its population with cognitive and developmental disabilities. From September 1939 until August 1941, German and Austrian medical institutions executed many of Germany's most vulnerable citizens. Code-named Operation T-4, the street address of the Berlin headquarters, Tiergartenstraße 4, the campaign resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 individuals who were exterminated at six "euthanasia" sites. This exhibition will provide historical documentation of the role played by scientists, physicians and government officials and will describe the killing centers of Brandenburg, Grafeneck, Hartheim, Sonnenstein, Bernburg, and Hadamar.

Original artifacts will be on loan from Hadamar, Hartheim, Sonnenstein, Deutsches Historisches Museum, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and other sites.

The public is invited to a free preview reception at 6:00 pm, September 6

Are You Boring Enough?

To read a 20 page document called Metrics of Success in Art Museums? C'mon, it has a killer first sentence; "America’s largest art museums are the primary tourist attractions in many cities; in 2002 they drew some 100 million visitors, more people than attended sporting events." Not interested yet?
via

Texas without the Tejas

Houston Press review of the CAMH's Nexus Texas show HERE.

Back at the Dealership Culture Station no. 5, 2005 (Made in England?)

He says there are no cowboys in the show but I do remember a gun on a hip in a large painting by English artist Richard Patterson.(That might be a naked girl instead of a cowboy)

What do you think of Troy's final word on the show?

"...the most fertile and unique artistic landscape in America."

Adrian Landon Brooks

Whoredum, 2007

Adrian Landon Brooks

Grin and Post It

What does that smell like?
Danny Rolph installing his paintings and a large wall drawing at Barbara Davis

Artist’s Gallery Talk – Saturday, September 8th at 1:30pm

Down at the Ranch on Main Street

September 6th (redux)

It's a friggin' bonanza weekend, with over 30 openings. Where are you going tomorrow night?

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 kids Emily Joyce (not Sloan) and Richard Ruello.
Finesilver: Three slick installation/ intricate construction sculptors.
Kinzelman: some dude named Conrad Bakker.

Richmond-
McClain Gallery: decadent fantasyish collage paintings

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

Poll Results- Menil Collection Wins

Results from the poll "Best Museum in Houston?"

Menil- 64%

MFAH- 22%

CAMH- 7%

Art Car- 7%

Man, what happened to the CAMH? Nobody likes the place, what gives? Good showing by the Art Car Museum, being a second tier institution and all. The cake belongs to the little guy nestled in the neighborhood though; is it just cool to pick the Menil, or is their more manageable building and natural lighting what makes the collection a favorite? (Oh, it might be the artwork...)

DIY Art Spaces + LOLCODE

Los Angeles curator and artist Mark Allen will be at the University of Houston Art Department this Thursday September 6th for two projects designed to break Houston out of typical gallery patterns and introduce computer language LOLCODE to local artists.

1:00 - 2:00 pm
DIY Art Spaces Lecture
Rm. 110
"Mark Allen's projects as 'case studies' and a practical guide to everything
involved in creating, promoting and sustaining" an alternative art space.

2:30 - 5:30 pm
Workshop: LOLCODE
Rm. 204A
Second Floor of the Art Building, above where the Blaffer Gallery is located

"a code-syntax based on the grammatical fantasies and malapropism of adorable cats!
Bring your laptop to follow along with the programming exercises."

Mel Chin!

A free screening of Houston artist Mel Chin’s 9-11/9-11 will take place at the MFAH’s Brown Auditorium Theater Tuesday, September 11 at 6 p.m.

The animated short tells the parallel tales of two cities, focusing on the September 11, 1973 Chilean military coup of President Allende in Santiago, Chile, and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

Following the 6 p.m. screening, an exclusive live video conference will be transmitted from New York City and Santiago, Chile.

Beginning at 7 p.m., the Houston audience will be able to "witness" commentary and discourse from both countries. The real time interplay will be projected on the big screen in the Brown Auditorium Theater. Citizens from two cities that were transfigured by tragic 9-11 circumstances, 28 years apart, will be given time for individual expression and recollection. The transmission will pause for a re-screening of 9-11/9-11, and return to a view of live bi-city audience response. The evening will conclude about 9 p.m. CDT.