Pan Recommends for the week of May 30 to June 5

Robert Boyd

There's a lot of stuff going on this weekend, of which the list below is just a small sample. The tough question is what to do Saturday--see all the exhibits opening in Houston (including most of the Colquitt galleries) or go down to Galveston and check out the openings there? (Of course you could try for both if you're willing to risk a speeding ticket.)

THURSDAY


Jeremy DePrez

Jeff Elrod and Jeremy DePrez: Fantasy Island at Texas Gallery, 6 pm (runs through July 6). Young Houston painter DePrez is teamed with established Brooklyn/Marfa artist Elrod--the combination is intriguing.

FRIDAY

 
The Opulent Project, Silver Digital Ring, sterling silver cast from 3-D printed model of digital ring designs found online

Ctrl+P featuring the Opulent Project, Bryan Czibesz and Shawn Spangler, Stacy Jo Scott, and the Ryder Jon Piotrs Nomadic Gallery at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 5:30 pm (runs through September 8). Very interesting sounding show--with 2-D archival printing and now 3-D printing, the line between the craft world and the digital world has blurred.

 
Gary Schott, Plumb Bob Broach #2

Gary Schott: The Ornamental Plumb Bob at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 5:30 pm (runs through September 8). Schott had a great show at Goldesbury Gallery in 2010, so I expect a this exhibit will be excellent.


Cerling (left) and Topek (right)

Penny Cerling and Toby Topek at Zoya Tommy Contemporary, 6 pm (runs through June 29 with an artist talk on June 1 at 2 pm). Two revered elders of the Houston art scene are joined for this exhibit.


Judy Ledgerwood, Composition in Yellow, Orange, and Pink, 2013, oil on canvas, 96 x 120 inches 

Judy Ledgerwood: Fields and Flowers at Barbara Davis Gallery at 6:30 pm (runs through July 5). I know nothing about artist Judy Ledgerwood, but I like pretty things.

 
Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?

Bill Willis: New Paintings at The Joanna Gallery at 7 pm. I love how the Joanna's website hasn't been updated since 2010. I guess it never will now. This is the last Joanna show. Our little girl is all growed up.

SATURDAY

 
Tracye Wear, Winter Evening, 2013, encaustic and oil stick, 30"x 20"

Tracye Wear at d. m. allison, 4 to 9 pm (runs through June 29). Thick encastic gives Wear's paintings a relief quality. You'll want to touch them, but please refrain from manhandling the art.

 
Devon Christopher Moore, Pontchartrain, Bracket – B, Etched acrylic lacquer on galvanized steel 

Devon Christopher Moore: The Gravity of Time at Nicole Longnecker Gallery at 5 pm (runs through July 6). With the Joanna ending, it's nice to be able to welcome a new gallery. Good luck, Nicole Longnecker Gallery on your first ever exhibit!

 
Zachery Zeke Podgorny

Galveston Artist Residency Exhibition featuring Josh Bernstein, Zachary Zeke Podgorny and Davide Savorani at 6 pm (runs through July 20). The GAR celebrates its second year with a show of its residents. And by the way, I think the parents who named their child Zachary Zeke are awesome.


Marcelyn McNeil, Good Day Bad Day, 2013

Marcelyn McNeil: Bent into Shape at Galveston Arts Center at 6 pm (runs through July 7). An excellent painter whose work can maybe be described as bold, cartoony abstraction has a show at the GAC.

Odds and Ends from the Art Houston Weekend

Robert Boyd

I have a lot to write about from last weekend--The Big Show at Lawndale, the 28th Annual Juried membership Exhibition at HCP, and several good gallery shows. But for now, here are some odds and ends from other shows.

I'm going to assume everyone reading this (in Houston) has been to Goldesberry Gallery. I haven't written much about them, despite the fact they regularly display art that I like--art that is playful, art that is beautiful, art that has unexpected and appealing textures and volume. It's a "craft" gallery. So lots of handmade things--lots of ceramics. But they have a very modern conception of craft. You can see this by noting how many Goldesberry artists were in the avant-craft show Not the Family Jewels. One of those artists is San Antonio artist Gary Schott. His work--completely handcrafted (he even made the wooden handles on a lathe)--requires viewer interaction, so I made this little video:

 

Over at Barbara Davis Gallery, I saw a bunch of pieces that looked a little like this when I walked in.




These are by Jay Shinn, and they initially made me think of Larry Bell's minimalist pieces with their tinted glass planes. But as I looked closer, I realized there was no glass in them.




The "shadows" were actually shapes painted right on the walls.



(Sorry I don't have the titles for the individual pieces.) So in reality, the piece consisted of the lightsource, the metal framework, and the painted "shadow" on the wall (which worked in conjunction with the actual case shadow of the metal framework). I don't think there is much behind these pieces, but they sure are clever!

Inman Gallery had a huge show spread over two galleries that consisted of portraits and portrait-like things. It didn't really cohere as a show, but neither did The Big Show. It's hard to do when you have a lot of different artists, and Inman had 35.

Still, a lot of the individual pieces were good. I always like Beth Secor's embroidery.



Beth Secor, Irish American Woman as Depicted by Alfred Hitchcock Presents, silk and cotton embroidery on cotton sheet, 2010

The thing that makes these look so cool (much much better in person) is that her stitches go in all directions--they feel almost random--and when you look up close, you see that the colors of the threads are often weirdly contrasting with the overall color of the area. These are pieces that are fun to look at up close--as well as from across the gallery.

"Fun" is not a word I'd use for Dario Robleto. Morbid, haunted, gothic--these words come to mind. Maybe just a hint of arid wryness leaks into the work. He had a small piece in the show.



Dario Robleto, Who Will Mend Your Phantom Limbs?, Excavated bullets from various wars carved into spools, hair salvaged from excavated lockets, homemade paper (cotton, passion flower), stretched audiotapes of the earliest recording of time (experimental clock, 1878), 10,000 year old flower caught in amber, carved bone and ivory, braided hair, lead coated rose stem, ribbon, mourning handkerchief, locket photograph, cast lamp black, resin, typeset, paint, 2007

You know, when Gallery 1724 announced they were going to host a Salon des Refusés, I was amused but fully expected it to be mostly bad art. The original Salon des Refusés (which was sponsored by the French Government!) famously included work by Monet, Manet, Pissarro and Cezanne, but also a bunch of second rate artists who couldn't make it in the regular Beaux Arts competition.

But in the end there were pieces in our own Salon that I liked. When you walked into the gallery, you saw this:




I don't know who did it, but right on!

Here's another one I liked.



Deborah Bright, Alice's Cat, acrylic, 2010

This wacky psychedelic imagery and maori-ish facial tattoos seem so at odds with the cool demeanor and realism of the cat.




I went by Rudolph-Blume where I saw Lane Hagood (depicted above in a really unflattering photo...). He told me that after he won the Hunting Prize, he thought he'd quit his gallery job. But a conservative financial instinct won out in the end.

OK one final photo. Laura Rathe Fine Art has the most over-designed interior I have ever seen. Here's the bathroom.




Square toilet!

My Review of Not the Family Jewels

Emily Sloan is really on the scene in Houston--doing her own art, natch, but also curating shows for other folks. I wrote a review of her group show "Not the Family Jewels!" at 29-95.com. Please check it out. And check out the show--it's a good one. And finally, here are some images from the show that didn't make it into the review.


Natalya Pinchuk, Brandish 9249


Amy Weiks and Gabriel Craig, Eco-Gems


Amy Weiks and Gabriel Craig, Eco-Gems


Gary Schott, Eskimo Kissers


Edward McCartney, Fishing Necklace


Arthur Hash, rings and bracelets