Pan Recommends for the week of September 5 to September 11

Robert Boyd

This is the busiest weekend of the year as far  as gallery and museum openings go. Below is a list of most of what's opening this weekend--33 exhibits by my count. Can one possibly see them all? I think so--and to make it a little easier for you, I've grouped them by geographic proximity, which should help the dedicated art trekker minimize her travel time.

THURSDAY

Thursday's relatively easy--three openings within a three-block radius.


photo by Galina Kurlat

A Likeness by Main Street Projects. A group exhibition displaying recent contemporary works by Main Street Projects founders Brandon Dimit, Theresa Escobedo, Galina Kurlat, and Rahul Mitra.
 
Eduardo Portillo: New Work at The Gallery at HCC Central- Houston Community College , 5–7:30 pm. Somehow these HCC exhibits are related to the Texas Biennial, which sprawls over 80 participating institutions and is so diffuse in my mind that it doesn't really have an identity. I would expect some large rag dolls if this is a typical Eduardo Portillo show.
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Melanie Miller, Silk Road 5, 2013, acrylic on paper, 44"x30"

Melanie Millar: New Work  at The Gallery at HCC Central- Houston Community College, 5–7 pm. Decoration informs Melanie Miller's work.
 
FRIDAY

For your Friday perambulations, there are two clusters and three singletons. First is the Isabella Court Galleries on Main (with Diverse Works one block south). 


Barry Stone, Bouquet 3487_1, 2013, archival digital print, 24 x 16 inches

Barry Stone: Look Near Into the Distance at Art Palace, 6 to 8 pm. Check out this beautiful on-line catalog. I like Barry Stone's photos so much that I bought one. I look forward to seeing the digitally distressed flowers like the one above.


Wayne White, DUNNO, 2013, acrylic on offset lithograph, 25 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches

Wayne White: Dunno at David Shelton Gallery, 6–8 pm. From his early comics to his Peewee Herman Show puppetry to his word paintings, I have loved Wayne White's work literally for decades. I think this is his first show in Houston since the amazing Big Lectric Fan installation.


Todd Hebert, Goose With Glacier, 2013

Todd Hebert: Ebb and Flow at Devin Borden Gallery, 6–8 pm.



Somehow, this appropriated press photo is part of Katrina Moorhead's exhibit

Katrina Moorhead: The Bird that Never Lands(cape) at Inman Gallery, 6–8 pm.


Rachel Hecker, Eleventh Hour, 1992 acrylic on wood, 120 x 80 inches, (destroyed)

The Eleventh Hour featuring Elia Arce, Eric Avery, Johannes Birringer, Mel Chin, Ben DeSoto, Karen Finley, Michael Galbreath, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, the Gorilla Girls/Houston, Deborah Hay, Sharon Hayes, Rachel Hecker, Zhang Huan, Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Rhodessa Jones, William Pope.L, Annie Sprinkle, Mary Ellen Strom, and many others at DiverseWorks, 7–9 pm. I'm not sure what to expect, but this exhibit seems to be about the history of Diverse Works itself. Presumably the above painting will not be included, alas.

Then there are the galleries at 4411 Montrose...

Katja Loher: Who Collects Clouds in the Sky? at Anya Tish Gallery, 6 to 8:30 pm. Katja Loher's kaleidoscopic videos are always fun to look at.

Michael Crowder, Mariposa

Retro-spectacle: Michael Crowder at Wade Wilson Art, 6–8 pm. Michael Crowder produces delicate, surprisingly conceptual glass artwork.

Lauren Kelley, Stills from “Brown Objects (Pink Head)” 2013

Lauren Kelley: Puce Parade at Zoya Tommy Contemporary, 6–8 pm.

Gavin Perry, Untitled, 2013, Pigmented resin, vinyl on board, 72 x 96 inches

Gavin Perry: End of the Line at Barbara Davis Gallery, 6:30–8:30 pm.

Finally, you'll have to drive hither and yon to see the three shows below.


Dan Havel, Wall Burster

Dan Havel: Homewrecker – Disrupted Architecture at  Avis Frank Gallery, 6-8 pm. -I'm very interested in seeing what Dan Havel does outside his Havel+Ruck partnership. The pair have forged such a distinct artistic identity that I can't quite imagine what one of them alone will be like!


Tom Marioni: The Act of Drinking Beer from Smart Museum of Art on Vimeo.

Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art including art, documentary materials, and new public projects by Marina Abramović and Ulay, Sonja Alhäuser, Miguel Amat, Mary Ellen Carroll, Mary Evans, Fallen Fruit, Theaster Gates, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, InCUBATE, The Italian Futurists, Mella Jaarsma, Alison Knowles, Suzanne Lacy, Gabriel Martinez, Lynne McCabe, Lee Mingwei, Laura Letinsky, Tom Marioni, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mildred’s Lane, Julio César Morales and Max La Rivière-Hedrick, motiroti, National Bitter Melon Council, Ana Prvacki, Sudsiri Pui-Ock, Michael Rakowitz, Ayman Ramadan, Red76, David Robbins, Allen Ruppersberg, Bonnie Sherk, Barbara T. Smith, Daniel Spoerri, and Rirkrit Tiravanija at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, 7:00 pm. This is the kind of show where even if the work in it is not so good, at least there will be something to eat, right? The Art Guys will apparently be among the bartenders at The Act of Drinking Beer With Friend is the Highest Form of Art by Tom Marioni.


It's not performance art without naked guys--Josh Urban Davis

Submission featuring performances by Joshua Yates, Unna Bettie, Ryan Hawk, Daniel Bertalot, Patrick Doyle, Karen Mazzu, Renee Cosette Pedersen, Josh Urban Davis, Hilary Scullane, Raindawg, Jana Whatley, Neil Ellis Orts, Y. E. Torres, Koomah, Tina McPherson & Sandy Ewen, Evan McCarley, Julia Wallace, Jonatan Lopez, Chris Meadows and Emmanuel Nuno Arambula at Summer Street Studios, 9 pm – 12 am.If you aren't completely exhausted from looking at art, you can go check out some performance in the vast spaces of Summer Street.

SATURDAY

The big cluster here is Colquitt St., home to many galleries having openings this week.


Anna Ferrer, Rain Flower Trench Coat

Red Hot by Anna Ferrer at Nicole Longnecker Gallery, 5–7 pm.

Michael Bise, Life on the List comics pages

Love in the Kingdom of the Sick: Michael Bise at Moody Gallery, 5–7 pm. Graphite drawings and pages from his comic, Life on the List, will be on display. The comic deals with Bise's heart transplant and has been fitfully serialized on Glasstire.


Rusty Scruby, Crown Point, 2013

If You Cut It, They Will Come featuring Sandi Seltzer Bryant, Jane Eifler, Michael Guidry, Ted Larsen, Lance Letscher and Rusty Scruby at McMurtrey Gallery, 6–8 pm.

Ward Sanders, A Short History of Dust, 2013 , assemblage , 7 x 9 x 2"

Jacqueline Dee Parker: The Gameboard and Ward Sanders: Birds of Time at Hooks-Epstein Galleries, 6–8 pm. I don't know much about Jacqueline Dee Parker, but Ward Sanders is an artist I have followed eagerly for several years (and own a piece by). His work is perfect for bookish lovers of Borges and Calvino.


Randall Reid, Crime Fighters, found printed metal object w/ printed and painted metal parts, on wood and steel box construction, 6.75" x 7"x 2" y. 2013

Randall Reid: A New World at d. m. allison, 6–8 pm.

Rachel Phillips, Blue Smoke Rising, Wet transfer pigment print on vintage envelope

Rachel Phillips: Field Notes at Catherine Couturier Gallery, 6-8 p.m. I'm unfamiliar with Rachel Phillips, but the work looks intriguing--and looks like it will go well with the Ward Sanders art shown next door at Hooks-Epstein.

Then up in the Heights there is the two-gallery cluster on 11th Street...


art by Jon Read

Jon Read: The Shrine to the Myth of Man and Yuliya Lanina: Not a Sad Tale at G Gallery, 6–9 pm.

b. moody, o this crushing burden - these sins of my fathers what fetid weight this melancholy we call the deep south surely the day of reckoning is upon this land of cotton for behold: the conversion of St. Stonewall on the road to Damascus, Georgia

An American Family: b. Moody at Redbud Gallery, 6–9 pm.

But after that, you are going to have to drive all over the inner Loop to see the art opening tonight. 

work by Perla Krauze

Perla Krauze: Suspended Blues at Gallery Sonja Roesch, 5–7 pm.

Stephanie Reid

Stephanie Reid: Hidden Places at the Jung Center, 5–7 pm.


Miguel Angel Ríos, Untitled (from the series The Ghost of Modernity, 2012. Single-channel video, 3:11 min.

Miguel Angel Ríos: Folding Borders at Sicardi Gallery, 6–8 pm.

Collective Identity featuring Robert Barry , Jessica Crute , Jenny Holzer , Christian Tomaszewski , Philippe Tougard-Maucotel and Christian Xatrec at Deborah Colton Gallery, 6–9 pm.

James Ciosek, Unknown Soldier, found corrugated tin patterned by buckshot, found corrugated fiberglass, red plexiglass, fluorescent lights with red lenses, cement, 29 by 54 by 14 inches

in-DEPTH: Texas Sculpture Group Member Exhibition at the Art Car Museum, 7–10 pm.This is another TX Biennial-related show. I'm not sure of the included artists, although apparently James Ciosek is one of them, which is a good sign!

...mistress: Regina Agu at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 7–9:30 pm.



The New Black – Angela Malchionno at Box 13, 7-9:30 pm.

WORDPLAY: curated by Sapphire Williams featuring work by Logan Sebastian Beck, Harry Dearing III, David Feil,Sebastian Forray, Jorge Galvan, Matthew Gorgol, Jordan Johnson, Lillie Monstrum, Darcy Rosenberger, and Sapphire Williams at  BOX 13 ArtSpace, 7–9:30 pm. When a show is described as aiming "to examine a current generations’ interest in text and semiotics," I reach for my revolver. But this has some artists I really like, including the excellent Jorge Galvan, who doesn't show his work very often.

a God's Eye outpost by Kate Kendall, Box 13 Artspace, 7-9:30 pm.


The Brandon: Group Show from Cody Ledvina on Vimeo.

Group Show (50 Humans) featuring Mark Flood, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Robyn O'Neil, Rachel Hecker, Michael Bise, Aaron Parazette, John Sparagana, Tisch Abelow, Otis Ike, Georganne Deen, Lane Hagood, Jeremy Deprez, Seth Alverson, Jim Nolan, Cheyanne Ramos Forray, Gabriel Martinez, Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Tony Day, Shane Tolbert, Keith Varadi, Raymond Uhlir, Kent Dorn, Dylan Roberts, Ana Villagomez, Michelle Rawlings, Brandon Araujo, Jack Erikkson, Sebastian Forray, Ryan Storm, Ludwig Schwarz, Marjorie Schwarz, Brian Moss (B.Moss), Lauren Moya Ford, Miguel Martinez, Wayne Gilbert, Debra Berrera, Anne J. Regan, Patrick Turk, Chris Cascio, Jessica Ninci, Angel Oloshove, Russell Etchen, Geoff Winningham, Mike Osborne, Dennis Harper, Guillaume Gelot, Avril Falgout, Bill Daniel, Donal Mosher, Keith M. Wilson, Bill Willis, Dennis Nance & James Hays and Kayla Escobedo at The Brandon, 7–10 pm. The Brandon (the gallery in the space that used to be Domy) is starting off with a bang. It includes Houston's two hottest artists, Mark Flood and Trenton Doyle Hancock, many interesting "out-of-towners" (Robyn O'Neil, Georganne Deen, Tisch Abelow and maybe more), and many of Houston's best artists, young and old. Two surprises for me were Geoff Winningham, my old photography professor and longtime chronicler of the Gulf Coast) and Avril Falgout, the 15-year-old sculptor who made a huge splash at The Big Show this summer.

Hogan Kimbrell, Athelete

Texas Bi 2013 featuring Vonetta Berry, Linda Cornflake, Ryan Hawk, Hogan Kimbrell, Koomah, Traci Matlock, Madsen Minax, Tish Stringer, Y.E. Torres, Stalina Villarreal and Julia Wallace at Gallery 1724, 8–10 pm. No associated with the Texas Biennial, all the work in this show somehow deals with bisexuality.

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.

Pan Recommends for the week of December 6 to December 12

This is a relatively slow week compared to last week as we wind down towards Christmas. Here are a few shows and performances coming up that have caught our attention.

Thursday

Interface: Artists and the Digital Age at Williams Tower Art Gallery at 6 pm [up through January 11]. This show has a wide selection of artists, including several that I don't think of when I think "digital" (Aaron Parazette, Lillian Warren, Rusty Scruby). Interestingly, Rachel Whiteread is among the artists. Ironically, this show has no website.

Windows on Main at the corner of Main and Winbern (across the street from Double Trouble), 5 pm to 10 pm. Two installations are part of this edition of Windows on Main: "Congress Applauding (Address on the Program for Economic Recovery, Ronald Reagan, April 28, 1981" by Anna-Elise Johnson and "There was a man bitten by a snake" by Romain Froquet and Rahul Mitra. A nice place for a drink and some art.

Friday

ZZzzzzzz by Nathaniel Donnett (as part of Stacks) at the Art League, 6 pm. I'm not sure whether to expect an installation or a performance or both, but Nathanial Donnett is going to use shredded stuffed animals and the dreams of four volunteers who slept in the gallery to access black imagination. Sounds like a tall order--I'm curious to see what he's done.

Cold War Paintings by Michael Acieri at Avis Frank, 6 pm. Arcieri is an artist who wears the influences of James Rosenquist and Gerhard Richter on his sleeve. Expect a little Mad Men nostalgia in this show.

Saturday

Background Noise, a studio art show by Lucinda Cobley and Nelda Gilliam at 218 Avondale, Houston TX 77006 from 11 am to 6 pm. Two Houston artists show their stuff. Expect abstractions on glass and plastic from Lucinda Cobley, if her past work is anything to go by.

Shaun El C. Leonardo performing Arena at the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association, 2 pm to 4 pm. Part of the CAMH's ongoing series of performances for Radical Presnece: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, this one promises to be action packed.

Autumn Knight and Megan Jackson: La Querelle Des Monstres at Project Row Houses from 7 to 9 pm. More performance this weekend. The description says it uses "conjoined twin culture." I had no idea that there was such a thing as conjoined twin culture, but I'm kind of naive that way.

You Had to Be There

by Robert Boyd

One of the problems with this blog is that my photos of the art rarely do the art justice. (That goes double for my writing, but that's not what this post is about.) Aside from my glaring deficiencies as a photographer, there is a lot of artwork that loses a lot when photographed and shrunk down. And there is work that effectively can't be photographed. It's through this prism that I want to look at a bunch of artwork I saw this weekend here and there--work which should be experienced in person.



Felipe Lopez, Underwater Lab Rats Practicing Religion, oil bare and acrylic on tar paper, 2011

At first glance, Underwater Lab Rats Practicing Religion by Felipe Lopez looks like a bunch of drawings/prints made with blue, black and red pigment. But the gallery, Wade Wilson Art, had provided visitors with red/blue 3-D glasses with which to view it. Not that these were 3-D paintings. But with the blue and red lenses, each eye saw only part of the drawing--and the viewer's brain had to reassemble the image. Looking at this wall of more-or-less identical drawings through 3-D glasses was a vibratory experience. But you had to be there.

(In the interest of science, I took photos of it through each of the colored lenses of the glasses, then combined them as a gif. It falls far short of reproducing the experience of seeing the piece through the glasses, though.)



Felipe Lopez, Underwater Lab Rats Practicing Religion (seen through colored lenses), oil bare and acrylic on tar paper, 2011

This exhibit was called On the Edge of the New: New Paintings by New Artists. It was full of newy newtastic newness. The newosity was palpably new. Another artist I liked in the show was Winston Lee Mascarenhas.



Winston Lee Mascarenhas, Untitled 3.0, encaustic, mixed-media on canvas, 2011

Untitled 3.0 apparently used ribbons collaged onto the canvas to create the stripes. Then the encaustic is carefully applied to match the vertical pattern. The wax patterns on the surface give is a physical texture (which is only hinted at in this photograph) while simultaneously softening the lines underneath it. The encaustic blurs it in a way that you can imagine motion is being depicted.



Rusty Scruby, The Ninth King, playing card construction, 2011



Rusty Scruby, Realm of Eight, playing card construction, 2011

These two pieces by Rusty Scruby at McMurtery Gallery don't quite fit my thesis because they both photograph so well. But as sculpture, any photograph is going to be necessarily inadequate because it doesn't allow for the sensation of space--it's an image from precisely one point of view.

These fall into the general realm of stunt art: "I can't believe this dude made these out of playing cards!" But getting past the stunt aspect, the shapes Scruby creates are really nice--like cartoon mushrooms growing sideways out of the wall. (By the way, Scruby's website has a great-if-depressing illustrated story of art theft. Read it here.)



Rodrigo Aguilera, Judy,  2011

I don't know how Judy by Rodrigo Aguilera will look on your computer screen. When I saw it at d.m. allison, I saw it as a pleasing grid of colored squares, with occasional inscribed circles. When I held up my camera to take a photo, I got a big surprise--this was actually a highly pixelated face.



Rodrigo Aguilera, Marilyn, 2011

The fact that Aguilera made these two optical illusions is trivial--optical illusions are the puns of visual art. Clever, at best. But what is so perfect about these (and what is hard to photograph) is that the transition point where the seemingly random colors coalesce into a portrait is almost exactly the distance at which a typical gallery goer will see the pictures. If the viewer enters from the side (as I did), she will see squares. If she enters from the front, she will probably see two portraits. And what's particularly appealing is that they work as pictures either way. They are pleasing abstractions up close, and they are brightly colored pop icons from a distance. But the way to see them is in person--a photo won't do.



Aisen Chacin, Secluded Series Favela Sinfonia, video sculpture, 2009

Obviously videos are especially victims of still photography, and video sculptures like this all the more so.Aisen Chacin's Secluded Series Favela Sinfonia, also on view at d.m. allison, includes tiny video monitors in the drains. To complicate matters, the large photo here is lenticular, so it changes as you walk around it.


Aisen Chacin, Secluded Series Favela Sinfonia, video sculpture, 2009

Chacin's series seems to be about the children of favelas, the vast slums of Rio de Janeiro. By putting them in drains, perhaps she is saying that this is how society sees them, as refuge to be washed away into the sewer.



Ward Sanders, Mathematics Legend, assemblage, 2011

Mathematics Lesson (currently on view at Hooks-Epstein) is a three-dimensional piece, but aside from that, it is pretty easy to see in this photo. So what's missing? Why is this piece included? Because it has a literary component that is missing from the photo. It is a quote from the introduction to The Book of Sand by J.L. Borges, comparing the pages of a book to an infinite series. (This was typical Borges--in the introduction to Dr. Brodie's Report, he said that each story--any story--implied the universe.)

I feel a close connection to this piece. When Ward Sanders had his last show here in Houston, we got into a discussion about literature. He told me a bunch of his favorite authors, and it seemed to me that in this literary mosaic that there was a Borges-shaped hole. I suggested he read Borges. He was a little nervous about that because whenever he takes up a new author, he feels compelled to read everything that author has written. No worries, I said. Every Borges short fiction fits into a single volume. It is actually quite easy to read everything that Borges ever wrote that's been translated into English. So apparently, Sanders took my advice. And one result is this lovely piece. Of course, I think most people who know his work would agree that he has always been a Borgesian artist, even if he didn't know it.



Jordan Johnson, Sling, 1560 hand-set rhinestones, artist's childhood slingshot, walnut, steel, black velvet, 2011

Jordan Johnson's Sling, which is part of the Sketchy Neighbors show at ARC Gallery, has two hard-to photograph elements. Shiny stuff--1560 (!) rhinestones--and black velvet. (His other piece in the show is a very subtle black velvet painting which utterly defeated my camera.) I loved this piece because it glams up something ordinary and quotidian--which is one of the functions of art, in a way. After all, even a social realist painting like Courbet's Stone Breakers turned his subjects into the stars of a giant, powerful painting.