Newswire

Renner Funnel Tunnel Coming

funnel tunnelConstruction of Patrick Renner’s 185-foot Funnel Tunnel begins on February 1. The public art sculpture/installation will be made of reclaimed wood and will snake through the trees on the Montrose Blvd esplanade opposite Art League Houston. The piece is Funded by a City’s Initiative Program Grant from the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA).

Texans at Sundance 2013!

Kat Candler's Black Metal will premier at Sundance this year.

Kat Candler’s Black Metal will premier at Sundance this year.

In his latest link-filled newsletter, Bart Weiss of the Dallas Video Festival takes note of Texans participating in this years Sundance Film Festival  happening January 17-27 in Park City Utah :

“Lone Star projects headed to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Some Dallas VideoFest alumni include A Teacher by Hannah Fidell, whose short films, The Gathering Squall was part of the VF25 Texas Show. Full-length feature Pit Stop from Yen Tan as well as the newest short from Kat Candler, Black Metal, will premiere at the festival. Dallas filmmaker, David Lowery directed one of the most buzzed about films in the U.S. Dramatic competition, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck. DPA member, Johnny Marshall did the sound design for  Shane Carruth’s long-awaited 2nd film UPSTREAM COLOR, which will be also be premiering there.

Some of Austin’s Indie groundbreakers will be returning, with Richard Linklater premiering Before Midnight and Robert Rodriguez screening his 1993 debut El Mariachi. Austin’s latest up-and-coming film director, Jeff Nichols’ Mud starring Matthew McConaughey also is slated, along with works by new Austin transplants Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess and David Gordon Green, Prince Avalanche (with Paul Rudd). Bastian Günther, who divides his time between Berlin and Austin, Texas, is screening Houston in the World Dramatic division.”

The Epitome Institute: New San Antonio Jeu d’Esprit to Open in March

epitome logoSan Antonio artists Meg Langhorne and Donna Pardue have announced a new endeavor, The Epitome Institute:

“Esteemed Artists, Art Patrons and Dissertators:

“We wish to introduce you to our new endeavor: a jeu d’esprit, artist-run exhibition space, think tank, cultural repository and aesthetic research organization.  We welcome culture bearers and curators from many varied fields and literally from a field.  Our calendar will include visual artists, an award-winning poet, and a Mardi Gras Indian. Join us for a salon of derring-do.

We sincerely remain,
Your Curators,
Margaret L. Honeytruffle
Alice Thud, III”

The inaugural exhibition in their new space, Golden Years by Andrea Caillouet, opens on March 2, with a special appearance by Jeremiah Williams, Flag Boy Twin of the Shining Star Hunters Mardi Gras Indian tribe. Their calendar page promises shows organized by guest curator Jenny Browne in April, Cyndi Rook in July, and works by artists Jimmie Hudson in September and Callida Borgnino in December.

The space, at 222 Roosevelt Avenue in San Antonio, is open only at specific times listed on their website, or by appointment.

Wheels, Squeak Now! Texas Arts Advocacy Day is Coming up on Thursday, January 31

The Sheraon lobby awaits!

The Sheraon lobby awaits!

Book your reservations now to attend the third biennial Texans for the Arts Arts Advocacy Day in Austin. The day’s events include a breakfast rally, advocacy training, and Capitol visits to  elected officials. Contact your representatives’ staffers and schedule your visits that day between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Texans for the Arts will provide “talking points” and other helpful information to throw at your legislators.

After the lobbying, the weekend-long art boost continues with the State of the Arts Conference: Strategies for Success to be held January 31 – February 1, 2013 at the Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol, 701 East 11th Street. Hosted by the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) and the Texas Cultural Trust, the conference aims to disseminating ideas and information important to what they somewhat ominously term the “Texas Arts Industry”.
Registration for the two-day conference is $75, and you can throw in the TFA Arts Advocacy Day for just $10 more! $85.00 to register for both events!

RO2 Adds Magnolia Theater Gallery to Catalog of Far-Flung Projects

Alisa Levy, Untitled,  2012

Alisa Levy, Untitled, 2012

Dallas mother-and-son gallerists Susan Roth Romans and Jordan Roth of RO2 Art are taking over the curation of the Magnolia Theater Gallery upstairs, inside the Magnolia theater at 3699 McKinney Ave. from Scott Horn and Nicole Cullum Horn, who are focusing on other projects.  The Roth’s first show, Alisa Levy: Culmination of a Gesture, opened at the theater on January 10.

The Rush is On: El Paso’s Art-Buying Spree Ends Feb 14!

El Paso Public Artists Strike Gold!

El Paso Public Artists Strike Gold!

The city of El Paso is looking to build a public collection of artwork by local artists to be displayed in City buildings, and they’re in a hurry. Approximately $200,000 is available to purchase existing artwork from professional artists over 18, living and working in El Paso, who are invited to offer artworks for sale to the city by February 14, 2013 for consideration in the city’s forthrightly-named 2013 Purchase of Artwork Program.

Despite its stunning simplicity, or because of it, El Paso’s approach begs explanation, which the City’s press release supplies, in bureaucrat-ese: “The El Paso Public Art Program is to promote and encourage private and public programs to further the development and public awareness of, and interest in, the fine arts and cultural properties, to increase employment, opportunities in the arts, to encourage the integration of art into the architecture of municipal structures for the City of El Paso, and to provide for the citizens for the City high quality, publicly accessible works of art, which contribute to the urban landscape and symbolize the City’s sense of place.

Then, of course, there’s the fine print: artists can submit 3-6 artworks (all wall-hung) which must be larger than 11″, smaller than 80″, and weigh not more than 25 pounds; they must have been created in the past five years, and should be appropriate for a public setting, etc. Applications will be accepted online via the CAFE system, and reviewed by panels of of artists and arts professionals, City staff, and community members appointed by the Public Art Committee.

BREAKING NEWS: Art Guys say Menil is removing “The Art Guys Marry A Plant”

Glasstire has received the following email from the Art Guys:

The Menil Collection has decided to remove “The Art Guys Marry A Plant”  from their collection.  Tentative plans are to remove the tree and plaque and return them to us soon, perhaps sometime next week, although the specifics have not yet been determined.

We offer this news to you without further comment.  We have nothing further to say right now.

Thank you.

Michael Galbreth
Jack Massing

Stay tuned for the details…

Museum Tower, in Need of Louvers, Gets New Salesmen

Steve Sandborg and Robbie Briggs

Steve Sandborg and Robbie Briggs

Museum Tower, the embattled “42-story luxury residential high-rise located in the heart of the Dallas Arts District”, has announced an alliance with Sotheby’s International Realty as its new marketing partner. Steve Sandborg, Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Museum Tower, called the reinforcements “a natural transition that dramatically expands the capabilities of our in-house sales team.”

President & CEO, Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty, Robbie Briggs, commented on the sales force surge in standard realty-speak, unfortunately using the terms “neighbors” and “neighborhoods,” which I expect, will not feature prominently in future pitches: “Our team of sales agents and our network of Sotheby’s brokers know how to market and sell communities and neighborhoods to the world.  Museum Tower is an amazing asset for Dallas and our region.  With our city being so interconnected, it is gratifying to see one of our neighbors building a landmark that will surely offer an extraordinary and sophisticated lifestyle.”

According to their press release, Sotheby’s will “assign a select team drawn from its 192 agents to work on the Museum Tower project.” The existing sales and marketing team at Museum Tower, including Sandborg and the Museum Tower’s current Director of Sales, Lea Anne Laughlin, will remain as part of the new organization.

Stephen Lapthisophon Gets Meadow Museum’s Moss/Chumly award for 2012

lapthisophonThe Meadows Museum has announced that Stephen Lapthisophon is the recipient of the 2012 Moss/Chumley Artist Award.  The award is given annually to an outstanding North Texas artist who has exhibited professionally for at least ten years and has a proven track record as a community advocate for the visual arts.  Lapthisophon received the award on December 5, 2012 at an evening reception at the Meadows Museum.

Lapthisophon’s work addresses questions of language, history, and cultural memory through installations that address the sensory world. His sensory preoccupation is in part due to his own experience with an optic nerve disorder in 1994, which left him legally blind. Recent solo exhibitions include “Quotation as Gesture” at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2009, “Spelling Lesson” at Conduit Gallery in 2011 and “The Construction of a National Identity” at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. He is represented at Conduit Gallery in Dallas.

The jury for the 2012 award included George T. Lee, Jr., attorney and chair of the Collections Committee of the Meadows Museum Advisory Council; Kevin Vogel, president of Valley House Gallery in Dallas and member of the Meadows Museum Advisory Council; Joan Davidow, director emeritus of The Dallas Contemporary; Heyd Fontenot, artist and director of Central Trak, University of Texas at Dallas Artists Residency; Lucia Simek, artist and writer; Nicole Atzbach, assistant curator at the Meadows Museum; Shelley DeMaria, curatorial assistant at the Meadows Museum; and  Iraida Rodríguez-Negrón, Meadows/Kress/Prado Fellow at the Meadows Museum.

Jury member Fontenot commented, “I’ve only lived in Dallas for less than two years, but from my experience Stephen Lapthisophon is a consistent presence in the social/cultural art scene in North Texas.  Besides having his quite prolific, personal studio practice, Stephen teaches at two different institutions, is involved in at least one collective, curates shows, acts as a mentor to up-and-comers, and is regularly out at opening events in support of his peers.  These combined activities are exactly what the Moss-Chumley award was established to recognize.  Stephen very much deserves this honor.”

Ruth Carter Stevenson, Art Patron and Amon Carter Museum Founder, 1923-2013

ruth carter stevensonRuth Carter Stevenson, Philanthropist and President of the Board of Trustees of the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth, daughter of oilman, newpaper publisher and fierce Ft. Worth booster Amon G. Carter Sr. (1879–1955), died at her home in Ft. Worth on January 6. She was 89.

Stevenson was solely responsible for seeing that her father’s wish to establish a museum for the city of Fort Worth was realized. Under her leadership, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art opened to the public in January 1961.

Born in Fort Worth in 1923, Stevenson left when she was fifteen for elite schools on the east coast, where she developed an appreciation for art. Upon her return to Texas in 1949, at the age of twenty-six she was elected to the board of the Fort Worth Art Association. During her first year in this capacity, she was instrumental in organizing the first major American art exhibition in Fort Worth, which included works by Winslow Homer.

In 1960, Stevenson began a twenty-three-year association with the Fort Worth City Art Commission; many of these years she served as chairman. She also served on the board of Fort Worth’s Trinity Valley School, and in 1963 she founded the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. That same year, she was appointed by then Governor John Connally to the board of regents of the University of Texas, becoming only the second woman to serve in that capacity. In addition to pressing for the preservation of the historic campus architecture, Stevenson played a key role in the full desegregation of the University of Texas school system. In 1992, the university established the Ruth Carter Stevenson Chair of Architecture.

Stevenson assumed the presidency of the Amon G. Carter Foundation, renowned for its charitable giving, after the passing of her brother, Amon G. Carter Jr. in 1982. She served on the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s board for more than fifty years, and in her last decade in that role she oversaw a massive expansion of the structure. The new building increased the museum’s gallery spaces fourfold and resulted in a state-of-the-art conservation facility and both cold- and cool-storage vaults for the museum’s expansive photography holdings.

Stevenson’s involvement with the arts reached far beyond the state of Texas. She served on the Visiting Committee of the Fogg Museum at Harvard; joined the boards of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Trust for Historic Places, and the American Federation of Arts; and became the first woman appointed to the board of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In 1987, she was invited to the Supreme Court building in Washington as an honored guest at Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s event for women who had made a difference in American society.

Landeros Surrenders!

landerosAlleged Menil Picasso vandal Uriel Landeros surrendered himself to federal marshals at the at the international bridge near McAllen, Texas on the US/Mexico border. His lawyer, Emily DeToto, brokered the surrender, which she sai was prompted by urgings from Landeros family. He is expected to be brought to Harris county in a few days to face charges of criminal mischief and felony graffiti.

Artistic Inns of Texas: New Fayetteville Red and White Gallery Hosts Moroles Show

red and whiteThere’s a new gallery in Fayetteville, TX, and it’s starting out with a bang: Joan and Jerry Herring of the new Red and White Gallery will host ubiquitous monumentalist Jesis’ Moroles “Rings of Granite,” opening January 12 at their space at 102 West Main. It’s their second show: the gallery opened in December 2012 with Edgar von Minden’s Fayetteville Buildings.

The Herrings just finished refurbishing the historic Red & White building on the square in Fayetteville; the oldest commercial building in the town was once a grocery store, post office, a dentist’s and an antique emporium, now it combines an art gallery and a four-bedroom inn, also run by the Herrings.
RW Inn Logo

Art Mag San Antonio’s 2012 Wrap Up: Shrinking Galleries Need Collectors, Artist-Run Spaces Carrying the Load

Blue-Star-art-centerHaydeé Muñoz De la Rocha of Art Magazine San Antonio has a detailed wrap-up of the state of the art in her city, noting the gallery closings at the newly-commercialized Blue Star Art Complex (which is still undergoing traffic-snarling renovations), the sprouting of new artist-run spaces which she calls the “core of San Antonio’s art scene,” the advent of the Southwest School of Art’s Graduate Program, a new sculpture building at UTSA, and the usual round of museum shows.

Dance Into The New Year with Artpix

Merce Cunningham Dance CompanyARTPIX, Houston-based art-magazine-on-a-disc, has released a 3-disc DVD, Merce Cunningham Dance Company: Park Avenue Armory Event 2011, in collaboration with the Merce Cunningham Trust. The DVDs document the final performance of the Cunningham Company at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue at 67th St. in New York on December 29-31, 2011. Six performances featuring fourteen dancers dancing “excerpts” of fifty years of choreography on three separate stages are a retrospective goodbye to an era in modern dance.

David Velasco writing in Artforum in December called it “One of the best films of 2012″, noting that it was “not released in theaters or shown at any festivals or streamed on Netflix or anywhere,” which of course makes it all the more exclusively desirable. Exclusivity notwithstanding, the set is still not overpriced- $60 from Microcinema International, or only 21 cents for each of the film’s 279 minutes! Feel free to sit, stand, or wander to observe the various dances being simultaneously performed on the three stages, all inside your TV!

2013 Texas Biennial Announces 5th Roundup of Texas Artists: Submit Now!

The organizers of the 2013 Texas Biennial invite all artists living and working in Texas to submit their stuff from now until February 28 for possible inclusion in the latest, 5th, edition of the sprawling, multi-city showcase. The Texas Biennial will take place September 5 – November 9,  with exhibitions in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Marfa. The central open-call survey show will be presented at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center in San Antonio, with selected performances during the run of the exhibition at CentralTrak in Dallas.

Additionally, a specially commissioned Biennial artist project will be presented by Ballroom Marfa, Lawndale Art Center in Houston and Big Medium in Austin will also host exhibitions of current work by selected past Biennial artists from August 23 – September 28.

Crow Collection Installs New Outdoor Sculptures

Dallas’ Crow Collection of Asian Art has installed several new works of Asian sculpture over the last few months as their outdoor sculpture garden nears completion: a stone Chinese warrior, used as ballast on cargo ships, a well-weathered, 9th century head of a “makara”, a composite crocodile/elephant beast  (sorry, no pic), and The Sweepers (2012) by Wang Shugang, three large cast iron figures sweeping with even larger brooms. The Crow Collection of Asian Art Sculpture Garden Opening Celebration is planned for October 2013.

Bad News From Bert Long, Dark Humor Welcomed

This news just in from Houston artist Bert Long and Joan Batson via Margaret Losinski:

“Unfortunately the news about Bert is not good. He has been diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer that has spread to other organs.

He is in good spirits and will undergo some chemo, although not the very aggressive, debilitating type. Bert and Joan are determined to make the next four (???) months as rewarding as possible, and are pleased to invite you to his show at Baptist U. on February 28th.

Feel free to send e-mails, etc. (dark humor always welcome) but don’t expect an instant reply, okay?

Best wishes to all, and love to those who deserve it.

Love Bert”

Long has had a number of medical issues arise since he fell and shattered his right shoulder October 5th. He was rushed to the VA hospital on December 26 with internal bleeding, for tests. Earlier this month, he sent a new year’s greeting from the hospital, thanking everyone for their kind wishes and emails.

X Marks the Art in San Antonio

X Marks the Art, a public/private arts initiative that aims to activate underutilized and vacant downtown properties in San Antonio opened its second round of installations in mid December. Titled “Cut and Paste” and curated by artist Cruz Ortiz, the show features over 15 installations, by 22 artists in 14 vacant downtown properties, loosely linked by the theme of “cutting” and “pasting” and conveying the artists’ expressions of living, working and playing in downtown. The installations will be on view for up to six months beginning in December 2012. X Marks the art is a program of Public Art San Antonio (PASA), a division of the Department for Culture and Creative Development.

Artists involved in this round include Adriana Garcia, Robert B. Gonzales, Esteban Delgado, Rigoberto Luna, Luis Valderas, Jenelle Esparza, Zane Carroll, Sage Gibson, Matt Damien Ritchie, Aldon Mines, Amada Miller, Tommy Hopkins, Shannon Gowen, Aaron Moreno, Chad Gamez and Say Si. Real estate partners include DH Realty, Hixon Properties, Peloton Commercial Real Estate, REATA Property Management Inc., Service Lloyd’s Insurance Co., Transwestern, Zurich Properties.

Descriptions of the projects and a map of the locations along Houston St. and neighboring blocks between Alamo Plaza and Soledad Streets are on the project’s website.

AFFA Sets Jan. 25 Meeting to Envision an Austin Folk Art Museum

Some folk art looking for a home

On June 30, 1988, Austin Friends of Folk Art was formally incorporated as a 501c3 non-profit organization, complete with bylaws, officers and directors, and a mission to promote public appreciation of folk art, which AFFA defines broadly enough to accommodate everything from urban mural art, Feng Shui and Southwest petroglyphs to Moroccan fortune-telling, Oaxacan wood carving and Byzantine icon painting.

They’ve been  holding movies nights, excursions, performances and bankrolling folk-art related initiatives ever since. Now they’re thinking of starting a museum. A meeting to envision a Folk Art Museum in Austin, will take place on January 25, 7 p.m. at St. Edwards university, 305 Fleck Hall, 3001 South Congress Ave., Austin. Expert panelists in attendance will include collector Lance Aaron; Gary Hoover, the zealous entrepreneur who founded (and then sold) Bookstop, and who, according to his website, “did an in-depth study of the museum industry and business opportunities, therein”, Marion Oettinger, SAMA’s curator of Latin American Art; UT Prof Ned Rifkin, former director of the Blanton museum; and Sherry Kafka Wagner, design consultant.

Local Police Statue Ripoff Suit Settled

The two statues, now BOTH by Bob Pack

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 of “the Guardian,” a statue of a police officer and boy sited in front of the Sugar Land Police Department. Big Statues created a similar statue of a police officer and a boy for the Pearland Police Station in 2010, based on photographs of “The Guardian” that were sent by an employee of the City of Pearland.

As a result of the settlement, all references related to Big Statues will be removed from the Pearland Statue   A plate will be added to the Pearland statue indicating that it is based on an original design by Pack Sports Bronzes.  Big Statues will also remove all photographs of the statue from its website, and destroy all molds of the Pearland Statue.  Other terms of the settlement are confidential.

“I’m pleased by the resolution of the lawsuit,” said Bob Pack.  “Artists should realize that there is valuable copyright protection for their works and that they have remedies if someone else appropriates all or a portion of their work without their permission.  Likewise, artists should take care not to use the works of others without their permission.”