VISUAL ARTS, CULTURE, REVIEWS
{ BLAFFER ART MUSEUM } { ALBERTO GIACOMETTI } { CAROLYN FARB } { STAGE CRAFT } { SINGLE-ARTIST MUSEUM } ISSUE 15
2ARTHOUSTON
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With this new digital age, it is hard to ignore the fact that print still packs a punch. According to Forbes Communication Council, “Print will continue to be valuable where there is a physical customerThroughoutpresence.”theunprecedented challenges presented by the events of 2020, ArtHouston continued to publish. It was during that time that we realized we needed to consolidate our vision for the future growth of our publication. That’s when we launched an electronic version of our magazine, which is provided by email, through partnerships with Houston performing arts groups, to over 300,000 recipients.
Yours faithfully, John Bernhard
I believe this hybrid, of both print and digital outlets, is the perfect complementary balance for our journey ahead, as we continue to strive to be the voice of our vibrant art community.
A magazine is something three-dimensional, it is not just a matter of the height and width of the page, but is much more than that: it is an adventure.–WillyFleckhaus”
We archive all our previous issues on our website, where you can peruse the entire online collection on any of your devices— you can even download them for free.
3 T PUBLISHER’S LETTER 3
he rise of internet use, at the turn of the 21st century had a drastic effect on print media. Numerous experts predicted its imminent demise, to a point where we witnessed the folding of many print magazines. However, this offered fresh opportunities for digital media production and the immediacy of online sales, which functioned without the standard model of distribution. Thus, resulting in the rise of new non-mainstream and boutique magazines like ArtHouston.
PERFORMING ARTS SCHEDULE 16
HAPPENINGS ACROSS THE U.S. 15
John Bernhard 26
Lisa Butler 54
Stage Craft
COUPS DE CŒUR 12
EDITOR’S PICK 77 COLOPHON 79 18
GALLERY LISTINGS 64
Carolyn Farb
Boxes at the Menil
Jack Massing 50
Flying Solo
It’s ok to Stare William Hanhausen
NEWS BITS 6
PORTFOLIO SCULPTURE 44
Sabrina Bernhard 70
PORTFOLIO PAINTING 42
Inman Gallery
5
Hadia Mawlaw 46
Wrench Driven
Arthur Demicheli 32
Sabrina Bernhard 28
Blaffer Art Museum
PUBLISHER’S LETTER 3
John Bernhard 60
REVIEWS 68
ON THE COVER :
FRESH ARTS’ INTERVIEW 74
Meghan Hendley Lopez 38
BOOK REVIEWS 10
Alberto Giacometti
John Bernhard, ArtBaselMiami, 2019. 56-Chromogenic prints photomontage, 56”x80” in. Courtesy of the artist.
We Never Stopped
ARTHOUSTON CONTENTS2022FALL
Public Art of the University of Houston System (Public Art UHS), an arts organization that enriches and serves multiple campuses across the UH System, with one of the most significant university-based art collections in the United States announces the installation of two new site-specific commissions and the acquisition of 20 works by some of the most dynamic artists working from Houston today, all of which will be on public view this fall. Commissions include a permanent light sculpture by the American artist Leo Villareal for the new Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine and a temporary, largescale architectural installation by Mexico-based Cuban-American artist and sculptor Jorge Pardo for Wilhelmina’s Grove, both at the University of Houston. These new installations and acquisitions further the mission of Public Art UHS to collect and show artworks that are representative of and accessible to the diverse communities that it serves throughout greater Houston and Southeast Texas.
Comprising large-scale permanent and temporary installations by international artists, the new works will support the institution’s mission to present accessible, diverse and thought-provoking art that enriches the cultural and intellectual character of the communities it serves.
“As one of the most significant university-based art institutions in the United States, displaying works that are exemplary of a dynamic, engaging and diverse arts community is of the utmost importance to us,” said María C. Gaztambide, Public Art UHS executive director and chief curator. “During a period of strategic planning timed to the institution’s 50th anniversary, we took the time to assess our current collection of nearly 700 works. With this stewardship completed and a plan established to guide collection development moving forward, we are thrilled to continue adding to our collections and programing, particularly with these important commissions and recent acquisitions.”
STUDIOS, the oldest surviving artist run warehouse in Houston will be headquarters again. Past participants include: Hardy Nance Street Studios, Bisong Gallery, David Adickes sculpture studio – last year special guest appearance was CHALK CRAWL Hous ton!!!- more participants to be announced… For more info contact: earthlink.netmotherdogstudios@or713229-9760
This fall, Public Art UHS will also unveil Folly by Jorge Pardo, one of the artist’s most ambitious largescale architectural installations to date. The immersive piece features a pavilion-like structure made of steel and waterproof panels, with an interior adorned by laser-cut, hand-painted wood wall panels and illuminated by Pardo’s signature sculptural chandeliers. All works will be on view beginning fall 2022.
ARTHOUSTON 6news bits
TWO MAJOR ART COMMISSIONS COMING THIS FALL
Rendering of Leo Villareal installation at University of Houston College of Medicine. Courtesy of Pace Gallery
Houston’s Original & Official 30th Anniversary Downtown Artist’s ARTCRAWLWarehousewilltake place Saturday, November 19th, 2022, from 10am - 9pm.
University of Houston
Time-tested ARTISTIC SURVIVORS of floods, freezes & gentrification for over THIRTY YEARS! This small, neighborhood cluster of artist’s warehouses, galleries & businesses hidden in this historical pART of down town Houston will open their doors for their annual ONE DAY ONLY event of working Artist’s studios, exhibition spaces, galleries & local businesses. The event is FREE & open to the public. This secret neighborhood has undergone radical cultural climatic changeroos – come see what is happening in the studios/galleries & on the streets of these daring Artist’s as “urban pioneers” that risked & settled a once upon a time “unwanted jailville realMOTHERDOGestate!”
RunnelsJohn
30TH ANNIVERSARY Artcrawl
From left: Mónica Alcázar-Duarte, I am not data (video still), 2021–22. Computer-generated film on loop, 4:30 minutes. Bruce Yonemoto, Boy Peeling a Fruit, 2010. From the series Beyond South: Vietnam (Caravaggio) , 2010. Pigment print. Photos courtesy of the artists.
IF I HAD A HAMMER
strategies to resist and replace legacies of colonialism, impe rialism, and systemic violence by exploiting the language and material of image-production and media circulation. In doing so, the artists show how images can be used to both support progressive movements as well as reinforce and bolster systemic inequities.
If I Had a Hammer explores both artistic and activist inter ventions into the structures of contemporary image-produc tion, calling attention to how these structures both reflect and inform our perception of the world, historical narratives, and the agency to engage in collective cultural discourse. The exhibition proposes that the systems and structures that support ideological formation such as historical archives, digital media networks, socio political organizing campaigns, and infrastructural and territo rial developments, are inextri cably linked to the history and development of photography and image technology. Through disparate approaches, the art ists in If I Had a Hammer offer
Seegar and Hays, were made to testify in broadcasted congres sional hearings and defend their right to free speech and protest. This exhibition uses the historical context within which “If I Had a Hammer” was written as a starting point to explore how those who assert ideologi cal supremacy often do so by employing the very tools used by the communities and indi viduals they hope to suppress. They use the tools of discursive circulation: broadcast media, text, song, art, and images.
velopment. At the heart of this interrogation is an examination of the methods artists employ to create archives that subvert the hegemonic anthropological and documentary gaze, play against traditional forms of photography, and imagine alter native political scenarios while resisting a singular, finished, final, or decisive image.
NEWS BITS 7
The FotoFest Biennial 2022 takes place September 24November 6, in Houston, at Sawyer Yards in Arts District Houston and throughout the city. The exhibition and its related public programs are co-curated and organized by Steven Evans, Max Fields, and AmyGrandSadao.Opening: Sept. 24, 8–11pm, Silver Street Studios.
The FotoFest Biennial 2022 central exhibition, If I Had a Hammer, considers the ways artists utilize images to unpack the ideological underpinnings that inspire collective cultural movements around the globe. Together, the twenty-three included artists propose alternative techniques of seeing and engaging with the world, working with both conventional and new media to shed light on the systems that encourage social theories and political imaginaries to become dogma at the click of a shutter or tap of a button.
FotoFest Biennial 2022
The scope of If I Had a Ham mer is expansive, including international perspectives on ever-changing ideologies in relationship to the contempo rary, global nature of media circulation and ideological de
The exhibition borrows its title from Pete Seegar and Lee Hays’s 1949 protest song of the same name, which was written as a response to grow ing ideological divides and violence against progressive artists and thinkers in the U.S. during the era of Red Scare McCarthyism. Throughout this period, artists, activists, au thors, and musicians, including
Paris+ par Art Basel
BLUE MAN GROUP
Mark your calendar for October 7–9, for the Chinati Weekend 2022 , and plan to start the weekend on Friday evening with Made in Marfa events at venues throughout downtown. Chinati will host Open House viewing of the collection on Saturday and a special Sunrise Viewing on Sunday morning. The Benefit Event is planned to take place Friday evening, October 7.
OPEN HOUSE
A special exhibition present ing a new installation by Sarah Crowner and work by John Chamberlain in the permanent collection will open over Chinati Weekend. chinati.org
ARTHOUSTON 8
Paris+ par Art Basel will take place at the Grand Palais Éphémère from Thursday, October 20 to Sunday, October 23, 2022, with the Preview Day on Wednesday, October 19.
Performing Arts Houston
Houston Ballet Nutcracker Mar ket has become the signature holiday fundraising shopping event in Texas that kicks off the holiday season! Hundreds of merchants offering unique items for everyone and proceeds from each admission and special event ticket purchased, plus 11% of merchandise sold, goes back to Houston Ballet Foundation.
The Chinati Foundation
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
General Admission $20 Tickets available at Ticket master.com, H-E-B Business Centers beginning 10/17 or at the door.
NUTCRACKER MARKET Houston Ballet
GORDON PARKS
In 1967, Life magazine published a groundbreaking profile of Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael, with images and report ing by photographer Gordon Parks. The exhibition Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power features the five images by Parks from the article, along with nearly 50 additional photographs and contact sheets never before published or exhibited. Also included in the presentation is footage of Carmichael’s speeches and interviews. On view exclusively at the MFAH, October 16, 2022–January 16, 2023.
More than 35 million people around the world have experi enced the smash hit phenom enon that is Blue Man Group and now it’s your turn! Blue Man Group returns to Houston for a limited engagement on their new North American tour, November 5 & 6 at Jones Hall. It’s everything you know and love about Blue Man Group— signature drumming, colorful moments of creativity and quirky comedy—the men are still blue but the rest is all new!
The inaugural edition of Paris+ par Art Basel will bring together 156 leading French and international galleries to present excep tional artworks across all media – from painting and sculpture to photography and digital works. From curated presentations of 20th century masterpieces to solo booths by emerging artists, Paris+ par Art Basel will present a global showcase of the highest quality, firmly embedded in Paris and its cultural scene.
Over his 50-year career, Philip Guston shifted from figu ration to abstraction and back again. Guston Now, the first retrospective of the influen tial artist’s work in nearly two decades, features paintings, prints, and drawings—both wellknown and rarely seen—from public and private collections. On view at the Audrey Jones Beck Building from October 23, 2022 until January 16, 2023.
PHILIP GUSTON NOW Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
NEW FLAGSHIP EVENT
Gordon Parks, Untitled, Watts, California, 1967
A strong line-up of galleries from France will be joined by exhibi tors from across Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America, and the Middle East.
This year the event will take place at the NRG Center, Thursday, 11/10 – Sunday 11/13
Donald Judd, 15 untitled works in concrete, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX. Photo by Florian Holzherr.
A HolidayWonderlandShopping
ROBERT MOTHERWELL DRAWING
Robert Motherwell, ThreeFiguresShot, 1944, pen and ink and ink wash on paper. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
potential of his drawing materials, blending the accidental and the intentional in the creative gesture, whether a stroke of the pen or brush or a tear in paper. He did not draw to imitate reality, but to give form to his intuition of the inner workings of the world, through a practice geared toward invention and variation. While the work evolved stylisti cally, it remained united by its continuities and his desire to draw ‘as fast as the mind itself.’”
NEWS BITS 9
The exhibition explores several aspects of Motherwell’s practice, including his dialogue between the geometric and organic, and his diverse approach to calligraphic mark-making. Motherwell loved paper for the natural beauty of its surface and for its inherent resistance to corrections and second thoughts, which allowed him to be spontane ous. As he wrote of his Lyric Suite, “it came to me in a flash: paint the thousand sheets without interruption, without a priori traditional or moral prejudices or a posteriori ones, without iconography, and above all without revisions or additions upon critical reflection and judgment. Give up one’s being to the enterprise and see what lies within, whatever it is. Venture. Don’t look back. Do not tire. Everything is open. Brushes and blank white paper!” On view November 18, 2022–March 12, 2023
Rebecca Rabinow, Director of the Menil Collection, said, “The Menil Collection is proud to present the drawings of Robert Motherwell, whose lifelong fascination with drawing was at the core of his signifi cant artistic achievements. From early Surrealist works to the artist’s late drawings, this exhibition will provide an invaluable opportunity for visitors to experience the boldness and intensity of Motherwell’s extraordinary career.”
This fall, the Menil Collection presents the most comprehensive survey ever mounted of the drawings of Robert Motherwell spanning the artist’s career from the 1940s through the 1980s, with more than 100 works.
The Menil Drawing Institute
The youngest and most scholarly of the artists who came to be identified as Abstract Expressionists, Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) explored a personal, spontaneous language of mark-making through out his life, creating drawings in a wide variety of techniques and styles that he sometimes used concurrently. Robert Motherwell Drawing: As Fast as the Mind Itself brings together works from the Menil’s own holdings and from two dozen public and private collections to show the full range of the artist’s practice revealing the cohesiveness underlying Motherwell’s remarkable array of motifs, styles, textures, and moods.
Edouard Kopp, John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Chief Curator of the Menil Drawing Institute, said, “Inspired by Surrealism and the practice of automatic drawing, Robert Motherwell embraced the suggestive
Texas A&M University Press, 2021
Dominique Sachse outside-in ap proach to “Embrace the Bold, Beautiful, and Blessed You.”
10ARTHOUSTON
Photo No-Nos
University of Chicago Press, 2022 book reviews
JULIE A. TURNOCK
In the pages of this book, Sachse offers a vulnerable look into her own mistakes and imperfections and explains how making over her outward appearance resulted in a happier and healthier version of herself—emotionally, spiritually, and Thomasphysically.Nelson,2022
Amazon, 2022
Austin artist David Everett was born and raised in Texas, and his work re flects an organic and wholly original Lone Star State ethos. His stunning vision and exquisite craftsmanship evoke nature’s essential grace and harmony in beautiful sculptures, basrelief carvings, woodcuts, and drawings.
Why Patti Smith Matters is the first book about the iconic artist written by a woman. The veteran music journal ist Caryn Rose contextualizes Smith’s creative work, her influence, and her wide-ranging and still-evolving im pact on rock and roll, visual art, and the written word. Rose goes deep into Smith’s oeuvre, from her first album, Horses, to acclaimed memoirs operating at a surprising remove from her music.
Why Patti Smith Matters
BECKY DUVAL REESE
CARYN ROSE
Life Makeover
At turns humorous and absurd, heart felt and searching, Photo No-Nos is for photographers of all levels wishing to avoid easy metaphors and to sharpen their visual communica tion skills. Photographers often have unwritten lists of subjects they tell themselves not to shoot things that are cliché, exploitative, derivative, sometimes even arbitrary. Photo No-Nos features ideas, stories, and anecdotes from many of the world’s most talented photographers and photography professionals.
DOMINIQUE SACHSE
Pickles and the Stolen World Cup POSEY PARKER
University of Chicago Press, 2022
Just about every major film now comes to us with an assist from digi tal effects. The results are obvious in superhero fantasies, yet dramas like Roma also rely on computergenerated imagery to enhance the verisimilitude of scenes. But the re alism of digital effects is not actually true to life. It is a realism invented by Hollywood—by one company spe cifically: Industrial Light & Magic. The Empire of Effects shows how the effects company known for the pup pets and space battles of the origi nal Star Wars went on to develop the dominant aesthetic of digital realism.
Aperture , 2021
The Art of David Everett
JASON FULFORD
The Empire of Effects
The Jules Rimet Trophy (“World Cup”), the most famous sporting trophy in the world, was loaned by Football Associa tion of England (FA) to a Stamp Exhi bition in Westminster Central Hall as a promotion for the upcoming 1966 World Cup games. From this location, a block from Scotland Yard, thieves stole the World Cup on Sunday March 20, 1966. England was mortified and the whole world enraged by the theft.
AgnèsARTISTBourély is a French artist. She lives and works in Houston. Her drawings, canvases and polyptychs narrate us in large format the journey. In each of her expatriations, she tells us on paper or canvas the poetry of life “Far from their www.barbaradavisgallery.complace”.
coups de cœur
Agnes Bourely
SarahARTISTWilliams
Sarah Williams
states - “In this new body of work, I continue to use my paintings as a way to honor my own regional history which I will always tie to my upbringing in north Missouri. My pride and passion for the rural Midwest remains as strong as it ever was, but now that comes through in my paintings like a witness’ perspective. Each time I return home to visit family, I notice more and more store fronts are empty along our Main Street. The rate of entropy on places that seemed so grand and central to my town is surprising.” www.moodygallery.com
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From left: Sarah Williams - NOMO , Sullivan Building , Thorneburg’s Restaurant , Browning Leader Record , oil on board 24x24 in.
BourelyAgnès dire,nousrienSans-anythingustellingWithout In.91x40gouacheink,pencil,Color2018,paper,Fabriano
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Lynet McDonald was born and raised in Mexico City and moved to the US at the age of 15. She has lived in many cities in the US since then. Houston has been her favorite city and is where she currently resides. She started drawing people and self-portraits at a very young age mainly to feel better and to cope during difficult times. She found out as a child that pouring her emotions into the women in her drawings and paintings would give her a great sense of www.artbylynet.comrelief.
McDonald,Lynet EssenceIn ongraphiteandpastelOil, in.39x27matboard,
Nicole Dextras ENVIRONMENTAL ARTIST
Nicole Dextras’ studio practice utilizes film and transformative and often immersive installations to explore the concept of existential fragility and to mark the evolution of time. Last summer, her solo exhibition at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, A Dressing the Future: The Ecofiction of Nicole Dextras marked the debut of her work in Texas. www. nicoledextras.com
Lynet McDonald ARTIST
Dextras,Nicole DressPomegranate Pomegranate2016., thorns.maw,fishdates,fungus,Snowpeels, ARTHOUSTON
(London)
EXHIBITION
Wolfgang Tillmans To look without fear
Tocareer,andPresentingphotography.thefullbreadthdepthoftheartist’sWolfgangTillmans:lookwithoutfearinvitesustoexperiencetheartist’svisionofwhatitfeelsliketolivetoday.ThroughJanuary1,2023EXHIBITION
The International art sets winter in Miami Beach each year, where Art Basel showcases leading galleries from five continents who presents significant works by masters of modern and contemporary art, as well as the new generation of emerging stars. December 1-3
The Double: Identity and Difference in Art
Boston International Fine Art Show (Boston)
October 20 - 23
December 2022
CONTEXT Art Miami
ARTHOUSTON
ADAA The Art Show (New NovemberYork) 3 - 6
ACCROSS THE U.S.
Art NovemberMiami 29 - December 4
FIAC OctoberParis20 - 23
(Miami and Miami Beach)
Design NovemberMiami30 - December 4 NADA DecemberMiami1- 4
National Gallery of Art Washington D.C.
Affordable Art Fair October(Amsterdam)27-31
Art Fair 14C (Jersey City, NJ)
October 20 - 23
Artissima (Torino, Italy) November 3 - 6
Art Basel
ART FAIR
Art November(Hamburg,AffordableNovember(Cologne,CologneGermany)16-20ArtFairGermany)17-20
Over the past two years, the pandemic has upended the calendar for art fairs. Here’s a rundown of the major art happeningfairsthis Fall.
Untitled NovemberArt30 - December 4
Art Basel Miami Beach December 1 - 3
Scope Miami Beach
November 2022
October 2022
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INK NovemberMiami 30 - December 4
Miami Beach
NewMoMAYork City
November 11 - 13, 2022
An incisive observer and a creator of dazzling pic tures, Wolfgang Tillmans has experimented for over three decades with what it means to engage the world through
Happenings
Paris Photo (Paris, France)
This important exhibition of 120 artworks, organized by longtime NGA curator James Meyer, is the first to offer a broad survey of repetition, difference, and identity in the art of the past Throughcentury-plus.October30, 2022.
Bernhard©JohnPhotography
Salon Art + Design (New NovemberYork) 10 - 14
November 29 - December 4
November 29 - December 4
Frieze BatterseaAffordableOctober(LosSuperfineOctoberLondon12-16Angeles)13-16ArtFairAutumn
November 10 - 13
HOUSTON BALLET 713 Nov.Sept.GOOD227-2787VIBRATIONS22-Oct.2THENUTCRACKER25-Dec.24
HOLST’S THE PLANETS Nov. 11, 12 & 13
GERSHWIN CONCERTO IN F Sep. 30, & Oct. 1 & 2
BLACK COMPOSERS: ELLINGTON, MARLEY, PRICE & MORE! Oct. ITZHAK8
Oct.713-228-6737LATRAVIATA21-Nov. 6
HOME ALONE—FILM+LIVE ORCHESTRA Dec. HANDEL’S3
PerformingArtsSCHEDULE
A CHRISTMAS CAROL Nov. 18 - Dec. Dec.WHAT-A-CHRISTMAS!302-24
MARY POPPINS Dec. 6 - 24
16ARTHOUSTON
BRAHMS 3 Nov. 18, 19 & THANKSGIVING:20
THEATRE UNDER THE STARS
Sep. 23, 24 & 25
ALLEY THEATRE 713 220-5700
EL MILAGRO DEL RECUERDO Dec. 8 - 18
HOBBY CENTER 713 Nov.Oct.HADESTOWN315-24004-9SIX8-20
DISNEY’S FANTASIA Nov. 25, 26 & 27
KEN LUDWIG’S LEND ME A SOPRANO Sept. 16 - Oct. 9
POLAR EXPRESS, FROZEN Dec. 17
VERY MERRY POPS Dec. 15, 17 & HO-HO-HOLIDAY!18
THE WRECKERS Oct. 28 - Nov. 11
EDWARD ALBEE’S SEASCAPE Oct. 14 - Nov. 13
HOUSTON GRAND OPERA
PERLMAN PLAYS BEETHOVEN Oct. 20, 22 & 23
MESSIAH Dec. 9, 10 & 11
713 Sept.AIN’T558-2600MISBEHAVIN’20-Oct.2THESECRETOFMY SUCCESS Oct. 25 - Nov. 6
HOUSTON SYMPHONY
713 JOSHUA227-4772BELL + SHOSTAKOVICH 5
ALL MOZART Oct. 28, 29 & 30
SHE’S GOT SOUL Oct. 7, 8 & CELEBRATING9
17FEATURE
JOHN BERNHARD: Tell us about your journey to the Blaffer Museum?
BY JOHN BERNHARD
STEVEN MATIJCIO: Between 2013-2019 I was curating at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, and for the 10th anniversary of the storied Zaha Hadid build ing, I organized a show called “Buildering: Misbehaving the City.” It was a 20+ artist traveling group exhibition explor ing the unsanctioned use of architecture and the urban en vironment, and it was by far one of the most enjoyable exhibitions I’ve ever curated. When it was on display in Cincy, then Blaffer Art Museum Director Claudia Schmuckli came to visit the exhibition and really liked it, so it eventually
A
withConversationStevenMatijcio
JB: That’s where you fell in love with Houston…
SM: Yes, absolutely. Claudia and the Blaffer staff treated me very well, and I had the opportunity to sample from both the cultural menu as well as the stellar restaurant scene, from Hugo’s to Uchi. It is a fantastic city and Hous ton sunk itself into my subconscious; I told myself then, this is a good place for you to explore in the future.
SM: I had taught in the past at the University of Manitoba, when I was working at Plug In ICA in Winnipeg, and I enjoyed the teaching environment a great deal, especially the opportunity to connect university students to contem porary art. I thought then, that in the future I would love to find a university museum where I could potentially curate and teach. When the Blaffer opportunity came about, I felt myself say ‘this feels like what I had been waiting for’. My instincts definitely steered me in the right direction, and while I haven’t yet started teaching here, it’s become a rich platform for related projects and positions. Since I got to
JB: It must have been a no-brainer for you to accept this new nomination.
traveled to the Blaffer Art Museum. The Houston version was a different iteration of Buildering with a few modifi cations, and it was fantastic to see the show take on a second life in Texas. Visiting the opening in Houston was my first time in the city, and it made a lasting impression.
BernhardJohnbyPhotographyMuseum.BlaffertheatMatijcioSteven
JB: What was your first step when taking the new role?
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crucial order of business. I needed to know what was hap pening in Houston, what still needs to happen, and where the Blaffer’s voice could reside within that ecology.
I LOVE THESE MOMENTS WHERE HOUSTON BECOMES THE NEXUS TO CIRCULATE INTERNATIONALLY AND BRANCH OUT INTO DIFFERENT ARENAS BEYOND THE ARTS. ”
SM: I didn’t want to arrive at the Blaffer with a prescribed agenda; I really needed to meet and get to know Houston
JB: Can you recall your most beloved accomplishment?
JB: How do local artists approach you?
the Blaffer, I became the Artistic Director of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, and organized an in ternational Art Biennial in Quebec City. The Mitchell Cen ter is a sister organization at the University of Houston, which supports, presents, and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration between the art forms, as well as between the arts and other areas of campus. I’m loving the syner gies that are coming about, and a new chapter of artistic activity at UH.
before formulating a vision for the exhibition program. I wanted to circulate; I wanted to explore; I wanted to expe rience what the city is, firsthand, and piece together what it was, and could have been. I took two or three months to just meet people, visit places, see what was happening here, and then I started to respond. I knew that visiting artists, doing studio visits, getting to know the curators, and exploring the museums and galleries here was also a
SM: I am most proud of organizing a major art festival in 2012 in Gdansk, Poland, entitled Narracje. My mother’s side of the family is Polish, but I had never really known my history since it was so injured by the traumas of War in this region. The premise of Narracje is to activate the city and drive cultural tourism – locally and nationallyvia monumental video projections, performances and in terventions in historical areas of Gdansk. My edition was titled Art thou gone Beloved Ghost? (after a Lewis Carroll poem), and it comprised a four-day nocturnal adventure including 30 major video projections that took up the en tire sides of buildings all across the city. I will never forget seeing swarms of people moving through the weight of his tory in a new light.
JB: Can you explain what interventions are?
I firmly believe Houston artists are a crucial cornerstone of the Blaffer program. If a museum wants local buy-in and investment in your organization, you need to have local artists circulating through your program. We need to be featuring them alongside national and international art ists. One of my first steps as Director & Chief Curator was to reach out and identify local artists that we wanted to celebrate, and that we felt deserved national recognition. Jamal Cyrus was the first artist that I wanted to work with; meeting him in person greatly affirmed my prior interest after watching his work from afar. We are planning a major solo show with Adriana Corral next year. Local artists will be a fixture at the Blaffer, and we want to celebrate what is happening in Houston near and far. Our curatorial staff here is continually looking for those artists, and we’re also accepting proposals, ideas, and materials at any time.
JB: Can you give us any sneak peaks to shows next year?
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SM: In 2023 we will be working with a Houston-born cu rator named Jennifer Teets, who now lives and works in Paris. She recently organized a show called the ‘Carbonate of Copper’ at Artpace in San Antonio, which she is going to expand upon and create a larger version for us next year. I love these moments where Houston becomes the nexus
SM: Yes, it is when artists find places within the urban landscape to interrupt norms, customs, and routines with an artwork or a performance. An intervention has the ca pacity to infuse the everyday with a new perspective, and can be a catalyst for revised thinking. I’m drawn to this model of art-as-experience, and the idea of immersive in stallations that surround and envelop you.
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SM: Yeah, I like that you said that because I feel like a socalled “outsider” can offer a unique perspective for a lim ited amount of time, before the blinders of familiarity and habit accrue. Before speculation dulls. This approach adds a different dimension to the way that we can see, understand, and live Houston; that’s really the primary goal.
F r o m t o p : Installation View: Jamal Cyrus: The End of My Beginning, 2021, Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. Photo by Sean Fleming.
g e : Installation View: Simon Fujiwara: Hope House, 2021, Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. Photo by Sean Fleming
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to circulate internationally and branch out into different arenas beyond the arts. Jennifer has become a global curator and explores the ways family, legacy and geology interact from a multitude of perspectives. I also enjoy that this show will feature UH faculty members Roberto Tejada and Anna Mayer, who operate in an interdisciplinary arena.
FEATURE
Lunknown.eftpa
Installation View: Narracje Festival, 4th Edition: Art thou gone beloved ghost? 2012, Gdansk, Poland. Photographer
JB: It’s amazing because you’re the outsider bringing everyone back together to their roots.
SM: Definitely. The Blaffer completed a major renovation in 2012 where we updated and expanded our usable exhi bition space to roughly 5,000 square feet. We typically run anywhere between one to four exhibitions simultane ously, and six to eight over the course of a year. We are free of charge and audience building is an ever-present goal and challenge. Even though the Blaffer is celebrating our 50th anniversary next year, I still feel in some ways we are undiscovered.
JB: Houston’s best kept secret…
SM: Exactly! I’m so grateful to you and ArtHouston for this opportunity to share what we do with a larger audience, and especially those who have not yet visited or heard of the Blaffer. We are always free, and want people to come through the doors and experience something new; some thing unexpected, and unforgettable.
SM: Houston’s diversity is most certainly one of its strengths. It’s a kaleidoscopic city and society and we want to reflect that in the Blaffer program, staff and board. We want all backgrounds and cultures to be represented at the Blaffer, and offer a platform to bring them together and imagine integration and harmonization. “Diversity” is not just something you check off the box; it’s a continual effort. You need to make it sustainable; you need to make it ongoing.
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JB: Absolutely. I want to share with our readers that the Blaffer is not just a little museum hiding in the middle of UH campus. It is a two-story expansive space. When did you renovate the space?
Installation View: Buildering: Misbehaving the City, 2014, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. Photo by Tony Walsh
JB: You know that Houston is the nation’s most diverse city and UH values the benefits that arise from a diverse campus and are committed to equity and inclusion.
5535 Memorial Drive #L, HOUSTON 713-457-8800 dessange.com
Houston institution hosts the first museum survey of work by Walter De Maria
On view from October 29, 2022 through April 23, 2023.
BY SABRINA BERNHARD
Walter De Maria, The Arch, 1964.Plywood, dimensions variable. The Menil Collection, Houston. ©The Estate of Walter De Maria. Photography by Paul Hester
WORK FOR BOXES MEANINGLESS
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The Menil Collection presents Walter De Maria: Boxes for Meaningless Work , the first museum exhibition survey of the more than fifty-year-long career of American artist Walter De Maria (1935–2013). The show traces the artist’s remarkable exploration of space, time, and spirituality through works from the museum’s permanent collection. De Maria actively participated in New York City’s avantgarde music and performance circles in the early 1960s. The artist’s radically simple works from this time, with their modest materials and construction, embody the up-and-coming ideas that led to development of the Minimalism, Conceptualism, Earth Art, and participatory
art movements that shaped De Maria’s career in the years thatRebeccafollowed.Rabinow, Director of the Menil Collection said, “The Menil Collection has a long history with Walter De Maria. John and Dominique de Menil began acquiring his work in the early 1970s, De Maria’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. was held at the Menil in 2011, and more recently, the museum has acquired significant groups of his work. The Menil is committed to deep and sustained relationships with artists, and the upcoming exhibition celebrates this mission.”
“Toward the Ultimate Figure brilliantly explores Giacometti’s creative process to illuminate how he came to produce his iconicThefigures.”extensive exhibition is presented in 12 thematic sections that illuminate Giacometti’s focus on the human form and the development of his signature style.
Obsessed with Heads
Paris” Life in the Studio
Into Thin GiacomettiAirwas deeply concerned with the relationship between the figure and the surrounding space. He wanted his figures to appear as if viewed from a dis tance, stripped to essentials and devoid of any sense of narrative or anecdote. Giacometti advanced this concept in the
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Born and educated in Switzerland, Giacometti moved to Paris in 1922, at 21, to study with sculptor Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Four years later, he began renting a studio measuring only 16 x 16 feet in a small house in the Montparnasse district of Paris. He maintained this legendary studio until his death in 1966 and produced the majority of his works there.
BY ARTHUR DEMICHELI
GIACOMETTI
This fall the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure, an ensemble of 60 masterpieces highlighting the artist’s major achievements of the postwar years (1945-66). Co-organized by the Fonda tion Giacometti in Paris and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the exhibition is co-curated by Ann Dumas, MFAH and Hugo Daniel, Fondation Giacometti.
emaciated figures—evoking alienation, fear, insignificance and uncertainty— embody the psychological complexities of the Cold War era. Stripped to essen tials, compressed and flattened, these fragile beings present themselves as expressions of a deep crisis facing art and humanity. “Alberto Giacometti was a defining artist of modernism and of the 20thcentury,” said Gary Tinterow, Director and Margaret Alkek Williams Chair, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Like most artists of the period, Giacometti had been trained to draw and sculpt from live models. He became obsessed with rendering heads early in his career, but upon entering his Surrealist period in the late 1920s, he stopped working from models to instead invent images inspired by memories, dreams and hallucinations.
Touring exhibition featuring the work of Alberto Giacometti, one of the most important artists of the 20th century, makes its stop at The Museum of Fine Arts, ALBERTOHouston
Widely acclaimed as one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, Giacometti (1901-66) reasserted the va lidity of the figure and figural represen tation at a time when abstract art had become dominant in the international art world. His works became associated with existentialism; to many, Giacometti’s
Giacometti and the Literary Scene
The Human Condition
with eminent writers, including André Breton, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Giacometti was also a prolific illustrator of poetry books. Several writers in his circle, including Jacques Dupin and Jean Genet, published essays and articles that contributed to the artist’s critical reception in the interna tional art world.
In the late 1940s, Giacometti’s art became associated with existentialism. Giacometti’s search for a universal art that would express the nature of the human condition emerges most clearly in his sculptures of emaciated figures trapped in a metal cage or walking in separate directions through empty city
as a fiercely in dependent voice in the international art world was greatly enhanced by photogra phers who recorded and disseminated his image. Man Ray and Rogi André produced memorable portraits of Giacometti dur ing the 1930s. Robert Doisneau, Gordon Parks and Arnold Newman photographed the artist with his sculptures in the studio in the 1940s and 1950s. Irving Penn and Richard Avedon produced portraits of Giacometti in the 1950s. Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gisèle Freund and Yousuf Karsh contributed to Giacometti’s growing fame through their compelling images of the artist during the final decade of his life.
Modelssquares.from the Inner Circle
On Solid GiacomettiGroundconsidered the base or platform an integral part of a sculpture. Deter mined to reinvent the most fundamental aspects of the medium, he explored ways of altering the size, scale and position of the base in relation to the figure. He also investigated methods of stacking several bases in ways that give even tiny figures a sense of solemnity and grandeur. Attaching his emaciated figures securely to a base or platform also introduced a contravening force to their progressive
late 1940s and 1950s by elongating his figures into filament-thin shapes that almost seem to disappear when viewed from certain angles.
Creatingdematerialization.aMyth:Giacometti Seen by Giacometti’sPhotographersreputation
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Since Giacometti sought inspiration in the world around him, he needed models. But that was challenging, as he was extremely demanding, typically requiring the model to remain immobile in a closed position through multiple sittings that stretched over time. He frequently relied on close friends and relatives. Among his favorite models were his younger brother Diego and his wife, Annette.
Giacometti was intimately involved in the literary scene and wrote incessantly to express his experience of the world. He published texts in avant-garde jour nals and maintained close friendships
Grappling with the Real Giacometti’s struggle to resolve the ten sion between abstraction and naturalism is an ever-present feature of his paint ings and sculptures. It appears in his portraits of the late 1940s and emerges in his sculptures of Eli Lotar, a photogra pher and friend, who posed for a series of half-length figures in the 1960s. Neither fully naturalistic nor abstract, his post war portraits are infused with the same feelings of doubt and uncertainty as his standing and walking figures.
On view Nov. 13, 2022 - Feb. 12, 2023.
Page 29: Alberto Giacometti, Sketch for “The Cage,”
Left: Alberto Giacometti, Tall Thin Head, c. 1954, bronze, ©Succession Alberto Giacometti
Giacometti’s long search for the ultimate figure culminated in his large stand ing woman and walking man sculptures of the postwar period. He first began exploring these themes in a walking woman sculpture of 1932. He returned to the idea in the 1940s and created two distinct types: a standing woman and a
Standing Woman, Walking Man
walking man. By developing his figures in opposite directions, he accentuated the contrasting qualities of stillness and dynamism, timelessness and temporality. Subjected to a process of elongation, these thin, emaciated figures signaled a radical rejection of the weight and per manence of traditional marble sculpture.
Above: Gordon Parks, Alberto Giacometti in His Studio, 1951, Courtesy of ©The Gordon Parks Foundation
First Version, Sketch for “Four Figurines on a Stand,” Sketches for “The Chariot,” c. 1949–50, painting on wall on canvas, ©Succession Alberto Giacometti
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Previous spread: Page 28: Alberto Giacometti, Tall Woman IV, c. 1960–61, bronze, ©Succession Alberto Giacometti
FEATURE
Visiting the inviting intersections of inspiration and illumination within life and home of Carolyn Farb
BY MEGHAN HENDLEY LOPEZ
32ARTHOUSTON CAROLYNF RB
PuckettHallbyPhotographyFarb.Carolyn
After the coffee and the introductions, we took to the tour of each room adorned with points of visual joy and jubilant love for the arts each tenderly weaving the
stories of Ms. Farb and her relationships with the arts. The main living room featured another connection to Warhol with a piece from his personal collection including Dutch master Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A. work titled The Death of Galswintha , 575 A.D. La Victime from 1865. Also in this luminous room included memorable works by Magritte including his La Folie des Grandeurs (Grand Illusions) from 1959 along with works by Joseph Cornell, Raymond Legueult, and a show stopping work by Vernon Fisher. This piece, entitled Rules for Bending Circles from 1991 featured a Twombly texture of chalk movement reverberated in circles across the piece.
ON A SIMMERING SUMMER DAY in the middle of July, a home that reverberates in movement and memories was opened to ArtHouston Magazine by the brilliant beauty that is Carolyn Farb. Known as the “The First Lady of Philanthropy in Texas”, Ms. Farb is a visionary of vibrance whose life has been dedicated to the cultivation of phi lanthropy with the utmost heartfelt spirit for those she serves. The extent of her ability to elevate every cause she encounters is a true testament to her tireless servitude, always accompanied by her grace and wit. Over the past three decades, she has proven why this title is deserving as a titan of tender leadership, never wavering in spirit and purpose, always dynamic in supporting causes that cross all boundaries of the human condition and creativity.
A break in the tour for a beautifully plated lunch was after the delve into the collection of photos of famous feminine icons including Marilyn Monroe and Frida Kahlo in stunning black and white. Other captivating photographs included those of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Madonna, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali all with an unseen and unusual take of the creative’s personality. These photos are just one of the things that make her collection unique outside the heroes such as Raushenberg and Hood.
Upon arriving at her classic home, we were greeted with her elegant effervescence along with her gracious hospi tality all accompanied by coffee and pastries. Immediately we were surrounded by some of her most beloved works of art in her home including a grand painting by John Alexander entitled The Hesitant Bride on the Verge of Dunking Her Monkey from 1989. A piece combining the Monet-esque flora and fauna distinctive in Alexander’s style combined with the towering figure, almost self-portrait like, made for a perfect introduction into Ms. Farb’s collection, that is very much nestled in the heart of art from Texas. The figure, holding a very reverent ape creature, faded into the brushstrokes of rippling water.
The other work by Makos, Altered Image, Double Sided #7 Special Trial Proof Print of Andy Warhol from 1990 shows the artistic response to Man Ray’s 1921 photograph of Marcel Duchamp as his cross-dressing alter-ego Rrose Sélavy with Warhol and Makos creating their own drag portraits. This piece was nothing less than ethereal, exhibiting the inner life of Warhol and the friendship and trust of Makos within the process.
Balancing the Lone Star State inspiration with the legends of visual art included two captivating pieces centering around the one and only Andy Warhol. Comple menting his larger than life existence, American artist Christopher Makos work The Warhol Stand Up Series (Four framed photographs), from 1989 featured four framed takes in black and white of each section of Mr. Warhol hunched in motion on a chair.
On to other rooms included works by local Houston artist staples including David J. Graeve and his skillful glass work along with Katy Anderson and Patrick Medrano with their thoughtful collaborative mixed media pieces. Additional local artists include David Adickes and Angelbert Metoyer. Other pieces that spoke to the ethereal arc of Ms. Farb’s personality and taste included works by American artist Ingrid Dee Magidson including The Artist Dream, a transparent layers of acrylic, collage, paint, butterflies, antique objects, and deer spine, from 2012.
This piece echoed each layer of nurture and nature within the portrait of the woman, speaking to the use of light and imagery from the Renaissance period, nodding to the notion of memento mori immortalized throughout the trajectory of visual art. This piece also mirrored the two gorgeous custom ball gowns on display in regards to tex ture and mood. Other works that offered waves of wonder including two large Dorothy Hood pieces, deep in colors close to Ms. Farb’s collection, and a famous “plate paint ing” showing a face emerging over broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings from Julian Schnabel.
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BernhardJohnbyPhotographyFarb.CarolynofhometheatroomsfilledArt
Mirrored in memory magic included the plethora of pho tos from Ms. Farb’s philanthropic work includes captures with Nelson Mandela, Al Pacino, Tom Cruise, Roger Moore, Kinky Friedman, Fran Dresher and other notable giants
35COLLECTOR FOCUS
“I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO HELP WHERE IT CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND GIVE WINGS TO PEOPLE THAT NEEDED TO FLY.”
Even in her own exploration of art through her paint ing, she was able to gain a bigger breath of knowledge and love for the visual with her studies with Elaine de Kooning. Other moments in her pursuit of art include visits to local galleries including an impressionable exhibition by one of her favorite collected artists Nathaniel Donnett whom Ms. Farb says: “He has his own mood and he never compro mises himself and is very talented.” In regards to collecting and supporting artists at all stages, especially on the local level, it has always been about the pure act of love for the medium. “Overall I love art and I like seeing it be realized…” says Ms. Farb. “I have always wanted to help where it can make a difference and give wings to people that needed to fly.”
from both Hollywood and politics whom Farb became friends with through her work. Even the way her photos are displayed are a piece of art in themselves with a multitude of them hanging from points of tree branches adorned with lights in one of her beautiful gathering spaces, confirming them as yet again, points of joy within her home. Many of these captured moments marked not only Ms. Farb’s ability to effortlessly connect with others but also how vast the ocean of her passion for philanthropy truly is. This love of documentation through photos stemmed from her early childhood memories of her grandfather having her organize photos in scrapbooks for him.
36ARTHOUSTON
The fondness of the elements in regards to style and art also came from her grandparents, with the impression of their grand foyer with white accents including a white baby grand piano with paintings surrounding it. “I think of art as an enhancement and I am constantly enhanced by
the artistic people I am surrounded by…”, says Ms. Farb. “I truly love going to an artist’s studio along with seeing the original photo of inspiration for their work.”
37COLLECTOR FOCUS C l o c k w i s e f r o m t o p AndersonFanfare,Rauschenberg,Robert:ArcadianRetreats,1996+MedranoMotherNature,2009MariaIzquierdoPortraitofCathie,1939AllphotosbySofiavanderDys
In times of crisis, art and culture play a crucial role. We turn to music for consolation, films to stir the imagination, art to expand the spirit and literature to dive into another worldview.Iexperienced
Today, many countries find themselves in turmoil. From Ukraine to the Middle-East, Venezuela to the African continent, strife persists.
But what happens when the situation is persistent? When the basic human needs of electricity, food and funds are not immediately guaranteed? Does culture perish? Do artists despair? Does the music stop?
History tells us that it doesn’t. The urge to create is inherently human.
38ARTHOUSTON
We
Never Stopped
BY HADIA MAWLAWI
the solace found in art when galleries and museums re-opened after Covid lockdown in Houston. Looking at art invigorated my spirit following a prolonged period of cultural drought.
I turn my attention to Lebanon, my birthplace and a country still traumatized after the largest non-nuclear explosion in
39ESSAY
Joumana Asseily, owner of Marfa’ Project , a gallery 500 meters from the Port, received an unexpected donation from Wrong Marfa, a small gallery in Marfa, TX, in solidarity of their shared name. Joumana was overwhelmed by the power of social media and the internet in allowing funding and support to reach her from afar. Thanks to several other online initiatives, including the South South Project and Galeries Curate, she was able to rebuild her destroyed gallery and operate again in order to support her artists and their
New initiatives are sprouting by emerging artists. Happinest, a nonprofit creative hub outside Beirut, offers programs in performance and visual arts and functions as a support structure for aspiring artists. The young duo behind the concept, Myriam Tawk and Rabih Saade envi sion this space as a place to heal through storytelling. They want to address trauma through art therapy but also offer vocational training programs to empower art professionals during times of crisis. “We simply can’t rely on government support to sustain the cultural sector. We want to offer a space where artists can learn the skills to sustain them selves. We are sowing the seeds during these hard times in the hope to emerge stronger when times are better.”
“I think in times like these, it’s even more crucial for a gallery like ours to exist. We first and foremost have responsibilities towards our artists and our staff: keeping the gallery open and operational puts bread on the table of many households. We believe that what we do in our Beirut space plays a vital role of chronicling the reality we are living through and which will eventually feed into a wider recording of (art) history.”
“My work is a cooperative arena and not a competitive realm, like the hidden kingdom and single interconnected realm ruled by the mighty Mycellium” she states. “I believe symbiosis is the path to success.”
She is hopeful the festival will defy darkness with music, as artists take to the stage, once again, from the historic Roman temple of Bacchus.
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“Wefamilies.neverstopped
What I learned surprised and uplifted me.
The annual Baalbeck Music Festival, which started in 1955, and has hosted luminaries like Miles Davis, Maria Callas, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, returns to the stage in July 2022 after two years of streaming remotely. Maya Halabi, the Deputy Director of the festival, told me that “throughout the last few years, the Baalbeck Festival has remained true to its calling as a beacon of culture, adapt ing to restrictions of the pandemic as well as to the new economic realities on the ground.”
It’s impossible for me to imagine the extent to which uncertainty, insecurity and mistrust form a part of the daily lives of the artists and art professionals I spoke to in Leba non, but what stood out strongly was their unwavering com mitment to carry on. I got the impression that the cultural sector is thriving, in spite of all the challenges. Perhaps it’s inevitable. Perhaps artists have no choice but to carry on? Andree Sfeir-Semler, owner of a contemporary art gallery in Beirut’s Port area, Sfeir Semler, says:
Noha Wadi Moharram, owner of Gallery Art on 56 in Beirut’s trendy Gemmayze district, was in her gallery when the blast happened. She was among the lucky ones; she sur vived. Her gallery was badly damaged and she sustained multiple injuries, but she felt compelled to carry on: “I don’t know where we find the strength to continue. We build and they destroy.” It took her nine months to rebuild her gallery which is housed in a century old French-era mansion in this cultural hub of the city, but she was determined to stay as an act of defiance and cultural resistance, a word I heard from other artists I spoke to. Her gallery is her refuge and she titled her comeback exhibition “Hope and Recovery”.
modern history damaged half of Beirut on August 4, 2020. I want to know how the cultural sector is doing in its after math, how artists are coping, how galleries are operating, and what, if any, new initiatives are emerging in response to the challenges. I seek to learn because Lebanon always had a thriving, liberal cultural life, even during the darkest days of the 1975-1990 civil war.
Artists are visionaries; Conflict zones and dysfunctional places are sources of content that informs their art, but can also offer a reason to explore something radically new. It’s an opportune time for self-discovery, renewal and re-invention.
Today, Zein Daouk, an architect, is building with clay rather than stone. Her recent exhibition at renowned gallery Saleh Barakat in Beirut, took as her subject matter the magic world of Funghi, for her latest ceramic pieces.
working, even if our work went online for a while and we collaborated with global initiatives to keep going.” She also reminded me: “You survive as a gallery not by rebuilding the walls but by assuring that your artists can work, produce and continue.”
When a country appears locked in a political and economic stalemate, artists remind us to defy the darkness with our voice, our paintbrush, our vision. Their work endures and plays a critical role in keeping the human spirit hopeful, alive and forward-looking. The port blast may have done unspeakable damage to an already fragile country but the creativity of its cultural professionals rises above it to offer an alternate reality, one that, like the mycelium, is interconnected and cooperative, an intertwined network that is silent but sentient.
O p p o s i t e p a g e
ESSAY
In turning against “the most difficult situation we have ever lived through”, she chooses the interconnected world of the mycelium. “If my world is just about the 5 miles radius around me, I am satisfied knowing that for a brief moment I made a handful of people happy through my joyful shapes”.
Marie Alice Berberi, a female street-artist also turns to nature as an alternate subject matter. In April 2022 she completed a mural commissioned by the nonprofit, Cedars for Care. She chose to “represent the importance of pro tecting our native green spaces and our environment for the wellbeing of future generations.” I was stunned. Beirut is so deprived of green spaces and places for respite and reflection. In the midst of the chaos and concrete, I felt comforted that a young female street artist was addressing the importance of our environment.
F r o m t o p : Zein Daouk, Image of The Third Kingdom exhibition. Photo courtesy of the artist. Vladimir Kurumilian and Ziad Moukarzel. Photo courtesy of Baalbeck International Festival. :
Marie Alice Berberi, Art of Change mural for Horsh Beirut. Photo courtesy of the artist.
41
Her paintings are born of dance interlaced with painting, a process she calls “body painting.” Carrie lets her own body receive paint like a brush from her hands to her skin and leotard. She moves with sound through time, guided by the spirit within and beyond her. Establishing a composition and roadmap for her paintings with each contact her body makes with the canvas. Her movements unite the whole of her being as she channels the interplay between humanity and the divine in an intentional yet childlike way.
As much as Carrie responds to the human figure, she re sponds to land. She will often begin her projects by bringing her materials outside to react directly with the elements of nature and the land itself, constantly challenging the limits of paint. Carrie carries something with her to make art wherever she goes, truly capitalizing on the opportunity to embrace the world through the tools of her trade. Carrie finds organic forms of nature and man to provide a hidden visual language she reveals in her works and fearlessly looks straight into the heart of man and all of creation, dealing with its cracks and brokenness as with its gold and beauty. Carrie constantly reaches farther to other disciplines and fine arts communities. She collaborates with dance collectives in New York and Houston and facilitates healing and trauma-informed art workshops worldwide. Her heart is ready to learn and share art’s unifying power for all. She is represented by Off the Wall Gallery. www.offthewallgallery.com
Born in Houston, Texas, Carrie Swim embraces every creative tool possible to process life’s rhythms with an unbreakable sense of curiosity and wonder. She has developed a keen sense of adventure and adaptation through her diverse sur roundings. Her work pulses beauty and humanity, bridging gaps in the human experience with visible fluidities, supple and dream-like, reaching outward with a colorful palette that brims with brightness and hope. Her works bring people to each other and themselves as emotions are at the forefront of the works experientially.
C ARR I E SWIM
42ARTHOUSTON in.30x40-canvasonacrylicandoilStrings,HeartSwim,Carrie
exploring and open to problem-solving creative opportunities with new materials and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Carrie’s abstract style breathes with lyricism and is informed by movement and sound. She uses an ever-evolving visual language sourced from clas sical training in representational drawing, painting, and printmaking that she gained through her BFA at Baylor University and her studies in Italy. Her style is advanced by her Master’s at the University of Kansas and her seven-year journey in New York City, where she began to harness a greater tangibility to the abstraction.Inherstudio practice, you will find Carrie developing largescale, ethereal abstract oil and acrylic paintings or experi menting with new methods in mixed media. She is constantly
“Memory is dictated by pre-existing realities, whereas abstraction un-limits those associ ations, letting the core of a being speak with less constraint circumspection.”and
Portfolio PAINTING
44ARTHOUSTON
To recognize everything has a secret soul and connection. As in life, the challenge is to balance strength and fragility.”
Her teaching career began with Artist in Educa tion Grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts in 1988. She was the Department Head of Ceramics at San Antonio College as a tenured professor. Pri or to her 2015 retirement, she earned a NISOD excellence in teaching award and established an endowed ceramics scholarship fund.
S U S A BUDGEN
“With my work I attempt to evoke the mystery of all we seek to understand.
Susan Budge is an American sculptor working in clay and bronze with influences from Biomorphism and Surrealism. Budge holds a BFA from Texas Tech University, MA from Uni versity of Houston Clear Lake, MFA from University of Texas at San Budge’sAntonio.work has been in hundreds of exhibitions around the world, and is in the permanent collections of the Smith sonian, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Fuller Craft Museum, the San An tonio Museum of Art, the San Angelo Museum of Art, the Art Museum at Northern Arizona State University, the Art Museum of South Texas, the New Orleans Museum of Art. Budge has received numerous public com missions, residencies and awards, including, Artist of the Year for the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts in 2004.
Portfolio SCULPTURE
“Touching clay for the first time was my epiphany. The physical, sensual, direct qualities of this material have challenged me for over forty years. I prefer to work spontaneously in the studio in order to allow subconscious thoughts to surface. As a result, the works reveal issues at various stages of life, reflecting the concerns of the time. Works containing an eye began as a nod to the ‘All Seeing’ and reappeared following the birth of my only son. His constant gaze reminded me to “be good”, to set a good example. The eyes also reflect the notion of Kandinsky that: ‘Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.’ The cut forms incor porate a technique that is challenging and meditative. In my work I enjoy the use of paradox: balancing fragility and strength through technique and material.” Budge maintains an active studio practice at her rural studio near www.susanbudge.comHouston.
47ARTIST DISPATCH
“
- Jack Massing
WrenchDriven
IF YOUWRENCHYOUYOURKNEE,HAVETOGETITFIXED. ”
WrenchexhibitionMassing’sJackviewInstallationofWorks , ThompsonJackbyPhotographyWitte.MarkandBrokerKarinofwarehouseat2022the
Artist Jack Massing collaborated for more than thirty years with the late artist Michael Galbreth as “The Art Guys.” They became well known for their numerous staged performances, public spectacles, and “behavioral” interventions. Described in the NewYorkTimes as “a cross between Dada and David Letterman, John Cage and the Smothers Brothers,” The Art Guys often used humor and everyday materials as a way to demystify art.
ArtHouston invited Jack Massing to share his narrative as he continues his quest, with new work, which emulates the surrealist and the outsider art movements, with a twist of steampunk aesthetics.
Jack Massing has consistently challenged perceived divisions between art and life. Driven by an unflinching creative intensity, Jack presents a quixotic new series titled Wrench Works , which was exhibited at the home/warehouse of Karin Broker and Mark Witte early this year.
The imposition of a three dimensional wrench into or on a vintage photograph, thrift store painting, or other two dimensional material seems to defile or ruin the original. Yet in a wrongheaded way it somehow makes the marriage of the two things a better thing. My approach in these works is to consider them as a collage that includes the frame and the glass. I often use “wavy” glass that I find in old windows, or old picture frames. The frames and glass
Installation view of Jack Massing’s exhibition Wrench Works , 2022 at the warehouse of Karin Broker and Mark Witte. O p p o s i t e p a g e : Jack Massing, Once Upon A Time Near Zurich (Big Wrench) , The Art Guys 2014, vintage photo poster, steel wrench, painted wooden frame, and metal handles, 38 3/4 x 60 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches. All photography by Jack Thompson.
but their tactics had no effect on slowing down progress. Tools extend and enhance the ability of the body to do much more than what nature has given us. From the stone age to the present we have progressed to the point where the machines that we make can be programmed to make other machines and to think and learn for themselves. It is an additive process that some fearfully extrapolate may make us obsolete in the future.
The wrench has been used as an icon for signage at repair shops since the beginning of the industrial revo lution. There is a saying, “to throw a spanner (wrench) in the works” is a phrase used by British English speakers. It means to damage or change something in a way that ruins it or prevents it from working properly. In the early 19th century Luddites and other English workers destroyed machinery in fabric mills because they believed these new machines were threatening their jobs. They were correct
I chose to exhibit a range of work highlighting an ongoing series of what I call Wrench Works along with a few draw ings from The Art Guys Estate at the warehouse of Karin Broker and Mark Witte. Their home and property was made from a converted automotive repair shop building and tree service yard. Showing this recent series in their space seemed like a natural fit for this exhibition.
is tocomplicatedbythefactthatIreallydonotyetunderstandwhyIamcompelledusethem. ARTIST DISPATCH
My interest and dedication to using the wrench is complicated by the fact that I really do not yet understand why I am compelled to use them. I know that I like them and sometimes that’s enough. As a kid I liked the board game Operation where you had to remove a three dimensional object out of an illustrated human figure without touching the edges and setting off a buzzer. I like things that are made for the hand. I like to hold objects. I know that when two objects are put together or when they reside side by side they necessarily create a dialog. It’s unavoidable. Narratives can be derived, and assumptions made, as to why any two “things” work well together. Art is basically two ideas colliding or working together in some relation ship harmoniously or not.
My life as an artist has been mostly as a collaborator. Two artists working together become a single artist with 2 distinct parts. Collage works the same way. At this point wrenches somehow speak to me. They complete a random conversation with another random part in a discussion of my choice. I like to work in different media and in different ways. Sometimes I find that there are so many things out there in the world that it seems unreasonable to make any thing new. Use what’s already made and put them together like a Duchamp readymade or a Rauschenberg combine.
49 are so very important to the work and sometimes take attention away from the interior of the work, but must be considered as an art object in its entirety.
Once Upon A Time Near Zurich is the oldest wrench work in the show. The Art Guys worked on a small series of wrenches and then moved on to other things. I wanted to revisit the wrench as an icon because I like the imposition into the picture plane that the device of embedding provides.I really like the new works that I made, and other people did too. So I will push them along until I feel that I have made enough.
My interestthededicationandtousingwrench
BY LISA BUTLER
flying sol o
From Picasso to Twombly here’s a look at the rise of the single-artist museum.
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Texas is big on superlatives, so how about this - the oldest, the newest, and almost the most. What are we talking about? Why, single-artist museums, of course. It may come as a surprise to many that Texas has more single-artist museums than any other state except for New York.
Elisabet Ney Museum, Formosa, Austin. Photography by Phillip Barnhart
Some are house or studio museums filled with tools and ephemera as if the artist had just stepped out for a drink or walk. Others are more formal, designed by the artist or a foundation devoted to maintaining the artist’s legacy. Sometimes it was the family, other times a city or nation that preserved and presented the work of the artist for the benefit of the
Here in Texas, in Austin, the Elisabet Ney Museum opened in 1907. Possibly the first formal Texas art studio and definitely, the first single-artist museum dedicated to a woman. Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elisabet Ney, a highly renowned female European sculptor, emigrated to Texas in 1872. Her home and studio, Formosa , is dedicated to her life
and work, exhibiting personal memorabilia as well as portrait busts of famous notables including Giuseppe Garibaldi, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin. Former University of Texas life drawing and sculpture professor Charles Umlauf and his wife Angeline purchased a carriage house in 1944 that became their home at the top of a hill next to Austin’s Zilker Park. In 1985, they donated their property, his art studio, and 168 sculptures to the City of Austin for public enjoyment and education. Six years later, the city, using private funds, built a museum that now features exhibitions of Umlauf and his 20th-century peers.
Fifty miles from the Ney and Umlauf museums is Texas’s newest single-artist museum. Established by another Euro pean, Museo Benini was built in 2015 in the Texas Hill Country to exhibit the lifetime work of Italian artist Benini and features paintings spanning more than sixty years. On exhibit are early “superroses”, geometric paintings, and more recent works of an abstract nature. The museum compound sits on 35 artfully curated acres. An old-world stone and steel entrance contrasts the Beninis’ personal collection of international contemporary sculpture displayed on the grounds.
With cities like Los Angeles and New York and even Austin designated strongholds for art in the United States, whyafter 162 solo exhibitions here and abroad – would Benini establish a museum in the Texas countryside?
The idea of a single artist museum isn’t new. Museums devoted to the work of one artist are scattered throughout the country and abroad. In Europe, there is a long history of preserving artists’ studios born out of reverential respect for the creators. Picasso has four museums dedicated to his life and work. Dali has five. France, Italy, and Germany combined have 80 single-artist museums. In total, more than 250 single-artist museums are visited regularly worldwide.
“Therepublic.isnothing that quite equals the museum of a single artist,” notes Mark Rosenthal, former curator of 20th-cen tury art at the Guggenheim Museum. “The experience is like being spellbound in a magical play.”
It seems his love of solitude and respect for nature informs everything he does. “During my travels around the world, I observed that artists tend to form different schools - the New York school, the Düsseldorf school, and others, which often sets up a constant struggle to become relevant within the structure of the group. Early on I recognized that being isolated in communion with nature benefited my creative side,” Benini noted. “We always picked a place where nature was predominant and my work was free to evolve, and that continues to this day.”
This may be what inspired New York artist Donald Judd to not only design vast spaces to display his own work at Chinati in Marfa, but also to adapt warehouses that show cased the work of his contemporaries John Chamberlain and Dan Flavin.Upon
Six buildings at Chinati also feature Dan Flavin’s colorful large-scale fluorescent light compositions installed in 2000. Moving from one building to another evokes different light-enhanced moods, some hauntingly ethereal, others intense and powerful.
10, 1995, with the artist in attendance amongst his works from 1954-1994. The art was displayed with no explanatory or curatorial remarks, just as Twombly and his benefactor preferred. In Dominique’s words, “Perhaps only silence and love do justice to a great work of art.”
arriving at this 340-acre destination in the Chihuahuan high desert, you are invited to immerse yourself in a number of distinct museum-quality spaces, each a monument to a single artist. The first to open to the public in 1983, was a 23,000 sq. ft. building dedicated to the work of John Chamberlain, where the artist and Judd curated 22 brightly painted chrome-plated sculptures donated to the project by the Dia Foundation.
“
As lofty and sublime as the mission was, the construction of the chapel was troublesome and complex, involving four architects throughout a period of seven years. Despite its contentious beginning, the end result was transcendent. The multi-faith Rothko Chapel opened in February 1971 and was refreshed in 2021 with a $30 million renovation. Now open again, it is a revered space for quiet contemplation.
And then there is Judd’s work. One hundred milled alumi num rectangular shapes line up with military precision in the vast spaces of a building that was formerly part of a huge military complex, once a holding station for German prisoners of war. Sunlight through many tall windows constantly impacts how the work is seen, creating stunning transfor mations not possible in tiny windowless exhibition spaces. While the Dia Foundation provided the millions that allowed him to purchase land and buildings in Marfa, Judd had the vision and the fortitude to create showcases focused on the work of one artist at a time.
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While it might not be entitled a museum per se, the Rothko Chapel in Houston embodies work solely by Mark Rothko. Fourteen commissioned mostly-dark paintings hang serenely in an octagonal-shaped chapel. The de Menils’ intention for the chapel was, “to create opportunities for spiritual growth and dialogue that illuminate our shared humanity and lead to a world in which all are treated with dignity and respect.”
In this time of constant visual and electronic input, focusing on the work of a single artist is an opportunity to delve deeply into an understanding of the process of one man or woman’s artistic expression. The gift of this type of immer sion is that it can, in and of itself, become a learning journey or simply, a contemplative process.
Here in Houston, famous art patrons, Dominique and John de Menil, opened their private art museum, The Menil Collection in 1987. In addition to this world-class facility, they saluted the work of two artist friends in unique and different projects.
These opportunities to experience the work of a single artist are in contrast to grand museum experiences like the Met that provide a survey of work through the ages where multiple “voices” call out from the paintings. Both have their merit and any art lover will find richness in each for sure. Yet it is the single-artist museum where the human element reigns, conveying a deep resonance of the life and career of the artist rather than simply presenting a work of art.
Walking distance from the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel, the 9300 square foot structure opened on February
Undaunted by the extensive effort expended to establish the Rothko Chapel, the de Menils created yet another tribute to a single artist - Cy Twombly. After collecting Twombly’s work, and planning a major exhibition, Dominique went to Rome to meet with the artist. According to William Middleton in his biography Double Vision, when Twombly opened the door of his palazzo apartment, she said, “Cy, we want to build a museum for you.”
It is the single-artist museum where the human element reigns. ”
Donald Judd, 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, 1982-1986. Permanent collection, the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas. Photography by Douglas Tuck, courtesy of the Chinati Foundation. B e l o w : Museo Benini showcases the evolution of Benini’s paintings and three-dimensional works since the 1960’s. The 6500 sq.ft. building is located in Marble Falls, Texas. Photography courtesy of Museo Benini.
BY JOHN BERNHARD
JOHN BERNHARD: How did you get started in Houston as a gallery owner?
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on the board at Art League for a while before starting the gallery). I found an incredibly welcoming community here. I started visiting galleries and then brought my friends around to galleries every Saturday and realized that I loved sharing art with others, even more than making it myself. I thought about opening a gallery
KERRY INMAN: When I moved to Houston in 1986, I said – I’m going to like this place if it kills me (!) – and I got involved in the art world immediately. Volunteered, took classes at Glassell and the Art League (was
almost immediately but realized right away that I shouldn’t quit my day job if I really wanted to make it work. Betty Moody and all the other dealers in business at the time, were so encouraging and helpful. I spent one year volunteering at a gallery (on Saturdays), and started to meet artists, started visiting studios and
Founded in 1990 with an emphasis on artists living in Houston, Inman Gallery has since cultivated an internationally recognized program that represents contemporary artists from the region, nationally, and abroad. Gallery owner Kerry Inman shares with ArtHouston her views on the art business and the essential relationship with artists.
inman
Inman Gallery in Isabella Court on main Street in Midtown.
Moll Brau, Mother of Pearl (The Creator Archetype), 2022, oil stick, acrylic, nails, parasitic flatworms, oyster shells, clear tar gel on linen , 84x72 in.
gallery
From left to right: Angelica Raquel, Ghosts of the San Miguel Ranch, 2022, Wooden ranch house, plexiglass, house paint, LED, rug hooked and tufted landscape, mural, vinyl, rug tufted and felt photo stills from the ranch, 32x52x98 in.
Installation view, 2022.
Angela Fraleigh, With magic and mind (A spell to move through time), 2022, oil on linen, 14x11 in.
55GALLERY INTERVIEW
Photography by Allyson Huntsman
JB: Your gallery is located in Isabella Court on Main Street in Midtown. What can you tell us about the building and the location?
KI: The building is wonderful, historic, the owners have done a great job keeping it up over the years. It has been
KI: The artists whose work I’m attracted to and whom we’ve championed over the years combine a strong conceptual underpinning with appropriate facture, meaning, if it is supposed to be DIY then it is made that way. If it is supposed to be highly crafted, then it is. I like it when artists
I’m also rabid about art that helps me understand the world I live in in a different way.
Kerry Inman adjusting the lights in a recent exhibition of paintings by Darren Waterston. Photo courtesy of Inman Gallery
JB: What kind of artists have you exhibited over the years?
marry their concepts with the materials they use. Given that I was a geologist and have a particular love of and knowledge of the land, I am sensitive to a landscape quality in work.
an amazing home for us for the past 18 years. We started there in 2004 and in 2011, expanded a bit to our current footprint. Years ago, It housed five galleries and we had a great time together. I wish for that again.
then found a 13 x 13 ft space inside another gallery and just started! It has been my own interest that has sustained us over the years – Art matters – having a work of art on the wall that someone else made provides a connection between people which is very powerful. I like to facilitate that.
JB: Do you plan to increase the presence in your gallery of emerging artists?
KI: We are currently representing two artists who were born in the 1990s, emerging, and we try to keep in touch with our community of artists here in Houston.
KI: It’s a secret.
(we will close the gallery and the whole team will be in NY), so check back later, I can let you know how it went!
JB: Do you participate in Art Fairs?
Natural Numbers, installation view from a recent exhibition of new work by Brad Tucker. Photography by Thomas R. DuBrock
KI: We have since 1999. They are time-consuming, expensive and, often hard to get into, but they have been necessary to build our audience. Fairs provide tremendous exposure for the artists AND the gallery. But there are too many fairs – one has to remind oneself that the fair organizer makes money whether you sell work at the fair or not! So, over the years, we have tried to consistently up the quality of fair that we participate in and try and make sure that the fair is a good fit for ourWeprogram.aredoing two fairs this September in New York, which I know is crazy
JB: Do you have any big plans for the future?
KI: Make art! Join Lawndale and the Art League; submit work for juried exhibitions. Look at lots of art!!! Explore! Understand what people see in the work you make, but don’t take most criticism to heart. Understand where the comment is coming from first Listen and process and decide what to internalize and then move on. Keep trying! Find a cohort of fellow artists you trust, and actively critique one another. Never submit work to a gallery you have not visited first.
KI: I don’t have an opinion. I’ve been doing this for 31 years, some years are bad, some are better. We love being part of our community and I try to figure out how to keep doing that!
JB: How do you feel about the art market today?
JB: Do you have any advice for new artists starting out?
59
BY SABRINA BERNHARD
StageCraft
Michael Locher, the Alley Theatre’s Director of Design, teaches the intricacies of scenic design and overcomes adversities from the pandemic.
Directors, actors, and designers often trace their footsteps back to being theatre kids, reciting all the words to Annie. However, that wasn’t Michael. As a child, he was a visual artist, drawing and painting. He often would draw sequences of scenes from his favorite cartoons or movies, which he later realized he was story boarding at a young age. In college, he liked to comment on and adapt to works already made. Scenic
friend, Rob Melrose, offered Michael his dream job at The Alley Theatre as Director of Design. With some negotiation with his wife and children- home in the Bay Area soon became home in the Bayou City. Finally mustering out “Summer 2019”, Michael and his family moved to the humid city and surprisingly haven’t looked back.
design provided the pathway where he could do it all. Scenic design incorporates many fields that are largely stand-alone careers, such as architecture, interior design, textile design, etc. With a higher education in scenic design at Yale University, Michael’s works have been seen in New York City and at regional theaters around the United States, including the Guthrie Theater, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theatre, and St. Louis Rep.
Uprooting your family halfway across the country is no small feat, but battling a pandemic as a theatre company may be harder. To put it in perspective, since Michael started in 2019, he has yet to see a complete calendar year on stage. 1984 had its opening night in March 2020 and The Alley closed the next day due to the pandemic. Everyone was devastated. All that time, energy, hard work, attention to detail, for no one to see. That’s when they leaped for the camera; they had to move to virtual performances. They got a camera crew together and hired a video editor. Digital art was exciting, but limiting; they were a theatre company, not a film studio.
Pandemic of Production
Michael shares his favorite production, Frankenstein , for many reasons. It was visually very successful and pleasing to the eye, but it was a wonderful collaboration process. Michael explains “I was at my best at taking the ideas of others.” He was able to take the artwork of his collaborators and artists, that he respected so much, and push it forward to an exciting place. Michael successfully took a story, so familiar and iconic, and told anew on stage. Michael diligently worked to decide how to make the audience visually understand a memorable storyline in a new light.
Contextualizing Scenic Design
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Scenic designers are the liaison between the director’s vision and the audience’s understanding. They are the first, from the creative team, to meet with the director to discuss strategies and gauge the production timeline. Being first in line is both daunting, but also really empowering because it means you get the first opportunity to influence things.
Trust may be the key takeaway of this collaborative art form. The more trust within the team, the better the show will be. The dissemination and acceptance of ideas from one member of the creative team to another is unbelievable. Directors explain their vision, that the scenic designer then takes and expands on, to then share with the other members of the creative team- everyone enriching and working in a collective manner. This filtration of ideas allows for each team to add their talented spin on the process.
Nervously chuckling and apologizing for his brain fog when trying to recount when he moved to Houston, Texas, Michael Locher explains the impact COVID-19 has had on the theatre business.Hisgood
A question people often ask is who’s making the decisionsthe director or the scenic designer? That all really depends on the context and the director. There are shows where the director comes in and doesn’t know what they want at all. It is now up to the scenic designer to decide, pitch ideas, and see them through. But on the flip side, there’s times where the scenic designer must realize the director’s vision in a way that satisfies them. There is everything in between on the spectrum of collaborations. Michael Locher has encountered them all. His favorite process being when the director has a general concept and is less specific on the visuals. The director must trust he will do his job well, as the team works to establish a visual language for how to communicate the story being told.
In order to protect their actors and staff, they began working 100% remote 100% of the time. The actors were filming themselves in their own home. Filming equipment would be dropped off at the actors’ respective homes in the morning, while everyone jumped on Zoom to help set up the equipment and direct through a laptop screen. Everyone was on separate computers in their respective homes- directors, designers, actors, everyone. Nothing more handicapping than making art in the most collaborative way behind a screen. Countless scenic design duties had to be molded to fit the new virtual world. Things so necessary, yet basic, such as backgrounds now had to succumb to the battle of big stage versus small screen. Michael would have to design a background, print it out and deliver to actors’ homes to use when shooting. While the growing pains were exhausting, the team couldn’t have
Michael Locher’s scenic design, Born with Teeth, Alley PhotographyHouston,Theatre,2022.by Lynn Lane
What many, privy to theatre, know is how mobile a career in theatre really is. Artists in theatre are really traveling free lancers. Most companies, like The Alley Theatre, enjoy bringing talent in, nationally and globally. This movement is imperative to the collaborative art process, yet was widely put on pause due to the pandemic. The systematic practice in the theatre timeline of running from home to city became walking from home office to couch. Michael comments “art is rarely as collaborative as theatre and film often are”. When that collaboration is hindered, the final show piece takes the brunt. The pandemic has largely affected every person on this planet as well as their industry, from 2020 to today. Through thick and thin, Michael, his family and his team at The Alley Theatre prevailed.
63 Michael Locher’s scenic design, Frankenstein, Guthrie Minneapolis,Theater,MN, 2018.
FEATURE
felt prouder that they had pushed the envelope. 1984 was not only being viewed by Houston residents, but also those living in North Dakota, Hawaii, Sweden, and Singapore. The Alley’s scope, which was once so confined to geography, was now on view for the world to see. The pandemic had allowed for theatre to reach a whole new audience, moving away from the local. This is any artists’ dream to show new people their art and message. Michael shared in retrospect, “It is sad that it took the COVID-19 pandemic to kickstart American theatre companies to really think hard about how they distributed and shared their work.”
P r e v i o u s s p r e a d : Michael Locher’s scenic design, Dead Man’s Cellphone, Alley Theatre, Houston, Photography2022.by Lynn Lane
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Emma Balder, Installation view, 2022,
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Last summer Foltz Fine Art presented Emma Balder: Beyond the Surface, funded in part by Houston Arts Alliance. Beyond the Surface is an exhibition which considers the subliminal meaning behind every-day soft materials. With textiles’ proximity and necessity in daily life, relationships to this material provide key insights about humanity. How we treat textiles is indicative of the way we treat other humans, even ourselves. What do these relationships reveal? What truths are textiles masking under neath? Does the everyday exchange with textiles reflect the depth of connection between human beings?
FOLTZ FINE ART
Employing an intricate aesthetic that layers the female figure, foliage, East Indian motifs and the nostalgic pallet of 1970’s and 1980’s home decor, Sandhu’s work examines the conflicting feelings of shame, self-acceptance, and sexuality; aspiring to seek out self-authenticity in current cultural, political and emotional contexts. Although informed by her previous body of work which focused on ethnic identity in an alien culture, Sandhu’s current work draws from experiences that are both deeply personal to her and are also shared by women more broadly- attempting to portray inner conflicts seemingly intrinsic to womanhood regardless of ethnicity or heritage.Sandhu is a multi-disciplinary artist currently residing in Toronto, Canada. Her paper and gouache/watercolour based works explore her fascination with cultural hybridity, gender and sexuality alongside familial and personal narratives. Sandhu’s work has exhibited across Canada, Europe and the USA. Her work is part of Above the Fold, an exhibition of new work also featuring the art of Jennifer Ling Datchuk. On view until December 4, 2022.
As the second-generation daughter of mixed Punjabi SikhCanadian heritage, Sandhu’s cultural and personal identity is composed of diverse narratives. These narratives play out in her current body of work that explores woman’s arduous search for self-love and the accompanying strength of spirit that this personal journey necessitates.
The exhibition displayed a community-made installation sur rounded by a collection of works by Emma Balder. The installa tion, suspended from the gallery’s center, resembled a tent-like structure which viewers may walk through. Its inner layer holds meaningful textiles, donated and sewn into the work by local Houstonians. A book contains portraits of each participant, alongside stories about their personal textile chosen for the installation. Neighboring gallery walls held sculptural paintings and fiber paintings made by the artist over her 8 years working in these processes. Created using textile waste from artists and designers from around the world, these supporting works forge new tales for material which was once left idle and forgotten. Allowing abstraction to be a voice for textured stories, the project examined what lies Beyond the Surface of everyday textiles. Demonstrating intention and care for the textiles in our lives, Beyond the Surface uncover a deeper appreciation for the threads which connect us all.
reviews
MIA SANDHU JONATHAN HOPSON GALLERY
Mia Sandhu, Bawdy 7, 2022, gouache, watercolor, pencil and charcoal on paper, 11x14 in.
EMMA BALDER
A spin-off from a huge series of marquetry works that Sebastián began creating in 2006, in which he recreates the covers of popular illustrated publications, his current work benefits from his experience with the qualities and ways of working with wood veneers, such as enriching their chromatic variety with the use of dyes. This has been a long journey of technical experimenta tion for Gordín who enjoys finding ways to illustrate stories that obsess him but which, in this case, are presented not only as a medium but also as a generator of unexpected images. As he put it, the processes and tests carried out in this series created “this abstraction machine,” with gears designed, built, and set in motion by his own hands, benefiting from a dialectic between the properties of the materials, the capacities of the tools, the contingencies of the work and the contemplation of the constantly transforming results. Adriana Lauria
The exhibition Woman: Spirit of the Universe at The Heritage Society’s Museum Gallery showcased the Journey to Equality, a sculpture exhibit representing the collars that adorned the shoulders of women who changed history.
SICARDI AYERS BACINO GALLERY
Sebastián Gordín hasn’t made paintings for at least three decades, and he isn’t now, either, strictly speaking. In his recent abstract compositions, not very common for him, however, he returns to the painting format with its most conspicuous attributes: mainly two-dimensional, mounted on stretchers and with perimeter framing. However, his starting point continues to be objects, as much as his first boxes from the early 1990s, which he expanded shortly afterwards into models, drawers with peepholes, showcases, sculptures and reduced-scale installations, that offer, in all these forms, concise scenes of extraordinary narratives that inspire the imagination of all those who see them.
Carolyn Marks Johnson, Bronze Collar
“The timing of this exhibit is important because it helps Ameri cans recall and understand key historical women who improved equality,” The Heritage Society’s executive director, Alison Bell said. “This exhibit features some women from Texas, such as Jordan, Richards, and Ride, who were instrumental in effecting change.”Johnson stated the most recognizable collar of her collection is the collar of the iconic Ruth Bader Ginsberg. When she died, a Ginsberg white lace collar was placed on Wall Street’s “Fearless Girl” statue and many other female statues in tribute.
T HE HERITAGE SOCIETY’S MUSEUM GALLERY
SEBASTIÁN GORDÍN
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“The collar is my icon for a gender-based social statement to uplift the woman honored with a symbol of her life,” the artist Carolyn Marks Johnson said. “Collar styles change, and as we move into the 21st century, our strong women wear the same type of collar, which I see frequently on women in the political world.”Some of the women represented in the exhibit are Margaret Brent, Abigail Smith Adams, Betsy Ross, Elizabeth Blackwell, Margaret Louise Higgins Sanger, Dorothea Lange, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Patsy Takemoto Mink, Mazie Keiko Hirono, Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, Georgia O’Keefe, Wilma Mankiller, Dolores Huerta, Sally Ride, Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
69 Sebastián Gordín, 2022 (detail) Dyed veneer and copper on wood panel
CAROLYN MARKS JOHNSON
OKSTARE
Life ends when we stop being important to others. Art and genres die the same way. This is an outstandingly simple equation! Let’s not abstruse our lives and dehumanize art with complicated descriptions and time consuming and ridiculous cacophonic stories of what the artist was thinking or envisioned to communi cate through his work.
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IT’S
Stare at the artwork, let it talk to you. Read by yourself and encode the message. Let it run-through your rationalities, your mind, wisdom and logic. Unscramble the essential from the BY WILLIAM HANHAUSEN
To unravel the Latino art’s constant relationship between art as a communication channel and the artists recognition and personal judgement by his own work. It takes only one beyond simple step. “There is no art without an artist and there is no artist without art.”
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Devon Rodrigez, Friday Evening, From the Subway Painting Series, Oil on 30”x24”Wood,in.
OK
I said it once before, we are an audience eager to learn more about the purpose and value of each artist’s message. Those historically unheard and untold tales, those (un)belonging borders and boundar ies that prevail constantly in silence.
In recent years two young “Latino Colossus”; Johan Barrios, and mountedonandCharcoalInterface,Barrios,2021,watercolorpaperonwood
panel, 43”x79” in.
Again, stare at the work, chose your own conclusions. Find out what you like and why you like it. Uncover and read the artist message and with all these elements together, you will understand the magnifi cence of the Latino Art.
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Johan
Devon Rodriguez have slowly surfaced from an obscure sewer of an ignored genre. A genre, shadowed by unnecessary prerogatives, discrimination and lack of recognition that shows the power and message of its artists. This is their work…
insignificant through the senses, taking your inner life to realize a solid vision full of possibilities and solutions. Feel the materials and media, smell it, and then decode.
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A. C. EVANS
Opposite page: Sister Rosetta, Digital Illustration by A.C. Evans
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I’m presently participating in the Space Taking Artist Residency as curator of MythoFutuRiddim. We are in the second week of a six-week residency at the Winter Street Studios 2nd Floor Gallery.
Why do you create art?
A.C. Evans speaking at the Opening Reception of MythoFutuRiddim, Winter Street Studios. Photo by J. Andrade
What types of mediums do you work in?
What was the very first independent creative project you worked on?
Anything else you wish to add?
MythoFutuRiddim
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Success is important, but its important that success as I define it is experienced through the success of others. Our project mission is to help manifest sustainable careers for artists. If the artist in our network are doing well, we consider that success shared, residual and tangible.
What upcoming projects are you working on?
My work (both personal and curatorial) usually focuses on the construction of identity. How does society inform or construct an identity for you? How do you as an individual develop your identity amongst cultural expectations, limitations and assumptions.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. I describe myself as an Artist, as an individual who is dedicated to creating lasting relationships through Art. I’m a native Houstonian, who moved back home after 20 years on the East Coast, mostly in Brooklyn, NY. My work as an artist began as an oil painter, who focused mainly on surrealistic portraits. Over years my practice has evolved to include curation, illustration and digital design. I lead Keyeser & Marie, an arts organization focused on building sustainable careers for artists. Our work includes design, exhibition curation, book publishing, art and art consultation.
Interview
MythoFutuRiddim is an annual arts and cultural festival featuring emerging artists who explore mythology, Afrofuturism and riddim/music.Ourfestivalcombines art, design, music and performances within a unique cultural dialogue that explores how artists use these themes to spark their creative process.Thisexhibition is the third in a series of nomadic grass roots projects focused on promoting early-career artists. With this exhibition and those that follow, we are committed to helping artists begin, develop, and sustain creative careers on their own terms.”
Thematically, what is your work usually about?
I’m deeply concerned with arts equity and artists rights. To that end, I lead Keyeser & Marie, a company which manifests oppor tunities for artists by creatively investing resources into the development of sustain able careers. Keyeser & Marie is named after my grandparents, Ben “Keyeser” and Marie Evans. As a young child, the art in their home and within their salon conver sations inspired me to not only pursue art as an individual but to also provide relevant art opportunities for others. The organization is inspired by their memory and all projects are energized by the intent to create careers of genuine ownership for artists.
Is having a “successful career” as an artist something that is important to you?
I create art as both a path to personal exploration but also as a way to connect to others and build relationships.
I work in traditional mediums, oil, water colors and acrylics. I also work in digital media (illustration, photoshop) as well as code (HTML, CSS, Javascript). I feel fairly comfortable in using these types of media and also enjoy exploring where traditional media and new media can merge.
76ARTHOUSTON ArtPub is involved in the conception, development, and the production of fine art books. We collaborate with outstanding authors, artists, photographers, collectors, museums, and gallerists to create and produce exquisite publications conceived to reach your targeted audience. Custom publishing tailored to your needs 713-854-3758 WWW.ARTHOUSTONMAGAZINE.COM/BOOK-PUBLISHING © ©2021 ArtPub, a publishing division of ArtHouston, is dedicated to designing, producing and publishing books on contemporary art and photography. Get Your Book Published
editor’s pick Miller Quevedo
Miller Quevedo, From another dimension, Richmond Lago Bella ,16 x 19 feet. Mix media, marmolinos, mica mineral and pigments.
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Miller Quevedo is a Colombian artist who came to Houston in 2015 with the mission of building his creative career. Since then, he has been able to express his art in live events, where his creativity has been spontaneous. With his expressive style, he sends a positive message while pursuing and developing his live art. His work is fueled with energy and spirituality, and leaves you with an indelible memory of his artistry.
FAMILY FIRE is a shooting involving an improperly stored gun, often found in the home.
ENDFAMILYFIRE.org
8 kids a day are accidentally killed or injured by FAMILY FIRE.
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Printed in Mexico. ©Copyright 2022. All right reserved. The entire contents of ArtHouston may not be reproduced in any matter, either in part or in whole, without written permission from the publisher. In addition, the artists within hold copyrights on their images and essays. Any use of or copying of their works without their written permission is in violation of the copyright law. ArtHouston Magazine, LLC. is not responsible in any way for mispellings, omissions, incorrect phone numbers or addresses. Unsolicited manuscripts, and other materials must be accompanied by postage and a self-addressed return envelope. ArtHouston is not responsible for unsolicited submissions. Address all correspondence to: ArtHouston Magazine, 9114 N. Allegro St. Houston, TX 77080.
80ARTHOUSTON EVERY ISSUE OF now available free for digital download! ARTHOUSTON collect, and get inspired: arthoustonmagazine.com PUBLISHER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JOHN BERNHARD EDITOR-AT-LARGE PIERRE-ANDRE FOLLONIER DESIGN JOHN BERNHARD / BERNHARDPUB.COM CONTRIBUTING WRITERS MEGHAN HENDLEY LOPEZ, JT MORSE MORGAN CRONIN, SABRINA BERNHARD, ARTHUR DEMICHELI HADIA MAWLAWI, LISA BUTLER, WILLIAM HANHAUSEN. PHOTOGRAPHERS HALL PUCKETT, NATHAN LINDSTROM ADVERTISING MATT ROSS - 713 417 6857 DIGITAL EDITION ARTHOUSTONMAGAZINE.COM CONTACT US ARTHOUSTONMAGAZINE@GMAIL.COM FOLLOW ArtHouston@ARTHOUSTONMAGAZINEispublishedsemi-annuallybyArtHouston Magazine, LLC.
Arthur Demicheli WRITER, PHOTOGRAPHER
Lisa Butler WRITER
contributors
A combination of cre ative and cause related initiatives, Meghan Hendley Lopez is a clas sically trained pianist, composer, and vocalist who has turned her tal ent towards the world of nonprofit administration/management, grant writing, PR, journalism, Web3 endeavors, all centered in creative solutions for cause based initiatives. Over 17 years of experience centers the balance of presentation and preservation of the arts, agriculture, sustainability.
Nathan PHOTOGRAPHERLindstromLisaButler
An art venture capital investor, former faculty Professor of Marketing at the Universidad Ana huac Mexico City. Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Mu seum of Texas Art (MoTA) and member of the Latino Advisory Commit tee at the MFAH. While eschewing what he describes as “Latino Art is not Latin-American Art”, he is a maverick of “Latino and Chicano Art an underrepresented american style”.
is a writer, art dealer, curator, and Di rector of Business Devel opment for a West Texas company focused on Creative Placemaking. As a child of a transient diplomatic family, she constructed her sense of home through books and a tacit absorption of the complex cultures she was immersed in. She currently lives in Odessa, Texas with her husband, nine-year-old daughter Izzie, and a cadre of five feline terror ists.
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Arthur Demicheli is a freelance copywriter and photographer from New York who has worked in the mar keting, advertising, and publishing industries since 1992.
Morgan Cronin WRITER
WRITERHall
Sabrina Bernhard is a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a BA in International Relations and in French. She is working with ArtHous ton to fulfill her passion for the arts, while further developing Houston’s admirable cross-cultural reputation. Sabrina is passionate about travelling, contemporary arts, la Francophonie, music, and culture.
Morgan Cronin is a New York City based writer, originally from Houston. She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and is currently a secondyear MFA candidate at the New School, where she is studying creative nonfiction. She has been a regular contributor to ArtHouston. Her work has appeared in the Culture Trip, Houston Press, and elsewhere.
Sabrina Bernhard WRITER
Nathan Lindstrom is a commercial portrait and lifestyle photographer based in Houston with clients from all over the world. Having grown up in Iowa and lived in Ar gentina and Spain, Lind strom draws on his experiences for inspiration. His work was included in two shows during the last FotoFest exhibition. Lindstrom has a studio in Silver Street Studios and lives with his wife and their dog, Kirby.
PHOTOGRAPHERPuckett
Hadia Mawlawi is a Houston-based free lance writer, arts ad ministrator and com munity volunteer. She sits on the board of the Houston Seminar where she enjoys or ganizing lectures and local trips, expanding people’s perception of all things Houston and beyond. She is passionate about art, culture, reading and exploring hidden treasures and writes about these in her blog, Enlivened.
William Hanhausen WRITER
Recently, Arthur has been a dynamic part of ArtHouston’s team. He holds an MA in Hu manities from the University of Geneva. He is an avid fan of art, film, and photography history.
Hall Puckett is a pho tographer based in Houston. Early on when friends and family asked him what he was going to do with a major in psychology and a minor in photography his response was “I guess I’ll just have to take pictures of crazy people!” Funny how things work out. He currently lives off the north loop in a “transitional neighborhood” with his wife, two rescue dogs, and a cat named Lalo.
Hadia Mawlawi WRITER
Meghan Hendley Lopez
