Remembering AfriCOBRA
Some say that Black History month no longer needs to be celebrated. The belief is that these marginalized histories can be framed beyond the margins and understood within larger conversations of American history, and most importantly celebrated throughout the year not simply for one month. Maybe this is also the case with Black arts, maybe [...]
Byzantine Frescos to Go-Go as Chapel Closes Sunday, March 4.
March 4 will be the final day to see the Byzantine frescoes currently nestled in their frosted glass framework at the Menil’s Byzantine Fresco Chapel. The works, which the Menil rescued, then borrowed from the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, are being returned at the conclusion of a 28-year loan. Explorations are underway on how best [...]
Vultures of Vicious Venue Grab the People’s Choice Award
The City of Austin Cultural Arts Division has announced that shawn Smith’s Vicious Venue, a sculptural installation of digital vultures made frompainted balsa wood, is the People’s Choice selection from the 2011 People’s Gallery exhibition and has been added to the permanent art collection at City Hall. Smith’s sculpture depicts three life-sized vultures viciously recycling [...]
Los Angeles Wrap Up: Part One
I flew down to LA last week in honor of CAA, The College Art Association. While the majority of my peers went to panels, school reunions, and were either interviewers or interviewees at the conference; I spent my time being driven, palling around with friends, eating way too much: And seeing some great art. Here [...]
Artists Selected for El Paso’s 2012 Round of Roundabouts
The City of El Paso has selected the first three artists for their new prioritized 2012 public art plan : Margarita Cabrera, Jose Cano and Anna Jacquez have been chosen from among from 25 submissions to each create pieces for city roundabouts.
CSAW Lives! (well, on Facebook, anyway)
To get yourself in a properly industrial mood for the upcoming Lone Star Performance Explosion, take a look at Facebook group CSAW Lives! True Stories of Commerce Street Artists Warehouse, dedicated to rehashing tales of one of Houston’s first and longest running alterna-venues.
Shepard Fairey Pleads Guilty to Evidence Shredding; May Face Prison
Street artist Shepard Fairey, (wearing a suit!) pled guilty to misdemeanor criminal contempt charges connected with his altering evidence in a 2009 court battle over his use of a copyrighted photograph as the basis for his renowned Barack Obama Hope poster. Fairey admitted deleting documents and fabricating others and lying to his lawyers after one [...]
Heizer’s Big Rock On The Move, Slowly
The LA Times‘ Deborah Vankin reports that the enormous rock for artist Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been levitated. Emmert Costruction has lifted the 340 ton rock onto a custom-built steel transportation frame that began crawling from Stove Valley quarry in Riverside County to downtown Los Angeles [...]
ACT Plots Austin Arts District with CAC
Austin Coming Together (ACT), “committed to ProACTive community building,” had its monthly meeting last Thursday, and among other Austin-boosting things on the agenda was the creation of an Austin Arts District. The acronym-and-flow-chart-style community development inititive is reportedly “working with the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Stay tuned!
San Angelo Pioneers Micro-Scene Art Collaborations
In San Angelo, museums, artists, students and university faculty all pull hard together to create a vital art scene from a less than critical mass. Ami Mizell-Flint in the San Angelo Standard-Times reports on how cosy relationships between Angelo State University and the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts put life into the art scene [...]
350 Words: “Glenn Ligon: America”
I have followed Glenn Ligon’s work over the past twenty years. He’s not known for his subtlety. In fact, he deliberately provokes his viewers. Given that his work examines race, gender and politics in such raw and unblinking ways, I admit I was pleasantly surprised that The Modern was willing to take the risk of [...]
One Night, Three Openings, a Victory and a Gringa
I had an art trek. There were three openings and I was determined to make it to all of them. I succeeded (mostly). Opening #1 was a performance piece by Rosemberg Sandoval from Columbia. The Ex Teresa is a young, fun, experimental space and most of its audience is full of punky kids in their [...]
Mona Hatoum and the aesthetics of melancholy
I’ve loved Mona Hatoum‘s work since I first saw it in 1993 at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens–an experience that still emerges from the mists of time on a regular basis, as one of those signal encounters with contemporary art. The exhibition was called Four Rooms and Hatoum was one of four artists, but her’s is [...]
Met Star Floral Designer Chris Giftos Emergency Guest of Honor at DMA Art in Bloom Luncheon
Chris Giftos, former Director of Special Events and Master Floral Designer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to step in as the keynote speaker and guest of honor for the Dallas Art Museum League’s upcoming Art In Bloom event, scheduled for March 26, after the unexpected death on January 14 of the announced [...]
The Lone Cupcake Survey: Is This the End or Just The Beginning?
Is it the last gasp of artistic desperation? Drawing’s ironic abasement before the god of photography? Or just way to make a little money? Houston artist Whitney Riley is starting a “stay at home mommy business”- building on the popularity of her hand-sketched pet portraits, she’s restyled herself as “The Lone Cupcake-Personal Artist” and is [...]
Rice: More, Plensa, Please
Rice University dedicated a pair of big, seated figures by Jaume Plensa at a ceremony on the Rice campus last tuesday. The piece, titled Mirror, is similar in style to Plensa’s Tolerance, the series of kneeling stainless-steel figures along buffalo Bayou in Houston, except that you can go inside them and poke your face out [...]
Artadia gets Houston Endowment Money, Kanner Steps Down
Artadia, “the fund for art and dialog” has just announced a big multi-year grant from the Houston Endowment for its upcoming programs. In other Artadia news, longtime executive director Lila Kanner will step down. A search for her replacement is underway.
Ken Price, 1935 – 2012
Iconic LA sculptor Ken Price, 77, died early today after struggling with tongue and throat cancer for several years. He recently completed preparations for his retrospective, which opens this fall at LACMA and travels to the Nasher Sculpture Center next year. Christopher Knight’s extensive obituary chronicles Price’s early education, his breakout shows at Ferus Gallery [...]
Biggest Open House in Texas: Explore UT to Again Feature Temporary Art Project
UT’s Blanton Museum has commissioned alum Jules Buck Jones to create a temporary outdoor installation in the museum’s Faulkner Plaza for the annual Explore UT event, set for March 3, when thousands of young visitors tour the campus. This is the Blanton’s second outdoor commission, it follows the much-loved Knitted Wonderland by Austin resident and [...]
New Temporary New Gallery
Houston’s New Gallery/Thom Andriola celebrates it’s relocation into temporary quarters at 3225 Milam, next to PG Contemporary, with a grand opening on March 2 from 6-8. The gallery is in transition: on the way to their new permanent home in the former Sicardi Gallery building at 2246 Richmond Ave. With the new space comes a [...]
