Glasstire contributors offer up their picks for the best spring shows around the state. Think we missed something great? Post it in the comments section below! AUSTIN Alison Kuo: Colorful Food 1117 Garland January 4 – February 14 Former Austin resident and current School of Visual Art grad student, Alison Kuo will present a psychedelic [...]
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Apocalypse: Desire for the End
Oh how we long for the End! Is there not something slightly disappointing about waking up to an unchanged world after everything was supposed to be snuffed out? That small sense of dread, the apocalypse has not arrived and our daily routines resume as if nothing at all happened (because nothing at all did happen). [...]
Calvin Tomkins at the Menil
In celebration of the Menil Collection’s 25th anniversary this fall, Calvin Tomkins spoke at the Menil in conversation with director Josef Helfenstein. Because of the occasion, their discussion centered around artists connected to the Menils and Tomkins’ memories of John and Dominique de Menil. Tomkins even wore a kelly green tie in honor of John [...]
Michael Bise: Life On the List, Chapter 2
The Glasstire Drawing Project presents Chapter 2 of Michael Bise’s “Life On the List,” an autobiographical comic about life on the heart transplant list. For Chapter 1, click here. CHAPTER 2 Coverage of Houston artists has been made possible in part by the William A. Graham Fund.
The Ten List: Walk as Art
“Walking, in particular drifting, or strolling, is already – with the speed culture of our time – a kind of resistance…a very immediate method for unfolding stories.” – Francis Alÿs Lots of folks walk all the time and don’t call it art, but some of them do. In many parts of Houston, walking is so bizarre [...]
Vincent Valdez: Excerpts for John
Vincent Valdez: Excerpts for John is the eighth film in a series of short documentaries produced by Walley Films in association with Glasstire. Filmmakers Mark and Angela Walley began documenting the creation of a large scale painting by artist Vincent Valdez in the fall of 2010. The painting depicts Valdez’s best friend from childhood, John [...]
On Art, Economic Impact, and the Dark Side of Free Market Capitalism
Three things: 1. Amid the brouhaha following Paul Schimmel’s departure from MoCA this summer, Eli Broad was quoted in the LA Times as estimating the value of MoCA’s exhibits by the cost per attendee: Total cost of exhibition ÷ Number of attendees = cost per attendee Broad complained that some of MoCA’s shows had cost over $100 [...]
The Marfa Dialogues: Art, Science, Drought, Food and Beer
It wasn’t ’til Sunday morning that I got the point of the Marfa Dialogues, an extended look at art, culture and climate change over Labor Day weekend. We were trooping across the chaparral on Mimm’s ranch north of town in the company of Dr. Bonnie Warnock, a range scientist with Sul Ross University. Warnock described [...]
2012 Fall Preview
Glasstire contributors offer up their picks for Fall 2012! AUSTIN Emily Roysdon: Pause Pose Discompose Visual Arts Center September 21 – December 8, 2012 Super smart curator and art historian Andy Campbell invited New York- and Stockholm-based artist Emily Roysdon to take over the VAC’s Vaulted Gallery for the fall semester. I first heard of Roysdon in [...]
Museum Expansion and the MFAH
A few weeks ago, Artnews’ feature on Gary Tinterow discussed the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s plans to build a new wing for modern and contemporary art, at a cost of $250 to $300 million. The museum has announced the project’s architect, Steven Holl, but has not yet made a case for the expansion publicly. [...]
Art Narc: A ‘Gallery Girl’ on “Gallery Girls”
Some of you may have seen “Gallery Girls,” the new Bravo “reality” show which premiered on August 13. For those of you who are less of a slave to Bravo’s programming than I sadly am, what this show claims to do is to give you “a glimpse of the super cutthroat world in which these [...]
Laura Lark Loves You #4: Following The Rules
Dear Laura, I think I’m ready to approach a gallery about showing my work, and maybe even ask them to represent me as an artist. I’ve heard from older artists that it’s sort of like dating. Is that true? And if it is, how do I know if I’m ready to date, and are [...]
Glass Satire: Serras Interruptus
Bryan Miller launches his new series, Glass Satire, with scenes from Richard Serra at the Menil.
Dear Young DFW Whippersnapper Artists
The new normal should be anything but. Time to fuck shit up. Dear Young DFW Whippersnapper Artists, Whatever the last “up” economy may have taught you, in your teen years, about what art is, how it should look in an art fair booth or ad in Artforum, how it’s valued, how famous you can [...]
A Modest Proposal: Nasher vs Museum Tower
I really don’t understand the brouhaha over this Museum Tower thing. All I see are opportunities. Perhaps the lawyers on both sides lack vision. Lawyers, arbitrators, city council members. Not Jeremy Strick, or the press, of course. Clearly, the Tower and its creators are at fault. That’s well established. But Nasher’s hands are tied, and [...]
Glass Houses 24: Geoff Hippenstiel
Geoff Hippenstiel is a Houston-based painter whose work was recently featured in a solo exhibition at Devin Borden Gallery, two years after receiving his MFA from the University of Houston. Influenced by painting giants Luc Tuymans, Robert Ryman, and Georg Baselitz, Hippenstiel spends his time layering paint onto canvas in a 1200-square-foot studio in [...]
Seven Most Annoying Misconceptions About LA
Not unlike Texas, Los Angeles suffers from some art world stereotypes. In honor of our recently launched Southern California site, Glasstire SoCal, we present Los Angeles writer Carol Cheh’s “Seven Most Annoying Misconceptions About LA.” There are some interesting Texas parallels to be found; see number 2 in particular. Los Angeles is the most [...]
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 [...]
Rigoberto Gonzalez Alonso in Harlingen and Houston: Corridos Baroccos, Part I
I. Some Art Context I have so much to show you. This is the first painting I ever saw by Rigoberto Gonzalez. It appeared in the Virginia Rutledge-curated Texas Biennial show of 2011, and it stopped me cold. The marriage of subject matter and technique felt shockingly fresh. This is a hell of an accomplishment; [...]
Abstraction Triumvirate: Richard Serra, Joel Shapiro, Jules Olitski
When Richard Serra’s drawing retrospective opened at the Menil Collection, it was SERRAPALOOZA. Throngs of people congregated at the Menil, many of us on the outside lawn in festival fashion, to hear Serra in conversation with the Menil’s Michelle White, one of the exhibition’s curators. Having just spent the last few months working with the [...]