Stroll through Skatestock 2012

Dean Liscum

Saturday was Skatestock day at Lee and Joe Jamail skatepark. The one day festival is organized by PUSH (Public Use Skate Parks for Houston) and benefits the Morgan Moss foundation, which supplies photography equipment to Texas high schools in honor of it's namesake, an artist and photographer.




The 9-hour event was chock full of bands, DJs, artists, vendors, and of course all the skating you could stand.



I strolled through the festival on my way to the Pan Art Fair and here's some art and visuals that caught my eye.

Skate boarding and spray painting are complimentary and there was plenty of both on display.






The organizers set up panels for taggers to ply their trade. Some of them came from as far away as California.






Here's a nice bit of functional, geometric abstraction (I know.That's an oxy..., moron.)



Tools of the trade.



I haven't heard either candidate tout the economic benefits of tagging, but they're out there.



A number of local artists showed their support including Sketchy Neighbors



Tara Conley brought some sculptures.



Guerro Studios brought skate signage and Halloween-appropriate posters.




Jonathan Clark displayed his office supply sculptures.



Catfish had lines a-plenty for purchase.




Peace, love, skating, and of course Pan.

Pan Recommends for the week of October 18 to October 24

Robert Boyd

This is a big weekend, what with the art fairs and all. But there are actually other things happening in the Houston art scene, so here are our recommendations.

Thursday through Sunday 

The Pan Art Fair opens tonight at 6 pm in room 307 of the Embassy Suites hotel in Downtown Houston and runs through Sunday. Exhibitors are Lane Hagood, Emily Peacock, Front Gallery, Cardoza Fine Art, Murray Goldfarb Fine Art, Bryan Keith Gardner, Solomon Kane, Jim Nolan, d.m. allison gallery and Devin Borden Gallery. Paul Middendorf is doing a performance at 8 pm, Thursday, and the Kenmore Art Space will be creating a new work over the course of the fair. Personally, this is the only thing on my personal "recommends" list, but I realize that not everyone wants to spend three-and-a-half days in a hotel room with me. (But if you do, call me sometime.) So at Dean Liscum's suggestion, here are some other events this weekend.

The Texas Contemporary Art Fair is going on across the park from the Pan Art Fair at the same time in the Brown Convention Center. Featuring 65 exhibiting galleries, TCAF also has panel discussion and installations, and I heard there will be a live alligator at the Glasstire booth tonight.

Saturday

Skatestock at the Lee and Joe Jamail Skate Park on October 20, 2012 from noon to 9 pm. Lots of music, skating (including a bunch pf physics nerds from Rice doing "velocity experiments"!), and, of course, art: Wiley Robertson, Blue Dozen Collective, Burning Bones Press, Daniel Angullu, Drive By Press, Sketchy Neighbors and Steve Harris.

Project Row Houses: Round 37 at Project Row Houses opening October 20 from 4 pm 7 pm preceded by an artist's talk from 2:30 pm to 4 pm. Four individual artists and two artist groups have installations: Miguel Amat, Jason Griffiths, Autumn Knight, Maurice Roberts, and In Situ from the UK (Paul Hartley, Kerry Morrison and William Titley) and Question Bridge: Black Males (Chris Johnson, Bayeté Ross Smith, Hank Willis Thomas and Kamal Sinclair).

TX/RX Labs hosts Dennis Nance for a night of art crits and pizza at on October 20, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Nance is the Exhibitions and Programming Director at Lawndale, so he knows his stuff. TX/RX Labs combine the worlds of engineering with art--I heartily approve this mission!

And this just scratches the surface--there's actually quite a lot happening. If there's an event you are looking forward to, add it in the comments!

Self-Referential Many Mini Post

by Robert Boyd

I'm sitting at Skydive right now for my Many Mini residency (Friday, July 15. I'll be here until 11:30 am. Feel free to stop by for a visit). The photo below was taken as I wrote the previous words.

The author in the act of writing this post (photo by Ryan Thayer)

I wasn't sure what I'd write during my Many Mini residency, but one of the requirements of the residency is this:

We request at least one digital photo and a short statement but can also accept video, links or other supporting material posted onliine. Please send one image immediately following your residency to be updated the same day.

So I am fulfilling my obligation with this post.

A series of small personal emergencies kept me from coming out to Skydive early this week until last night. When I showed up, Britt Ragsdale was just starting her residency.

Britt Ragsdale at the Many Mini (photo by Robert Boyd)

She was using the space to film people pretending to get shot. I was one of the "victims." The group that was following her residency was Sketchy Neighbors, so she recruited a bunch of them to die for the camera.

Shooting a shooting (photo by Robert Boyd)

Double Homicide at Skydive (photo by Robert Boyd)

Meanwhile, on the porch, Matt Gorgol was hand-shaving ice to make snow-cones. They were delish and very refreshing on a hot night. He's a sculpture major at UH, so I guess you could call this a social sculpture or a relational artwork.

Matt Gorgol and his ice (photo by Robert Boyd)

The Sketchy Neighbors did a performance piece called The worst thing you can do to people is forget them.  This is apparently the group's first performance piece. The performance required that viewers enter a room one at a time. So they had people line up.

Folks lined up for The worst thing you can do to people is forget them (photo by Robert Boyd)

A doorman controlled access to the performance, letting people enter for arbitrary reasons of style.

The doorman The worst thing you can do to people is forget them (photo by Robert Boyd)

When you walked into the main room (where I am currently typing these words), the Sketchy Neighbors began cheering wildly. And it was all for you. The viewer would hear cries of "You're number one!" and "You! You! You!"

Me getting well-deserved cheers The worst thing you can do to people is forget them (photo by Robert Boyd)

But they didn't stop until you left. So the longer the viewer stood there, the more uncomfortable it became. Eventually it was obvious what the strategy was, and viewers moved on (to the porch, where they could get a snow cone).

The Many Mini residency is going on for today and tomorrow--and there are lots of public hours. Feel free to stop by--even if there is no performance or event happening, you might find yourself roped into helping someone with their artwork, or at least having some interesting conversation. But also check out the events--this evening, there are two. The Chapel, a meditation period by Rachel Hecker, featuring her portrait of Dave Gilmour as Jesus. Come out and get comfortably numb. Then following that is Death Star, about which I don't know what to expect. Jonatan Lopez seems to be the prime mover here, but a bunch of people are involved.