B.S. Houston Art Blog

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Hear Hear!

"No one disagrees in the art world. There is very little active disagreement in the art world, especially compared to the literary world where people eviscerate each other. You have an argument in the New York Review of Books and you have the writer and his friends piling on, and in the art world you don't have that. I wish you did. I'd love nothing more than for a pile of letters to come in to tell me I'm wrong... not because I might change my opinion if I found something there, but you want to get people riled, get people agreeing or disagreeing with you. But in the art world, because success is so based on inside information and insider relations, I find very few people tell you what they really do think.

"I want them to say, 'I really disagree with it, do you really think what you wrote is correct?' Am I naïve to think that?"

via Christian Viveros-Faune on Modern Art Notes

Dammit, I think that's just perfect.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Lots To Do Friday

Three great gallery openings on Alabama at Main and two non-profits with big shows!

Inman Gallery
Probably
Little tiny things by the whole crew including Bill Davenport and Katrina Moorhead.

Finesilver Gallery
Leonardo Drew plays with cardboard, cotton and cloth in large messy installations.

CTRL Gallery
The Thames Mudlarks
How did Bryan get the hookup with all these London artists? I'm sure someone knows!

Lawndale Art Center

Children in Heat
Jason Villegas, Jessica Rudick and Timothy Warner try to fuck with your head.

The Best That I Can Give You and Less Than Half of What You Deserve
Katie Pell blisses us out.

Moving In
Maria Guzman! Found objects, cloth monsters and animals.

Blaffer Gallery

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1976)

Hotel Monterey (1972)

Chantal Akerman, video documentary work from Russia after Gorbachev, Jasper, Texas after the dragging death, and Arizona border crossings.

All shows open Friday, January 18th

6-8pm for gallery shows
6-9pm for Lawndale and Blaffer

That's Funny

One of these days they're gonna rename 59... Interstate 69

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Matt Messinger sez:

I'm going to be setting up a mini working gallery outside of B.J. Oldies Antique Shop - on Westheimer (right on the curve before Montrose.) Live Painting, Mixed Media Construction and Art Sale.

Saturdays: 10am to dark

Hope to see you.
You will see me.

...
m.

Hunting Prize

Who are the jurors of this year's Hunting Prize?

Rene Paul Barilleaux, chief curator of the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum in San Antonio;
"One of the most important groups you see around the museum are the docents…you know, tour guides…trained tour guides…in fact, very well trained tour guides. "

Peter Briggs, PhD, Helen DeVitt Jones curator of art, Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock; "These are the most striking and provocative teapots from that St. Louis show."

Christian Gerstheimer, curator for the El Paso Museum of Art; "The panel discussion about the exhibition on June 24th generated many questions and dialogue."

Amy Lewis Hofland, director of the Trammel & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas; "The combination of the artists' touching stories and the aesthetics of the carvings distinguishes this very special collection"

Victoria Lightman, co founder and principal director of the "Looking At Art" education program; "In terms of state funding for arts, Texas is dead last"

Michelle Locke, associate curator of the South Texas Institute for the Arts in Corpus Christi.

I feel remorse.

Is it Winter?

Calvin and Cree

Reply to: comm-539712583@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-15, 8:13AM CST

Cree and I are artist /photographers who are trying to keep the weirdness and recognize the beauty of Galveston . If you are from Galveston you are already familiar with our work. We are art. We live art and as our recognition grows so does our message of get out and live your life. Support us and enjoy us.. Hope to see you at ARTwalk this Saturday the 19th at Fullen Jewelry , 2215 post office. Look for the beach balls !

Our private page. Bookmarking is the only way to get back to it.
http://clwphoto.com/cc.aspx

http://clwphoto.com/photo.aspx

Outside Bush's home in Crawford, Texas

Monday, January 14, 2008

Poll Results- Montrose Wins!

Best Neighborhood for Artists in Houston?

Montrose- 27%

The Heights- 25%

Warehouse District- 15%

Galleria- 10%
5th Ward- 10%

3rd Ward- 8%
Rice Village- 3%

Montrose, the gayest neighborhood in Texas, is also the best neighborhood for artists! Why would the bars and clubs and bungalows of this area transitioning between gay slum and urban professional capital market be so enticing? Because there's always something to do! It's like Greenwich Village in 1990. Everyone has stories about how good/bad it "used to be around here", but for young artists this is the best around.

The Heights, Montrose's sister neighborhood, is only a short jaunt across Buffalo Bayou. Pretty much like Brooklyn, the area is transitioning from middle class families to hipsters and yuppies. A new gallery seem to open every three months and bars and coffee houses are taking advantage of the new hipster surge. A sleepy burg that is waking up with a caffeine IV.

The Warehouse District or East End is still scary enough for most Houstonians to shit their pants if they find themselves on a dark road in the middle of the night. Many artist studios still hold on in the West End and old Chinatown, but new construction threatens rental rates and house parties with respectability and attention from HPD. If you can live without air conditioning and with rats, this is the place for you.

Uptown, or the Galleria, is a sprawling mix of strip malls and apartment complexes with the only real population concentration in Houston on the south side. Long known for its 4 massive malls and the car culture decadence of the Richmond Strip, not much art is exhibited here, but the rents and the jobs are where its at.

The 5th Ward extends from east of the Heights north past the 610 Loop, and the moniker is applied to much of the northside. Like Queens, but with worse drainage, 5th Ward is incredibly diverse, residential and sprawling. Crumbling infrastructure and city services contribute to the most fertile ground for graffiti writers, rappers and outsider artists in Houston.

3rd Ward, the birthplace of Screw, is much more tied to the inner city than the northside, and the contrast between affluent and destitute is palpable. Like the Bronx if concrete was reversed with overgrowth, 3rd Ward has always been one of the most inspired neighborhoods in the city.

Rice Village is wedged between Rice University and the upper middle class West University neighborhood. Why would artists live there? They're rich, or they like to sit around at cafes or cruise college girls at Little Woodrow's. The view is great.

Bloom For Spring

Today the spring semester begins, and down at University of Houston they're not even waiting for the weekend to have their first exhibit in the Project Space on the 4th Floor of the Art Department. Thicket opens Thursday, January 17th from 5-7 pm. Stop by for a look at what the kids are doing, and to see Ann Marie Nafziger's newest evolution.

This painter grew up in rural western Ohio, lived for a time in Portland, Oregon and built a home in Marfa, Texas. Her lush canvasses have always relied on an organic cohesion, linking her work with artists like Joan Mitchell and Jean Arp. In a period of reflection and experimentation with monoprints Nafziger concentrated her imagery on botanical chaos, and in a radical departure from her earlier work the artist has embraced stencils, airbrush paint and wall installation. One of the most intelligent artists working today in Houston, Nafziger brings a tenderness to her exacting intentions, balancing priorities between emotional and intellectual prowess.