aether issue seven- fall/winter 2014 by Aether Magazine

aether a visual arts dialogue

AUSTIN fall/winter 2014

ae Collaborators

EDITORS Rachel Stephens Partner • Wally Workman Gallery Judith Taylor Director/ Owner • Gallery Shoal Creek

CONTRIBUTORS Veronica Ceci is an artist and Master Printer living in Austin, Texas. This year she has exhibited at the Select Fair NYC as well as the Rahr-West Museum of Art, completed her MFA at Kent State University, and been featured in the book Artists To Look Out For, Volume 1. Steve Wiman is an assemblage artist and owner of an unusual antique store in Austin, Texas, Uncommon Objects. In 2014, he participated in the transFIGURATION Project with the Rino Pizzi Exhibition at Canopy and was featured in KLRU's Art in Context documentary on the transFIGURATION Project. Joel Nolan is an architect and furniture maker living in Austin, Texas. He is founder of joelnolandesign and cofounder of Space Camp, an architecturally rooted duo working to produce art installations in public spaces. Erin Keever is a writer and teacher living in Austin, Texas. She currently teaches a variety of art history classes at Austin Community College and an Issues in Contemporary Art class at Texas State University. Laura Harrison is the Assistant Director of Gallery Shoal Creek. She has a degree in art and sociology from Southwestern University and loves all things design. Her recent adventures include decorating the White House for the holidays. Katie Robinson Edwards, Ph.D., is Curator of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum in Austin. Elizabeth Tigar is a former entrepreneur, sometimes designer, and avid pun enthusiast. She recently completed her MBA at McCombs School of Business with a special focus on the integration of business and design strategies. Catherine Zinser is the Education Coordinator for Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin. Tara Barton is a manager of scientific journals, aspiring author, dancer, and student of permaculture. Jude Richard is an art-loving medical writer in Austin. Copyright © 2014 by AETHER. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part, without the express written permission of the publisher, is prohibited. aether, fall/winter 2014 • contact@aetherart.com • www.aetherart.com COVER: Sydney Yeager, Ricochet, oil on linen, 60 x 48 in. ABOVE: Hollis Hammonds, Aftermath, ink on mylar, 8 x 10 ft.

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aether There are few regional vehicles for in-depth writing about the visual arts. In publishing aether, our goal is to provide insightful content which in turn will generate dialogue amongst art enthusiasts and collectors – both novice and seasoned. Our writers make this possible. Each is actively involved in the creative fabric of the community and contributes to the success of aether at every step of the way, from conception to publication. Joel Nolan introduces our fall issue with a walk through Austin streets. His tour highlights the landscape of the city’s street art and the sense of community that emerges. “Each instance,” he notes, “is individual in nature, telling a story that is specific to its own time and place and adding to the ever-changing identity of Austin.” The theme of the human experience is a common thread throughout this issue. In Drawing Beauty from Ruin, Susannah Morgan talks of Hollis Hammonds’ obsession with destruction. Whether it be “tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, [or] fires, her eye is drawn to the rubble and personal artifacts that follow in the wake of disaster.” Elizabeth Tigar visits painter Elizabeth Chapin at her renovated Victorian home and realizes that, like her house, “[n]one of Chapin’s pieces come without a story.” Tigar goes on to say, “Telling other people’s stories is not an easy thing. It’s a very fine line to walk for any artist, between emotional engagement and objectivism.” Printmaker Alice Leora Briggs creates narrative worlds inspired by patients living in an asylum on the outskirts of Juárez. In Peering into Darkness, Veronica Ceci discusses how observation and process merge in Briggs’ complex woodcuts. “On her sojourns to this dangerous city, a wellspring for her imagery, the artist collects moments from the present which also operate in artistic traditions of the past.” In interviewing David Johndrow, Laura Harrison discovers that he is highly articulate about his two passions: nature and the photographic process. He “often finds his muse in his hill country garden. Each insect, spider or lizard is approached as a model for a formal portrait, set against the backdrop of the subject’s natural habitat,” she begins, before detailing the photographer’s mastery of movement between 18th century techniques and digital technology. The issue is packed with insightful content. Enjoy reading, explore the art; then engage a friend to continue the art dialogue - The Editors

Andrea Heimer, Mistakes Stick Like Gum On Elderberry Street, acrylic and pencil on board, 11x14 in.

Contents 6

YOU ARE HERE /

Street Art in Austin

Midcentury Modern Art in Texas

ELIZABETH CHAPIN /

A LOOK EAST /

Gravity and Splendor

SYDNEY YEAGER /

From Deconstruction, Transformation

DAVID JOHNDROW /

Process

ALICE LEORA BRIGGS /

Peering into Darkness

BOOKSHELF /

Photo MĂŠthode, Art.Science.Gallery., and grayDUCK Gallery

HOLLIS HAMMONDS /

Drawing Beauty from Ruin

ANDREA HEIMER /

Folk & Dagger: Suburban Secrets

DATEBOOK /

Recommended happenings aether

Central Austin, all photos by Joel Nolan

You are Here by JOEL NOLAN

For over 40,000 years humans have been using

some version of paint to tell their unique and individual stories. The oldest known instance of these early paintings can be found in the Cave of El Castillo, located in Northern Spain. Here Paleolithic era man used charcoal and red ochre to create dozens of red disks and stencils of his hands. To produce these, the artists would place their hands on the wall of the cave and blow pigment around them, leaving behind the negative image of their hands. Since these people did not yet have a written language, the hands can be equated to present-day tagging found throughout graffiti culture. In several ancient tombs of Egypt craftsman would carve their names or distasteful images of the Pharaoh to express their opinion before permanently sealing off the entrance to the tomb. Given that the ancient Egyptians held these places to be sacred and a portal to the afterlife, these defamations would be considered disgraceful and a clear example of someone making a political

statement. During World War II one name in particular became identified with graffiti, "Kilroy". Although its origin is debated, I tend to believe Kilroy worked in a bomb plant in Detroit where, after checking a bomb for defects, he would scrawl in white chalk "Kilroy Was Here" on its side. These bombs found their way throughout war torn Europe and "Kilroy" soon became a celebrity among US servicemen. As American forces took back towns from the Germans, a soldier would customarily write "Kilroy Was Here" on whatever wall was left standing. There is virtually no way to pinpoint the beginning of modern graffiti, but most pioneers in the art agree that it sprung out of the social unrest of the 1960s, the re-emergence of gangs, and the invention of spray paint. During the 1960s in Philadelphia, "Cornbread" and his partner "Kool Earl" defined the role of the modern day graffiti writer. For Cornbread it began with a few tags as a way to get attention from a girl

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Railroad bridge from Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge over Lady Bird Lake

“The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.” –William H. Whyte but quickly turned into a full-time mission once he began receiving more widespread recognition. Cornbread and Kool Earl’s exploits were chronicled by the black press, and the two soon began to feed off each other. About this same time in New York "Taki 183," who regularly travelled throughout the city working as a messenger, would use a marker to print his name wherever he went, including subway stations and the inside and outside of subway cars. His tag was seen all over the city, and he quickly gained enough attention to be interviewed by the New York Times magazine for an article about the growing graffiti culture. Kids all over New York, realizing the fame and notoriety that could be gained from tagging their names on subway cars, began to emulate Taki 183, and the amount of graffiti on trains exploded.

Over the next few decades street art or mural art, a very distinct subgenre of graffiti, began to evolve and gain increasing attention and acceptance as refined artistic expression rather than illegal nuisance. More specifically in Austin, Texas, the more ubiquitous graffiti subculture has focused predominantly on the art rather than delinquency. Due to the pervasiveness of social media and the simple fact that just about every individual is now equipped with a camera in his or her phone, one might assume the incidence of street art and murals has increased in Austin, but historically this was always a large component of the city. In 1974, artists Kerry Awn, Tom Bauman, and Rick Turner were commissioned to paint a mural for the University Co-Op describing Austin’s exceptional

individuality and personality. Titled "Austintatious," this eclectic depiction of Austin has weathered forty years and is a direct visual link to an "Old Austin" soul that so many people are working hard to keep alive today. Because of its quirky details, references to local culture, and adjacency to the UT campus, this mural has become a landmark in itself, quickly winning over the attention and adulation of anyone passing through the Renaissance Market. In 1986, artist John Fisher created the Sesquicentennial mural titled The Middle Passage on the side of the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center. This was Austin’s first public library building and a museum dedicated to preserving African American culture through assorted forms of art. This vibrant and complex image promotes African history and is dedicated to those that did not survive

the middle passage as slaves on trans-Atlantic ships. In 1991, while on tour promoting their Nevermind album, Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain was photographed wearing a t-shirt showcasing Daniel Johnston’s "Jeremiah The Innocent" character from Johnston's 1983 album cover. In 1993, the owner of what was then the Sound Exchange record store commissioned Johnston to paint his iconic frog on the side of his building. Surviving over 20 years of Texas heat, various bouts of construction, and the occasional vandal, this one, somewhat simple, image and slogan of "Hi, How are you?" spawned an entire industry and made it cool to be from Austin when Texas was more widely viewed as a strictly conservative state. In 2010, local musician Amy Cook adorned the side of Jo’s coffee shop with a simple, but beautifully scripted message

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to her then girlfriend. In the few years since, the "I Love You So Much" message has taken on a life of its own and become an Austin icon. In 2011, Castle Hill Partners agreed to a proposal from The HOPE Campaign, a non-profit that connects artists with social causes, allowing artists to work at the abandoned construction site located on Baylor Street just off of North Lamar. Every inch is filled with a constantly changing array of tags, murals, messages, and wheat paste pieces. These are just a few well-known examples of the varied landscape of street art in Austin. Each instance is individual in nature, telling a story that is specific to its own time and place and adding to the ever-changing identity of Austin. Rooted in an enormous concern for their shared environment,

Austinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inhabitants have historically defined a significant character of the city to be found based on the quality of its public space. These public spaces are a valuable asset to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success because they facilitate a sense of community, culture, and civic identity. In public spaces where street art emerges, the expressive and authentic nature of the art can add significantly to the emotional connection the user accumulates from the space, leaving him or her with a more impassioned spatial memory of both the immediate place and the city as a whole. In a time of a rapidly expanding global culture, street art can add to a sensation of individuality, both as a unique place within the city and as a collective singular within the context of a larger state and/or nation. ae

All three photos from HOPE Outdoor Gallery at 1012 Baylor St. Austin, Texas

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Elizabeth Chapin

Gravity and

Splendor by ELIZABETH TIGAR

The thing about older homes in Austin is that you never know exactly what you will encounter once you walk in the door. A cozy 1930s bungalow might, one, be painted electric green, and two, be filled with the brass and lucite furniture of 1970s designer Milo Baughman. A low-lying, midcentury ranch-style home could be bedecked with tight floral patterns (so ubiquitous in the early nineties), right down to the the wallpaper. So, approaching artist Elizabeth Chapin, who greets me at the door of her house–an authentic twostory Victorian in South Austin that she and her husband have been in the process of restoring and renovating for the last eight years–I honestly did not know what to expect once I was on the other side of the threshold. The first thing I see is the living room (parlour, if you will), painted a pale robin’s egg blue, a color that might have been on the walls over 100 years ago when the home was first built. The contents of the room, however, are entirely un-Victorian. Two barrel-back wing chairs are upholstered in bright pink velvet; an arrangement of pillows in various patterns and sizes covers a low-lying settee under the window. There’s a garland string and dried flowers– hanging from the mantle of the fireplace. It’s Chapin’s handiwork: an element she used, I later come to know, in a painting of her daughter. I’m struck by these bold combinations, so enviably effortless. And the lovely burst of sentimentality and love that the garland adds to the room. The space

is, in fact, not unlike her work: a remarkable mix of color and texture that feels familiar and yet entirely unique. She has embraced the bones of this 19th century home, honoring the traditionalism, while also infusing it with a kind of electric modernism and soft poignancy. Like her work, too, the home and its interior are so compelling you want to linger a bit longer admiring the details, soaking in the color palette, and understanding the story. None of Chapin’s pieces come without a story. This is something you immediately understand once you see her work. She paints people, almost exclusively. (In fact, she is usually kept so busy with commissioned portraiture that, when asked to do a show for Wally Workman Gallery, she had to step away from commission work entirely, for more than a year.) Nearly all of those people are facing forward, making “eye contact” with the viewer. Every expression, every subject is unique, and it’s the directness–viewer to subject, eyeballs to eyeballs–that makes each piece feel so real, and so honest. This emotional frankness is a reflection of how Chapin approaches making each work. She’s not usually painting for the sake of painting; she is painting for the sake of telling the story of each person she paints, unfiltered by her own assumptions. “I’m interested in peoples’ stories but . . . . I would like to think that whenever I paint someone, I start completely all over again . . . . I walk into their

Lester & Margaret, 2014, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in. (Previous Page) The Velvet Glove, 2014, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in.

situation completely open, no agenda, and just see what I can find there. What happens is the stories come out even if the people are very reticent or trying to not give me anything . . . . Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something.â&#x20AC;? The best example of this, from those hanging in Wally Workman Gallery this month, is Lester & Margaret, a portrait of an older couple, seated at a

table. The viewer sees them as if they were seated across from the viewer at dinner. The spread of food could have been torn directly from a page of Bon AppĂŠtit magazine circa 1956. There are deviled eggs surrounding an aspic mold, pickles and salad dressings in cut crystal vessels. The dinner, however, did not happen in 1956, it happened this year. Margaret and Lester are an older Texas aether

(L) If the River Were Whisky, 2014, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in. (R) Round Top, 2014, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in.

couple whose traditional values are increasingly challenged by contemporary culture. They are people of faith, born in a different era, struggling somewhat silently to accept the changing cultural landscape that contradicts their ingrained values. Chapin, fascinated by the manifestation of their battle with themselves and with the modern era, knew she wanted to paint them. Chapin always begins with photographs of the subjects she paints, sitting with them, capturing many, many images, all of which she then uses when she begins to compose a painting. Somewhat reluctantly, Margaret and Lester agreed to let her photograph them, but refused any setting for the photos other than their home, over a formal dinner that they insisted on preparing for Chapin and her husband. The scene speaks perfectly to the couple’s state of being. Their expressions are gracious, but clearly somewhat reserved: Margaret’s lips are upturned but drawn, Lester’s arm is reaching over to her clasping her hand, as if to reassure her. The two are “dressed for dinner” in the most traditional sense (Lester, Chapin tells me, always wears a bow tie). They have embraced this experience–letting someone into their home for the purpose of photographing and

then painting them–but they have put their own boundaries upon it, ensconced this foreign idea within familiar customs. The elements–the table spread, the couple’s outfits, their expressions– come together to tell a story more complex than dinner at a lovely older couple’s home. It is a story about resistance and change, about decorum and acceptance. Looking broadly, several other of Chapin’s pieces are odes, of a sort, to members of an aging generation and their honored traditions. Be it breakfast or pocket watches, we see what these people do (or wear) that keep those traditions alive in the own lives. Like Lester & Margaret, Round Top and If The River Were Whisky render each of the subjects in full “regalia,” in their meticulous uniforms that are both protective and emblematic. In each of these paintings, the subjects (both male) do not come across as costumed relics, they are dignified and somewhat iconic, and the whole composition emotes a gravity that takes the piece beyond regular portraiture into a real human narrative. Telling other people’s stories is not an easy thing.

It’s a very fine line to walk for any artist, between emotional engagement and objectivism. Without some kind of compassion, a story is just a dictation, and the telling of it no more interesting than when a court stenographer is asked to repeat, verbatim, what a witness has just said. To that effect, it is this writer’s personal opinion that, for anyone who creates, be it painting, writing, photography, even woodwork, your creations are always, ultimately, about yourself. Still, being with Chapin in her studio, as well as walking through the show at Wally Workman, I didn’t see a body of work that was all about Chapin. I saw pieces that were truly about the people she painted. Every piece demonstrative of her own authentic process of giving life, and honor, to each story. It’s not her projections, but her empathy that comes through. “I would like to think of myself as an emotional journalist. As much as I can do that, that is what I want to do, what interests me . . . . At the end of the day [I am still] being faithful to these people, loving of these people. Coming from any other space would feel . . . inauthentic. Like theft.”

Rendering truth on canvas while also being loving of those whose truth you are rendering is not an easy feat. But Chapin does it. She does it even when the truth is raw and dark. In God’s Song, you see a young man wearing just shorts stretched on a sofa, head on a woman’s lap, feet on a man’s. As with everything she does, Chapin’s deft hand is at work, gouache over paint, bright colors and saturated hues that aren’t at all at odds with one another. The details of the rug, the woman’s shoes, the small tuft of chest hair on the boy are rendered meticulously and vibrantly. Also rendered with care is a large, wishbone-shaped scar across the boy’s stomach. You can’t deny the agony of the situation, just looking at the piece, even if you don’t know the background story. In Waiting for Apollo, a topless woman, painted to a scale just slightly larger than life, stands bare-chested wearing only underwear (Depends®, to be specific) and pink slippers. Her agedness and state of disarray are both apparent: her face is lined, her hair is disheveled, the skin on her thighs a bit loose. But the feel of this piece, and of God’s Song, is not desperate. It is honest, somewhat brutally, but the presentation isn’t bullish.

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Where some artists might push rawness in your face, like a challenge to not look away, Chapin invites you into the raw, to explore the real pain that is there. But also, to explore the beauty you can find, intermixed with that pain. The boy in God’s Song is the only child of the man and woman in the painting with him. The scar on his belly is the result of surgeries for an aggressive form of liver cancer (his cancer was diagnosed his first week in college). The intimacy of their poses and composure is tender, and also beautiful. The adult son, long past days of cuddling with Mom or Dad, now rests his body on both parents, a gesture

that offers comfort to each of them in their most dire times. It’s poignant, but gracefully so. Waiting for Apollo is a painting of Chapin’s motherin-law (the same woman in Strawberries and Pills). Chapin was her caretaker during the early stages of the onset of Alzheimer’s, a disease that transforms even the most formidable figures into people who need help with every basic task of living, from breakfast to the bathroom. The piece lets you see her through Chapin’s eyes. You are part of both the physical and emotional intimacy of their relationship. She is a diminished version of her once formidable self, stripped of her autonomy. The

God's Song, 2014, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in.

painting gives her dignity, however, not derision or judgment. Again Chapin is inviting you to experience the pain, but, mostly, what you witness is the love, tenderness, and trust that is there. “Even in the most abject of circumstances, there are moments of splendor.” Chapin paraphrased that quote more than once (originally from a TED talk by Andrew Solomon, Strange Love and Illuminating Splendor) while we spoke in her studio, an airy single-room building adjacent to her house, as she told me the stories of the people in each of her paintings. If there are

better words to describe what Chapin is able to capture in these most visceral of her works, I’m not the person to write them. Even with the other pieces in the show, which are absent of anything as abject as a young man’s cancer or a loved one’s degenerative disease, Chapin finds the graceful, lovely parts of someone’s story and brings those to life, literally in Technicolor, on canvas. Through every vibrant layer of color and media, there is still an emotional gravity to every painting. You might find yourself transfixed, because the result is, inarguably, splendid. ae

w w w.w a lly w ork ma ng a lle r y.com

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FROM DECONSTRUCTION, TRANSFORM by ERIN KEEVER

Accelerato, oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.

MATION

Sydney Yeager’s exhibition, Persistent Memories, features work she produced during the last five years. The title of the exhibition connotes the past, but her most recent paintings communicate a distinguishable change in direction, from all-over abstraction to figure-ground work.

Photos taken of demolition sites along Texas State Highway 290 inspire Yeager’s newest paintings. Rather mundane images of bent and twisted metal remnants have been transformed into colorful, curving painted shapes on canvas. Specific architectural carnage is now unrecognizable, yet somehow structurally familiar. In addition to possessing prominent referents from the contemporary world, Yeager’s dynamic forms, like rotating links, conjure historical examples of abstraction. Echoes of Ferdinand Léger’s mechanical crescents and tubes can be discerned although without crammed composition and crisp definition. Yeager’s brushwork ranges from open and assertive to delicate and nuanced. Like in Futurism, destruction and

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“The question is whether these fragments are nostalgic reminders of the past, or the beginnings of a new form. The answer is never clear, and is always interesting to me.” - Sydney Yeager

creation are related, but one is not predicated on the other and there are no political implications. Other influences Yeager cites include Baroque fresco, which is not surprising considering the degree of movement and energy in the figureground paintings. Use of metallic paints in 2014’s Accelerato combines a silvery veiled background with thin crisscross golden marks that float like delicate twigs on a pond. Even if unintentionally, Yeager’s gold and silver backgrounds allude to Byzantine iconography along with the role of the artist as alchemist. In her alchemy, Yeager applies knowledge gleaned from multiple trips to Italy, where she enjoys

studying Ancient Roman mosaics and frescoes such as the Second Style Gardenscape from Livia’s Villa on view at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. Yeager is particularly interested in partially restored works. Similar to her highway demolition sites, patched together wall paintings suggest ruin, but also the fragmentary and fleeting qualities of nature. The title of the show (from a painting) evokes not just the past, but also its endurance. Like Wassily Kandinsky and his lyrical figure-ground “compositions,” Yeager’s latest works possess musical titles such as Accelerato, Bellicoso, Tango, and Chord. Perhaps they reflect the complicated rhythms and inevitability of life’s transitions, sometimes turbulent, other times more graceful.

Yeager Exhibit at Gallery Shoal Creek. Photo by Scott David Gordon.

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Sway, oil on linen, 72 x 72 in.

As the artist says, “The question is whether these fragments are nostalgic reminders of the past, or the beginnings of a new form. The answer is never clear, and is always interesting to me.” ae Sydney Yeager: Persistent Memory runs from August 29 through October 26 at The Gallery at Vaudeville, 230 East Main Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624, 830-992-3234, vaudeville-living.com/ gallery. Sydney Yeager’s work will also be on view this fall at Gallery Shoal Creek in a three-person exhibition with Marc Burckhardt and Rebecca Cohen. 2832 E. MLK Jr. Blvd. Suite 3, 512-4546671, galleryshoalcreek.com.

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SYDNEY YEAGER:

AT HOME IN HISTORIC SPACES A note from Steve Wiman, artist and owner of Uncommon Objects

Photo Courtesy of The Gallery at Vaudeville

The dark and beautiful wood floors gleam in the late afternoon light. The white gallery walls are spotless. The rustic exposed brick walls and cavernously tall ceilings anchor the space in history. The Gallery at Vaudeville in Fredericksburg, Texas, is such the perfect setting for the current showing of paintings by Sydney Yeager. Perfect because of the fact that all the work was created in a studio space in Elgin, Texas, which shares all these same physical characteristics. Sydney's studio in the old Elgin Opera House is, however, anything but spotless. The wood floors are covered with a carpet of paintspattered cardboard which Sydney has laid and replaces regularly to keep the integrity of the historic flooring. The walls have not been spotless since the day Sydney first started painting there almost 16 years ago. Still, the similarity of the studio and gallery spaces is uncanny. The time-worn essence of each is palpable. I have known Sydney and her work for almost three decades. I have seen it morph into the poetic abstraction of recent years. On the crisp white walls and on the amazingly beautiful ancient brick surfaces which punctuate the gallery, these paintings are alive with conversation. They speak of a remarkable period of growth and exploration.

David

Johndrow

Process by LAURA HARRISON

Recognized for his intimate wildlife portraits, David Johndrow often

finds his muse in his hill country garden. Each insect, spider, or lizard is approached as a model for a formal portrait, set against the backdrop of the subject’s natural habitat. Choosing natural light to shoot, Johndrow also uses an extension tube instead of a telephoto lens, bringing him inches away from his subject. Following each model closely, he captures each distinct personality. A darkroom enthusiast, Johndrow becomes an alchemist, spending hours perfecting the methods to achieve his desired imagery. His current show at Photo Méthode Gallery features prints offering five different processes. He spends hours getting each technique just right – usually setting up his darkroom to work with a particular process for about a year before transitioning to the next. When printing, he draws from his vast collection of images, both old and new. A photograph often won’t show its full potential until printed with the right combination of methods. In all of his images, Johndrow moves back and forth between traditional and digital technology. He prefers to use digital not as capture, but in the intermediate processes. For example, with the platinum/palladium Long Horn Beetle, 2010, hand-printed platinum/palladium print from film, 10 x 10 in., edition of 15

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and the gum bichromate, he’ll scan the film and output it to a digital negative. This allows enlarging the image with much less intensive labor, which he appreciates: “You still have to have the eye, and you still have to translate the image from one medium into the other, but it sure takes out a lot of the work.” The original cyanotypes are also scanned due to their delicate and temporary nature and some are “reversed” so that they emerge in a beautiful golden brown tone that perfectly complements the original blues of cyanotype. David Johndrow's Blue Alembic series, recently completed, is featured in his current solo exhibition, Natural Light, at Photo Méthode Gallery at the Flatbed Building. Also on view is the Terrestrials series, which showcases Johndrow's passion for gardening and photography. "These images give an iconic power and weight to beings small and seemingly insignificant," notes gallery owner Tina Weitz. In a recent interview (see the following pages), Johndrow articulated his approach to using varied processes and shared his enthusiasm for experimenting with each. Hen, 2014, hand-printed gum bichromate print from film, 7.5 x 7.5 in.

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PLATINUM/PALLADIUM

Platinum/palladium printing was invented in the 19th century and still has the widest tonal range and is the most permanent of any photographic process using chemical development. To make the print, cotton rag paper is brushed with a mixture of platinum and palladium metals combined with a sensitizer. The negative is placed in contact with the dried emulsion and exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, then processed in a chemical developer. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think I like this printing method best of all the alternative processes because of the rich warm color and the quality of the image surface. Unlike the silver gelatin process, the metals lie directly on the paper and not in a gelatin layer. This gives the print a soft matte surface that has very rich shadows and delicate highlights. Changing the ratio of the chemicals involved can also effect subtle changes. Because of the non-uniformity of the mixing/developing process, no two prints are exactly alike.â&#x20AC;? Beetle on Rain Lily, 2006, hand-printed platinum/palladium print from film, 10 x 10 in., edition of 15

GUM BICHROMATE

Gum bichromate printing also originated in the 19th century. The print is made by coating cotton rag paper with a mixture of gum arabic, watercolor, and photo sensitizer. Like most other alternative processes, the paper is exposed to UV light. Development is done with water only. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What makes it different from other processes is that it allows multiple layers of color to be built up by multiple printings, using a different color for each pass. The image is very fragile during printing and is very unpredictable, but the result is very beautiful and subtle. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always loved unpredictable photo processes because they allow for surprises and new discoveries. Some photographers use the color layering of gum bichromate to get true color separations, making full color photographs, but I prefer to make monotone images with subtle shadings of color.â&#x20AC;? Mushrooms, 2014, hand printed gum bichromate print from film, 7.5 x 7.5 in.

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SILVER GELATIN

Silver gelatin printing was invented in the late 19th century, greatly perfected in the 20th century, and became the most widely used black and white printing method until the emergence of digital printing. The emulsified paper is very light-sensitive, allowing for easy enlarging and great control of the image using techniques such as dodging and burning and multicontrast printing. It is also a very stable process, allowing for long storage of the unexposed paper. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Silver gelatin printing is still preferred by some black and white photographers because of its sharpness, rich contrast, and the depth of the silver image. Many modern labs still print silver prints from digital images. I first learned to print on silver gelatin and continue using it after more than 30 years. I find that the glossy version of the paper gets the brightest whites and the deepest blacks of any photographic paper. When viewed in the right light, the silver has a beautiful glow.â&#x20AC;?

Chrysanthenum, 2006, hand-printed silver gelatin print, 28 x 28 in.

GUMOIL

The most recently invented alternative photo process is gumoil printing. The late Karl Koenig developed it in the 1990s. It involves hand painting a gum arabic/sensitizer solution onto a cotton rag paper and exposing it with a positive transparency. After a water wash, a negative gum impression remains on the paper. Next, oil paint is applied and then slowly rubbed back off, rendering a photographic image. Bleaching and recoating with a second color can further enhance it. It is a very labor-intensive and unpredictable process, but the reward is a very painterly image with a rich polychrome oil color. “I love the challenge of this process. When you get it right and the image is emerging from the oil paint, clearer and clearer the more you rub it, it feels magical. There are a lot of surprises and corrections that can be done with this process. It’s great if you like to experiment with prints because there are so many stages in making the print, each one changing the look completely. Let’s just say I don’t get very many finished prints when I delve into printing gumoils, but when I do the result is very satisfying and unique.” Horny Toad, 2014, hand-printed gumoil print from film, 18 x 18 in.

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David Johndrow NATURAL LIGHT on view through October 30, 2014

Photo MĂŠthode Gallery, 2832 East MLK Jr. Blvd.

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CYANOTYPE

Cyanotype, also known as blueprint, is considered among the easiest of all the historical methods. Dating from 1842, this process is still practiced due to its easy water development process and because of the classic Prussian blue color. Blueprint paper is often sold in toy stores for kids to make photograms, the process of laying objects on the paper and exposing it in the sun. “I’ve always loved making cyanotype photograms, and I became fascinated with the effect of glass on cyanotype exposed to the sun. The complexity and 3D quality of the shadow floored me the first time I saw it. I started experimenting with coating the paper myself and doing multiple prints of all the interesting glass objects I could find. The result is my Blue Alembic series.” Tathaghata (Buddha) No. 3, 2012, pigment print from handmade cyanotype photogram, 42.5 x 35 in.

www.photomethode.com

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PEERING INTO DARKNESS Alice Leora Briggs by VERONICA CECI

Alice Leora Briggs has been collaborating with Flatbed Press to create woodcuts that, though flat, have a notable depth. Printed entirely in black with chine collé to add a whisper of tone, these works are built from a combination of the artist’s real observations of people and her imagined contents of their skewed worlds. The prints are dark, a literal darkness built up by a great volume of line melded with a subconscious darkness brought about by a strong sense of dread.

The artist’s strongly graphic compositions invite and reward proximal inspection. The use of collaged papers broadens pictorial space not by following the laws of physics but rather by outlining the laws of remorse. The faces are all real, nuanced. A slight tick at the corner of a figure’s mouth belies a more complex story hidden in details like an old master allegory. Briggs’ method of generating the printing blocks requires laborious devotion. The artist starts with a smooth flat piece of wood, painted red. She meticulously draws her image with a black marker, considering every line. Then countless hours are spent carving the red away. Only the remaining raised surfaces accept the kiss of ink from the printer’s soft rubber brayer. The many pounds of force generated by the etching La Ventana, 2013, chine collé woodcut, 61 1/2 x 41 1/2 in.

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Where Nothing, When It Happens, Is Never Terrible Enough, 2014, chine collĂŠ woodcut, 17 x 20 in.

press transfers the ink onto the cotton rag paper that is its final destination. In this way the artist delineates her tale with directional lines harkening to the mastery of Albrecht Dürer. The artist mines every inch of the woodblock for mark-making potential. What is taken away from the block is just as important as what is left behind. For example, the substantially scaled (61 ½ x 41 ½ in.) piece La Ventana uses four styles of line just to describe the central male figure. The wood’s natural grain speaks for itself in the hair. A sort of fishscale illusion resulting from tight cross-hatching emerges from the shadowed edges of his curled body. Small waves of oppositional curved lines so sharp one can sense the starch circumscribe his shirt. The inner portion of the forward leg devolves into manic confetti that lets enough paper show through to suggest a highlight without allowing the eye a moment's rest. Through this masterful cyclone of pattern, he looks into us and finds the horror in each of our pasts. La Ventana leaves the viewers to decide where they stand as they look through the window.

The influence of Mauricio Lasansky, whom Briggs studied under at the University of Iowa, is evident in both her skill and her attraction to somber realism in her themes. The artist did not conjure the figure in La Ventana. He is a real man named Santiago whom Briggs encountered during her frequent visits to an asylum on the outskirts of Juárez. She doesn’t just observe the asylum's inhabitants but integrates with them, sharing meals and working together on creative projects. On her sojourns to this dangerous city, a wellspring for her imagery, the artist collects moments from the present which also operate in artistic traditions of the past. Alice Leora Briggs does not limit the narrator of her work to a single voice. Paired with lines from a Mark Strand poem, the 12 woodcuts the artist is currently working on provide a familiar entrance, language, to an uncanny place. The words of Strand, named US Poet Laureate in 1990 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1999, are a natural pairing for Briggs’ talents. In The Room, the poem Briggs has chosen as her current accomplice, he describes hypnagogic scenes with decisive language. Each line implies a crystalline moment, and joined together with the aether

artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s compelling interpretations, the poem and instead focus their attention on a parrot. Animals the prints behave like a devotional. The viewer must make several appearances in this cycle of work. consider each one as well as the whole. Briggsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; depiction of them ranges from docile to feral, but they are always the other, removed from In The Green Field Where Cows Burn Like Newsprint human experience. It is that remove that allows jester-like archers lend a fantastical air to the Briggs to evaluate with such thorough insight those mysterious scene. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know who or what they parts of life, death and pain, which are so often are aiming at, only that an equal amount of arrows purposefully hidden. are shooting back towards them as they combat the unseen. Horizontal lines that gradually allow for There is no hiding from the crisply physical facts more space create a fade defining the edges of the of the body in Where Nothing, When It Happens, foremost characters. These two men are oblivious Is Never Terrible Enough. A murmuring banquet to the farce of falling arrows behind them. They recedes just left of center, cut across by a prone

The Green Field Where Cows Burn Like Newsprint 2014, chine collĂŠ woodcut, 17 x 20 in.

male figure, stitched together post autopsy, ignored in favor of sips of tea. The body is offered no covering from the crumpled cloth it rests upon. It may seem that the willful ignorance of the diners renders this memento mori powerless within the narrative space of the picture plane. A lingering eye will, however, eventually find indications of response. The rightmost of the three principal consumers of victuals offers a defiantly clenched fist upon the table and a determined stare. Borne of the combination of Briggsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience at a morgue and at the annual Land Arts of the American West dinner, other notes of intertwined melancholy and

excess exist throughout. By merging the observed and the intuitive, Alice Leora Briggs captures and creates narrative worlds. Her images command attention through skillful rendering and linger in the mind with tense power. Her work is on display through October 26, 2014 at Evoke Contemporary in Santa Fe and will be shown at Flatbed Press in Austin during the month of November. ae

www.flatbedpress.com

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BOOKSHELF

MIDCENTURY MODERN ART IN TEXAS Katie Robinson Edwards University of Texas Press, 2014 Reviewed by JUDITH TAYLOR With comments by the author

Midcentury Modern Art in Texas, Katie Robinson Edwards presents a comprehensive view of modernism in Texas, covering twenty-five years beginning in the mid 1930s. Across the country, the wave of modernism was taking hold; in Texas, “artists absorbed and interpreted the latest, most radical formal lessons of Mexico, the East Coast, and Europe, while still responding to the state’s dramatic history and geography,” the historian notes.

Edwards’ new research opens the window to a period of art in Texas that until now was lesser known, yet laid the foundation for the state’s cultural cities as we know them today. Organized around significant events and key figures, the author’s extensive knowledge and fluid writing style sets the Texas modernist within the context of American art. The year of the Texas Centennial, 1936, marks the beginning of Texas modernism. A group of educated

Bill Condon, Houston Ship Channel, 1958, oil on panel, 24 x 80 in. Courtesy of Collection of Charles M. Peveto, Austin, Texas

and curious Dallas artists, referred to as the "Dallas Nine," worked tirelessly to ensure that young Texas artists were represented in the cultural celebration. Unable to secure the commission to create the mural for the Hall of State, the group looked elsewhere. The $500,000 Art Deco Dallas Museum of Arts (DMA) building at Fair Park was completed just in time for the centennial and provided the Dallas artists the exposure they sought.

artist” and the first American artist to give voice to erosion and conservation of the land.

The success of the Centennial Exposition is best stated in a quote from Art Digest, 1936: “Texas is Big . . . and whether New York knows it or not, the commonwealth . . . (is) contributing a vital element to the nation’s art.” In essence, this is the thesis of Edwards’ book as she chronicles the artistic developments in Houston, Austin, Fort Worth, and Of particular interest is the role that Jerry Bywaters Dallas in the context of American Modernism. and Alexandre Hogue played in the Centennial exhibition. Hogue’s Drouth Stricken Area, still in the In Fort Worth, the modernist painters referred to DMA’s permanent collection, and Jerry Bywaters’ In themselves as “The Eight” in joking response to the the Chair Car along with his essays on the exhibition Dallas Nine, though today they are known as the brought national attention. Interestingly, Bywaters "Fort Worth Circle." Their personalities collectively would later serve twenty years as the Director of and individually were far less conservative than DMA. Hogue is often referred to as the “Dust Bowl those of their Dallas peers. The group included Fort aether

Worth native Dickson Reeder, the group’s unofficial leader, and Kelly Fearing, who in 1952 began his forty-year-long tenure at The University of Texas College of Fine Arts. Speaking of the camaraderie of the Fort Worth Circle, Fearing recalled a remark made by Otiz Dozier: “You boys, you girls over here have such fun. We’re so stodgy in Dallas. We don’t do anything like this.” The group looked to European modernism for inspiration and inward for subject matter, rejecting the realistic imagery that had anchored Texas regionalism. Turning to Houston, Edwards traces the achievements in art and architecture and explains how, by the 1950s, the city had reached “the top tier of the art world.” Modernist institutions, patrons/ philanthropists, and artists, including the noted painter Robert Preusser, wove the city’s cultural fabric. Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) was the first arts museum in Texas. In 1958, philanthropist Nina Cullinan set in motion the

museum’s master plan by donating funds for its Mies van der Rohe expansion. Preusser was instrumental in organizing the Contemporary Art Association (CAA) which became the Contemporary Art Museum. Not a part of the old guard of the MFA, John and Dominique de Menil “ . . . grew impatient with the Contemporary and through collecting and vanguard patronage . . . began to construct their own alternative to the CAA’s modernism.” Today the Menil Collection is a force in the international art world, housed in its trademark gray building designed by Renzo Piano. Current trends often compare the art DNA of the four cities which Edwards explores in Midcentury Modern Art in Texas. To understand the differences as well as each metropolitan area’s assets, one need only read Edwards’ book. The twenty-five years of modernism she documents set the evolution of each city’s trajectory and helped define the individual cultural personalities of today.

Thomas M. Stell, Self-Portrait, c. 1930, oil on board, 25 x 19 in. Collection of Sam and Julie Stevens

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Three Who Made Their Mark The individual artists whose careers, artistic pursuits, and contributions Katie Edwards presents in her in depth review of Midcentury Modern Art in Texas are too numerous to mention. Some will be readily recognized by readers; others are less known. While talking with Ms. Edwards, I asked her whom she considered the most significant – or stated more casually – the most outsized. She spoke of three: Forrest Bess, Robert Preusser, and Toni LaSelle: Bess is surely the most recognizable name in midcentury Texas art. And speaking of the Menil’s ongoing dedication to Lone Star artists, curator Clare Elliott recently organized Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible, with a marvelous catalogue. (The show is currently at the Hammer Museum in L.A.) For those who haven’t heard of Bess, he’ll stick in your mind for having undergone self-surgery in an attempt to fuse his male and female qualities. Like other historians and critics, I point out how tough it is to distinguish the paintings from the persona. But that’s precisely the point: if you really study Bess’s small-scale paintings, with their symbol system and handmade frames, you realize he intended for his art and androgynous goals to be understood as one. Interestingly enough, I used to teach Bess

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to my Baylor University Studio and Art History students. We even saw the Robert Gober-curated Bess room in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, which included graphic photos of Bess’s nether region. But some of the students were highly perceptive, seeing Bess as an early performance artist whose philosophy was inseparable from his art. Bess came from Bay City, but spent significant time in Houston. As a young man, he cofounded a short-lived modern art gallery with our next outsized artist: Robert Preusser. Preusser opens and closes my book, partly because his importance extended well beyond his own art. First, he was precocious – my book reproduces a painting he made around age 17 in which one can see many of his interests: geometric abstraction, space (and outer space), rapid shifts in depth of field, etc. While still a teenager, he studied at what we call “the new Bauhaus” in Chicago with László Moholy-Nagy. Second, he was a contemporary art advocate, helping to found the Contemporary Arts Association in Houston. Third, he embarked on a second life/career when he left Houston in 1954 and became professor at MIT. There he dedicated the rest of life to interdisciplinary work in art and science. It’s funny that Preusser is still my guidepost. With the help of JD Talasek, Director of Cultural Programs at the National Academy of Sciences, the Umlauf launched a series of ArtScience salons called ATX Laser. Someday I’d like to present Preusser’s work at an ATX Laser. In

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keeping with his belief that the viewer should be fully engaged, his work expanded from the single painting to fun-house-style quasi-psychedelic rooms that remind me of artists like Tony Oursler. Researching this book was gratifying in many ways, like when I began to see how much Texas modern art owes to women. The modern era itself in Europe and the U.S. saw a shift in women’s roles, from passive art subjects to active art producers. Texas kept up with the worldwide development, but perhaps Texas women led the charge more forcibly. Dorothy Antoinette “Toni” LaSelle was truly a pioneer in abstraction. She taught at Texas Woman’s University in Denton for over four decades, spending many summers at Hans Hofmann’s school in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her own paintings are carefully balanced abstractions of geometric shapes that clearly abide Hofmann’s push-pull directive regarding how to engage color and shape. But she was also a fervent believer in the power of architecture, leading over 300 students to help construct the exterior and interior of O’Neil Ford’s Little Chapel in the Woods. Her legacy extends beyond her phenomenal art to the thousands of students she mentored over her career to the modernist building that still stands today. ae

Robert O. Preusser, Tonality, 1939, oil on Masonite, 22 x 16 in. Collection of James and Kimel Baker and Courtesy of Eric Preusser

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EAST

photo méthode / phō tō mē thō duh / noun: a plethora of photography techniques Tina Weitz opened Photo Méthode Gallery in September 2013. Since then, Weitz – an experienced gallerist and a professional photographer herself – has assembled an impressive group of fine art photographers including Kevin Greenwood, Shelley Wood, and David Johndrow. For 10 years, Weitz owned and operated Studio2 on South Lamar and showcased a range of contemporary art. When she gave up her space on South Lamar, she moved to the Flatbed Building where she set up her own photographic studio and continued her commitment to exhibiting artists from Studio2 with pop-up shows at the 02 Project

Space in this East Austin art hub. When she was ready to return to running a gallery full time, she opted to focus solely on photography. “Photography,” she says, “is an isolated occupation. The fine art photographer makes a significant investment of time as he or she studies a subject in depth and experiments with photographic processes which range from the traditional methods developed in the 19th century to the most recent digital techniques.” It is the storytelling nature and the choice of processes used to create a photographic series that engages Weitz, and it is this enthusiasm that she shares with viewers.

2 8 3 2 E a s t M a r t i n L u t h e r K i n g J r. B l v d

Photo Méthode’s intimate space, sleek white walls, and meandering feel is a testament to Weitz's mastery of presentation. The layout itself emphasizes the concept of a series and encourages the viewer to move from image to image to understand a story. It also serves as a place for photographers to gather, talk, and share. The result is that Photo Méthode has taken on a sense of family with both photographers and gallerist having a stake in the gallery’s success.

In Weitz’s mind, there is a place in fine art photography for both the traditional and the digital. “Fundamentals are fundamentals,” she says. “We have to keep the old in order to understand the new . . . otherwise an image is just a snapshot.” For 2015, she has booked Dan Burkholder, the guru of iPhoneography, and scheduled an exhibition of drummer Dony Wynn’s macro photography. At the other end of the spectrum will be Christa Blackwood and Hannah Neal, whose well-honed During the 2014 East Austin Studio Tour (EAST), techniques range from tintypes to photogravures. Photo Méthode will showcase two photographers: Tami Bone and Peter Brown Leighton. Bone’s Photo Méthode has provided a much-needed photo montages merge multiple images to create venue. In our region, group shows are the main an imagined world. Her exhibit This is where I’m exhibition options of fine art photographers. There going to be now . . . is based on childhood imaginings are few venues which provide opportunity for solo which led to a heightened sense of wonder that or two-person shows. Weitz has created just such today gives her work a veiled sense of mystery. a place and photographers have embraced the Leighton’s Man Lives Through Plutonium Blast opportunities. informally explores the roots of twentieth century photographic practices by connecting them to photography’s digital present. Conceptually, their narratives are as perplexing and absurd as the modern world in which we live. w w w. p h o t o m e t h o d e . co m

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Art.Science.Gallery. / ärt sīəns galərē / noun: a space that celebrates art–science fusion of all kinds Hayley Gillespie founded Art.Science.Gallery. in 2012. The gallery, which now resides at Canopy in East Austin, actually began as a blog. After earning her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at UT, Gillespie had what she calls a little creative explosion, and, in addition to working on her own art, she started biocreativity, where she wrote about the intersection between biology and art and featured artists making science-inspired work. So many of these artists were seeking a physical venue where they could show their work that she decided she would provide one. After several successful pop-up shows around Austin, Gillespie felt the need for a permanent space.

space is chock-full of science-inspired art, from the inviting exhibition space at the front of the gallery, pleasantly suffused with natural light, down the hall and into the back office, where visitors are encouraged to roam. Labels feature scientists’ stories and discoveries. “Get well” cards carry the chemical formula for vitamin C. Gillespie hopes that visitors will glean at least one scientific tidbit that they didn’t know before and experience a little of the wonder of discovery that makes science so inspiring. In its new home, the gallery is perfectly poised to serve as a hub for inspiration and education for its audience of visitors and artists alike. Being around other artists and galleries has led to fruitful collaborations, including the Tesla Project in July and a PrintAustin show last year. Events, talks, and classes are also part of the work of Art.Science. Gallery., and Gillespie says that she and her team would love to expand their class offerings and give people an informal opportunity to learn about science.

For 2013 EAST, she and her husband created a pop-up at the then still unfinished Canopy. The duo built seven 8 ft. x 8 ft. studded walls and installed gallery lighting for a 44-artist show, ECLOSION. The show was held in conjunction with a meeting of the Entomological Society of America and featured assemblage sculptures of insects made from plant and insect parts and beeswax “crawling on walls and coming down from the ceiling” as well as an informative field guide for visitors. This positive This year at EAST, Gillespie says visitors will see experience led them to sign a lease and move into “variables made visible” at X Marks the Spot, a group permanent digs at Canopy. exhibition about scientific variables. The show will demonstrate how scientists and artists explore and Since that show, Art.Science.Gallery. has settled measure the natural world and look for patterns in nicely into its glass-fronted home in Building datasets. In contrast to last year’s EAST exhibit, 2 of the complex on Springdale. The 1,000 sq. ft. X Marks the Spot has a broad focus, spanning all 916 Springdale Road

scientific disciplines and exploring how these variables are found within the art-making process as well. The exhibit will run through November 23, 2014, and visitors can boast that they’ve been to one of the only art-science galleries in the country. As testament to the gallery’s unique offerings, December classes will be offered with Southwestern University mathematician Dr. Fumiko Futamura, who will teach students how to render hyperbolic

geometric structures in crochet. Gillespie has clearly found that art is a great vehicle to engage the public with science, a small but important stepping-stone in communicating science’s universal application. Art.Science.Gallery. is an exciting and important addition to the Austin arts, giving a voice to the obvious but often overlooked intersection of science and art.

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2213 E. Cesar Chavez

grayDUCK / grā dək / noun: 1 a contemporary art gallery on E. Cesar Chavez in Austin, Texas, that is friendly and accessible to everyone 2 also referred to as a goose (in the nursery rhyme duck duck goose) Jill Schroeder founded grayDUCK Gallery in 2010 in South Austin and is dedicated to exhibiting the work of local and national artists with a broad range of experience. After four years renting a space tucked away on a side street, Schroeder purchased and renovated a 100-year-old house on Cesar Chavez in East Austin. The transition from renting to owning, from south to east, and from in-theback to street-visible has given grayDUCK gallery a permanence and integration into the fabric of the Austin arts that it so deserved. With its high ceilings, plentiful wall space, and room to spread out, grayDUCK is able to present more solo shows, exhibit a wider range of mediums, and host a variety of events, ranging from poetry readings to experimental cinema. This space has allowed Schroeder to push the limits on what she is comfortable showing and, luckily for the Austin community, she has stepped up to the challenge. As it has re-energized her, it has re-energized East Cesar Chavez and given it a much-needed professional space to serve the surrounding artists. The original wood floors are warmly welcoming as one walks into the gallery, and a long crisp white wall leads to the vaulted ceiling in the back room, natural light pouring in from the high windows. It’s an ideal space for presenting everything from painting to sculpture to video. One can imagine

being an artist walking into this blank canvas, eagerly embracing the freedom and respectability it provides. Schroeder takes pride in giving local and national artists this opportunity, curating a mixture of voices that intrigue both collectors and academics alike. For the crowds of EAST, grayDUCK will exhibit a larger selection than usual with a more accessible bent than the conceptual pieces of shows past. It is, after all, a weekend dedicated to the selling and, hopefully, the buying of art. In its main gallery, grayDUCK will present HEIRLOOM, a two-person show featuring the work of Adrian Landon Brooks and Megan Kimber. Their mixed-media paintings draw on legacy and heritage to connect to the viewer and strive to evoke something greater than oneself and the current moment. The front alcove of the gallery, coined “Decoy," will feature two distinctly different artists: Pamela Valfer from Los Angeles and Jayne Lawrence from San Antonio, whose drawings hybridize the man-made with the natural. Over the next year, grayDUCK’s shows include painting, drawing, found object sculpture, large wood sculptures with sound elements, collage, photography, and mixed media. With such a diverse schedule, grayDUCK continually leaves us curious and excited about what’s next.

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Hollis Hammonds

Drawing Beauty from Ruin by SUSANNAH MORGAN

Everything about Hollis Hammonds' work is

smoke and wind swirl and churn around piles of highly personal. Born in rural Northern Kentucky, household rubble. Viewers can spot dining chairs, she was raised in an unconventional, lower income mattresses, dolls, bike wheels, and kitchen debris family. Creativity grew out of necessity. She was amid remains of homes and other buildings. The an imaginative child infallible nature of who used everyday memory is a major factor items to make art in Hammondsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work. projects. Living with While she doesn't have parents who were many clear memories collectors (some might of the aftermath of the say hoarders), she fire, she works from played in a backyard general impressions that was a wonderland that she retains from of discarded cars, a that time. Through school bus, and even the process of drawing, a bulldozer, where she she gains a larger created adventures in and more complete make-believe worlds. understanding of her experience. Hammondsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; family home and all of its Even though she is collections were working from her own destroyed in a personal story, her work devastating electrical fire when she was in high is part of the broader story of human experience. school. When you look at Hammond's work, it is She is visually obsessed with larger disasters, easy to trace connections back to the experiences which clearly originates from her personal of her childhood and that fateful fire. Plumes of experience. Watching television footage of events Aftermath Asteroid, marker on vinyl, 55 x 55 in.

such as tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, and fires, her eye is drawn to the rubble and personal artifacts that follow in the wake of disaster. This most clearly manifests itself in Hammonds’ threedimensional installations. She has created massive wood veneer installations which convey a sense of dread and danger for the viewer. In particular, a swirling, churning installation for Worthless Matter at Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC. Made from wood veneer, furniture, trash, and objects found on the streets of Charleston, it swirls through the space like the smoke monster from Lost. For her recent show, Salvaged, at Austin Community College’s Rio Grande Campus Gallery, Hammonds created huge fishing ropes by hand in which she ensnares left-behind human discardings. “I was thinking about the Japanese tsunami, and how all of the debris washed up on coastlines on the other side of the world,” Hammonds says. Included in this exhibition are a new series of “net drawings” which are a slightly more abstract and lyrical way to deal with the piles of objects left behind. When looking at the work, it is easy to imagine the stories of the people who may have once used the items.

destruction. Working with charcoal, graphite, ink, and marker on Mylar or paper, the level of detail is extraordinary. A sense of foreboding beauty comes from the work. In sizes ranging from small and intimate to large and enveloping, the work is completely engrossing. “My work lives in an ambiguous space between reality and fantasy – between fact and fiction.” As a medium, contemporary drawing is currently enjoying a surge of interest. In the past, there has been a tendency to regard drawing as a preparatory medium in service of another more realized work of art. However, more and more, museums across the country are mounting exhibitions devoted entirely to contemporary drawing.

Hammonds' choice of medium lends itself Hammonds has shown extensively in museums and seamlessly to these themes of humanity, ruin, and non-profit galleries nationally over the course of Salvaged Tangled Nets, marker on vinyl, 12 x 12 in.

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her career. She has done this intentionally, working with spaces that allow her to push boundaries and to explore and evolve naturally as an artist. This fall, Davis Gallery is mounting her first major exhibition in which a selection of her finest work from the past four years will be available for purchase. The exhibition, titled Constructs, pairs Hammonds with painter Gladys Poorte. While Hammonds is concerned with destruction and ruin, Poorte focuses on construction and the building of surreal worlds mostly in oil on board. Three-dimensional assemblage pieces will also be on view with Hammondsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; drawings and Poorteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings. The show opens October 25, with an artist talk on December 5, and concludes on December 6. ae

Worthless Matter: Forgotten Home, wood veneer and found objects, 12 x 12 x 4 ft.

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Yard Dog Gallery

FOLK & DAGGER Suburban Secrets by CATHERINE ZINSER

We are a storytelling species. We love to read

throughout each painting. Part of the artist's meditative process, the wallpapered background and patterned carpet and textiles are ripe with symbolic meaning. Storm clouds and thunderbolts hover in the background of several pieces, a reminder that life is unpredictable and can change in an instant.

novels and poetry, watch movies, television shows, and plays, and listen to music; we are especially captivated by stories passed down from friends and family. This oral tradition has existed since man first developed a standardized language. Folk art is the visual representation of these stories, where rich narratives unfold beautifully in paint, wood, textiles, and clay. Don’t miss the titles. Full of imagery, the titles are meant to complement the paintings but could stand From November 22 to December 28, 2014, the alone as poetry. With these lengthy titles, Heimer's stories of rural Montanans will be told here in work plays out as modern-day fables with dark Austin, Texas, at Yard Dog Gallery. Feeling like an undertones, anecdotes told as cautionary tales. outsider in her hometown of Great Falls, Montana, self-taught artist Andrea Joyce Heimer biked Folk art, outsider art, or primitive art is enchanting through the streets as a child, watching the lives of because it adheres to practically none of the her neighbors unfold, catching details overlooked traditional “rules” of art yet forges some of the by most. Snippets of these dramas unravel in her strongest artists/viewer bonds. Heimer’s work is paintings, revealing only part of the real story as tremendously relatable; you will see yourself in her it was processed by the young artist and recalled candid paintings and reach into your own history years later. to formulate a narrative. ae Two tips. Spend time looking at each image. There is an extraordinary amount of intricate details

Laura Lived Three Streets Over And She Was A Girl Who Gave Her Heart Away Again And Again, Even To Those Undeserving, Ill Tempered, Or Uninterested. 2014, acrylic/pencil on wood , 18 x 24 in.,

Andrea Heimer • Nov 22 - Dec 28 • www.yarddog.com

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datebook OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

through November 23 MIRADAS: Ancient Roots In Modern And Contemporary Mexican Art, Works From The Bank of America Collection Mexic-Arte Museum

through November 16 JON LANGORD: Boneheads Yard Dog Gallery

This show, organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA) in collaboration with Bank of America Corporation, is a unique exhibition of one of the most extensive corporate collections in the U.S. and takes a close look at the paintings, prints, and photographs created over the past 80 years. The exhibition is curated by Cesáreo Moreno, NMMA Chief Curator, and examines and celebrates work by artists on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.

October 19 through January 4 JAMES DRAKE: Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash) Blanton Museum Anatomy of Drawing and Space (Brain Trash) represents the culmination of two consecutive years of active creation by the Texas native, now Santa Febased artist. Committing to draw every day for two years starting in 2012, Drake devised a disciplined yet flexible production system that resulted in an astonishing 1,242 individual drawings depicting wild animals, landscapes, studies of human anatomy, scientific formulas, and representations of classical art and family photographs, among other subjects.

C h i c a g o / We l s h artist Jon Langford has been stirring things up since his art school days at Leeds University, where in 1977 he cofounded the art collective/punk rock band the Mekons. In his latest paintings Jon continues using skeletons and cowboys as allegorical explorers, plumbing the heights and depths of pop culture, politics, life and death.

November 1 - 29 ELLEN HECK: Connections Wally Workman Gallery Heck's work is a study of identity—its creation, variability, persistence, and change. Her most often chosen medium—printmaking—reflects and parallels these themes. This show will feature large-scale abstract works, intimate portraits and interactive projects like a 9-foot artist book, and connecting card game—each a quiet but intelligent examination of human interaction and thought.

DECEMBER November 13 through January 15 SUSI BRISTER: Fables Women & Their Work

through January 11 DO HO SUH The Contemporary Austin

Susi Brister's photographs are full of whimsy and camouflage. Using a quirky combination of natural settings and staging, Brister combines the synthetic with the pastoral. She creates magical moments where creatures emerge from their habitats. Occasionally cozy polyesters touch darker topics as in Hi-Lo Rabbit on Country Road. Careful composition, intrigue, use of multiple patterns, and a fine sense of texture permeate Brister's work.

Architectural settings and abstracted figures inspired by the artist’s biography serve as the central tenets of Do Ho Suh’s practice, highlighting the porous boundary between public and private space as well as notions of global identity, space, nomadism, memory, and displacement. For The Contemporary Austin, Suh’s poetic works invite viewers to travel on a literal and psychological journey through vast and mysterious passages.

November 15 through January 19 TAMI BONE: "This is where I'm going to be now..." Photo Méthode Gallery "This is where I'm going to be now…" That's the thought that popped into Tami Bone's two-year-old mind, the moment she slipped off a pier while fishing with her father, sinking into the dark waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For years the memory has stayed quiet, but recently, while working on her ongoing series, Mythos, it's crept back in – asking its questions, showing up in the work. How do we know where we're meant to be? To believe that we've grown up from the soil, as if we belong, really belong, to a place? And what does that belonging look like?

December 6 though January 10 PRISCILLA HOBACK + MARIANNE MCGRATH

Gallery Shoal Creek Gallery Shoal Creek will launch the yearlong celebration commemorating its 50th Anniversary with an art-centric event on December 6 from 2 to 5 pm. December's featured exhibition presents two artists devoted to the medium of clay. The contrast in Hoback and McGrath's work, in both process and inspiration, speaks to the gallery's evolution. Together they symbolize the gallery's long history as well as its commitment to nurturing young contemporary talent.

aether

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spring/summer 2015

ae aether (Greek αἰθήρ aithēr[1])

n. 1 the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere 2 a medium that in the wave theory of light permeates all space and transmits transverse waves 3 personification of the sky or upper air breathed by the Olympians.