SOS Lawndale

Diverseworks doesn't need the push, since their opening next Thursday is represented by three entries on glasstire- including glasstire.com editor Rachel Cook's performance piece where she gives people slices of cake. I hope it's red velvet.

On the other hand Lawndale Arts Center has fallen into a PR black hole, with a dearth of info on glasstire and spacetaker and a blip buried in arthound. What gives? Green-screen cowboy action got you down? Austin artists reaching out to the Gulf Coast uninteresting to ya? What the fuck...

Lawndale Arts Center
Round Up by Jaime Wentz and Kurt Mueller,
House Painting by Erin Curtis
SOS by Emily Sloan
and sculpture by Carl Suddath

Opening Thursday August 30, 2007
6:30-8:30 pm
free beer

and then on Saturday up in the Heights:
Muscle and Blood at G Gallery September 1
from 6 til 9pm (301 East 11th)

Sad Day (And We're Next)

Today is the second anniversary of Katrina's entrance into New Orleans, and Bush is there this morning (too little too late). Between the broken levees (and films about broken levees) and the 10% jump in Houston's population (and the jump in murders) Texans should be mad as hell at the lax federal infrastructure- 'cause we're next. Don't expect to be compensated for anything if your house gets blown down, don't expect any food, water or help after the hurricane, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get on down the road. Here's some destruction to remind you of the past and your own possible future.

Riding My Coattails As I Ride Robert's

Artforum rolls out a new issue on Wednesday, and Bruce Hainley has written a review of the great Menil Collection exhibit Robert Rauschenberg: Cardboards and Related Pieces. Hainley is comfortable with phrases like "solar anus" and "sibylline, antifreeze-green atmospherics" and printing large passages of other narrative elements including this illustrative bit from the horse's mouth:

For over five years I have deliberately used every opportunity with my work to create a focus on world problems, local atrocities and in some rare instances celebrate men’s accomplishments. I have strained in collecting influences to bring about a more realistic relationship between artist, science, and business, in a world that is risking annihilation for the sake of a buck. It is impossible to have progress without conscience. In doing this, I have had to concentrate almost exclusively on gloom and filter joy, investigate cruelty and suspect all changes. This is my responsibility, but it is exhausting.

After a while + the resistance a desire built up in me to work in a material of waste and softness. Something yielding with its only message a collection of lines imprinted like a friendly joke. A silent discussion of their history exposed by their new shapes. Labored commonly with happiness.

Boxes (1971)

Unfortunately Hainley digresses frequently, his discussions of Warhol's time capsules and Jasper Johns' sales in 1962 eclipse the work the review is meant to carry. Read mine instead! First printed back in May, I thought it was a little late at the time; the show had been up for months. Oh well, at least I'm not as lax as Artforum!

Whose article is better? Hailey or Carroll?

Numbers Game

How many visitors to the MFAH have seen the Red Hot: Asian Art Today exhibit?

as of August 12th
40,000

Yang Zhenzhong, Lingh and Easy 2002

HP at HCP

The Houston Press was at the Houston Center for Photography for at least five minutes last Saturday, here's a slideshow of people in a crowded room for ya.


Eileen Maxson, Tonite Reprise 2006

Props if you spot Eileen Maxson in town from Pittsburg!

Fer Tha Ladies

Terror Cat Studios

Missed it

How did I miss that? Project Row Houses had their opening for the Summer Public Art Projects last Saturday, and the exhibit is up until September 9th. This summer PRH farmed out their row house exhibition spaces to local art students, but since they are a little lax on their website, I'll have to stop by some afternoon to figure out who's in the show!

New CORE Kids

Mequitta Ahuja, Boogie Woogie 2005

The CORE program, where out-of-towners are encouraged to move here and meet all the rich collectors in town while they work on art in their nice, clean studios, have announced their new members: Mequitta Ahuja, William Cordova, Kara Hearn, Andres Janacua, Lauren Kelley, Nicholas Kersulis, Sergio Torres-Torres, and Jeff Williams. Art writers this year: Meredith Goldsmith, Jennie King and Andrea Liu.

Lauren Kelley is the first Houstonian to be included in the program since 2001! Congrats!

Opening September 7, (6-8PM) at the Glassell School look for Jeff Ward's show Practice Makes Perfect: Repetition as a Form of Scholarship among Glassell Studio School Alumni featuring Bobbye Bennett, Kathy Brown, Ibsen Espada, Judith Freedman, Emily Grenader, Catherine J. Leachman, Amy Lorino, Maureen McNamara, David Ubias, and Lillian Warren.

See Ya Jimmy!

Competent administrator, aspiring photographer and installation troubleshooter Jimmy Castillo is leaving the Lawndale Arts Center for greener pastures (and paychecks) with the Houston Arts Alliance. He will be sorely missed down on Main Street where he saw the transition between Chelby King (now also at HAA), interim director William Betts and now Christine West, formerly of the Galveston Arts Center.

From the bureaucratic ashes of the CACHH (Cultural Arts Coalition of Houston and Harris County; what a mouthfull) the HAA will try to harness the monies coming out of that 1% tax the city has been getting from the hospitality industry. Even though organizations have been around since the turn of the century, no one really knows what these guys do for the city besides run the redundant website artshound.com. Ideas? More public art, more adventurous public art and even temporary or revolving outdoor sculpture. Will they do it? They have a good shot since hiring outsider Jonathan Glus from the Pasadena Office of Cultural Affairs to try and make the HAA more visible. Just no floats made out of flowers, please.

Getting High with YAR!

Up on the 12th floor in downtown Houston, we shot some photos for HATER Magazine.

More later!

Coming to a backwater near you

Is this a good idea?

"Tiny Neutrino of the Pacific Neutrinos is starting a new scrap raft project for the purpose of bringing entertainment and artistry to the Gulf towns on a stage and show raft.

Those involved will learn and assist with the building of a raft or rafts, depending on how many folks show up. Rafts are constructed from mostly recycled materials. A scrap raft is safe, can handle the ocean coast, and is a home like no other.

If you are someone looking for a lifestyle without rent and utility bills, that involves some personal effort and of course the talent to make the project work, this is an opportunity to learn and enjoy the Neutrino lifestyle and share your talents at the same time. Live the Bohemian lifestyle you've been seeking. Be a troubadour and bring smiles to people as we entertain and share our talents."

A Little Rene Cruz for Ya

three ghosts

sandwich dudes

max overdrive

sideshow

penny beards

french ghost

Rene Cruz is a Houston artist who has worked with the Domy Books Sketch Klubb, American Wandering Club, artstar Houston, God's Temple of Family Deliverance, Spain Colored Orange, Buffalo Bayou Art Park and Commerce Street Artists Warehouse.