The average viewer spends around thirty seconds in front of an artwork. Seems unjust considering how long the artist likely spent making the thing. But I will admit that my first visit to any exhibition is spent quickly looking over every artwork, and there is something to be said for works that grab my eye [...]
There has been a lot of excitement about painting in Houston this year, with Aaron Parazette’s In Plain Sight at McClain Gallery and a big exhibition planned for the CAMH’s 65th anniversary. But what about good old drawing? Often more humble and imaginatively evocative than painting, there have been some outstanding drawings shown in Houston [...]
We arrived at Blue Star Thursday night to a performance of Justin Randolph Thompson’s Tossin’ the Rag as part of his exhibition Meet Me in the Bottoms. A rag doll was being thrown in the air from a blanket while the artist performed with a group of collaborators. They were accompanied by a small band facing [...]
Paul Middendorf came to Houston for the first time as curator of the 2010 Big Show at Lawndale Art Center. He was impressed with the city and set up a series of ongoing artistic exchanges under the auspices of a non-profit he has run out of Portland, Oregon since 2005, galleryHOMELAND. Now he has opened [...]
Last year, the Houston art fairs were the talk of the town, and most people were dubious that two fairs would be able to survive. Well, not only did both return this year, but a third satellite project has been added– The Pan Art Fair. Organized by Robert Boyd, author of the blog The Great [...]
I have to admit that art fairs, in general, are not my thing. They seem exhausting for everyone involved from visitors to the gallery girls working the booths. With 80 participating galleries in this year’s Houston Fine Art Fair, my eyes were glazed over after about an hour at Reliant Center, and I had a [...]
Stuart Horodner may be best known to those of us here in Houston as guest editor of the Art Lies issue on “second acts”—artists, curators, and writers who are deeply involved in other things such as roller derby, fishing, or soccer. True to his fascination with diverse interests, Horodner has worn many hats in his [...]
Though it may still be hot and steamy outside, the fall exhibition season is almost upon us. The next several weekends in Houston look to be busy, busy with much-anticipated solo shows, blockbuster group exhibitions, and galas galore. Lawndale Art Center is ahead of the curve and has already opened four solo shows that will [...]
For Part I, click here. For Part II, click here. Why do certain artworks have such a lasting impact? To stay with me, artworks usually have to affect some kind of change in me. I believe that art can change the world by changing the way you see the world or making your experience as [...]
For Part I, click here. Although Christov-Bakargiev’s concepts cohere at the Fridericianum, the most memorable Documenta site is just up the hill at the Hauptbahnhof. There, amidst massive spaces that were formerly used as storage and mechanics for the train station, are some jaw dropping installations. Hronline has created an impressive interactive map that allows [...]
Every five years, the German town of Kassel is transformed into Documenta, a sprawling, intellectual exhibition considered a must-see by curators, collectors, and critics the world around. This year, I had the opportunity to go there and see it for myself. And to be honest, I found out I had a lot of misconceptions about [...]
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to assist with the jurying of Lawndale Art Center’s annual Big Show. I have volunteered for this event for the last three years, and it has become a cherished annual ritual for me. When I arrived on Saturday, the galleries were filled with nearly a thousand artworks submitted [...]
Box 13 ArtSpace on the east side of Houston just opened their first set of summer exhibitions featuring a roster of artists from around the world. At a time when most places have stopped doing exhibitions of international artists, it is encouraging to see an artist-run space still fostering art as an global conversation, budget [...]
Sasha Dela moved to Houston about seven years ago as a fellow in the MFAH Core Program and quickly became an important part of the Houston art scene as a founder of SKYDIVE Art Space and regional editor of Temporary Art Review, where she recently wrote an insightful take on our city that recognized the [...]
Houston’s universities are important incubators of artistic talent, with many artists in the city having taught at and/or graduated from either the University of Houston or Rice University. But the thing with incubators is that they can be a bit isolating, which is why it is refreshing to see both schools putting forth greater efforts [...]
In his written interviews, Warhol often ceded control completely to the interviewer. A prominent example of this is his most quoted interview, Gretchen Berg’s 1966 text “Andy Warhol: My True Story.” It’s popularity may be due in part to its exceptional coherence. Berg edited her questions out and wrote the whole thing as one, long [...]
The blank “uh” we hear before Andy Warhol’s responses was typical of his interview style but hardly ever appears in his published interviews as it was most likely edited out by the interviewers and/or editors. In the video above, the “uh” seems to represent a sort of passive resistance to the aggressive tone of the [...]
Statements made by artists are often regarded as the key to understanding their work. Art critics look to artists to set the theoretical framework surrounding their art; art historians use artists talking about other artists to establish chains of influences or schools of artmaking; and exhibitions use artist quotes on introductory labels or videos of [...]
Aerosol Warfare has been a Houston institution for over twenty years, and for much of that time, GONZO247 has been the engine driving the website and studios. GONZO247 and his collaborators started by documenting street art they admired in a quarterly video magazine. The project has grown to include an exhibition space that has recently [...]
Choreography a collaboration by Jim Nolan and Linda Post. Documentation of opening night performance featuring: Daniel Adame, Shanon Adams, Tina Shariffskul and Prudence Sun. Documentation by Lillie Monstrum. For their exhibition at Lawndale Art Center, Jim Nolan and Linda Post have gathered institutional props, mellow sounds, and documentation of the exhibition’s installation as their [...]
