Lawndale Art Center
Texas Sculpture Group Curated by James Surls 4912 Main St. Houston, Texas 77002 August 22-September 27, 2014
Opening Reception: Friday, August 22, 6:30-8:30pm
S. G. Fitz The S Bronz
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In 1968, Richard Serra spent seven days throwing molten lead up against the wall in a piece called "Splashing." The title is a verb. He says his experimentation with process and chance, influenced by William Burroughs and John Cage, led him to a dead end. Just as there was no hierarchy of compositional elements in paintings by Pollock, Serra contends that his origins as a painter were influenced by Pollock before he moved into literal space. Sculpture has moved away from the materiality of the object, away from defining space in anthropomorphic terms, into a quasi-relationship with architecture. In site specific works like Smithson, Michael Heizer, Christo or Mary Miss, the relationship of sculpture as memorial or not-landscape-not architecture as Rosalind Krause analyzes it, has evolved into installation art. Ready-made objects like the urinal of Duchamp or the suitcases of Asa Genzken are given legitimacy by the place of installation, defined by the four walls of the gallery or socially validated by exhibition in a museum. The Museum previously gave historical validation to artists, now the artists are loaning their notoriety to Museums to market institutions. In the case of Serra, his works such as the "Matter of Time" at Bilbao define the Museum, giving the institution credibility by its association with a superstar, a monumental work that is the billboard of the museum. Serra has never risked losing control of his material, but is a master manipulator, not of material but of public sentiment and branding. In a world that values multiples, appropriation, and recognition by virtue of a simple calculated product, the individual creator is the only unique variable that can absorb value over time. "Spill" (a noun) is the result of an accident with 215 pounds of molten bronze being dropped when the weight/balance and forces of gravity took the crucible into its own control. This huge molten Spill created a surface (75 x 71 x 8) that was enlivened and sculpted by its own natural process-its internal memory of liquid. The bronze formed its multi layered shapes in that unique moment between liquidity and solidity. The practice is simple: a piece must be created by the most direct means possible. Size and scale are defined by context, if not architectural then in some relationship to human form. These pieces are conceived as an intimate scale, the weight of the object defining its size, and scale being relative to human weight bearing capabilities. In this process, there are only one- of- a- kind objects created, no need for molds to repeat an idea that has already been realized. Time is short. In the current connected world, the ability of fame to supersede aesthetic judgment, lends credibility to the consumerist view that value is based on cost and brand name recognition. This is a post-modern remnant of Warhol. The gatekeepers of value-- social consensus, time and historical judgment have been replaced by marketing experts, and the democratization of access to the internet. 4
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Bronze 2014
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Texas Sculpture Group www.susanfitzsimmons.com Susan Fitzsimmons is Professor, Chair of the Art Department at UTPA, and the Shivers Endowed Chair of Art for 2013-2015. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri (1949) she lived in New York for more than 23 years. She had many oneperson shows, including Just Above Midtown Gallery and St. Peter’s Church in New York City. She has participated in more than 150 group shows that included venues such as Hofstra University, Albright Knox Museum, State University of New York at Plattsburg, MunsonWilliams-Proctor Institute, Albany Institute of History and Art Institute, Saratoga Springs Historical Museum, Schenectady Museum. She was artist- inresidence at the Henry Street Settlement House in New York for three years. Since her move to Texas in 2010, she has exhibited in: TSG @ Lawndale Art Center, Houston; Texarkana National Juried Show; the Dougherty Art Center, Austin, Texas; Del Mar College, 48th Annual National Juried Small Sculpture and Works on Paper; 2
State University, USA; University of Pretoria, South Africa; University of Texas Pan American; the Anita Shapolsky Foundation in Jim Thorpe, PA; KSpace, Corpus Christi, Texas; Texas Art 2012, Williams Tower Gallery; Shorelines Biennial at Rockport Center for the Arts; “Water Works,” UTPA: 2011 Susan Fitzsimmons and Ansen Seale; Quinta Mazatlan, Mcallen, TX; “Women and Water Rights,” Cascade Meadow, Rochester, MN; WOMEN AND WATER RIGHTS: RIVERS OF REGENERATION, University of Minnesota, Nash Gallery, Regis Center for Art, Minneapolis, MN. Grants and Awards: • Marialice Shary Shivers Endowed Chair of Art of UTPA 2013-2015
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Kerspit and Flemish Community Grant to visit artistic and educational institutions in Belgium, 2012
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Fulbright CIES grant 2011
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Partners for the Arts, Arts Café 2008 2010;
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Centennial Sculpture Competition, University of Southern Mississippi 2010;
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Partners for the Arts, visiting artists grant 2007;Arts Café 2008-2009;
Mississippi Arts Commission-National Endowment for the Arts: Support for Cultural Arts Center;
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