The Part 4: Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Selects their Faves

(Continued from part 3)


Temple Hive by Monica Vidal wowed 'em at Box 13

Monica Vidal, Temple Hive at BOX 13. "I can't wrap my head around all the planning and measuring that goes into Monica's work. The scale of her work is really impressive, and I loved being able to walk into this one (a similar hive at Lawndale was sealed off). Her drawings are also quite nice." That's what an anonymous respondent thought. Maybe Vidal should make a super-giant hive for the West Oaks Mall art space. That would be worth the 20 mile drive to see!

Moving into his new studio. Sometimes the most important art event is purely personal. Earl Staley wrote that his most "memorable event was moving into a studio at 2711 Main St. The rest is noise." That's a great location if you find that you've run out of pthalo green--Art Supply on Main is just downstairs.


Nathan Green's show at Art Palace

Nathan Green, Fill the Sky at Art Palace. An anonymous respondent gave a thumbs up to this show.

Kenn Coplan, Ultimate Kenn at Nau-haus Art Space. One of our anonymous respondents wrote, "Kenn Coplan's solo show was incredibly entertaining. His pieces are crazy. They're so fun to look at and play with. His photography is also outstanding, but I get really excited by his wacky toys and rusty sculptures."


Duck! Curt Gambetta's Office Light at Lawndale


Curt Gambetta, Office Light at Lawndale. Emily Sloan gave the nod to this perversely claustrophobic outdoor installation by Curt Gambetta.


First Take: Okay Mountain Collective at Blaffer Gallery. This got a vote from Brett Hollis, with no word on whether he joined their cult.


Camp Bosworth keeps an eye on everything with Security Camera 1 at Southern/Pacific

Southern/Pacific curated by Paul Middendorf at Lawndale. "The most successful group show I've seen at Lawndale in a long time. I'm excited to see the next installment of this traveling project." That's what an anonymous respondent wrote about this Portland/Marfa/Houston show.


Susan Plum, Nuevo Fuego at PG Contemporary. An anonymous respondent wrote, "Susan Plum's show is just plain beautiful. All of that sparkling woven glass is mesmerizing. Her work feels both earthy and clean at the same time."

Kenn Coplan, Wayne Gilbert & Charles Krafft, Momento Mori at PG Contemporary. "I love Charles Krafft. Enough said. The three artists complimented each other nicely. Wayne's human ash paintings were perfect with Charles' human bone china pieces. Kenn's rust angels and dusty curio cabinet were haunting," was what an anonymous respondent wrote.

Jillian Conrad, Claire Falkenberg, Ian Pedigo, and Brion Nuda Rosch, Related Clues at Inman. An anonymous respondent wrote, "Well to be honest what i really like at Inman is Claire Falkenberg and Ian Pedigo. [M]ust have been 5 or 6 years ago when I [first] saw [Pedigo's] work. He does some pretty cool stuff, but I'm still not quite sure where he is coming from. First time to see Claire's work--like it so far." I thought Conrad and Rosch's work in this show was also excellent.

To be concluded in part 5!

Charles Krafft Is Coming to Houston

As I have mentioned a few times before on this blog, I lived in Seattle in the early 90s for about four years, followed by a year in Portland, Oregon. (Portlandia is a treat for me.) I got tangentially involved in the Seattle art scene then, and one of the people I met was Charles Krafft. When I first met him, he was primarily a painter, highly influenced by local Seattle art god Morris Graves. (A town has to count itself as lucky if it has Morris Graves and Mark Tobey as founding fathers of its art scene.) But in the early 90s, Krafft had become interested in employing what seemed like a kitsch craft--delftware--ironically. It may have seemed like just a one-off chuckle at first, but it has turned into his primary means of expression. And in using delft ceramics as a starting point, Krafft has turned himself into a serious craftsman (with a name like Krafft, it seems inevitable).

His work will be part of the exhibit Momento Mori at PG Contemporary (opening on February 5), along with work by Kenn Coplan and Wayne Gilbert. Gilbert and Krafft have one macabre similarity--they both use human remains in their work. This is going to be a very interesting exhibit. I encourage folks to come check it out. Meanwhile, here's a great video portrait of Krafft.




Tweet

James Acord, Nuclear Artist, 1944-2011

Robert Boyd

I lived in Seattle for four years in the early 90s. For most people, that period in Seattle cultural history is remembered primarily for grunge rock, but my theory is that any city of sufficient size always has interesting art going on. Only occasionally does it break out into awareness by the rest of the world, as grunge did. Seattle's art scene, at that time, was interesting and vibrant. From my point of view, it was centered around COCA, the Center on Contemporary Art. (Unfortunately, their site doesn't contain information about exhibits prior to 2007.) At the time, it was located in a large nondescript building downtown (next to the infamous Lusty Lady), and the director was a local art impresario named Larry Reid. Reid was friends with some people in the local alternative comics community, and that's how I got to know him. And through his wonderful COCA exhibits, I got familiar with some of the most interesting Seattle-area artists. People like Charles Krafft, who will be exhibiting at PG Contemporary later this year, sound artist Trimpin, and sculptor James Acord.



photo of James Acord by Arthur S. Aubry

The first show of Acord's I saw featured piles of orange Fiesta Ware (the orange glaze was made from uranium oxide in the innocent days before WWII), the sleeve of a nuclear fuel rod (minus the fuel), and tons of paper documentation dealing with his ultimately successful attempt to become a licensed handler of nuclear materials. As far as I can tell, Acord started off as a more-or-less traditional sculptor. He became interested in sculpting granite and learned that granite typically contained a lot of uranium (which is why your granite countertops are slightly radioactive). This fact made him more and more interested in uranium as an artistic material. He studied nuclear science, moved to Richland, Washington--near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation--cut his hair into a crew-cut and started wearing suits so he could blend in better with the nuclear engineers there. When he finally got his license--the only one ever granted to an individual--he had the license number tattooed onto the back of his neck.



What I love about Acord's work the most is his single-minded devotion to one thing. He was eager to explore every artistic possibility of nuclear material. So his work ranged from traditional sculpture to process art. Displaying the bureaucratic documentation for getting his license is a far cry from sculpting a granite animal skull. But the granite sculptures are part of the overall project. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is one of the most dangerous and polluted places on Earth, and because there is so much radioactive waste there that is likely to stay there more-or-less forever, Acord designed sculptures to warn off future humans. He wanted to create objects the would still be comprehensible 500 or 1000 years from now--when humanity might no longer be literate. His spooky sculptures and designs for large-scale "warning" sculptures are unnerving massages for the future.



James Acord, Nuclear Reliquary, 1998

James Acord died on January 9, 2011. A memorial website has been set up, and here is a video of Acord describing his obsession.

Tweet