Next to Bill's Junk

Morris Chackas: Still Lives 1973-1982

Still Life with Yellow Mugs, 1982, oil on masonite, 24" x 18"

ALSO! Francesca Fuchs: One Night Open Studio

For one night only award-winning painter Francesca Fuchs opens her new studio to the public showing recent large scale works. Fuchs will be present and will talk about her work and methods. Fuchs is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

January 30-March 7, 2009

Opening reception Friday, January 30, 6-8 pm

Optical Project 1125 E 11th St., Houston, TX (near the corner of Studewood and 11th in the Heights) (map)

gallery hours: Saturdays 12-5 or by appointment, 713 863-7112

In 1945, Morris "Charlie" Chackas returned from World War II and took up residence in the "studio," a wooden shed on Plantation Road in Oxford, England. A radical Marxist and eccentric, Chackas lived and worked alone for 55 years until his death in 2000. His studio was crammed with paintings that had never seen the light of day.