Pan Recommends for the week of November 21 to November 27

Robert Boyd

Kind of a lot of stuff happening this weekend. When was the last time Lawndale and the Art League had an opening on the same night? I guess with Thanksgiving next week, a lot of events have to be crammed into this week. Good times!

THURSDAY


Sally Bennet, Making Faces,  32x31x2.5 inches

Sally Bennett and Ann Huey: New Works at Koelsch Gallery,  6–8 pm. Work that plays with illustration and design.


David Row, Ellipsis, 2012, Oil on canvas, 50 x 96 inches  

David Row: Elements at McClain Gallery, 6:30–8:30 pm. Paintings, works on paper and sculptures made of cast glass.

FRIDAY

 
from Emily Peacock's W.T. series

Learning Curve 7 and See Food: Contemporary Photography and the Ways We Eat curated by Natalie Zelt and featuring Corey Arnold (Portland, OR), Jonathan Blaustein (Arroyo Hondo, NM), Christin Boggs (Washington, D.C.), Damaris Booth (London, England), Nolan Calisch (Portland, OR), Jody Horton (Austin, TX), Andrzej Maciejewski (Ontario, Canada), Mark Menjivar (San Antonio, TX), Emily Peacock (Houston, TX), Emily Sloan (Houston, TX) and David Welch (Martha's Vineyard, MA) at the Houston Center for Photography, 6–8 pm (with a panel discussion for See Food Saturday from noon to 1 pm). Learning Curve 7 is their annual student show, and See Food is pictures of food, obviously.

 
That's Monica Vidal, looking pretty damn ecstatic in front of her installation Falling Hive

FALLING: Monica Vidal and Everyday Grace: Sedrick Huckaby at Art League Houston 6–9 pm, with artists' talks at 6:30 pm for Sedrick Huckaby and 7 pm for Monica Vidal. Monica Vidal brings Falling Hive home to Houston, just down the hall from Sedrick Huckaby's paintings.


Beth Secor, Sudden Appearance in Places Unknown, 2013, Found embroidered linens with drawing and embroidery, 30" x 30" 

Superficial Outgrowths by Sang-Mi Yoo, Melinda Laszczynski and Jessica Ninci: This End Up,  Beth Secor: The Significance of "Material" and Regina Agu: Nerve Endings at Lawndale Art Center, 6:30–8:30 pm. I don't have much to say except that all these shows look great!

FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY
 
Winter Street Studios

8th Annual Winter Holiday Art Market at Winter Street, 6 to 8 pm Friday ($10 admission), 11 am to 8 pm Saturday (free) and 11 am to 4 pm Sunday (free). Don't let the bleak industrial landscape above fool you--this weekend it will be packed with artists and craftsmen selling their stuff.

SATURDAY


They played at last years' ArtCrawl

ArtCrawl at multiple locations just north of Downtown and on the East End, 10 am to 9 pm. The annual trip through various art spaces and artists' studios near downtown. ArtCrawl related events include:

• Fotofest Bike Scramble, 11 am to 3:30 pm, starting from FotoFest headquarters.
• ArtCrawl "The Happening" featuring art by Michael Meazell, Alfredo Scaroina, Patrick Renner, Felipe Lopez and Lester Marks, 4 pm until whenevah at David Greave Art Studio.
• RATIO at El Rincón Social (see below for more info)

Anasheh Partiai

The Art of Everyday Politics featuring Amber Baker, Anasheh Partiai, Sarah Rodriguez, and Brandon Zech at Alabama Song, 8 pm Saturday to 8 pm Sunday. Hey, if you have 24 hours free, there's a one day (literally) only show with performances by Amber Baker at 6:45, Anasheh Partiai at 7 pm and Brandon Zech at 7:15, plus other activities throughout the night to help you stay awake!


Debora Smail, I fucking love you, Polaroid Installation

RATIO featuring Jenn Blackburn, Ben Tecumseh DeSoto, David Salinas, JoAnn Santangelo, Alex Larsen, Ashleigh MacLean, Abrahan Garza, Edna Sandoval, Galina Kurlat, Ben Parks, Theresa Escobedo, Emily Peacock, Bryan Forrester, Matthew Landry, Rosa Gurrero, Shannon Duncan, Laura Corley Burlton, Maureen Penders, Mark Audacity Romberg, Traci Matlock, Debora Smail, Joe Winsto and Gary Griffin at El Rincón Social, 7 pm to 2 am. El Rincón Social always have these events that last until 2 am, and old guy that I am, I always wonder who is going to hang out until 2 am? Pathetic, huh? This looks great--a lot of my favorite local photographers will be there.

All's Docile at Dogapalooza 2012

Dean Liscum

There are two kinds of people...Actually, with 6,973,738,433 and change (based on the World Bank's census numbers at the end of 2011) people on the planet, there are probably 362,166,576 kinds of people. Regardless, I'm insensitive, obtuse, and lazy, so I recognize only two kinds: people who love pets and the rest of us. A sub-category of that group is a cross-section of people who love dogs and people who love art. Combine the two and you get "dog art," which is art in which the focus is "the dog". This kind of art is a Rorschach test without an answer key. I have no idea what "dog art" means categorically or individually, but I'm pretty sure whoever invents an interpretive rubric for it will win a MacArthur "Genius" Grant.

So, I couldn't miss Dog Park at G Gallery not because I expected to be blown away by the art or because I love dogs, but because I was curious what had happened--What kind of dog art had local artist made? What would happen when you bring together art, alcohol, and dogs?  My negative fantasy involved animal control.

Here's what I observed while I was there.



 "dog" phrases on the window of G Gallery




Joe Furman and Laura Lark, Untitled

I bet Laura Lark drew the dog just to screw with everyone. It looks like a portrait of a dog that bit me on the butt when I was jogging through a Houston suburban. Despite its slogan, getting fanged in the ass there was not any sweeter than had it happened in Montrose.



Nestor Topchy, St. Christopher Dog Head Icon

Nestor Topchy seems to suggest that the patron saint of bachelors is dog face\headed. I believe he may have stumbled upon a truth. Here's a work by the patron saint of dog art in Houston, Sharon Kopriva.


Sharon Kopriva, title unknown

The amorphousness of Tara Conley's dog captures how I feel about dogs. I'm not sure if this dog wants to lick me to death or just burrow to my brain through my face.



Tara Conley, Dog (top view)





Tara Conley, Dog (side view)


I think a lot of abstract expressionism aims for the immediacy and satisfaction of St. Sanders' Date night, but comes short.



St. Sanders, Date night

This image by Ben Tecumseh DeSoto is a powerful and stark reminder of America's love-and-get-distracted-and-neglect-or-abandon relationship with pets. The consumerist ethos doesn't work very well with some "goods."   And, no I'm just not sure what to make of the genital warts ad under the dogs feet, but I can't let it go unmentioned.



Ben Tecumseh DeSoto, Dog Realizes Death




Debra Broz, Royal Canine


I'm not sure what Debra Broz's Royal Canine is implying. Perhaps, if you have a tongue like that you are treated as royalty.



Magsamen+Hillerbrand, Cerberus

Magsamen+Hillerbrand's dog is a mythological wanna be that is a couple of heads short but it's better than dressing it up in doggie spandex and sequins.



Otis Ike, Waiting for Wegman

Otis Ike's Waiting for Wegman is a fun send up of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Although, I couldn't find any mention of Beckett having dogs as pets, I did discover two pieces of literary criticism that had gone to the dogs. One about dog imagery in Molloy and another that insists that pets are "gushingly doted on by spinster ladies in Beckett's fiction".

When the topic of the life of dogs in America comes up (and that dog isn't about to be euthanized), Autumn Beckmann's April Mae represents my mental image except the doghouse designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is missing.



Autumn Beckmann, April Mae




Outside, there was a lot of butt-sniffing going on. The dogs were getting to know one another as well.

Much to my chagrin, animal control did not have to come out and Houston's S.W.A.T. did not need to separate any dog owners. But at least, none of the dogs mistook my shinbone for a chew toy.