Showing posts with label Kelley Devine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kelley Devine. Show all posts

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Pan Recommends for the week of September 12 to September 18

Robert Boyd

After last week's artapalooza, this week is more sedate. The big event is the Karen Finley reading next Wednesday, plus there are some opportunities Saturday to see work that in some ways describes the art history of Houston--the painters who dominated in the 60s and 70s and the conceptualists/performance artists who followed in the 80s/90s.

THURSDAY

Marlon Puac Méndez at Koelsch Gallery, 6–9 pm. I'm sorry to say that I know nothing about this artist except that he may be an illustrator from Guatamala.


Robert Hodge, We Didn't Start the Fire, 2013 mixed media collage on found paper 58 x 82 inches

Robert Hodge: A Memory Worth Fighting For... at Peveto , 6–8 pm. Multimedia artist Robert Hodge presents a group of paintings and collages.


Francesca Fuchs, Framed Painting: Bottles, 2013, Acrylic on canvas over board, 20 x 25"

Francesca Fuchs: (Re)Collection: Paintings of Framed Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Photos at Texas Gallery, 6–8 pm. A big selection of Francesca Fuch's pale, milky paintings, some of which appear to be paintings of other framed images.

 
Kelley Devine's jackrabbit

West End Animals by Kelley Devine at the West End Pub, 6:00pm until 9:00pm. Kelley Devine continues her practice of drawing on book pages, but her subject matter this time around are animals. What I've seen look pretty interesting.


Wols, Untitled [Also known as It's All Over and The City], 1946-1947

Panel Discussion: "Wols: His Life, Work & Context" at the Menil Museum, 6 pm. The Wols exhibit officially opens tomorrow, but presumably one can get a glimpse of it tonight in this panel discussion featuring Frankfurt scholar Dr. Ewald Rathke, Menil curator Toby Kamps, Dr. Andreas Kreul, director of Bremen’s Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation, Patrycja de Bieberstein Ilgner, Hollweg Foundation archivist, and Dr. Katy Siegel, Hunter College, New York, professor and gallery chief curator, writer, and Wols catalogue essayist.

SATURDAY


The Art Guys, Any of These Locations Would Be An Excellent Place to Begin a Drawing, 2008, graphite on paper

The Art Guys Art Fair at The Art Guys Convention Center (aka the Art Guys Headquarters), 1–7 pm. What's this all about? Well, it looks a lot like a studio sale, with a pretty excellent selection of pieces available, including one of my faves (the drawing above).


Dick Wray, untitled, ~2000

Lives Played Out on Canvas: Paintings by Otis Huband, Richard Stout, and Dick Wray at William Reaves Fine Art, 3 to 6 pm. Three of Houston's earliest abstractionists, Otis Huband, Richard Stout, and the late Dick Wray, share a show.


Dorothy Hood, Red Hill

Dorothy Hood, The Lost Paintings at New Gallery, 3 to 5 pm. This is a show of works from Hood's estate that have not been exhibited for at least 14 years. Saturday has shaped up to be a good day for looking at the work of pioneering Houston artists like Dorothy Hood, Wray and Stout.

WEDNESDAY


Karen Finley at DiverseWorks, 6 – 8 pm. As part of the Eleventh Hour, DiverseWorks' retrospective exhibit, Karen Finley will read selections from We Keep Our Victims Ready, which she first performed at DiverseWorks in 1989 (the year before she gained unwanted membership in the group the "NEA 4," four performance artists who had their NEA grants vetoed because of their controversial content). Expect a SRO event!

Share

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Pan Recommends for the week of April 25 to May 1

Robert Boyd

Lots of stuff happening this weekend in the Colquitt and Montrose galleries, but also in spaces we don't hear from that often. Here are a few of the things that caught our eye.

THURSDAY



Nnnnnnnnooooooooooooo by Carrie Cook at the Project Gallery at the UH School of Art, 6-9 pm. I liked her work at the MFA Thesis show, so I expect that this one will be pretty good as well.


Untitled, Victor Vasarely, 37.5" x 38.875", silkscreen

Optical Spaces: The Art of Victor Vasarely at the Museum of Printing History, 6 pm. Vasarely was an artist whose work seemed destined for the walls of dorm rooms. Cosmic eye-candy to be sure, and fun to look at for that reason.

FRIDAY


Tom Huck's THE HILLBILLY KAMA SUTRA at Burning Bones Press, 6 pm. I'm not sure I can add much to what Huck says in this video except to recommend you crank up the Southern Culture on the Skids and check this show out.


Marcelyn McNeil, Lemonworld, 54"x52", oil on canvas

Marcelyn McNeil: Lemonworld at Anya Tish Gallery at 6 pm. I like the way McNeil balances geometric abstraction and expressive brushwork. Her paintings have a beautiful rough-hewn feel.


Anastasia Pelias, Elaine, for Elaine (shade grey, translucent yellow, payne’s grey), 2013 oil on canvas, one painting in two pieces, 72 x 144 inches

Anastasia Pelias: Ritual Devotion at Zoya Tommy Contemporary, 6 pm. And if you need more abstraction, go across the hall to Zoya Tommy and check out New Orleans painter Anastasia Pelias.


University of Houston School of Art: Annual BFA Student Exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum, 6 pm. You saw the MFA Thesis show--now come out and see what the undergrads have been doing.


still from Latham Zearfoss's “Myth of My Anchestors”

Stinky Pinky: a Screening of Experimental Queer Shorts featuring films by Kristin Anchor, Rahne Alexander, Zach Meyer, Dorian Bonelli, Tessa Siddle, Chris Vargas, Matt Wolf, & Latham Zearfoss at Skydive from 8 to 11 pm. Skydive is back with a short film program.

SATURDAY


Burning Bones Press & AIGA's: It Came From The Bayou! featuring Tom Huck, Cannonball Press and Dennis McNett, Sean Starwars, The Amazing Hancock Brothers, Workhorse Printmakers and Burning Bones Press at The Continental Club , noon to 6 pm. Printmaking demos, lots of prints, and the sounds of DJ PsychedelicSexPanther--sounds like a high energy event.


Russell Prince, The Silver Chair, 2012, mixed media collage, 20X30”

Russell Prince: Pastmodern at Front Gallery 4–6 pm. Collagist Russell Prince is a show curated by Jay Wehnert from Intuitive Eye.



Kelley Devine: Face Face at Winter Street Studios Gallery, 5-9 pm. Giant faces give viewers cold appraising gazes in the art of Kelley Divine, on view at Winter Street.



Obscure Workings: Anthony J Suber at Commerce Street Gallery, 6 pm. An artist I have never heard of, but I liked the artwork on his website.


Troy Dugas, Falstaff, 2009 Beer labels, 60 x 60" -- this old piece will probably not be in the show, but it's typical of Dugas's work  

Troy Dugas: Modernized for Mildness and Rusty Scruby: Sink Sketches in the micro space at McMurtrey Gallery, 6 pm. Two artists who take printed material, cut it up, and make visuallydazzling new things out of it--they seem like a natural pairing.


Share

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Pan Recommends for the week of November 22 to November 28

Robert Boyd

Not much happening this week what with Thanksgiving Holiday--but there are a few things we think you might be interested in.

FRIDAY

Black Friday, Phillip Pyle II at the Art League (as part of The Stacks), 6 pm, November 23. The Stacks isn't a traditional art show that remains more-or-less static throughout its duration. Instead, it's a series of residencies, and that means several opportunities for openings. This Friday, Phillip Pyle II shows us what he did with the shredded remains of stuff left over from the November 16 opening.

SATURDAY

The Drawing Room, Part 2 at the Galveston Arts Center, 6 pm [through January 6]. A group drawing show that features Debra Barrera, Jillian Conrad, Bethany Johnson, Laura Lark, Jayne Lawrence, Leigh Anne Lester, Katie Maratta and Neva Mikulicz. With weather so nice this weekend, a little trip out to Galveston would be ever so pleasant--and a lovely drawing show at GAC would be a nice capper!

{Form follows (Function} follows Form) follows “Function...follows Form." at Kallinen Contemporary, 7 pm. This is the perfect show to see on the way back from Galveston. As usual, Kallinen Fine Art is offering up an overstuffed show in their huge quonset hut, this time displaying art furniture. The artists include John Paul Hartman, Solomon Kane, Amerimou$, Gian Palacios-Świątkowski, Kelley Devine, Dandee Warhol, Chasity Porter and many, many more.

SUNDAY

Y. E. Torres and Erin Joyce: Raised In The Wild: Memories of a Bad Unicorn at the East End Studio Gallery, 6 pm [through November 25]. Don't much about this show, but it sounds in some ways like a sequel to Once there Was, Once There Wasn't, which Torres put on (with Lisa Chow) in August. Fractured fairy tales indeed.

BUT WAIT! The Pilgrims came to this continent and created Thanksgiving for one reason--so we could shop like maniacs on Friday. Now in recent decades this has become something of a bummer because parking lots are full and people brawl in the aisles of stores to get the last marked-down electronic thingumajig, and let's not ignore the folks who get trampled to death.

Sure you can avoid all this by staying home, but where's the respect for tradition in that? So I say, make Black Friday a day to buy art. Or slightly less black Saturday. Art is the perfect gift--it's highly personal and it's not mass-produced by exploited elves and buying art puts money in the pockets of artists. Plus, you are almost guaranteed not to be trampled to death by surging crowds of art consumers. Not all of Houston's galleries are open this weekend, but a lot of them are. I asked a few about their Black Friday (and Saturday) plans. Here's what they told me:

D.M. Allison -- open Friday and Saturday
Peveto -- open Saturday 2 pm to 5 pm
Catherine Couturier -- open Friday and Saturday

Redbud -- open Friday and Saturday
GGallery -- open Saturday

New Gallery -- open Friday and Saturday
P.G. Contemporary -- open Friday and Saturday

Anya Tish -- open Friday and Sturday

Art Palace -- open Saturday
Inman Gallery -- open Saturday
David Shelton Gallery -- open Friday and Saturday

Sicardi Gallery -- open Saturday
Gallery Sonja Roesch -- open Friday and Saturday
Darke Gallery -- open Saturday

(Is your gallery open this weekend? Let us know in the comments.)

Share

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Pan Recommends for the week of September 13 through September 19




The Houston Fine Art Fair is this weekend, starting with a preview party tonight then running pretty much all day Friday through Sunday. It is being held at Reliant Center, which seems to me to be a not-so-fun place to have it. (Big, though--the OTC uses it.) My impression of HFAF last year was that too many galleries were kind of kitchy in what they brought, but that this was balanced by excellent galleries and particularly by fantastic Latin American galleries. I'm looking forward to how it shapes up this year.

Benito Huerta at Avis Frank, Saturday, September 15, 7 pm. It takes a brave gallery to do an opening during HFAF. Avis Frank has a booth at the fair and is having an opening for Benito Huerta, so you can see Avis Frank gallery twice this weekend.

Richard Stout, McKie Trotter, Dick Wray, Dorothy Hood, Otis Huband, Bill Reily and Charles Schorre at William Reaves, September 14. The official reception is not until next weekend, but this new group show featuring work by some of Texas' finest painters (whose work became prominent in the 50s and 60s) will be open to the public this weekend. Well worth a stop.

Katy Horan at Domy Books, Saturday, September 15, 7 pm. I know nothing about Katy Horan but her paintings look interesting. She seems to specialize in painting images of archtypal women in shades of grey.

Melanie Millar, Kelley Devine, Cookie Wells, M. Allison and Lindsay Peyton at Black Swan Screenprinting, Saturday, September 15, 6 pm. Organized by Black Swan Screenprinting owner Ann Brooks, this exhibit features work that (I think) uses screen-printing as part of the work.




Share





Thursday, May 24, 2012

Notes on Super 8

by Robert Boyd

I've been to plenty of art events at Winter Street Studios and Summer Street Studios, but I had never been to Spring Street Studios. (There is an Autumn Lane and a Fall Street in Houston, but no art studios on either as far as I know.) Group shows at art studios tend to be mixed bags (at best) because the artists working in those places are so varied, both in style and in quality. Super Eight at Spring Street seems to have made an effort to mitigate this. The number of artists on display was limited to eight, which permitted a deeper selection of work from each artist, as well as some quality control. Beyond that, it's hard to see what the selection principle was. Most of the work is painted, but there is a large variety of styles and subject matters. And there is some sculptural work, including an installation. I don't think it's important that I know how the artists were chosen and by whom, but it does make me wonder what these particular eight artists have in common. Perhaps they are all friends, which is as good a reason to display work together as any.

For the most part, Tito Fabian's art did nothing for me. It was political in the shallowest, most obvious way. The thing that struck me about his work (positively) was its construction out of triangular facets of plywood, which gave it a relief quality.


Micah the Artist, Good Times

Then there was Micah the Artist [sic]. His paintings for the most part weren't memorable, but Good Times caught my eye. What is being depicted here? A burrito? The ambiguity (and the resemblance to food) make this piece amusing. Placing this enormous food item in front of a vaguely-defined tan plane with pale green filigree just adds to the over-all strangeness of the painting. Good times indeed.


Kelley Devine, The Diary, book pages, charcoal, acrylic medium on canvas, 48" x 36"

The woman in Kelley Devine's The Diary is pensive, almost anxious. Like most of Devine's women, she has big eyes and a tiny cupid's bow lips. She doesn't look at the viewer. And the image rests on a ground of printed pages.

The pages are from a book called Anaïs Nin: An Introduction by Benjamin Franklin and Duane Schneider.I thought it was interesting that she didn't use pages from Nin's actual diary. Instead, the pages are from a scholarly book by two men. Given the nature of what Nin wrote (such as her works of erotica that were published as Delta of Venus and Little Birds), there is an ironic perversity, a kind of voyeurism, in using pages of a book about Nin as the ground in this piece. It puts the woman in the picture one-step removed from being on an actual diary. Does this suggest that Devine is deliberately keeping something revealed? Given that the women in her paintings often look something like her without quite being her, I think maybe there is a sense that her works aren't really diaries--or that they are diaries that are locked shut.


Lucinda Cobley, Interval 4, 2012, monoprint on plastic, 50" x 40"

Lucinda Cobley usually works on glass (and some of that work was in Super Eight). The glass sometimes gives her work a' "artsy" feel, as if announcing that it's precious. Glass feels decorative (and I don't mean to disdain the decorative, but it makes her work seem a little less serious). I have to admit, the glass rubs me the wrong way. Which is why I liked her three Intervals, which are monoprints on plastic. They feel very matter-of-fact compared to the glass paintings. I look at something like Interval 4, and I see ink rolled onto plastic with a crappy roller (the roller part of it appears to not have been perfectly round, or else the ink wasn't applied to it evenly, which is why there are vertical stripes in each horizontal band of blue). The beauty comes out despite the materials. And this appeals to me.


Sarah Whatley, Sliced, 2012, mixed media

Sarah Whatley's pieces were made of X-ray photographs of human bodies. Most of the pieces displayed showed the Xrays cut into the silhouetted  shapes of women's clothes, and I found them a little cutesy and clever, but obvious. Perhaps they were saying that clothes are just a covering for the biological organism, the animal, beneath.


Sarah Whatley, Sliced, 2012, mixed media

But Sliced is a different story. This installation was in a darkened room. The "bed" is constructed of clothe draped over a metal frame. Inside the bed is a light source. And Whatley has constructed two lifesize "paper dolls" out of Xrays. They are depicted having sex with one another. One of them is a woman wearing what appears to be lingerie and high heels (who wears high heels to bed outside of porn films? Or am I just being naive?). The piece, glowing in the blackness of the room, is quite arresting. And much more than her other pieces here, this is very successful in foregrounding the biological underpinning of the erotic.


Kevin Peterson, Rocket, oil on panel

With graffiti and street art becoming such an important aspect of contemporary art, Kevin Peterson seems well-positioned to benefit. But his use of street art is highly eccentric. He paints highly rendered realistic paintings of objects and walls covered with graffiti.


Kevin Peterson, Keep Out, oil on panel, 40" x 28"

Much of the graffiti he depicts is "tagging." I haven't seen tagging referred to as art (unlike the more ambitious variations of "wild style"), although one could make a case for it in terms of being a kind of vernacular calligraphy. But he will sometimes paint "wild style" graffiti, as in the pieces on the dinosaur in Keep Out.


Kevin Peterson, Inked II, oil on panel, 57" x 46"

But Inked II suggests that Peterson is not interested in graffiti per se, but redrawing art in situ. So art on a piece of playground equipment, art on a wall, art on a dinosaur sculpture--or art on a blonde woman. Of course, the art he repaints in his paintings is art that arises from (and is often created by) the working class. It's not the art of MFAs (more and more ambitious graffiti artists are getting MFAs these days, though). Tattoos and graffiti art have only impacted bourgeois and elite sensibilities after spending many decades as the art of ghettos and sea ports.

But it would be interesting to see Peterson branch out a bit. What if he did paintings of art installations? Highly rendered realistic paintings of, say, a Cildo Meireles, an Ernesto Neto, a Daniel Buren, or a Tara Donavan installation. Particularly of ephemeral installations. I, for one, would find that pretty excellent--painting paying homage to post-painting.


 Kevin Peterson, Chipmunk, oil on panel, 32" x 21" (with actual playground "chipmunk")

With Chipmunk, Peterson displayed both the painting and the subject, which begs the question. Did Peterson acquire this worn, graffiti covered playground ride like this, or did he buy a relatively clean one and cover it with graffiti himself? Is it a found object, or a found object that he manipulated after the fact?


several small piece by Matt Messinger

One of Houston's most under-rated artists in Matt Messinger. He recently started showing at Devon Borden, which may change his status a bit. But here he was, selling great work cheap. (Full disclosure--I bought one of his whale prints, which you can see above roughly in the middle of this photo.)


Matt Messinger, Pluto

Messinger uses found images, often from 30s-era animated cartoons. That by itself is interesting (why such old images, redolent of the Depression and its rich popular culture?), but the way he combines them with drippy paint and ink and deliberately distressed painting surfaces adds another layer. They don't feel like they were created--they feel like they were excavated.


Matt Messinger, 3 Bears Button Stack

His sculptural works also have a nostalgic feel.  The ceramic collectible that form the basis of 3 Bears Button Stack is like something your grandmother might have bought.


Matt Messinger, Fox

Another subject matter that pops up in Messinger's work are animals. Fox has an illustrational image of a fox, which may or may not be appropriated. But the patched-together ground and drips of white paint or gesso give it the damaged look that typifies so much of Messinger's painted work.


Matt Messinger, #9

In this exhibit, there are several pieces where the figures are white and the ground is black. In addition to the painted images, he has written on these black paintings. In #9, he is tallying something up. There are columns of hashmarks, marking every five things (whatever he was counting). This kind of casual note-to-oneself right on the canvas reminds me a bit of Jean-Michel Basquiat. There a lot of artists in Houston influenced by Basquiat, and I guess Messinger falls into that category to an extent. But his work has its own vocabulary and style.


David Hardaker, MM-Destroyed #1, 2012, oil and household paint on canvas, 40" x 30"

David Hardaker also gives his paintings a deliberately damaged look. His paintings are appear damaged by violence, usually by pouring house paint over a highly-rendered image, instead of by wear and tear (as Messinger's appear to be). The images under the house paint are paintings of high-fashion models, presumably taken from magazines or catalogs. (Although I guess it's possible that Hardaker hires models.) The notion of throwing paint onto these images of women is disturbing. Because they are elegant, fashionable and sexy, it could be interpreted as a violent fear or disgust of women's sexuality. They might be seen as a metaphor for acid attacks, which are sometimes perpetrated against women in Pakistan and elsewhere by jealous husbands or religious fanatics. If interpreted this way, they are very disturbing images.


David Hardaker, JS-Destroyed #2, 2012, oil and household paint on canvas, 40" x 30"

In a piece like JS-Destroyed #2, the house paint covers the figure's entire face, erasing her identity. As an image of a model posing in kimono-like dress with a plunging neckline, there was already objectification taking place. But in JS-Destroyed #2, she is completely dehumanized.  Now another way to interpret this is that Hardaker is pointing out that this kind of high-fashion image is inherently dehumanizing. Pouring paint on it could even be thought of as a protest of this kind of commercial vapidity.


David Hardaker, Head Like a Hole, 2012, oil on canvas, mounted on board, burned, 16" x 16"

But it's hard not to conclude that Hardaker likes putting the women he depicts through hell; he douses them in house paint, and in Head Like a Hole, he burns a hole through his subject's forehead. No matter how you interpret them, they are unsettling.

The space, Spring Street Studios, turns out to be a pretty ideal place to display work, especially flat work. Four very wide hallways (built to accommodate a forklift, it seems) form a square. Each artist had plenty of space. There was very little salon-style hanging of works. I hope there will be more shows like this there.


Share


Thursday, April 5, 2012

Kallinen Contemporary's Krazy Scene

by Robert Boyd

Randall Kallinen is an attorney specializing in civil rights cases. His law office is in a warehouse-like space on Broadway, spitting distance from the ship channel. He has turned that space into an art gallery, and for its inaugural exhibit, the space has been crammed full of art, including a lot of his own work. His large, paint-spattered canvases are actually used as temporary wall-space in the big floor of the warehouse. Kallinen himself hosted his opening in an outfit that was half flâneur and half Jackson Pollack.

Kallinen and Roesch
Randall Kallinen and Ariane Roesch

The opening exhibit was an overstuffed jumble of art of wildly divergent quality. (The title of the exhibit gives it all away: Space Zombie Mayan Apocalyptic Human Sacrifice Uplift Mofo Party Plan Spring Break 2012. When you see a title like that, you know to expect sensory overload.) At first, I thought it had all the hallmarks of a Paul Horn production--wildly overstuffed, extremely uneven. However, the show was in fact curated by sculptor  John Paul Hartman. (Confusingly, there is a minimal website for Kallinen Horn Gallery. So even though the invite referred to Kallinen Contemporary, Paul Horn is definitely involved and had work in the show)

Describing this show is a bit fruitless. Fortunately, I took a lot of photos and a few of them were more-or-less in focus. So presented here are a bunch of photos, some annotated, of one of the weirdest art shows I've seen in a while.

Kallinen interior
Kallinen Contemporary interior

Kallinen interior
Kallinen Contemporary interior

Kallinen Shoes
Randall Kallinen's neatly arranged paint-dripped shoes

Alien Head
Yamin Cespedes, 8th Passenger, wood, 10" x 8" x 20" in, 2011

Yamin Cespedes' 8th Passenger is kind of the ultimate hunting trophy. Keep your Ibexes and Siberian Tigers--I bagged an Alien!


bathroom plaques
Amerimou$, Man and Woman, bathroom sign, paper, 8" x 6" each, 2011

Amerimou$ had some of the most interesting art in the show. In addition to pieces like these two bathroom signs (where he takes the simplified Mickey Mouse logo and combines it with generic "ped" figures), he also has some intriguing sculptural work.

jug lights
Amerimou$, Energy, fuel tanks, electric cables, light cords, surge protector, spray paint, dimensions variable, 2011

To me, this is a better piece than the "Mickey Mouse" ear pieces. Attacking Disney as a generic representation of fake plastic America, a sterilized fascist simulacrum--well, it's been done. Done over and over since the 60s. But this sculpture, while its political meaning is obvious, also has a beautiful, slightly mysterious presence. This is what makes it a stronger work.

bat
John Paul Hartman, Screaming Shadow of War, plexiglas, bronze, hand forge iron, bronzing paint, 64" x 46" x 8", 2002

I mistook this piece by John Paul Hartman for a bronze sculpture at first, but it's mostly plexiglass painted to look bronze. The bronze gives it the look of municipal sculptures--founders of universities (like the statue of William Rice in the quad at Rice University) or famous war leaders (like the Sam Houston statue in Hermann Park). What I think about when I see bronze are war memorials. I lived in rural New England, and small towns there almost always had memorials for the war dead from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, etc. But this sculpture, a flapping wing diving down toward the viewer, is a monument to fear. We lived in fear from the skies after 9-11, and now our enemies (and many, many innocent bystanders) look fearfully to the skies for our own screaming Predators their Hellfire missiles.

Pope
Camargo Valentino, Pope not so Innocent, oil on canvas, 56" x 48", 2009 

Pope not so Innocent by Camago Valentino (who apparently studied with Odd Nerdrum!) is a tribute to Velazquez and I guess Francis Bacon, it seems to have been painted too early to be a tribute to Occupy Wall Street--but it's hard not to read it that way now.
 
hanging pupa
Alicia Duplan, Turn on Your Love Light, mixed media, 108" x 18" x 18", 2011

There were several glowing sculptures, including Turn on Your Love Light by Alicia Duplan, which I thought were excellent. They had to be displayed in a darkened room. The dark in this case becomes a part of the work.

Ladder
Ariane Roesch, Rung-By-Rung, mixed media, 108" x 17" x 12", 2012

Here is another self-illuminated work, this time by Ariane Roesch.

Daniel Johnston
Daniel Johnston, Coke Zero in hand, chatting with a fan

Daniel Johnston installation
Daniel Johnston installation

Among the artists in the show was Daniel Johnston, who showed a bunch of his drawings (and had even more stacked on the floor) and signed copies of his new graphic novel, Space Ducks. Unfortunately, they sold out of Space Ducks before I could buy a copy. However, I did buy the picture below:

Don't Play Card's with Satan
Daniel Johnston, Don't Play Cards With Satan, marker on paper, 20" x 15"

Sparkler design
William Reid, Hostages, acrylic on canvas, 34" x 35", 2011

William Reid is Daniel Johnston's nephew. He's a presence in Houston at various art openings, but I really knew nothing about his art until I saw his pieces here. The paintings he showed had a painted element and an element that was created with sparklers burning the surface. Naturally this makes one think of Cai Guo-Qiang, but the work actually resembles in some ways the art of Bill FitzGibbons, who uses a blow-torch (I believe) on his otherwise white canvases. I guess I'm saying that burning an image onto a canvas is not the most original idea in the world (let's not forget Yves Klien's fire paintings from 1961!), but Reid does a good job of making an arresting image out of paint and burnt gesso.

giant rag doll
Edu Portillo, Gonzo the Clown, fabric, wood, plastic, dimensions variable, 2011

I remember seeing Edu Portillo's, Gonzo the Clown hanging out around the U.H. art department. Nice to see it displayed in a venue that can accommodate its immensity. This piece would scare me if I was a child, I think!

Kelly Devine
Kelley Devine

My previous contact with Kelley Devine had been with her paintings of super-thin model-like women, which I didn't care for. She has a sculptural installation in the show, but what caught my eye was this image on her t-shirt, where a woman (typical of the women she paints) with antlers. The antlers are textured with typography that looks like it comes from a newspaper. This shirt is related to a series of paintings she has done collectively called "Dangerous Games." But I like the graphic quality of the shirt better than the paintings. Some of her drawings on printed pages have this quality, as do some of her prints. But this shirt suggests that maybe she should consider working in silkscreen, combining her drawing and printed matter in one graphically bold combination.


Share