Pan Recommends for the week of November 21 to November 27

Robert Boyd

Kind of a lot of stuff happening this weekend. When was the last time Lawndale and the Art League had an opening on the same night? I guess with Thanksgiving next week, a lot of events have to be crammed into this week. Good times!

THURSDAY


Sally Bennet, Making Faces,  32x31x2.5 inches

Sally Bennett and Ann Huey: New Works at Koelsch Gallery,  6–8 pm. Work that plays with illustration and design.


David Row, Ellipsis, 2012, Oil on canvas, 50 x 96 inches  

David Row: Elements at McClain Gallery, 6:30–8:30 pm. Paintings, works on paper and sculptures made of cast glass.

FRIDAY

 
from Emily Peacock's W.T. series

Learning Curve 7 and See Food: Contemporary Photography and the Ways We Eat curated by Natalie Zelt and featuring Corey Arnold (Portland, OR), Jonathan Blaustein (Arroyo Hondo, NM), Christin Boggs (Washington, D.C.), Damaris Booth (London, England), Nolan Calisch (Portland, OR), Jody Horton (Austin, TX), Andrzej Maciejewski (Ontario, Canada), Mark Menjivar (San Antonio, TX), Emily Peacock (Houston, TX), Emily Sloan (Houston, TX) and David Welch (Martha's Vineyard, MA) at the Houston Center for Photography, 6–8 pm (with a panel discussion for See Food Saturday from noon to 1 pm). Learning Curve 7 is their annual student show, and See Food is pictures of food, obviously.

 
That's Monica Vidal, looking pretty damn ecstatic in front of her installation Falling Hive

FALLING: Monica Vidal and Everyday Grace: Sedrick Huckaby at Art League Houston 6–9 pm, with artists' talks at 6:30 pm for Sedrick Huckaby and 7 pm for Monica Vidal. Monica Vidal brings Falling Hive home to Houston, just down the hall from Sedrick Huckaby's paintings.


Beth Secor, Sudden Appearance in Places Unknown, 2013, Found embroidered linens with drawing and embroidery, 30" x 30" 

Superficial Outgrowths by Sang-Mi Yoo, Melinda Laszczynski and Jessica Ninci: This End Up,  Beth Secor: The Significance of "Material" and Regina Agu: Nerve Endings at Lawndale Art Center, 6:30–8:30 pm. I don't have much to say except that all these shows look great!

FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY
 
Winter Street Studios

8th Annual Winter Holiday Art Market at Winter Street, 6 to 8 pm Friday ($10 admission), 11 am to 8 pm Saturday (free) and 11 am to 4 pm Sunday (free). Don't let the bleak industrial landscape above fool you--this weekend it will be packed with artists and craftsmen selling their stuff.

SATURDAY


They played at last years' ArtCrawl

ArtCrawl at multiple locations just north of Downtown and on the East End, 10 am to 9 pm. The annual trip through various art spaces and artists' studios near downtown. ArtCrawl related events include:

• Fotofest Bike Scramble, 11 am to 3:30 pm, starting from FotoFest headquarters.
• ArtCrawl "The Happening" featuring art by Michael Meazell, Alfredo Scaroina, Patrick Renner, Felipe Lopez and Lester Marks, 4 pm until whenevah at David Greave Art Studio.
• RATIO at El Rincón Social (see below for more info)

Anasheh Partiai

The Art of Everyday Politics featuring Amber Baker, Anasheh Partiai, Sarah Rodriguez, and Brandon Zech at Alabama Song, 8 pm Saturday to 8 pm Sunday. Hey, if you have 24 hours free, there's a one day (literally) only show with performances by Amber Baker at 6:45, Anasheh Partiai at 7 pm and Brandon Zech at 7:15, plus other activities throughout the night to help you stay awake!


Debora Smail, I fucking love you, Polaroid Installation

RATIO featuring Jenn Blackburn, Ben Tecumseh DeSoto, David Salinas, JoAnn Santangelo, Alex Larsen, Ashleigh MacLean, Abrahan Garza, Edna Sandoval, Galina Kurlat, Ben Parks, Theresa Escobedo, Emily Peacock, Bryan Forrester, Matthew Landry, Rosa Gurrero, Shannon Duncan, Laura Corley Burlton, Maureen Penders, Mark Audacity Romberg, Traci Matlock, Debora Smail, Joe Winsto and Gary Griffin at El Rincón Social, 7 pm to 2 am. El Rincón Social always have these events that last until 2 am, and old guy that I am, I always wonder who is going to hang out until 2 am? Pathetic, huh? This looks great--a lot of my favorite local photographers will be there.

Crime Wave

Robert Boyd

• The ghost of Enron still haunts us. The history of Enron's association with Houston's art scene has yet to be written down all in one place. At the very least, it deserves a long post of its own. Even though Enron collapsed in 2001, its ripples still pop up, even in the art world. Jeffrey Shankman had been COO of Enron Global Markets until December 2001. At Enron, he was also on a committee that bought contemporary art for Enron. (That collection was auctioned off as part of Enron's bankruptcy.) In 2003, he built the gallery complex at 4411 Montrose, which is now one of the most important art sites in town, home to five galleries.  He declared bankruptcy in 2008 (the same year he was sued for trying to blackmail a New York Gallery--I can't find the outcome of that suit online, though). In 2011, the gallery complex was sold as part of the bankruptcy.

Now, he has been indicted by a federal grand jury for engaging in "a scheme to conceal assets to defraud creditors and the trustee who was appointed to collect and dispose of all Shankman’s assets in his bankruptcy estate." These assets include "various pieces of fine art, decorative art, and jewelry." I would love to see this collection! In fact, exhibits of art taken as asset seizures would be quite fascinating. As an organizing principle, gathering asset seizure art into an exhibit seems no less legitimate than many other curatorial selection processes.


Photo By Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle. Used without permission because it's such a cool photo and I couldn't resist.

• Hazmat. Another intersection between Houston art and law enforcement happened this week--homes belonging to Cecily Horton, a partner at M.K.G. Art Management, were raided by the FBI. The raid has nothing to do with art, though. The Chronicle reported that certain chemicals had been ordered that could be used to produce "tear gas or nerve gas." Apparently they were ordered by Horton's son. I guess the FBI watches places where you can order this type of chemicals. The homes were in Houston and Michigan. An apartment in Bryan was also raided. As part of the raid, the FBI blew up some possibly dangerous substances. This sounds like a hell of a story, but whatever is going on, the FBI is staying mum.

• Cop in the Studio. OK, enough with all this crime. I was at Winter Street Studios last weekend for their open house and snapped a few photos. The studios were all cleaned up for guests, so we visitors got a somewhat artificial experience of them. My first stop was Solomon Kane's studio, which he shares with Jonathan Rosenstein and Vonetta Berry. Solomon Kane, in addition to being the nicest guy in the Houston art scene, happens to be an actual cop for Harris County.

Outside the studio hangs this Solomon Kane image of Ganesh.



Inside, each artist has his or her own corner. The color explosion above is Solomon Kane's.



Solomon Kane stands before a wall of Jonathan Rosenstein assemblages.



And Jonathan Rosenstein sits before a wall of photos of Vonetta Berry's work.

Kane told me about a project he's working on which I can't describe because it is not a done deal. There are still some hoops to jump through, apparently. But if it happens, it'll be great! Stay tuned.



Of all the studios I visited, Alex Wilhite's looked the most like a working studio. He had straightened up a bit and hung some pieces, but he still had all his materials out. I had seen his all-white canvases before, and was intrigued to see more colorful variations on the idea of nearly flat monochromatic canvases.



Fellow Memorial High School grad Van McFarland had work in a couple of studio spaces. This space was practically empty except for the paintings one the wall. But one look at the floor and you could tell the space had seen a lot of painting. He had a group of Leger-like abstractions on the wall.



Tuyet Ong-Barr recently had a show at d.m. allison gallery. With the exposed canvas areas, her work recalls Helen Frankenthaler and Sam Francis--in short, Ong-Barr is a third generation color-field painter. (Or would that be fourth generation? Francis and Frankenthaler were both born in the 1920s.)



Camille Warmington is right across the hall from Tuyet Ong-Barr, which is interesting because they both do gestural abstractions. Of course, Warmington also does realist paintings, but they seem much more conceptual. Her abstractions and realist paintings have similar palettes but otherwise feel very different.

In between these two abstractionists is realist house painter Cary Reeder's studio. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of it. She just had an excellent show at Lawndale.



Finally, Monica Vidal had Temple Hive assembled in her studio for this event. I'm going to assume that it is not usually set up. The funny thing was that people were afraid to go into it. I guess we're taught from an early age not to touch the art. But she convinced folks to take the plunge and they loved it.


Monica Vidal from inside Temple Hive.

• Nothing at all to do with crime or police. But it made me laugh.

This is by cartoonist Sean Bieri. (Hat-tip to the Comics Reporter.)

Houston Artists on the TV

Robert Boyd

Here are a couple of videos that came our way in the past few days. In the first, Michael Bise talks about his art and his heart--and how the latter's problems influenced what he does with the former. If you are heading up to Dallas anytime before May 12, he has a solo show up at the MAC.



The second is a Kickstarter video by Monica Vidal, who is trying to finance a third "hive." We wrote about the first hive, the Tumor Hive, back in 2009 when this blog was still a baby. And her watercolors were exhibited at the Pan Art Fair, courtesy of Front Gallery.

Pan Art Fair update

Robert Boyd


The Pan Art Fair web site has been updated. Now instead of looking like a Blogger blog, it looks like an exceedingly primitive webpage from 2002. (Next year I have to ditch DIY and get someone who knows what they are doing to make the Pan Art Fair web site.)

You will notice that there is a new link--the "Friends of the Pan Art Fair." This is a very low-impact club. Members have no responsibilities whatsoever. The only requirement for membership is that you tell me that you want to be a Friend of the Pan Art Fair. Leave a comment, tell me on our Facebook page, or email me at robertwboyd2020@yahoo.com.

And here is some art that may be at the Fair. Enjoy.



a piece by Hilary Harnischfeger courtesy of Front Gallery




work by Monica Vidal courtesy of Front Gallery

The Part 4: Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Selects their Faves

(Continued from part 3)


Temple Hive by Monica Vidal wowed 'em at Box 13

Monica Vidal, Temple Hive at BOX 13. "I can't wrap my head around all the planning and measuring that goes into Monica's work. The scale of her work is really impressive, and I loved being able to walk into this one (a similar hive at Lawndale was sealed off). Her drawings are also quite nice." That's what an anonymous respondent thought. Maybe Vidal should make a super-giant hive for the West Oaks Mall art space. That would be worth the 20 mile drive to see!

Moving into his new studio. Sometimes the most important art event is purely personal. Earl Staley wrote that his most "memorable event was moving into a studio at 2711 Main St. The rest is noise." That's a great location if you find that you've run out of pthalo green--Art Supply on Main is just downstairs.


Nathan Green's show at Art Palace

Nathan Green, Fill the Sky at Art Palace. An anonymous respondent gave a thumbs up to this show.

Kenn Coplan, Ultimate Kenn at Nau-haus Art Space. One of our anonymous respondents wrote, "Kenn Coplan's solo show was incredibly entertaining. His pieces are crazy. They're so fun to look at and play with. His photography is also outstanding, but I get really excited by his wacky toys and rusty sculptures."


Duck! Curt Gambetta's Office Light at Lawndale


Curt Gambetta, Office Light at Lawndale. Emily Sloan gave the nod to this perversely claustrophobic outdoor installation by Curt Gambetta.


First Take: Okay Mountain Collective at Blaffer Gallery. This got a vote from Brett Hollis, with no word on whether he joined their cult.


Camp Bosworth keeps an eye on everything with Security Camera 1 at Southern/Pacific

Southern/Pacific curated by Paul Middendorf at Lawndale. "The most successful group show I've seen at Lawndale in a long time. I'm excited to see the next installment of this traveling project." That's what an anonymous respondent wrote about this Portland/Marfa/Houston show.


Susan Plum, Nuevo Fuego at PG Contemporary. An anonymous respondent wrote, "Susan Plum's show is just plain beautiful. All of that sparkling woven glass is mesmerizing. Her work feels both earthy and clean at the same time."

Kenn Coplan, Wayne Gilbert & Charles Krafft, Momento Mori at PG Contemporary. "I love Charles Krafft. Enough said. The three artists complimented each other nicely. Wayne's human ash paintings were perfect with Charles' human bone china pieces. Kenn's rust angels and dusty curio cabinet were haunting," was what an anonymous respondent wrote.

Jillian Conrad, Claire Falkenberg, Ian Pedigo, and Brion Nuda Rosch, Related Clues at Inman. An anonymous respondent wrote, "Well to be honest what i really like at Inman is Claire Falkenberg and Ian Pedigo. [M]ust have been 5 or 6 years ago when I [first] saw [Pedigo's] work. He does some pretty cool stuff, but I'm still not quite sure where he is coming from. First time to see Claire's work--like it so far." I thought Conrad and Rosch's work in this show was also excellent.

To be concluded in part 5!

A Bunch of Artists at Lawndale

There is a long tradition in the work of women artists of depictions of the vagina with various degrees of abstraction (think Georgia O'Keefe, Judy Chicago). A sub-category of this kind of art would be enormous sculptural depictions of said genitalia. I have decided to call this Gigantic Vagina art. Obviously the foremother of this genre of Niki de Saint Phalle. In her artist's statement, Monica Vidal does not mention or imply the word word "vagina." But look at this piece and tell me it isn't a prime example of Gigantic Vagina art.


Monica Vidal, Tumor Hive, plywood, fiberglass rod, fabric, 2008-2009

In this show, she also has a costume (meant to recall a distinctly unpleasant Aztec ritual of wearing a suit of flayed skin until it rotted off--she can be seen wearing her modern felt version on her Facebook page) and some drawings. But the Tumor Hive overwhelms everything else--as you would expect a Gigantic Vagina to do. It's an elaborate and rather beautiful structure.

Kia Neill has created for Lawndale an artificial cavern. (Ironically, you have to take an elevator up to see it.)


Kia Neill, Grotto, papier mache, chicken wire, blinking lights, 2009

It's really quite dark--the only light are the shining "gems" encrusted in the wall. I kept expecting a Sleestak to jump out. What it really reminded me of (and I think this is in line with Neill's intent) were the cave-like environments at Astroworld when I was a kid. They used some kind of sparkly substance to build their ultra-fake cave simulacra. But for a kid from Houston--land of no hills, rocks, or caves, they were magic. A little of that magic comes back in Neill's Grotto.

I liked Jasmyne Graybill's creeps-inducing mold sculptures at The Big Show, and I like them here.


Jasmyne Graybill, Gestation, latex and flock, 2009

Graybill teaches art at Sam Houston State, and I am informed by a mutual friend that she is kind of a clean freak. Not someone with a natural love for mold cultures. I think what appeals (and repels) is the combination of the mold's alienness and its sci-fi tendency to take over whatever object it has started growing on.


Jasmyne Graybill, Unknown Specimens (detail), polymer clay, 2009

The last one I liked was  this big installation, Vicious Venue, by Shawn Smith. It seems that Smith's main work is creating three-dimensional sculptural objects that look like pixelated images of real things. In this installation, he has created a coroner's office from the 1930s or 40s that basically looks completely normal--you walk in as if you were the coroner in 1935. But scattered about the room are vultures--life-size vultures, depicted as pixelated images.


Shawn Smith, Vicous Venue, furniture, office objects, balsa wood, 2009

Here is one of the pixelated vultures up close.


Shawn Smith, Vulture on Coatrack (wings up), balsa wood, ink, acrylic paint and coatrack, 2009

He says in his statement that he is interested in relating electronic images back to "things," and obviously that is part of what's going on here. But only part. We have this period office (which appears to be a coroner's office--not just a generic place of work) being attacked by vulture images from the future--I don't know what that means to Smith, but it seems very specific.

Lots of great stuff at Lawndale. I'm not sure how long it's all going to be up--but the next show opens on December 2, so I wouldn't delay in checking these installations out.