Part 5 of the Houston Art Scene's collective favorites of 2011

by Robert Boyd

(Continued from part 4)


Robert Pruitt, You Are Your Own Twin at Hooks Epstein. Mark Flood said Pruitt's You Are Your Own Twin was one of the best gallery shows he saw this year.

Rod Northcutt's Indigenous Genius at Art League. Emily Sloan selected this show, writing "The audience's strong mixed or confused reactions were interesting to me."


Scott Teplin, Crash at Ggallery. This got a vote from Bett Hollis.

Seth Mittag, No Show ( At icetsuoH). This mysterious show (described to me by Mittag as a "non-show") got a thumbs up from Michael Galbreth.


a tiny part of Shaun O'Dell's Silver Wall at Inman

Shaun O'Dell, Feeling Easy Feelings at Inman. Howard Sherman included Shaun O'Dell's solo show on his list of favorites.


Stan VanDerBeek: The Cultural Intercom at CAMH. Devon Britt-Darby wrote that the underground film pioneer's show "was pretty important, too."


Howard Sherman likes the accidental art made with this kind of paint.

The neon orange markings on the pavement in and around downtown. Howard Sherman likes this unusual type of found painting: "One last thing. I feel really strongly about the neon orange markings I see on the pavement in and around downtown. They're done by construction workers marking things off. The arrows and geometic edges are cool. So are the tar splatters. Wonderfully random and more inspirational than most of the art out there." (Personally, I would add painted-over graffiti--the irregular boxes of various shades of grey always appeal to me.)


 Francis Giampietro, Nature Is Crooked from the UH Masters show

33rd School of Art Masters Thesis Exhibition at the Blaffer. An anonymous respondent spoke of the UH masters show. The class of 2011 was pretty remarkable, for sure.

Vija Celmins: Television + Disaster, 1964-9166 at the Menil. Michael Galbreth liked it a lot.


The tiny underwear that was part of Seth Mittag's installation at Rice


Seth Mittag, We're Still Here...  at EMERGEncy Room. Mittag's trailer park tragedy got the nod from an anonymous respondent, who wrote, "Seth is an amazingly humble artist for someone with such knowledge and skill. This installation kicked off the EMERGEncy Room right."

A few quick notes here. A vast majority of the respondents were artists--only Bill Arning (museum director/curator) and Devon Britt-Darby (critic/blogger) were not primarily artists (although Britt-Darby arguably is letting his artist side come to the fore with his current project). I noticed that the artists who responded tended to have observable biases towards institutions or galleries with which they were associated. There was also a bit of a generational bias--artists would select work from their peers. And there were observable "social circle" biases. Now I don't think any of these biases is bad, but it does suggest that if 11 other Houston artists had responded, the results would have been dramatically different. In short, this list is not definitive.

Finally, I have added a post for the worst of Houston in 2011. Check it out.

Slightly Used Links

by Robert Boyd


illustration from Hands Up! or Enemy no. 1 by Rifkat Shayfutdinovich Bagautdinov, 1971

Hands up! I love these illustrations by Rifkat Shayfutdinovich Bagautdinov from a 1971 Soviet YA novel, Hands Up! or Enemy no. 1. (50 Watts)

What's up with museum guards? Theodore Bale is a local critic who is unfortunately not nearly as prolific as I personally would like. I liked this piece on the Stan VanDerBeek and Charles LeDray shows (at the CAMH and MFAH respectively). I agree with him strongly about the staging of the LeDray exhibit (as I wrote earlier this year), but what I like best were his interactions with the guards, including one who told him "not to point at [the] object." (Texas, a Concept)

The Wall Street Journal's art coverage sucks. That's the short version of this piece by Ben Davis. Some zingers: "You have to at least try to connect with the art of the present if you want people making art in the present to care about what you are saying. Taken as a whole package, the WSJ gives off the impression of being a paper that understands why people might buy contemporary art — just not why people might like it." And the conclusion: "Of all of the outrages within Rupert Murdoch's far-flung empire, letting the Wall Street Journal's art pages slide into irrelevance because it chimes with a sort of conservative worldview is probably a relatively minor one. But, you know, it is still one of them." ("How Conservative Ideology Stunted the Wall Street Journal's Art Coverage" by Ben Davis, ArtInfo)

I thought only comic book artists got treated this bad. Have you ever heard of DegreeArt.com? They are "an innovative company selling, commissioning and renting the finest artwork created by the students and recent graduates emerging from the most prestigious art establishments," (according to their website). They aim their services at art students and recent graduates (i.e., hungry suckers). I became aware of them after reading this post. They have some of the harshest terms I have ever read:

 By submitting any material to us, you automatically grant DegreeArt.com the royalty-free, perpetual, exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, edit, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such material (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You also acknowledge that DegreeArt.com is not obliged to publish any material submitted by you on any DegreeArt.com publication.

Jeez, that is actually worse than the work-for-hire terms that Jack Kirby and other comics artists slaved under for decades at Marvel and DC. Art students--never agree to any terms like this, ever. (Cathedral of Shit)


a Mondrian-inspired hat by Philip Colbert

Women should not dress as urinals, probably. Many of the clothes designed by Philip Colbert are knock-offs of famous art. Including a dress based on Fountain by Marcel Duchamp. The Mondrian hat is nice, though. (The Rodrik Band)


Fountain dress by Philip Colbert


Gabrielle Bell, panel from her 26th Daily Comic, 2011


Making me feel bad for thinking that Jaume Plensa's sculptures were kitschy. I really hate those Jaume Plensa "Tolerance" dudes over on Allen Parkway, and I'm not alone. I'll admit that Echo in Madison Square Park in New York is slightly less obnoxious, but still. But there is always another side of the story! (Lucky by Gabrielle Bell)