Here's a link to Harbeer Sandhu's meditation on "Give and Take," a sculpture/installation by the Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. The piece was part of the Houston Contemporary Museum of Art's "No Zoning" show. I took the photos.
http://offcite.org/2009/10/02/ovoid-a-meditation
Monday, April 26, 2010
Human Nature Political
This article was first published in Free Press Houston (http://freepresshouston.com/
Whether or not the end is near, its close enough. Charity in the billions is doled out to the über-rich by their own underlings. The poor live and die without air conditioning or basic medical care. If the pundits won’t profess it, at least artists will paint the picture. The installation "Human Nature Planted" does not present itself as overtly political, but it plays out that way. Curated by June Woest and Claudio Franco of Urban Artists at the Nature Discovery Center of Bellaire, Planted is a group sculptural installation by twelve innovative Texas artists.
The official theme of the show is to “explore the human handprint in the natural world and how it positively and negatively influences the environment,” but the show resonates with current socio-political-economic turmoil. Nathaniel Donnett’s Myke’s Clubhouse captures the crisis from the vantage point of the forgotten poor and vulnerable; Cornell West accusing Obama of neglecting those most in need. Merging fantasy with nightmare, Donnett constructed a tree house and foreclosed it, with a red sign and a foreclosure listing in the paper.
June Woest’s Pharmacy Domesticus forms a field of bamboo-like columns out of plastic prescription bottles, makes a visually stunning side-effect of our fascination with better living through pharmaceuticals.
Lucinda Cobley’s tree+cipher proposes a vibrant new taxonomy for nature that makes one cry out for a new political discourse.
Amie Adelman’s untitled, Mari Omari’s Gifts and Orna Feinstein’s Eco-librium enhance or alter the existing environment; binding, weaving, and clumping leaves, stems, branches, and grasses; regulating nature in quirky, unanticipated ways.
Kathy Hall’s I say Poaceae, You say Poaceae introduces non-native grasses into the park and forces us to confront the unpredictable nature of complex systems.
Recessions depress but they can inspire innovation and reinvention, every tool becomes a weapon when held just right. Kathy Kelley’s The birth of destruction deconstructs automobile tires and fashions them into boulder-sized spheres that remind one of objects of play or meditation.
Andis Applewhite’s Soul distills man-made and natural fragments to serve as objects for meditation.
Jason Dean Moul’s Water, Seed, Pollen, Leaf hints at moving away from Christian salvation through salary and inserts customer designed stain glass windows in the intersections of the pecan tree branches.
The trees etched on plexiglas in Keith Hollingworth’s Arboretum may serve as a memento mori for the park in anticipation of a coming environmental crisis. Michael Crowder’s frozen birds will have melted before this exhibit even ends, but you could find yourself, decades from now, peering at the two glass ones-- wondering how quickly the next ice age will come.
Human Nature Political
posted by Free Press Houston @ 10:12 AMWhether or not the end is near, its close enough. Charity in the billions is doled out to the über-rich by their own underlings. The poor live and die without air conditioning or basic medical care. If the pundits won’t profess it, at least artists will paint the picture. The installation "Human Nature Planted" does not present itself as overtly political, but it plays out that way. Curated by June Woest and Claudio Franco of Urban Artists at the Nature Discovery Center of Bellaire, Planted is a group sculptural installation by twelve innovative Texas artists.
June Woest’s Pharmacy Domesticus forms a field of bamboo-like columns out of plastic prescription bottles, makes a visually stunning side-effect of our fascination with better living through pharmaceuticals.
Lucinda Cobley’s tree+cipher proposes a vibrant new taxonomy for nature that makes one cry out for a new political discourse.
Amie Adelman’s untitled, Mari Omari’s Gifts and Orna Feinstein’s Eco-librium enhance or alter the existing environment; binding, weaving, and clumping leaves, stems, branches, and grasses; regulating nature in quirky, unanticipated ways.
Kathy Hall’s I say Poaceae, You say Poaceae introduces non-native grasses into the park and forces us to confront the unpredictable nature of complex systems.
Recessions depress but they can inspire innovation and reinvention, every tool becomes a weapon when held just right. Kathy Kelley’s The birth of destruction deconstructs automobile tires and fashions them into boulder-sized spheres that remind one of objects of play or meditation.
Andis Applewhite’s Soul distills man-made and natural fragments to serve as objects for meditation.
Jason Dean Moul’s Water, Seed, Pollen, Leaf hints at moving away from Christian salvation through salary and inserts customer designed stain glass windows in the intersections of the pecan tree branches.
The trees etched on plexiglas in Keith Hollingworth’s Arboretum may serve as a memento mori for the park in anticipation of a coming environmental crisis. Michael Crowder’s frozen birds will have melted before this exhibit even ends, but you could find yourself, decades from now, peering at the two glass ones-- wondering how quickly the next ice age will come.
Houston's Fair Five
(Here's a who-what-when-where article about some Houston galleries at the 2010 Dallas Art Fair. I shopped it around to no avail ... or at least no cash...but the experience was fun.)
In the first week of February, from the 5th to the 7th, five of Houston's
leading art galleries attended the 2nd Annual Dallas Art Fair at the
Fashion Industry Gallery. Barbara Davis Gallery
(barbaradavisgallery.com), Colton & Farb Gallery
(coltonfarbgallery.com), Inman Gallery (inmangallery.com), Texas
Gallery (texgal.com), and Wade Wilson Art (wadewilsonart.com) joined
more than 50 other regional, national, and international galleries
representing artists working in media that included painting,
photography, video, sculpture, and installation.
Besides participating in the three day fair, the gallery owners
and their staff attended the preview gala and participated in a press
tours which included regional and national syndicates. In addition,
Deborah Colton and Carolyn Farb participated as members of the Dallas
Art Fair board and nationally recognized collector Lester Marks of
Colton & Farb Gallery conducted a Young Collectors tour on Saturday.
Participation for the galleries was all about exposure and
support. Noting that Dallas had a sophisticated collectors market,
Barbara Davis succinctly summarized the owners primary goal: to
introduce their stable of international, national, and local artists
to the Dallas region's connoisseurs of contemporary art. No less
important was the owners' willingness to support the arts in Texas.
All five invested a significant amount of time and money to aid this
effort by their neighbors to the north. Lending their international
reputations to this burgeoning fair, the Houston galleries contributed
to the event's high quality and made it an endeavor that all the
owners were proud to participate in. Ian Glennie of Texas Gallery was
just pleased that Texas finally had a presence in the international
art fair scene. Having attend last years inaugural fair, he was
impressed with the growth of the fair in both the number and quality
of galleries and the artists that they represented.
Artists, owners, and assistants introduced the large crowds to
their slices of the Houston art scene. At Wade Wilson Arts, Lucinda
Cobley and Joseph Cohen enjoyed the exposure. Susanna Kise and Melissa
Noble along with Cobley and Cohen discussed their works, the works of
fellow Houston artist McKay Otto, and the other artists represented by
Wilson with a steady stream of north Texas arts patrons. Barbara Davis
showed works by Houston artists Paul Flemming and Joe Mancuso as well
as international superstars like James Surls. Amid the crowds, JoAnn
Park of Barbara Davis spotted plenty of familiar faces from Houston
including both collectors and members from Houston art organizations
DiverseWorks, Lawndale, and Houston Arts Alliance. Inman Gallery
promoted works by David Aylsworth, Katrina Moorehead, and Dario
Robleto among others. Colton & Farb displayed works by Nathaniel
Donnett, Molly Gochman, David Graeve, daniel-kanye, Michael Meazell,
and Patrick Medrano and Katy Anderson as well as the other
international artists that it represents.
Although the event was primarily about seeing and being seen,
Laura Bailey of Colton & Farb indicated that they'd sold several
pieces by Houston artists, including works by Nathaniel Donnett and
David Graeve. Regardless of the individual sales, the Houston five's
participation will undoubtedly pay dividends for the galleries, their
artists, and the arts scene in Houston.
Artists: Daniel Kanye and Nathaniel Donnett
Nathaniel Donnett and Lester Marks
Deborah Colton, Lester Marks, and Nathaniel Donnett
David Graeve and Deborah Colton
JoAnn Parks and Barbara Davis
Lester Marks leading the young collectors tour
Artists: Nathaniel Donnett, Lucinda Cobley, and Joseph Cohen
Nancy Douthey and JoAnn Park
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