Save Our Shipley's

Some photos from last night's opening at the Lawndale...

Emily Sloan, SOS

Jaime Wentz and Kurt Mueller, Round Up

House Painting by Erin Curtis

Today at the Lawndale

Hop into a western! Round Up by Jaime Wentz and Kurt Mueller will be filming scenes with anyone who wants to be in their new film from 1-5pm today. Check out their last film from the Nohegan summer camp in Austin, it's a horror flick.

Loaded Up on The Sevens (and sixes and eights)

Man! Everyone is having an opening next week, who knows how this turf war will pan out. Everyone wants to grab the momentum at the beginning of the fall season, but why fight about it? We could all get along with a little coordination around here but the lack of press releases and schedules in August loaded next weekend with at least 9 openings a day. Pick your pony!

All openings September 6th from 6-9pm (give or take an hour)

Ellen Orseck (@ O'Kane)

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 Texans Emily Sloan and Richard Ruello. Finesilver: Three slick installation/ intricate construction sculptors. Kinzelman: some dude named Conrad Bakker.

Richmond- McClain Gallery: decadent fantasyish collage paintings (kinda on the CTRL aesthetic)

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

All openings September 7th from 6-9pm (give or take an hour)

William Cannings (@ Anya Tish)

The Big Block (4411 Montrose)- Barbara Davis: uber-pastiche craziness. Joan Wich: A Dutch painter who loves blue. Wade Wilson: who knows, they didn't update their site. Anya Tish: blown out tires of steel lacquered in candy coating. Peel Shop: fragile and luxurious things from London's Royal College of Art.

University of Houston- Blaffer: two shows, one about bluebirds in West Texas and the other a survey of a Saatchi painter.

Montrose- Art League Houston: two exhibits by Dixie Friend Gay. Glassell: for Glassell grads, Practice Makes Perfect!

West End: Poissant: Subdued destruction as aesthetic coherence. Booker-Lowe: Same Aboriginal art time, same Aboriginal art channel.

Richmond- Sicardi has an opening, but I'm not sure if it is Friday or Saturday.

All openings September 8th from 6-9pm (give or take an hour)

Pang-Chieh Hsu (@ Hooks-Epstein)

Midtown- Sonja Roesch: a painter who doesn't paint.

Richmond (Gallery Row)- All of 'em! Hooks-Epstein: A realist Chinese drawer. New Gallery: Abstracty painter (kinda like the McClain show) Moody: Suzanne Bloom, Ed Hill, MANUAL War and Peace and Quiet. McMurtrey: a modernist painter. Goldesberry: jewelry, I think... More photos and painting and stuff as well!

River Oaks- Texas: The same guy putting his photos of cowboy boots and bluebirds at the Blaffer.

North Downtown- CSAW: One show of graffiti, another of interdisciplinary UH kids.

Heights- Super Happy Fun Land: more paintings for punk rock kids and hippies. Art Car Museum: get your war on...

Just Announced

new show at the joanna Gallery just announced!

The Joanna's Drawing Show
The Joanna
4014 Graustark
Opens Friday, September 21st, 6-9 p.m
Through Oct. 6th, Saturdays only from Noon-4:00
713.825.1976

Michael Jones Mckean, Seth Alverson, Pat
Phipps, Cheyanne Ramos, Sebastion Forray, Norberto
Gomez, Jeanne Cassanova, The Rick Brothers, Caleb,
Sean Carroll, Reggie Rachuba, Fran Giampietro,Katie
Haught, Eric Pearce, Rachelle Vasquez, Michael
Harwell, Rene Cruz, David Wang, Milo Espinoza, Cohd
Raody, Jenny Schleif

Yves Klein

Is this Yves Klein as "horrible and offensive" as these body art performances? More? Less?

Don't get fleeced

Eastman Gallery is a sham, man. Artists should know- don't pay to play.

"Artists Alive and Well" is in the process of getting jacked by this gallery owner- who asks artist to provide their own booze and doesn't keep regular gallery hours... by appointment only.

Div

That cake looks good...

As Diverseworks watches themselves grow up into venerable institution land, enjoy this history of the space by Kendall Curlee. Former director Michael Peranteau, who helmed the organization from 1984 until 1995 was integral in pulling Diverseworks up by its bootstraps to become a nationally recognized space, fighting back floods and fires and surviving through two moves to bring the space to its current location on the Docks where it has gathered a community including Vine Street Studios, O'Kane Gallery, and Artcrawl among others.

At the head of a protest to save the University of Houston Sculpture Department back in 1992, check out Peranreau and artist Dean Ruck in this early 90s article from the Daily Cougar:

ARTISTS TRY TO SAVE ART DEPT. FROM PENDING PROGRAM CUTS
by Annette Baird (Daily Cougar Staff)

"Don't GAG the Arts" is the message the Houston arts community wants to convey to the administration of UH. About 40 people, including current students, former students and concerned people, met Tuesday evening at DiverseWorks to discuss ways in which they could defend the programs and make their protests seen and heard.

Michael Peranteau, co-director of DiverseWorks and organizer of the protest, said they wanted to be positive and supportive. "This is a community response separate from the UH Art Department, but with members from the department in it," said Anne Katrosh, a prospective MFA student in sculpture. If UH closes the 3-D programs as is proposed, the impact will still be felt 10 years from now, said Dean Ruck, an affiliate artist and art instructor at UH.
"UH fosters a good arts community by bringing in new people. We need to keep watering the roots," Ruck said. GAG is a political action group that was formed during the Republican National Convention in Houston last summer. Their slogan is "Don't GAG the Arts".

"We come out of the woodwork when something needs to be done in the arts community," he said. A parade of art cars decorated with everything from fruit to books will drive from the Lawndale Arts Center to UH at noon, Aug. 5. Speakers will be at UH to defend the programs and protest the cuts. Peranteau said one of the reasons for starting the protest campaign was because he does not want to live in the fourth largest city in America with only one small accredited sculpture program left (at Rice University). "People coming out of high school are going to leave Houston if there is no comprehensive art program," Peranteau added.
A letter writing campaign has already been started by David Jacobs, dean of the Art Department, Peranteau said. Katrosh said she has written a letter to Alexander Schilt, chancellor of the UH system. "There is an increasing tendency for students to have a broader background. A university serves not just technological needs, but mankind at large."

Keijiro Suzuki - real (art)world

some pics from the recent Diverseworks show and attempted reality programming The Real (art)World... in Keijiro Suzuki's corner, Emptiness Under Metaphysical Unconsciousness.

By the Way- Happy 25th Birthday D-Works! Since 1982, second oldest non-profit in town and highest national profile for sure!

Oh Good

Well at least Artforum is listing the Lawndale show...

"House Painting", Erin Curtis, Mezzanine Gallery

Nudity with a Side of Paint

Why post this body art stuff? Just for the photos...

Billy Melbert sez:

need vaginas and missing photo supplies...

a. i need willing models for one of my projects. your face wont be in there. if you wanna help me out i'll give you details. i promise its funny. b. i am missing my digital light meter (like a point and shoot gun) AND i am missing the head to my super expensive tripod. if you want to show me where babies come from and/or know where my missing shit is, please let me know. thank ya. ps why did some girl just pat and rub me on the back? i hate using the internet where people also drink.

Billy Melbert

Breaking News- CSAW Defunct

This morning, in a move that evicted two artists from the building with only one week's notice (barring an appeal), Houston City Judge Barra ruled that the Commerce Street Artists Warehouse Bylaws are invalid and that property manager Maggi Battarino has full authority over tenants.

This move ends the community of artists that had controlled their membership, exhibits and rules since the mid-Eighties when artists Mark Flood and Rick Lowe, among others, opened the CSAW gallery.

RIP CSAW... send off solo show for graff artist COLOR ONE "No Haters Allowed" and group show "Spatial Poetry" featuring Noora Aslalmam, David Damico, Chad Erpelding, Luisa Hernandez, and Zack Zwicky opens September 8th 6-9pm