People Keep on Painting in Houston

Robert Boyd

Twenty-seven years ago, the Houston Museum of Fine Art mounted an exhibit called Fresh Paint. It featured work by 44 painters and attempted (unsuccessfully) to define a Houston school of painting. Aaron Parazette's goal with In Plain Sight (on view at McClain Gallery) is more modest. In the catalog for the exhibit, Parazette wrote, "While there has been no shortage of opportunities to see paintings created by Houston artists, the opportunity to consider a large group of such work has been missing." That is one thing In Plain Sight accomplishes. Another, perhaps, is to introduce collectors to the work of local painters they may not have yet seen. McClain is a blue chip gallery, and being shown there potentially provides entrée for artists who have mainly shown in alternative art spaces or smaller galleries.

Parazette adds that "the exhibit is non-thematic and multi-generational by design, with the work selected to represent a full range of painting being made in Houston." The word "multi-generational" jumped out. Many of the Fresh Paint painters are still around and painting. Were any of them were included in In Plain Sight? Just two as far as I can see, Gael Stack and Perry House.

Unlike Fresh Paint, In Plain Sight makes no claims for its content except that it is broadly representative of work in Houston. However, choosing to do a painting show implies that painting is really important in Houston. And let's acknowledge that painting is the most economically viable fine art in town. It's easy for galleries and art fairs to show and easy for collectors to acquire. It doesn't require a lot of floor space to display it. It lasts a long time. It's highly optical. And this show certainly demonstrates that there is painting being done for all tastes. (But I'd like to see similar shows for other genres of contemporary art in Houston--as well as shows for those liminal works that don't easily fit into one genre or another.)

Here are a few--but just a few--of the paintings in In Plain Sight that I liked. The show is up through October 13, and I highly recommend stopping in and checking it out.


Bill Davenport, It's hard to be hip over 30, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 27" x 29"

It was nice to see a Bill Davenport painting if only to remind us that Bill Davenport can paint very well. I don't think of Davenport as a painter per se--Bill's Junk is sort of a social sculpture, and a lot of his other work is sculptural, participatory or both. But painting is a part of his work as well.


Christian Eckart, 3 Unit Superimposed Circuit Painting 2006, 2006, acrylic urethane on 1/2" aluminum plate, 115" x 84"

This sleek beautiful piece by Christian Eckart makes me think of old-timey slot-car race tracks.


Jeremy DePrez, Totem, 2012, acrylic, oil and wax on canvas over shaped support, 77" x 44"

It's hard for me to imagine Jeremy DePrez making a work titled Totem, much less a colorful Sean Scully-like painting like this. But he did and it's great.


Lane Hagood, Hand Painting, 2012, oil on canvas, 64" x 48"

So much of what Lane Hagood does are dumb paintings of smart things. Hand is kind of a dumb painting of a dumb thing that you can't stop looking at. That, in essence, is the mysterious power of Lane Hagood.


Mark Flood, The Things, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 87" x 83"

Mark Flood has split his painting into two streams--cynical dyspeptic misanthropic paintings on one hand and beautiful abstractions incorporating lace on the other. With The Things, he seems to have achieved a synthesis of the two.


Pat Colville, Gray Form, 2011, acrylic on canvas on panel, 36" x 36"

Pat Colville is someone who should have been in Fresh Paint but wasn't for some reason. She's a Houston art treasure. She does paintings that make me think of biological or mineralogical  forms seen under a microscope. I love the way the forms float.


Ryan Geiger, the deeper i dig, the deeper i get (right panel), 2012m acrylic on paper, each panel 30" x 22"

I wasn't really aware of Ryan Geiger's work when I saw this piece. The text and the fine rendering give it a hint of Wayne White. I certainly want to see more of his work after seeing this piece.


Susie Rosmarin, (title unknown), 2003, acrylic on canvas 72" x 84"

Susie Rosmarin's optical effect paintings are hypnotic. But it's difficult to get their colors right in a photo--which is my way of apologizing for getting them wrong here. Just go see the exhibit!


William Betts, Frigate, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 72"

William Betts is best known for his paintings based on images from CCTV surveillance. This image of a warship seems to be filtered through some digital imaging system, which gives it a curiously in-the-moment feeling.



Cheyane Ramos, Item, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 24"

Cheyanne Ramos has incredible painting skills, but she isn't showing it off in Item and an earlier similar painting, Kerri Green and the Living Unicorn. She seems to be playing with the concept of "fan art," including the awkward painting (those bizarre highlights, for example) and the weird couplings. The funny thing (for me, at least) is that the pop culture references fly right over my head. I think these figures exist in some pop culture property, but I have no idea which. I also love her snazzy new signature.

Where Texas and France Collide

by Robert Boyd

One thing I know nothing about is high society, and I fear that anything I would have to say about it would make me sound like a rube. But so be it! Last night I attended the second annual Texan-French Alliance for the Arts art award and auction. The event was held at Decorative Center Houston at Woodway and Sage. A friend wondered why it was being held is such an out-of-the-way place. The answer is obvious--the Decorative Center was perfectly equidistant between River Oaks and Memorial. The second I walked in, I felt under-dressed. I had come straight from work and was in my usual Dockers and white dress shirt (no jacket), but the real reason I felt under-dressed was that so many people there were in finely tailored clothes--designer dresses and bespoke suits. They radiated wealth. It was a very different crowd than one might see at a Box 13 fundraiser--a fact I will return to later.

The space was big and bare and it somewhat overwhelmed the art on display.



(Photo by Robert Boyd)

But the art was very nice--beautiful pieces like this:



Allison Hunter, Untitled (parakeets), Digital color photograph facemounted to non-glare plexi-glass , 2009. (Photo courtesy of TFAA.)

And this:




Susie Rosmarin, Pattern Painting #4, acrylic on canvas, 2010. (Photo courtesy of TFAA.)

(You can see all the work here.)

Many of the artists were present. There was a small selection of French artists and a larger selection of Houston-area artists--people like Jonathan Leach, Francesca Fuchs, Geoff Hippenstiel, Alison Hunter, and Marcelyn McNeil and probably others. David McGee won the big prize for the artists that night--a fellowship to spend some time in Paris.

As I said, there were some knock-out outfits there. I should have taken lots of pictures, but I'm not fashion photographer. But here's one of Martha Finger, who was the co-chair of the event. She was wearing a really va-va-voom dress that night.



(Photo by Robert Boyd)

And as Cary Wolfe (standing behind her) can probably testify, it looks every bit as good from the back!

My friend also made an astute comment--she said there were lots of young faces on old bodies. It was a little freaky. But generally the impression was one of wealth and status. The tickets were $80 apiece (I got in free--I guess because I'm "press".) So I wonder, what does the TFAA have that Box 13 doesn't. I don't mean to pick on Box 13--it could be Freneticore or Labotanica or any scrappy small arts organization in Houston. Don't get me wrong--the TFAA does lovely things. If you liked those amazing Bernar Venet sculptures in Hermann Park (now moved to Oyster Creek Park in Sugar Land), thank the TFAA. But broadly speaking, it's hard for me to say that the TFAA is more important or more deserving than Box 13. The TFAA's revenue in 2009 was over $170,000; Box 13's was $60,000. (Organizations like Lawndale, Project Row Houses, and Diverse Works tend to be closer to $1,000,000 in annual revenue.)

I realize it sounds a bit like I'm setting up a class distinction--TFAA is high society, Box 13 is bohemian. The reason Box 13 is on my mind is that they recently held their big fund-raiser--you can read about it and see pictures here. And they even had at least one crossover artist participate--Jonathan Leach had pieces in both shows. But the crowds were very different, the vibe was different, and the prices at the TFAA auction--while not extravagant--were far higher than what people were paying at Box 13. It was a totally different experience--economically and socially. And I wonder why.

One of the exciting things about the TFAA event was live auction. It was conducted in a very lively manner by Wade Wilson. Has anyone else has ever noticed the striking similarity between Wade Wilson and 70s country crooner Charlie Rich?



Charlie Rich and Wade Wilson

I'm going to start calling Wade Wilson "The Silver Fox." I hope he knows the words to "The Most Beautiful Girl." In any case, he made an excellent auctioneer.



(Photo by Robert Boyd)

Tweet