This just in from lawyer Keith Jaasma of the Houston office of Patterson & Sheridan, LLP: Sculptor Bob Pack’s Pack Sports Bronzes, Inc. of Sugar Land (which has created numerous sculptures of some of the world’s greatest golfers) has settled its copyright infringement suit against Big Statues, Inc. of Provo, Utah over their unauthorized copying [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
