Jeff Forster and Jillian Conrad at The Art League

These two artists have a small show up in the front gallery at the Art League. I wasn't familiar with Jillian Conrad, but Jeff Forster's work is work I have encountered several times over the past few months, up to and including winning a piece of his in the Box 13 raffle. So I was eager to see what he had for this show.


Jeff Forster, Endangered Species, native clays and palm fronds dipped in porcelain then fired, 2010

Palm fronds dipped in porcelain then fired--so that's how he makes those little clay chips. I was wondering that ever since I saw his piece Frailty. What interests me about the process is, what happens when you take something organic and/or flammable and fire it in a kiln? Does the organic part burn away, leaving just the ceramic part? This has been on my mind ever since I won the two Marie Weichman porcelain rags which were apparently made in a similar way.

This piece (and one other in the show) were made out of similar little ceramic pieces. Installing them means scattering the stuff on the floor, so the dimensions are, as they say, variable. I think maybe the are meant to evoke a sense of crumbling ruin, as if you have stumbled across a site that was once built up but is now a shattered and decayed remain. That's how it feels to me. There is something amusing about transporting this into a pristine art gallery.


Jeff Forster, Remnant of Reflected Space, fired native clay, mirror, and naturally collected vegetation, 2009

If the former piece was meant to evoke the decay of something man-made, this piece seems like an attempt to contrive something that appears natural. Except for the mirror--I'm not sure what that's all about. The location is particularly interesting--against a glass. It can be seen from the outside and when you view it from the inside, you see the sidewalk and the street and trees and passing cars, forming kind of a backdrop for the piece. If the object is man-made nature--a "rock" formed from natural clay (as slate is nature-made rock formed from clay), then what we see through the window, our built and grown environment, is also man-made "nature." Maybe then the mirror is meant to remind us that the "rock" is a reflection of what we do in our cities and towns. We build our own "nature," our own environment.


Jillian Conrad, Pile, wood, concrete,foam,paint, glitter, 2010

Jillian Conrad, at first glance, seems like an apt partner in this exhibit. But there is a difference in their work. While Forster's work may be chaotic and may resemble decay, it is ultimately crafted  using one of mankind's oldest crafts. Conrad's pieces, while constructed, seem deliberately uncrafted. For instance, the wooden table in Pile is not the result of carpentry, but rather the result of nailing pieces of wood together. The concrete looks more like concrete accidentally spilled at a worksite than concrete deliberately formed for some purpose. That's the feeling I get from looking at this--a temporary work-table assembled at a construction site. All the materials (save the glitter) are materials construction workers might use to build a house or commercial structure. It's the kind of object that, after the job was done, would be broken up and thrown in the dumpster with the rest of the waste products. Put in a gallery recontextualizes it. Whether this interpretation has anything to do with Conrad's intent, I have no idea. But it's what I saw.

New Acquisitions--Carrie A. Dyer, Jeff Forster and Marie Weichman at the Box 13 Raffle

Last night was the Empty Box fundraiser for Box 13. I knew it was going to be a raffle, and I knew there were quite a few artworks being raffled, but I wasn't sure how it was supposed to work. The way they did it was rather clever. The key was that a lot of artworks were being raffled. Dozens of pieces. The work varied wildly in style. So when you bought your raffle tickets, instead of putting them in one big bin, you actually chose the works you liked and put your ticket into a little box beside the work in question.



That way, you could be certain that you were buying a chance to win only works you like.


Kathy Kelley, our histories flow yesterday into tomorrow, tubes, bailing wire, wood, 2010

This was one of the pieces I selected, but I didn't win it (alas). Obviously, the more popular an individual piece was (and I think this one by Kathy Kelley was definitely popular), the smaller the chance you had of winning. But you could game this a little. You could shake the box and try to determine if anyone else had put in a ticket. If not, you could be virtually guaranteed to win that piece. That was not my approach, though. I bought a bunch of tickets (not out of a desire to win artwork, but in order to support an institution that I really love) and spread them to a variety of pieces that I liked. For instance, this photo:


Ben Ruggiero, Suspended Letter B, Austin, Texas, archival inkjet print

(I didn't win this one, though.) Or this pair of cuties by Jed Foronda:


Jed Foronda, Household Name, ink on paper, 2010

(I didn't win these two, either.)

The real fun began at 9 pm, when they started do drawings. It was a real Christmas-present opening atmosphere.



And in the end, I came home with four pieces. I paid a decent amount for my tickets, but the fact is that if I had bought any one of these pieces at a gallery, I would have paid more--much more depending on the piece. So for the many raffle winners, Empty Box was a bargain. I think this fundraiser is annual. For selfish reasons, I'd like to keep it small and intimate. But really, if you are a collector on a budget, it is well worth it to come out. And, as I said, what makes it work is the staggering amount of artwork contributed for the show. Houston artists support each other.

So here's what I got.


Jeff Forster, Object of Ceremony, wood-fired stoneware, 2009

You might recall Jeff Forster had a very interesting piece at Poissant Gallery a few months ago. That same piece is up at The Big Show right now. This aptly-named piece is very different, though.


Marie Weichman, Washclothes, stained porcelain slip drip fabric, 2008

I literally walked right by these at first. I though Weichman (an artist with whom I am not familiar), in a conceptual statement of some sort, had hung old chamois cloth and a pink rag. Then someone mentioned to me that they were ceramic. In a way, I had to ask myself why that makes a difference? This tension was, itself, attractive to me. So I dropped my ticket in and now they're mine. And I love them.


Carrie A. Dyer, descendants of the clouds one, digital print, 2008


Carrie A. Dyer, descendants of the clouds two, digital print, 2008

I liked these two pieces by Carrie Dyer. What appealed to me was the combination of digitally produced effects (which were fairly subtle) and hand-drawing. I know nothing about this artist (beyond what's on her website.) But one interesting coincidence--she is an assistant professor at Central Arkansas University in Conway--a town I occasionally visit for business.

The Empty Box was a really fun event, and I ended up with some really nice artworks. I'll definitely be there next year.