Curated by Austin artist Sloke, "Texas Heat" offers a primary- and secondary-colored look at the possibilities and limitations of gallery work that’s strictly inspired by street graffiti. The key word here is "strictly," as I’m not talking about the work of artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat or Keith Haring or even the recently deceased Dash [...]
The iPhone app store’s first birthday is July 11, and what better way to celebrate than by downloading apps created by Texas animators? (Okay, there are probably plenty of better ways to celebrate – sex, drugs, arson – but this is a good way too.) Flat Black Films is the Austin-based company behind the [...]
Councilmember Sue Lovell recently announced the City of Houston’s new graffiti website, complete with surprisingly detailed fast facts. For example, did you know the average age of the arrested graffiti vandal is 17 to 18, with an overall broad range of 8 to 54? (How an average can be two numbers, we’re not [...]
…except for when he wasn’t. An oversimplication? Yeah, sure. I assume there’s more of the picture at "Dr. Seuss Wants You!" the exhibition at the Holocaust Museum Houston that’s based on the book Dr. Seuss Goes to War, by historian Richard H. Minear. The exhibition has had such a long run that you [...]
In honor of Andrea Grover’s upcoming screening of Astrodome movies at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, I’ve composed a brief ode to the Eighth Wonder’s scoreboard. The Astrodome scoreboard was awesome. The end. Really, what more can I say? No matter how late a game went, never mind that it was a [...]
All cultural products mirror their society, but perhaps none more so than television. After all, when’s the last time you went to Mexico and didn’t see big-breasted women hanging out with costumed little people? So let’s visit the small screen and see just what TV tells us about visual artists. They Are Never Satisfied [...]
A couple of Houston public-art deadlines loom: The Houston Arts Alliance and the convention folks are looking for short videos to be displayed on flat-screens around the George R. Brown. The pay is $3,500 (!) and the deadline is May 29. All videos must possess high artist merit (duh) and complement the energy of the [...]
So there’s this swine flu thing, maybe you’ve heard about it… I was feeling topical yesterday evening, and I started doing my thing on the Internet (it’s a gift), researching (if you can call it that) pig-related art for a possible post. I was thinking swine, I was thinking pork, naturally I was thinking [...]
If you don’t know what Twitter is, you’ve probably never been on the Internet, but you’re somehow reading this sentence, and, well, that’s what you’d call a paradox. Anyway, I’ve compiled a list of 175 art-related people, places and things you might want to follow on Twitter. I’m absolutely, positively sure I’ve missed a whole [...]
Some thoughts on street artists who also sell T-shirts, listed with numbers in front to feign intellectual rigor: 1.) I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making money from making art. A girl’s got to eat, and she might as well make bread from doing something she enjoys. 2.) With street-art campaigns, [...]
Where’s our bailout? Oh, wait, here it is. The Texas Commission on the Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, has set aside some cash for artists and arts organizations impacted (negatively, we would assume) by Hurricane Ike. Organizations can get between $1,000 and $5,000 and are required to [...]
Ah, those abstract nouns. Truth. Justice. Beauty. Hope. Liberty. Good. Bad. Whatever. They’re all so open to interpretation, and they’re all so meaningless when designated as the theme for a group show. Case in point: “VALUE,” now on display at FORUM Arts + Culture in El Paso. Four artists. Four interpretations on [...]
No matter that the City of Austin covered them in plastic before South by Southwest; those poles on Sixth Street never stood a chance.
Bad news from Austin: The Shepard Fairey mural, originally scheduled to be installed on Thursday, March 19, on the UT Art Building, has been postponed indefinitely. Here’s part of the UT press release (complete with awkward comma action at the beginning of the last two paragraphs): "We jumped at the opportunity and set [...]
All right, so maybe with erotic art it’s much easier to titillate (zing!) the senses, but that didn’t stop me from thinking Aerosol Warfare’s “Broken Heart Erotic Art Show” was hot shit. Trash and Garnish From Jeanette Degollado’s super sexy torso shots to Trash and Garnish’s American Apparel-style photos (now with extra trashiness!) to [...]
Last week, while writing about the new fountains at 1100 Louisiana, I promised I’d follow up in the event I heard back from property owner Hines Interests. Call me a man of my word. Property Manager Julie Goodell responded to an email and let me know the new plaza was a collaboration between [...]
Anyone else out there glad Houston moved Jean Dubuffet’s Monument au Fantome from 1100 Louisiana to Discovery Green? Ever since I was a kid, I’ve thought Monument au Fantome looked out of place in the Skyline District. That sense of otherness might’ve been what Dubuffet was going for, but there was just something about [...]
Call it 9/11 for the Houston art world. Okay, don’t, since that would be really inappropriate and way out of line. Maybe Pearl Harbor. No, that’s not right either. What other famous sneak attacks were there? The Trojan Horse? That scene in Braveheart where the Scots ride away on their horses but then come back [...]
You don’t wanna mess with Houston when it comes to the oil industry (we’re looking at you, Dubai), and the locals boys and girls at Morris Architects have helped drive that home by taking first place in the Radical Innovation in Hospitality design competition with the Oil Rig Platform Resort and Spa. The winning plans [...]
