Aurora Grows Roots: Wayward Micro-Cinema Moving to Medium-Cinema space
Swamplot has photos of Aurora Picture Show’s new digs at the old Molly Gotchman Art Compound just off Kirby Drive in Houston. The new space will give the film org it’s own place to show films again, which it has lacked since vacating founder Andrea Grover’s original church-turned-movie parlor on Aurora St. (now 14 Pews). [...]
Corpus Christi Galleries and the Rockport Art Center
Two weeks ago, I took a road trip to the coast to jury a student exhibition at Rockport Center for the Arts. I spent Saturday in downtown Corpus Christi which was deserted. Boarded-up, empty buildings dotted the urban landscape. I visited two galleries while in town. K Space featured intaglio prints by San Antonio artist [...]
Okay Mountain Drought Ends: Low Beer Just Does It on April 14
After a nearly two-year hiatus, Austin’s Okay Mountain Collective is opening a new show in a new space at 1619 Cesar Chavez St. Leif Low-beer’s Just Do It opens April 14.
Nonprofit Drought Ends: Blanton Joins Texas Museum Hiring Flood
The Blanton Museum in Austin has announced two new hires and one promotion, filling up vacancies. Colette Crossman, currently the Blanton’s administrator of arts and programs, will be Curator of Exhibitions, beginning April 1. She will oversee all aspects of exhibition planning and production and will serve as managing curator for traveling exhibitions hosted at [...]
Easter Orange Hunt Saturday
Houston’s Orange Show opens it’s 2012 season with the traditional Easter Orange Hunt on Saturday, March 31. Bring your kids to scour Jeff McKissack’s folk art creation for goodies, followed by a ceremonial blessing performance by Danza Azteca Teokalli de Houston. 10 a.m. at the Orange Show, 2402 Munger St.
Modernist Gatekeeper Hilton Kramer Dies at 84
Hilton Kramer, chief art critic for the NY Times from 1973-82, has died at age 84. Like many critics whose careers grew up with postwar American art, Kramer never feared voicing prescriptive, polarizing opinions. William Grimes, who wrote Kramer’s Times obituary said “Mr. Kramer took dead aim at a long list of targets: creeping populism [...]
The Changarrito Project
It’s not uncommon to walk the streets and stumble upon a vendor selling their wares laid out on top of a blanket directly on the street in Mexico City. This blanket, however, is not just for aesthetic purposes, or to keep the merchandise clean, it offers the vendor a quick and easy escape if a [...]
Rigoberto Gonzalez Alonso in Harlingen and Houston: Corridos Baroccos, Part II
Continued from Part I… V. Reynosa, Narcolandia and sad, sad data It’s important to point out that Rigoberto Gonzalez is not a Chicano artist, though he shares a lot of the same concerns, and is deeply interested in Chicano art and culture. But he’s a Mexican artist living (legally, understand) in the United States. He [...]
Art on the Green at Laguna Gloria
Art on the Green is an outdoor art installation brought to life by curator Andrea Mellard at AMOA-Arthouse’s Laguna Gloria. Austin artists, architects, and landscape architects were invited to design and create the nine miniature golf holes that can be found all over the Laguna Gloria grounds, the tenth by artist Brad Tucker is mysteriously [...]
San Antonio To Offer $25,000 Feature Film Production Grant
On March 15, San Antonio City Council unanimously approved the San Antonio Local Filmmakers Grant (LFG), a $25,000 grant to support local filmmakers who have at least $25,000 in funding commitments in place and have a feature-length motion picture in the pre-production stage in San Antonio. First-time filmmakers as well as film veterans are eligible [...]
Isabel Brown Wilson, Houston Philanthropist, Dies
Philanthropist Isabel Brown Wilson passed away on Tuesday, March 27 at the age of 80. Daughter of Houston entrepreneur George R. Brown and Alice Pratt Brown, she served on the boards of the Brown Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She was a patron of Rice University, and donated $14 million towards a [...]
20 Awkward Items on Richard Phillips, International Art God
Intro: This year’s honoree for Two x Two for AIDS and Art will be Richard Phillips, who is loved by celebrities and name-brand clothing and makes glossy, highly artificial compositions from appropriated sources. He gave an artist talk last week at the Dallas Museum of Art. 1. MAC cosmetics named a line of makeup after him. 2. [...]
GT News Net Hauls Old Boots and Dogfish: Cat Apps, Body Painting, Toilet Art
Some days it’s juicy scuffles, museum intrigues, outlandish art projects, or even valuable information; some days Texas arts-related news is old boots and dogfish. Culturemap Houston has a piece on iPad apps for cats, complete with nearly irresistable video of cats swiping at virtual fish in digital ponds, KIAH-TV features body painter Vonetta Berry brushing [...]
The Singularity of his Absence
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 [...]
UNCLASSIFIED: G Gallery Brawl Footage To Be Screened at Tribunal TONIGHT!
This just in: “Attention: HOUSTON, Ivete and I will be at G Gallery in Houston today at 6:30pm for a military tribunal in which the video of the opening will be UNCLASSIFIED and screened for the public. I will not be armed with the toy gun but you are all welcome to jump on my [...]
What I Saw When I Snuck Inside the Astrodome
An unnamed, curious Swamplot reader was “roaming around taking pictures at the Rodeo on Sunday when I noticed the ramp down to the floor of the Astrodome was open and there was no one there. I walked down the ramp, on to the field and started taking pictures.” Nosy Glasstire readers with pics and information [...]
Fort HMAAC: Chron Profiles CEO John Guess Jr.
The Houston Chroncle‘s Molly Glentzer profiles the latest progress at the newly opened Houston Museum of African American Culture on Caroline St., and its energetic director John Guess, Jr. Just down the row from the sparkling new Asia Society Texas Center, which also features contemporary art, the Buffalo Soldiers Museum, and the Caroline Collective, the [...]
Similar but Different #27: Glitter!
“In a world where proving yourself is everything”… I present Similar but Different #27: Glitter! Mariah Carey Oliver Herring “After its scheduled run, Meulensteen (formerly Max Protetch) took down their Oliver Herring show last week to the delight of neighboring gallerists. Many were complaining that Herring’s bags of glitter were the cause of stray glitter [...]
Factoid-Full DMA Dashboard Offers Real Time Museum Stats, But No Dirt
On Friday, the Dallas Museum of Art unveiled its new Dashboard website, offering the public access to real-time statistics on the Museum. They’re extensive, but not surprising, and laid out in such enormous blocks of space that it takes a lot of clicking and scrolling to view what, in the end, is a very limited [...]
Joan Grona Gallery to Close; Hard-Pressed Blue Star Plans Retail-Friendly Makeover
After twenty years as a mainstay of San Antonio’s Blue Star Art Complex, Joan Grona has announced that she will be closing her bricks and mortar gallery at the end of the month. Grona will stay in the art game, doing consulting, and will do some art herself. Steve Bennett of the San Antonio Express [...]
