Showing posts with label Lisa Chow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lisa Chow. Show all posts

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Pan Recommends for the week of May 23 to May 29

Robert Boyd

Houston's art world is taking the long weekend off for the most part. (I'll be using this time to check out a few shows I've missed. Or I'll go to the beach.) But there is never a completely art-free weekend in Houston. Here are a few things happening this weekend that we're interested in.

THURSDAY


Hollis Frampton, still from Critical Mass

An Aurora Picture Show Open Screen Night Double Header: One Second Film Festival and Hollis Frampton Films, 7:30. A film festival of one-second films (don't expect a lot of characterization and plot) from TCU, curated by Nick Bontrager, and a selection of 16 mm films from the pioneering avant garde filmmaker, Hollis Frampton.

FRIDAY

 
a heroic Hello Kitty by Erik Martinez

The Mouthless-Kat: Hello Kitty & Friends! featuring Alex Barber, Alice Le, Andrea Rodriguez, Blue130, Blue Rooster Customs, Browncoat, Catfish, Enma Castro, Erik Martinez, John Paul Luna, Katsola, Lisa Chow, Lizbeth Ortiz, Lizzette Gonzalez, Nesreen Hussain Alawami, Sophia Rose Luna and Veronica Vega at East End Studio Gallery. Art has many time-tested subjects that always work--Jesus, naked ladies, bluebonnets, etc. Hello Kitty is the latest (and greatest?) candidate for eternal artistic muse.

SATURDAY


Joëlle Verstraeten monoprint

Joëlle Verstraeten: Allegro, Moderato at Gallery Jatad, 3–6 pm, (runs May 25 through June 27). Somehow, Gallery Jatad opened without me hearing about it. This gallery specializes in African and contemporary art (I hope that means they will also show African contemporary art), and is run by the husband and wife team of Lisa Qualls (an artist we've reviewed before) and African art specialist Matt Scheiner.



Call it Street Art, Call it Fine Art, Call it What You Know with Anat Ronen, Lee Washington, Michael C. Rodriguez, Dual, Skeez181, Deck WGF, Sebastien “MR. D” Boileau, The Death Head, Eyesore, Empire I.N.S., Daniel Anguilu, Ana María, ACK!, Tatum One, Angel Quesada, Sode, Vizie and KC Ortiz at Station Museum of Contemporary Art, 7 pm. A big show of street art is an excellent way to kick off summer, don't you think?



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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Houston's Favorite Art From 2012

Robert Boyd

The votes are in--the people have spoken. Below are the most popular exhibits, performances and art fairs as chosen by an internet poll. There were 329 responses (of which 72 had to be disqualified*). Here's what you all thought was the best art of the year in Houston.

Favorite Exhibits

 
Christian Marclay, Grey Drip Door (The Electric Chair), 2006, synthetic ink on synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 94 3/8" x 51 1/4" from the exhibit Silence

  1. Silence at the Menil Museum with 28 votes
  2. Richard Serra, Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective, Menil Museum with 26 votes
  3. tie: Hillerbrand+Magsamen , eState Sale at the Art League Houston and Aaron Parazette, Flyaway at the Art League Houston with 20 votes each
  4. Lisa Chow and Y.E. Torres, Once there was, once there wasn't: Two tales from the minds of Lisa Chow & Y. E. Torres at ARC Gallery with 19 votes
  5. Flying Solo at the Art League Houston with 16 votes
  6. tie: Debra Barrera, Kissing in Cars, Driving Alone at Moody Gallery; Staring at the Wall: The Art of Boredom at Lawndale Art Center; and James Turrell, Twilight Epiphany at Rice University with 15 votes each
  7. tie: WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath at the MFAH; Geoff Hippenstiel at Devin Borden Gallery; and Emily Peacock, You, Me & Diane at Lawndale Art Center with 14 votes each
  8. tie: James Ciosek, Human Hamster Wheel at Lawndale Art Center; In Plain Sight at McClain Gallery; [Hx8] at Station Museum;YE Torres and Erin Joyce, Raised in the Wild: Memories of a Bad Unicorn at the East End Studio Gallery; and Eric Zimmerman, Endless Disharmony & Telltale Ashes at Art Palace with 13 votes each
  9. tie: Debra Barrera, Drive Me There and Back Again at Blaffer Art Museum Window Into Houston; Sasha Dela, The Emotional Life of a Spy at the Art League Houston; Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art at the CAMH; Laura Lark, The Livable Forest at Devin Borden Gallery; Peter Lucas, Voyager Found at Lawndale Art Center; and David Politzer, When You're Out There at the Houston Center for Photography with 12 votes each
  10. tie: Adela Andea, Primordial Gardens at the Art League Houston; Jamal Cyrus, STACKS residency at the Art League Houston; Sandy Ewen, Projection and Amplification at ARC Gallery; The Big Show at Lawndale Art Center; Lisa Marie Hunter, Camouflage at the Art League Houston; Phillip Pyle II, STACKS residency--Black Friday at the Art League Houston; M'Kina Tapscott STACKS residency--New Soil: Tessellations of Dark Matter at the Art League Houston; Julia Zarate, In Somnis Veritas at the East End Studio Gallery
An additional 357 (!) exhibits got votes, so congratulations all around.

Favorite Performances

 
Emily Sloan, Carrie Nation Hatchetation, performance at Notsuoh

  1. Emily Sloan, Carrie Nation Hatchetation at the The Lone Star Performance Explosion with 23 votes
  2. Zubi Puente and Y.E. Torres, Let's Play Doctor at the Continuum Live Art Series/Avant Garden with 20 votes
  3. tie: Jim Pirtle performance at Notsuoh as part of The Lone Star Performance Explosion and Tina McPherson, Love Exorcist at the Continuum Live Art Series/Avant Garden with 16 votes
  4. Non Grata, Force Majeure at the The Lone Star Performance Explosion with 14 votes
  5. tie: Nathaniel Donnett, ZZzzzzzz at the Art League Houston and Nancy Douthey, Chicken 'N Dinner at the  The Lone Star Performance Explosion with 13 votes
  6. tie: Emily Sloan, Is that a Baby Ruth in the Swimming Pool? at Darke Gallery and Militia "Malice" Tiamat, Know Thy Self, Continuum Live Art Series/Avant Garden with 12 votes
  7. tie: Daniel- Kayne, Three Day Fast at the The Lone Star Performance Explosion; Orion Maxted performance at Notsuoh at the The Lone Star Performance Explosion; and Non Grata , [performance at Avant Garden], The Lone Star Performance Explosion with 10 votes each
  8. tie: Jonatan Lopez performance at Avant Garden during the The Lone Star Performance Explosion and 1KA performance at the The Lone Star Performance Explosion with 9 votes each
  9. tie: Jamal Cyrus, Texas Fried Tenor at CAMH; Miao Jiaxin, I Have a Dream at Box 13; and Pope L., Costume Made of Nothing at the CAMH with 8 votes each
  10. John Pluecker, Antena Books: Pop-Up Bookstore and Literary Experimentation Lab, Project Row Houses with 7 votes
An additional 43 performances got votes. Congratulations all.

Favorite art fairs
  1. Texas Contemporary Art Fair with 73 votes
  2. Pan Art Fair with 48 votes
  3. Houston Fine Art Fair with 43 votes
A few closing comments. It's not always obvious where the boundary between exhibit and performance is. That was especially the case with with Radical Presence: Black performance in Contemporary Art at CAMH and STACKS at the Art League. Stacks was additionally difficult to deal with because it was, in effect, a series of residencies followed by one-person shows. So do you deal with them separately or as part of a greater show? I split them into separate shows and performances, but several people wrote in STACKS as a combined unit.

The favorite art fair question was admittedly a bit of a joke. 48 votes for the Pan Art Fair probably comes close to the entire attendance of the Pan Art Fair. But thanks everyone who voted.

* Unfortunately, there appeared to be some ballot stuffing activity. I created an algorithm to detect ballot stuffing, and while I probably missed a few, the 72 votes that were disqualified were almost certainly all from ballot stuffing. It's very disappointing that anyone would do something like this. I don't  understand it--there is no prize being given here. It's like cheating to win the election for junior high class president--and about as mature. All I wanted to do with this poll was to see what shows people liked best. The results however are almost certainly somewhat skewed by self-dealing on the part of certain people. You know who you are (and so do I). The result of these shenanigans is that I will probably not be running this poll again next year (or ever). It's not worth it to deal with the cheaters.

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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Drinking Tea, Petting Bunnies, and Stroking Unicorns

Dean Liscum

I've never been to either a transitional art opening or an afternoon tea. Having attended Afternoon Tea with Lisa Chow and Y.E. Torres at the Fresh Arts Gallery, I can now check both off my list along with petting an evil bunny, stroking a unicorn, and having impure thoughts about a pink Care Bear.

The premise of the tea was to serve as a second (or perhaps re-) opening of Chow and Torres' show "Once There Was, Once There Wasn't." It served to not merely introduce Y.E. Torres work into the two person show, but actually added them into the space. On July 14, 2012, Chow installed her work and decorated the space like she owned it--all  fairy tale princess and pastel streamers. Her aesthetic reigned supreme. Two weeks later, Torres invaded her space. Rearranging the streamers, inserting her Bad Unicorn self among Chow's serenely fantastical works, and shifting the asethetic from the sublime to the sensual.

Both artist work in fantasy. Where Chow's works are archetypal fairy tale scenes of children and animals, Torres works are dank and earthy.


Lisa Chow's work getting f'd up by unicorns 

Chow's figures are literally outlines of childhood. If I'm feeling analytic, I'd characterize them as idyllic and abstract. If I'm just feeling, I'd label them as faceless or anonymously menacing. Chow's explicit intent seems to be to invoke nostalgia about childhood through fantasy. However, the anonymous nature of the works gives them an unsettling, disquieting tone that informs nightmares of the same setting. Everything is idealized, but not in a good way. It lends itself to "pretty bunny, ouch that's not my bunny" experiences. Chow's works sweetness doesn't satisfy but unsettles because their world view is both perfectly rendered but lacking.

Torres dwells in a different, more sensual subdivision in fantasyland. Her conceits of the Evil Bunny and Bad Unicorn veer into the real, the sensual. Here creatures have toes and nipples and funk.


collage by Y. E. Torres

This bunny bites. This unicorn pokes. In Torres' world, not only women bleed. Beloved animals, the subjects of Chow's fairy tales, get fucked up. Their horns get broken off, and then their cute little heads get mounted on the wall.


Trophies or remains?

 Nevertheless, the two artists aren't that different. Torres shouts what Chow whispers. We can allude to all things the passions and humors (sex drive, sensuality, fertility, etc.) through symbols such as bunnies, but we won't directly speak of them. In polite society, one puts on white gloves, drinks tea from cups of bone china, and giggles and snickers at each other's clever bunny banter. The less polite get a little more gritty but with similar symbols and euphemisms. Torres echoes Chow's sentiments, she just does it more stridently. She's peddling the same products as Chow: pets as symbols of intimacy, security, emotional fulfillment. With Torres' work, the fantasy becomes more adult-themed and the pets serve as stand-ins for pussies and penises, but these are nothing more than anthropomorphic symbols (and simplifications) of the same desires of Chow's characters. The urges, wants, needs, and cravings are categorically similar but their superficial targets change. The contrast in styles emphasizes the similarities between the two artists.


They can't even agree on the font for their signage

The Tea Party theme is a clever way to mash-up the two aesthetics. Chow's approach covered the High Tea\Little Girl Tea party. Torres brought in the Alice in Wonderland crowd. If you weren't sure which trope to take, there weren't any pills or cake to make you small or tall, but Texas Tea was provided to aid the decision making process.


Texas Tea, decision makers drink

Not knowing what to expect, I stepped out of the midday heat and into a menagerie: unicorns, bunnies, bears, women in tea dresses, and old-school freak flag fliers. A bowl by the bar containing packages of confetti and masks implored guests to "please wear a mask" as if to encourage "safe" fantasy\role playing. So, of course I did.


Crowd scene complete with Evil Bunny getting her drink on with blinged-out Care Bear


Unicorn horns

I got a drink and attempted to circumnavigate the exhibit, viewing the art and gawking at the guests.


Unframed works by Lisa Chow and grab bags by Y. E. Torres

I worried that this could be as flat as a Lone Star beer left out in the sun. My fear was unfounded. Chow and Torres and the folks at Fresh Arts\SpaceTaker did not fizzle out. Both artists dressed according to their aesthetic.


Y. E. Torres, scratch the bunny, and Evil Lisa Chow


Lisa Chow in a lovely tea dress

Friends of the artists and members of the performance arts group Continuum dressed up in costumes and got into character, so much so that I couldn't interview them because I don't speak unicorn or bunny. Journalistically frustrated, I did the next best thing. I stroked the unicorn and petted the bunny and categorized it as an artistic communion. (Law enforcement officials and the performance artists' loved ones may not have the same interpretation.)


A unicorn making a move on a pink Care Bear in high heels



Evil Bunny with bunny burgers (future tense) 

The artists also convinced a local rabbit rancher to bring two of its hares. The rancher proudly proclaimed that he ate all the meat that he raised and that rabbit pellets made excellent fertilizer. Then, when Torres tried to hold one of the rabbits, it scratched her on the chest. Once it realized that she wasn't going to eat it, at least not right then, it chilled out. 



photo boothin' 

The party included a digital photo booth, which similar to the other accoutrements, blended the two aesthetics and their aficionados. Suits (or their summer time equivalents) flirted with fantastical creatures. Patrons posed with artists, and strangers took their Texas-Tea inspired turn at the photobooth.


Inner-species foreplay: Bad unicorn. Good horsey.


One too many rainbow treats


Evil Bunny ready to pounce.

The tea party concluded with Jo Bird of Two Star Symphony playing a piece on the toy piano and then two pieces on the viola. Her final piece was about a rabbit. At it's conclusion, she invited us to determine whether the rabbit lived or died.


Jo Bird Fiddin' 

I couldn't tell for sure, but whatever happened to it in the end, it had a fun time getting there.


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