Pan Recommends for the week of October 31 to November 6

Robert Boyd

Busy week! I think it will be difficult for any one person to see all these shows, and there are probably a few I missed.

THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY


Thistles & Currants, c. 1885. Artist unknown.

International Quilt FestivalHouston at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Thursday and Friday 10 am to 7 pm; Saturday 10 am to 4 pm. And you thought there were only two art fairs in Houston! The trade show portion was held earlier this week, but now we civilian fans of snuggable art can take a gander.

THURSDAY


I don't know what this is, but you can find out yourself at Front Gallery

Betwixt and Between featuring work by Mark Flood, Tina Marin, Ann-Sofi Siden and others at the Front Gallery, 6–8 pm. This is a show drawn from the Engelstein/Parazette personal collection--I love seeing what artists collect.



Outside the Lines and 65th Anniversary Celebration at the CAMH, 6–11 pm. OK, this is a bit complicated. This is a six-part (!) exhibit of contemporary abstraction. Each of the CAMHs three curators will each present two exhibits, three Thursday and three more in January. So we have UIA (Unlikely Iterations of the Abstract) curated by Bill Arning, featuring work by Tauba Auerbach, Chris Bogia, Carol Bove, Tom Burr, Julia Dault, Gabriel Dawe, Cheryl Donegan, Christian Eckart, Mark Flood, Danielle Frankenthal, Jeffrey Gibson, Nathan Green, Gilbert Hsiao, Paul Lee, Daniel Levine, Gavin Perry, Jack Pierson, Stephen Prina, and Brian Zink; then Outside the Lines curated by Dean Daderko featuring work by Travis Boyer, Sarah Cain, Leidy Churchman, Katy Heinlein, Fabienne Lasserre, Siobhan Liddell, Benny Merris, Dona Nelson, and Susie Rosmarin; and finally Black in the Abstract, Part 1: Epistrophy curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver featuring work by AfriCOBRA (Kevin Cole, James Phillips, Frank Smith), Candida Alvarez, Romare Bearden, Nick Cave, Abigail DeVille, Sam Gilliam, Richard Mayhew, Jayson Musson, Floyd Newsum, Angel Otero, John Outterbridge, Howardena Pindell, Shinique Smith, Kianja Strobert, Alma Thomas, and Jack White.Interestingly, each of the curators includes at least one Houston artist in their group--that appears the way that Houston artists get int the CAMH these days, as parts of group shows. I predict that this will be a visual cacophony, but viewers will undoubtedly find individual pieces of art that they fall in love with.

SPOOKY as HELL featuring work by Heather Bause, Jamie Davis, Lauren Moya Ford, John Forse, Zaeed Kala, Bradley Kerl, Melinda Laszczynski, Jennifer McClish, Sebastian Montes, Eric Ockrassa, Caroline Roberts, Caroline Sharpless, Michael Toskovich, & Amy Elizabeth Wright at the University of Houston, 4th floor Projects Gallery, 6–9 pm. Trick or treat! U.H. graduate painting students put on a Halloween show.

FRIDAY


Inga Kerber

LOKALKOLORIT featuring Jochen Plogsties, Johannes Rochhausen, Corinne Von Lebusa, Inga Kerber and Edgar Leciejewski at Inman Gallery, 6 to 8 pm. A group show of artists from Leipzig.



Raychael Stine, Vision 9.  2013.  Oil & acrylic on canvas. 17" x 13"

Raychael Stine: a little ways away from everywhere at Art Palace, 6–8 pm. If you have ever wanted to know what a painting of a dog by Frank Auerbach might look like, this show may be helpful. Lots of thick, emphatic paint.


an older work by Danielle Frankenthal, Impulse: Moanin’ by Mingus, acrylic paint on two transparent acrylic resin panels 23.75 x 11.75 in

Danielle Frankenthal: Turbulence at Wade Wilson Art, 6–8 pm.The abstract painter who often works on transparent acrylic panels returns for a new show.


James Smolleck; Study for a Saturnine Night, 2013; ink, acrylic and collage on paper; 30 x 25.5 in.

James Smolleck: Sweat Bath with Saturn at David Shelton Gallery, 6–8 pm. James Smolleck was included in the Shelton Gallery's opening show, and this is his first solo show at the gallery.


Heather and Ivan Morison, Go On, Cry (study), 2013

Slyk Chaynjis: Heather and Ivan Morison at Diverseworks, 7–9 pm. Slyk Chaynjis is the protagonist of a narrative constructed by U.K. artists Heather and Ivan Morison for this multi-media installation, which will include aspects both in Diverse Works and beyond.

SATURDAY


a newer Matt Magee found on the internet: Decoder, 2013, lithograph

Matt Magee: circa 1994 at Hiram Butler Gallery, 11 am – 1 pm. I'm not sure if these are artworks by Matt Magee from 1994 or if they are meant to evoke 1994 or what.

 
Tuymans

A. Conversation. With. Luc Tuymans at the El Dorado Ballroom, 5:30–6:30 pm.  This could be fun. The Menil put a pretty opaque billboard up for the Luc Tuymans show, which had just the word "nice" and a detail of a Tuymans painting showing a pair of eyes. One went up over near Project Row Houses. In response, someone created an identical billboard with the word "nicest" and a close-up on the eyes of Tupac Shakur. So now Luc Tuymans is bringing his effete European self over to the Third Ward for a talk. Nice.


Jane Miller

Jane Miller: Books Without Pages, Pages Without Books at G Gallery. Jane Miller was one of the first artists to do an installation in the Rice Gallery.


Mark Bercier

Mark Bercier: The Healin' Symbols at Redbud Gallery, 6–9 pm. Mark Bercier has developed a "visual language" consisting of 27 letters and 27 symbols, and I guess he makes art with them. The art on his website teeters on the edge between charming and cloying.


Jake Wells

Empty Basket: Jake Wells at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 7–9:30 pm. Box 13 is having one of their multiple openings this Saturday. Jake Wells' art for this show is made of painted wheat and grass, evidently. It looks pretty but fragile.


Edward Ramsay-Moran

PlusPlus: Edward Ramsay-Morin at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 7–9:30 pm. The previous work I had seen by Edward Ramsay-Morin featured somewhat disturbing empty faces. This computer generated art looks quite a bit different.



Paul Middendorf: The Everyday at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 7–9:30 pm. For Box 13's webpage, Middendorf provided a supervague statement and the badass image above.


 I think this one is by Andy Mattern

Trace by Andy Mattern, Leigh Merrill, and Pavel Romaniko at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 7–9:30 pm. Three photographers, two from University of North Texas and one from New Mexico.

TUESDAY


Lance Brown, Studies for Lou, acrylic on paper, detail, 2013

The Door : A Tribute to Lou Reed featuring Daniel Bertalot, Robert Boyd, Lance Brown, Georgie Flood, Erin Keelin (San Antonio) Jennifer McNichols, David McClain, Martha McClain, Joelle McTeague, Dave Murray and Greg Scott with music by Brown Velvet, Jim Pirtle, John Zambrano, Eric Todd, FLCON FCKER, Jane Schmitt and The Pinky Lieder at Notsuoh, 7 pm til closing. Dude isn't even cold! Anyway, here's my favorite piece of Lou Reed tribute art so far:


(I'm going to Hell, aren't I?)


WEDNESDAY



Houston Cinema Arts Festival at Cinema on the Verge Gallery and Cinema 16 Screening Room and the Museum of Fine Arts, various times. The Cinema Arts Festival opens next Wednesday (and continues for a week). There are three screenings Wednesday: two of North of South, West of East and one of Cutie and the Boxer. It looks like a lot of great movies will be playing--I recommend you get your tickets early.

The Houston Art Gallery Two-Step: David Shelton Gallery Arrives

Robert Boyd

This weekend was the beginning of the fall season, when most of the commercial art galleries and a lot of the non-profit spaces have openings. An exhilarating, exhausting time, it is also a time to take stock. What's changed since the last time I wrote one of these posts? A lot. Bryan Miller Gallery in Isabella Courts closed. Sicardi Gallery opened their beautiful new space on Alabama, and New Gallery took the space next to P.G. Contemporary on Milam. (And the old Sicardi Gallery space on Richmond is being used for the moment by next-door neighbor McClain Gallery, but I don't know if that's permanent.) But that's all relatively old news. What's new to me is that Peel Gallery has apparently closed. Last weekend, instead of the usual Peel Gallery show (which I thought were often excellent), there was a pop-up exhibit by Nick Barbee. I emailed Peel Gallery for a confirmation, but did not get a response in time for posting. (Update: Peel Gallery confirmed their closure. Owner Steven Hempel is running Hempel Design and will be installing a Gabriel Dawe piece at the Houston Fine Art Fair.)

Also exiting the scene is Goldesberry Gallery, which had their final opening this weekend. The gallery will remain open through Christmas to sell off its remaining inventory. Owners Oliver and Nancy Goldesberry are retiring. They opened the gallery in 1991 and have made a good run selling inventive and artistic craft items here in Houston. The role that Goldesberry Gallery plays locally is not one that I think can be easily replicated. You need a gallerist who is an expert on what is happening in the world of ceramics or jewelry or glass, etc. This kind of work gets a short shrift in the art world. Indeed, "craft" itself is highly suspect--partly I think for class reasons. Art has graduated in some ways into on one hand, a kind of practice of philosophical inquiry, and philosophers don't do manual labor, no siree. And on the other hand, art has become a kind of management practice, where the artist conceives a project but has it executed and fabricated by someone else. That's the opposite of the craft ideal, which has been represented in Houston for 21 years by Goldesberry.

To counter all this bad news, some good news is that David Shelton Gallery has moved to Houston, taking the spot formerly occupied by Bryan Miller Gallery.. (Good news for Houston, but maybe bad news for San Antonio.) Shelton had a temporary show here last year, but now he's making it permanent. His gallery was located in San Antonio for five years, so moving is kind of a big deal. I asked him about it, and he acknowledged the advantages of Houston, most important of which is that it's a bigger market. That's one problem with Austin and San Antonio--they're pretty big cities, but the number of art collectors in each makes it hard for galleries to succeed. Art Palace moved to Houston from Austin, and Shelton has now made the same migration from San Antonio.

Shelton opened his new space with a group show of gallery artists. I thought the work was pretty interesting, and that makes me look forward to seeing solo exhibits by some of these artists. Here are some of my favorite pieces from the show.


Margaret Meehan, The Pugilist, 2011, archival inkjet prints

These bizarre photos by Margaret Meehan feature a young, very pale woman with very light hair and, bizarrely, facial hair that looks more animal-like than human. That alone would make you stop and take notice, as would the puffy-sleeved dress she is wearing. But the white boxing gloves and rather brutal before-and-after nature really make the Pugilist uncanny. The model, Amy Revier, is as far as I can determine a very pale artist who does not, in fact, have fur on her face.


Margaret Meehan, The Haymakers, 2012, cabinet cards, vintage glitter glass, gouche, latex paint

The Haymakers also features hairy-faced women--this time vintage photos of women with gouche and glitter hairdos. The title of the series likewise seems to reference boxing (or fist-fighting in general).


Margaret Meehan, The Haymakers (detail), 2012, cabinet cards, vintage glitter glass, gouche, latex paint

I keep thinking about side-shows and carnivals when I see these images of hairy-faced women. But I don't have a clue what they mean. I can only say that they linger in my mind.


James Smolleck, Sphere with fixed stars, 2012, ink and acrylic on paper, 50" x 38 1/2"

I also liked James Smolleck's Sphere with fixed stars, which came across as Medieval and esoteric, like the illustration in some ancient book on astrology or alchemy.


Kelly O'Connor, Launch Pad, collage of found paper and images, 26 1/2" x 41"

Launch Pad by Kelly O'Connor juxtaposed a washed-out photo of a mighty impressive piece of equipment with a brightly colored (and glittery) pattern composed of hexagons. It's as if she is suggesting, if you are going to make a piece of equipment this huge and this powerful, why not go the extra mile and make it spectacular looking?



Michael Velliquette, Skin and Bones, cut card stock, bristol board, and glue, 42" x 32" x 6"

 When you go to Michael Velliquette's website, the first image you see is of random bits of paper and board, a pair of scissors, and an Xacto knife. Skin and Bones is the result of this kind of work--a bravura construction of cut paper. Skin and Bones has a somewhat totemic look as if we are looking at a representation of a god of some hitherto unknown culture.