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Emily Sloan, Is that a Baby Ruth in the Swimming Pool? Performance at Darke Gallery, 2012

The Great God Pan Is Dead  blog has two exceptionally interesting pieces on Houston artists by Virginia Billeaud Anderson. She interviews Performance artist Emily Sloan about her repressed childhood, in the wake of her Funeral for the Living event on New Year’s Day at 14 Pews, and talks to Lynet McDonald about her upcoming show, Intensity, at Redbud Gallery. Sandwiched in between the two is blog proprietor Robert Boyd’s  brief repost of Ken Price’s maxim against artist statements, worth re-reposting here:

“As far as I’m concerned, the explaining artist puts himself or herself in front of the work for the purpose of destroying the mystery of how it came into being. Borges said, “Rational explanation destroys the faith that art requires of us.” That’s for the viewers. For the artists, I think we need to have faith that the art experience can take place between the viewer and the work itself.” From “Ken Price: A Talk With Slides,” Chinati Foundation Newsletter, October, 2005.

Noted Houston photographer Casey Williams died peacefully on January 1, after weeks in a coma brought on by complications from West Nile virus.

Known for his “found abstractions”, taken on the Houston ship channel, until new Homeland Security rules curtailed his actiivties there in 2008, Williams persistent preoccupation with nuances of light and color led him to  select his works from hundreds of shots.

Williams  received his B.F.A. from the University of Texas in 1970 and his M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1976. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including: Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont; Diverseworks in Houston; El Paso Museum of Art; Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, California; New Orleans Museum of Art; Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston; The Gallery at the University of Texas at Arlington; Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin; The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

An exhibition of Williams’ latest photographs, titled Within, remains on display at Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas until February 16.

A memorial service for Casey Williams is set for Tuesday, January 8 at 4p.m. at the Rothko Chapel in Houston.

Franch Connection: prototype door by Patrik Medrano

The Texan French Alliance for the Arts, the well-intentioned and well-connected nonprofit that scattered Bernar Venet’s rusty steel curlicues across Hermann Park in 2009-2010, is at it again: TFAA and its partners have begun Open The Door, an “intercultural public art project” developed by TFAA’s executive director, Karine Parker-Lemoyne, and Romain Froquet, an artist of the Paris-based art collective, 9th Concept. Beginning Spring 2013, the project aims to place 60 swinging, painted steel panels, termed “doors” at 13 locations around Houston. 30 of the panels will be painted by pairs of by professional artists, half from Texas and half from France, the rest by art students, faculty and kids at local educational institutions including Rice University, The Awty International School, HSPVA, and Lone Star College. Houston artists involved in the project include Patrik Medrano, Gonzo 247, Lovie Olivia, Tierney Malone, Rahul Mitra, and Daniel Anguilu.

At a pre-launch reception on November 11, Parker-Lemoyne and Froquet introduced the project at the Baker-Ripley Neighborhood Center, with a collaborative event in which kids from the Gulfton Promise School helped the visiting French artist paint a “door” that had been installed at the center. On November 13, another prototype, painted by Houston Artist Rahul Mitra, was placed at the Julia Ideson Library, with reception attended by some of project’s many corporate sponsors, socialite Lynn Wyatt, and the French Ambassador to the US, François Delattre, who flew in from Washington D.C. to address the group, neatly verbalizing the banality of the concept: “The project is based on the powerful symbol of the door. The door is a natural passageway, an opening, an invitation to discover new territories. A door is not a simple hole in space. It has 2 sides, bound to each other. It represents the link between 2 cultures, 2 aspects of our world and it must reflect this duality.”

Project kickoff attendees (from left to right) Karine Parker-Lemoyne, Romain Froquet, Ambassador François Delattre, Lynn Wyatt, Mickey Henry with Rahul Mitra’s Door at the Julia Ideson Library

In celebration of the new year, their 30th in partnership, Houston’s Art Guys have planned a busy, performance-a-month schedule for 2013. Centered around the city as canvas and their collaborative history on it, many of the promised “12 Events” combine typical Art Guys geography lessons and endurance trials: crossing and re-crossing a busy intersection all day (September)  walking 29 miles of Little York, the longest street in Houston (February), orbiting the 610 loop for 24 hours (November), and moving things from one cardinal point of the compass to another (March).

Other events are reiterations of the Art Guys’ fame, which, from its ironic beginnings thirty years ago, has begun to assume a surprising semblance of reality! In January, they will signing their names all day, shake hands with passersby in June, and tell jokes for eight hours straight in July. In December, they reprise their original collaborative vows, agreeing on painting (again), this time atop cherry-pickers!

The calendar also includes a couple of more socio-politically pointed works: The Art Guys will construct portable fences around themselves and wander through downtown Houston in August and propose new ordinances at city hall in October; but the 12 events schedule seems cautious to avoid touchy issues that have mired the duo’s genial conceptualism in distracting, unintended controversies over the past couple years.

2013, The year of the Art Guys, is rounded out with a foray into avant-garde music as they orchestrate ship channel sounds in April, and the loose ends are taken care of in May with some pure silliness: unravelling a spool of under-used string and then rolling it back up.

The Blanton Museum has announced the acquisition of two large fiberglass sculptures by UT alumnus, Luis Jiménez, Progress II (1976/1999) and Cruzando El Rio Bravo [Border Crossing] (1989).

“Over the past several months, Progress II has become one of the most visited works in the Blanton collection. Border Crossing is sure to draw similar attention. The works’ scale and dramatic sculptural forms make them uniquely compelling for visitors of all ages and backgrounds,” comments Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, the Blanton’s curator at large. Progress II underwent comprehensive restoration and was placed on view at the museum in the second floor collection galleries earlier this fall. Now Border Crossing, a gift from Jeanne and Michael Klein, has just been installed on the museum’s mezzanine.

Luis Jiménez (1940-2006) grew up in El Paso, Texas. At the age of six, he began working at his father’s neon sign shop, where he was exposed to welding and spray-painting techniques. As a young adult, Jiménez moved to Austin to begin his formal study of art at The University of Texas, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, ’64. Never straying far from his roots, Jiménez continued to work with industrial materials, seeking to create “a publicly accessible American art.”  With colorful illustrations of working-class heroes and larger-than-life sculptures that borrow freely from popular culture, Jiménez championed the everyman throughout his career.

Progress II, a massive sculpture cast in fiberglass and finished with car paint, belongs to the artist’s 1976 series that critically examines mythologies of the West. Rectifying traditional cowboy imagery, the work features a Mexican vaquero – the original cowboy – closing in on his prey: a snarling, red-eyed longhorn hopelessly attempting to evade defeat. Beneath the larger components of the sculpture, an owl stalks a mouse, while other small living creatures fight for their survival. An overarching theme of pursuit is revealed as Jiménez uses relationships between predator and prey to allude to the concept of Manifest Destiny, America’s road to “progress.”

Border Crossing, 1989, also made of polychrome fiberglass, illustrates an act of emigration. Totem-like, the sculpture depicts a man carrying a woman clutching an infant on his back as he crosses the Rio Grande River in search of a better life. Border Crossing is dedicated to Jiménez’s grandfather, who crossed the Mexico/U.S. border with Jiménez’s grandmother almost a century ago.

Alan B. Coleman, former dean of SMU’s Cox School of Business, and his wife, Janet M. Coleman have gifted the Meadows Museum with five important 20th century Spanish paintings (photos by Dimitris Skliris):

Moulin Rouge, Exit to the Box Seats (Moulin Rouge, salida a los palcos), c. 1902, by Hermenegildo Anglada-Camarasa (1871-1959).

Segovia, from Perogordo Road (Segovia desde el camino de Perogordo), c. 1908, by Aureliano de Beruete y Moret (1845-1912).

Allegory (Alegoría), c. 1903, by Joaquim Mir Trinxet (1873-1940).

Snow and Thaw (Nieve y deshielo), c. 1900, by Darío de Regoyos y Valdés (1857-1913).

Farm-House, Alcira (Alquería de Alcira), c. 1903, by Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923).

“The Colemans have spent the last 30 years building one of the finest collections of early 20th- century Spanish paintings in the United States,” said Mark Roglán, director of the Meadows Museum. “The addition of these five important works to the Meadows collection will not only strengthen the holdings from this period but also will better explain the evolution of these important artists who were active in Europe during one of the most fascinating and complex artistic periods in art history, between Impressionism and Cubism.”

The Colemans are longtime supporters of the arts at SMU. Coleman, who is Caruth Professor of Financial Management Emeritus in the Cox School of Business at SMU, helped establish, with Meadows School of the Arts, SMU’s interdisciplinary M.A./M.B.A. of arts management. He serves on the Meadows Museum Advisory Council.

The Colemans began collecting early 20th century Spanish art in the late 1970s with the encouragement of former Meadows Museum director Dr. Willam B. Jordan. They loaned four of the paintings in this gift to the museum for the 2005-2006 exhibition Prelude to Spanish Modernism: Fortuny to Picasso.

“We’ve long had the idea to donate these works to the Meadows Museum,” Coleman said. “SMU has been so good to us over the years, and the ties between our family and the University are many: my wife, Janet, our two daughters, and son-in-law are SMU graduates. It just seems natural. Over the past decade we’ve increased our admiration for Dr. Roglán and his work at the museum, and we hope that this gift will strengthen the 20th-century holdings in the collection.”

Houston artist Emily Sloan is inviting the public to start the new year right, with a Funeral Party on January 1! Although no actual deaths are involved, Sloan has included almost everything else in her participatory performance: an interactive funeral service (write a eulogy!), funeral pyre (bring your symbolic memorobilia!) improvised funeral music parade (bring an instrument!), and of course, eating (potluck!) and drinking. Those who feel awkward writing their own eulogies can come early for Sloan’s eulogy writing assistance at 6 p.m. The party begins at 7 p.m. at 14 Pews. Admission is $5-$10 to help defray funeral expenses.

The National Museum of Funeral History in Houston has proposed forming an association for Funeral Memorabilia Collectors. Their plans include providing a forum for guest speakers, shows, and gatherings. They’re inviting like-minded individuals to attend a preliminary meeting in January to help them organize and plan. The date is to be determined, contact Shelley Ott, NMFH at funeralhistorian@yahoo.com for more information.

Sean ??, aka NEKST has died. A noted graffiti writer since 1996, he began writing as Next in Houston, and was voted “best graffiti writer” in 2003, by the Houston Press, even as they suggested he move to escape relentless police pressure. He did a stint in Austin; Rachel Koper of Austin’s Women and Their Work Gallery had this remembrance: “He was memorable, determined, a real force, a social insomniac, tenacious, loyal and persistent. It’s sad he died so young.  It breaks my heart . . . I kicked him out of Gallery Lombardi several times in 2003!! He kept coming back anyway. The Kid was tenacious.” He was was active in New York as part of the MSK crew (Mad Society Kings) before his death. Juxtapoz magazine has this hundred-pic tribute to the hardworking artist, well-known for his widespread, large-scale works.

Michael Granberry reports in the Dallas Morning News that the DMA isn’t going to get the expensive Leonardo after all; (insert sigh, with relief, or disappointment, depending.) WHAT NOW?- it’s clear that the museum has, potentially, access to several tens of millions of dollars to acquire art, if donors think it’s worth it. Certainly enough, intelligently spent, to put the museum on the map somehow, even if not as the owner of one of the few Da Vinci’s in the world. Let’s  all think about it.

Crossing his fingers that the DMA soap bubble won’t pop!

Fernando Romero with Mexic-Arte Museum maquette at the Guggenheim.

The proposed big wheel/Aztec calendar design for a new Mexic-Arte Museum building on congress Ave. in Austin by Fernando Romero was part of the architect’s “You are the Context” exhibition and book launch held at the Guggenheim Museum on Dec. 12. Though widely criticised as stereotypically ethnic (with the Aztec calendar projection), too expensive, or just ugly, the dramatic design has important friends in both Austin and New York: Mexic-Arte Museum board Members and staff attended the event, including: Dr. John Hogg, President of the Board, David Garza, Facilities Committee Member; Dr. Frank Cardenas, Advisory Committee Member and Mexic-Arte founding director Sylvia Orozco. The design is included in Romero’s new book.

Back in May 2012, when Jeanne Clair Van Ryzin first reported on the new design in the Austin American Statesman, she noted that the commission to design the new museum was awarded to Romero (son-in-law of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim) without a competition. Although Van Ryzin also noted to gloomy history of failures to raise money for stand-alone museums in downtown Austin, the plan was that the new $30 million project would be paid for with $15 million in city bond money, $6 million in federal New Market Tax Credits for under-served communities, $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and a $6.5 million capital campaign.

I’m all for it: when Mexic-Arte vacates the impractical building, it will be a natural for the new Glasstire (Glass Tire-get it?) headquarters, and just down the road from the State Capitol!

Future home of the Glasstire World Media Conglomerate

Mexic-Arte Founder Sylvia Orozco receives Mask Collection from Mr. Carmine De Vivi during a recent visit to New Mexico.

In other Mexi-Arte news, the museum has received the 300 piece Patricia and Carmine De Vivi Mexican Mask Collection. Mr. De Vivi began his visits to indigenous villages in the 1950′s and collected the masks used in rituals and dances. The De Vivis, who live in New Mexico selected Mexic-Arte Museum as the permanent home for their collection which will be featured in an exhibition, “Masked: Changing Identities” in January.

Just after its 50th anniversary in 2008, the Longview Museum of Fine Arts began  renovating its facade on Main St. in Longview. In 2011 it raised over$250,000 to begin work on renovations for its new ArtWorks: Creative Learning Center, an art space for creating and teaching, which opened in 2012 with artist, radio host, and committed Texas regionalist Andy Don Emmons as  Director. He sends this update on the stirrings of artistic community in East Texas: “Yep, I am the adult education director, but also help hang exhibits, marketing, curating board, and whatever else I can do! We have a great  HUGE facility here and a brand new education wing…we are also building a new vault, and lecture hall and have a great sculpture garden located in the middle of downtown ..our gallery prep Charles Arnold is going to be doing a performance/artwork session in the museum front window the whole month of March..he will be living in the front window and doing art. We have a great group of local artists that meet every Wednesday night at the Artworks (education wing) to discuss and critique each other’s work and now some collaboration is starting to happen between a couple of the artists.” He promises to send updates during what promises to be an exciting new year in East Texas!

Excavations for a new subway station in Rome had unsurprisingly, run afoul of “the most important Roman discovery in 80 years”, according to the Guardian (UK). While tunneling under the ancient Italian capital, railway workers uncovered an amphitheater built by the Emperor Hadrian in 123 c.e., which has been excavated and will open to the public soon, 18 feet beneath the busy Piazza Venezia. Railway engineers think that the new subway station can be squeezed in, using one of the original roman hallways as an exit to street level.

The third subway line in Rome runs 80 feet underground, below the level of the city’s earliest habitation, but has to come up sometimes for air shafts and stations, each time seeking the path of least resistance through ancient, medieval, renaissance and modern construction. It’s a mixed blassing for archeologists: something historic always gets destroyed, but funding to do the digging would not  be forthcoming otherwise.

Jewelz Cody, self described “Waterfowl Alignment Coordinator*” aka Artist Liaison/Coordinator & Producer for Art Car Weekend, who has been instrumental in coordinating the Houston Art Car Parade since it first began in 1986, will be curating the 20th Annual Art Car Show at the 32nd Annual Artscape festival in Baltimore, MD. Artscape, “America’s Largest Free Arts Festival” happens on July 19-21, 2013.

Jewelz’s career in art-car organizing includes six years managing the Department of Mutant Vehicles for the Burning Man festival, and as a member of the Flaming Lotus Girls, a group of artists making kinetic, mechanical fire art for Burning Man since 2000.

*ducks in a row

After seven years as epicenter of alterna-zine culture in Austin, Domy books is closing.  Houston businessman Dan Fergus, who owns Domy’s two locations has “withdrawn financial support” for the much-loved but presumably unprofitable store, which has been seeking alternative revenue by subletting sections of its gallery space to sub-retailers. Store manager/curator Russell Etchen is leaving, but the enterprise will continue under new ownership as Farewell Books; current Domy empolyees Travis Kent and Mikaylah Bowman are taking over on February 1, 2013. According to Alan Brenner of the Austin Chronicle, “they’re a bit nervous; they’re a bit excited; they’re ready to make this new thing succeed.”

Kerry Inman, owner of Houston’s Inman Gallery, has closed a deal on the historic Bermac building building at 4101 San Jacinto and Cleburne St. in Midtown. Her company, Bermac Arts, LLC, plans to convert the 23,000sf space into artist’s studios and offices for arts-related businesses. She has selected John D. Blackmon, AIA, as project architect, and and Bryan Miller (former owner of Bryan Miller Gallery on Main St.) will be the building’s manager.

With the relocated Diverseworks and the projected MATCH multi venue performance space nearby, the new project is part of an unfolding artistic wedge that developers and city officials are hoping will bring economic redevelopment to Midtown, a long-underutilized section of the city.

El Paso street artists Silver IsReal and Carlo Mendo have formed a new nonprofit, the “Urban Art Fitters League of El Paso” to paint downtown alleys with uplifting murals. Begun in April, their  first project, “Make Love Not War” was a memorial to friends who died in an alcohol-related traffic accident.  Painting with the permission of building owners, the group painted  a series of murals along an alley from downtown 6th street all the way to Overland. Most recently, Fourth Street in downtown El Paso was closed as the Art-Fitters painters Eddie Marquez “Dead Boy”, Gabriel Marquez, Gno Madrid, and Tino Ortega created a snowy “winter wonderland” on the wall of Krystal Jeans at Paisano and 4th Sts. to the delight of holiday shoppers.

Thank you for being a part of this, Glasstire’s very special 11th Anniversary Year!!

We’ve had a banner year and we’re very grateful to all of our readers and supporters. Mostly we thank the teeming mass of the Texas art scene for remaining so interesting a subject.

Now for some exciting news: Something is coming in early 2013 and it goes by the name of Glasstire. I know what you’re thinking: “Glasstire? What’s Glasstire?” Well, allow me to explain . . .

On Wednesday, January 9, The City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department’s Public Art Program is inviting local artists to an informational session on their upcoming Central Business District Streetscape Public Art Project. The city’s $30,000 effort to make downtown El Paso more pedestrian friendly needs artists to devise “artistic elements for the reconstruction of and streetscape improvements.” The presentation will be from 5:30-6:30pm at the Downtown Main Branch Library, 501 N. Oregon. the Deadline to submit the application is January 15, 2013; more information can be downloaded from the city’s website.

The glamour photo of El Paso, above, is by by “techology executive and photographer” Brian Wancho, who has an interesting story of the photo shoot on his website.