Events

Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:16:37 GMT

04-12-2013 to 04-12-2013 -

Self-described "visionary" artist Forrest Bess (1911-77) is a unique figure in the history of American art. For most of his career, Bess lived an isolated existence in a fishing camp outside of Bay City, Texas, eking out a meager living by selling bait and fishing. By night and during the off-season, however, he read, wrote, and painted prolifically, creating an extraordinary body of mostly small-scale canvases rich with enigmatic symbolism. Despite his isolation, Bess was known to a number of other artists, and in 1949 he met the prominent artist and dealer Betty Parsons. Between 1949 and 1967, Parsons organized six solo exhibitions of his work at her gallery in New York, the undisputed center of the art world at the time.

Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible will present a selection of approximately forty paintings, along with rare works on paper and selected letters by this important but under-recognized artist. The exhibition will also include The Man That Got Away by contemporary American
sculptor Robert Gober, originally created for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. In this room-size
installation, Gober compiles a selection of Bess's paintings and writings, and photographs of the artist as a way to fulfill Bess's long-held desire to present his artwork alongside his thesis.

Picasso Black and White

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:11:11 GMT

02-24-2013 to 02-24-2013 - "Picasso Black and White" marks the first exhibition in Houston of Pablo Picasso's work in over a decade and focuses in depth on the recurrent motif of black and white throughout his career.

Picasso (1881-1973) was an original and inventive colorist, yet a particularly striking feature that pervades his prolific oeuvre is the persistent pairing of black and white, colors in their own right that convey a direct mode of spontaneous and raw energy. This exhibition features some 70 works along with major pieces from the small, but distinguished, MFAH holdings of the artist's graphic works.

After debuting at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (SRGM) in New York City, the exhibition travels to Houston, where it is being coordinated by Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH Curator of Contemporary Art and Special Projects.

Nine Houston restaurants are serving up Picasso Black and White inspired fare. You'll also receive a $5 discount for the exhibition with a receipt. Click here for details.

Andy Coolquitt: Attainable Excellence

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:26:34 GMT

05-25-2013 to 05-25-2013 -

For his debut at Blaffer Art Museum, the artist's first solo museum exhibition, Andy Coolquitt will recombine 60 discrete sculptures and tableaux made between 2006 and 2011 into a site-specific installation which, in its singularity and temporariness, reflects on the condition of the gallery space as a codified place of encounter for people and works of art.

The exhibition will also include pieces that occupy a hybrid position between autonomous artworks by Coolquitt and what the artist calls somebody-mades and in-betweens. Somebody-mades are assemblages of objects that are presented just as the artist found them in the streets, while in-betweens combine such found assemblages with interventions of his own.

Presented alongside and interspersed with his own work, these elements serve to further complicate the relationship between the contexts of creation and reception, artist and audience, and blur the boundaries between art and life.

Byzantine Things in the World

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:38:39 GMT

05-03-2013 to 05-03-2013 - Byzantine Things in the World focuses on highlighting the Menil Collection's more than seventy Byzantine holdings ranging from 1700 BC to the late twentieth century. Byzantine thinkers saw objects as dynamic and changeable, fully capable of affecting the world, which is contrary to the contempory conception.

Organized by guest curator Glenn Peers, Professor of early Medieval and Byzantine Art at the University of Texas at Austin, with the support of Susan Sutton, curatorial assitant at the Menil Collection. The exhibition concentrates on the materials used and the sensory impressions created by the art.

Cyrus Cylinder Exhibition

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 08:37:00 GMT

05-03-2013 to 05-03-2013 -

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston announces that one of the most iconic objects from the British Museum, the Cyrus Cylinder, will tour five major museum venues in the United States, including the MFAH in May 2013.

The Cyrus Cylinder is among the most famous objects to have survived from the ancient world. The Cylinder was inscribed in cuneiform on the orders of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC) after he captured Babylon in 539 BC. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights since it appears to encourage freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It was first found in 1879 and has been on display at the British Museum ever since.

Domokos / Future Blondes 0.0.0.0.

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:29:01 GMT

05-10-2013 to 05-10-2013 -

The Lawndale Artist Studio Program is part of Lawndale's ongoing commitment to support the creation of contemporary art by Gulf Coast area artists. With an emphasis on emerging practices, the program provides three artists with studio space on the third floor of Lawndale Art Center at 4912 Main Street in the heart of Houston's Museum District. This exhibition features residents for the seventh round of the Lawndale Artist Studio Program, Domokos / Future Blondes 0.0.0.0., Nancy Douthey and Patrick Turk.

Domokos / Future Blondes 0.0.0.0. presents new works on aluminum, installations, disposable/free items, video manipulations and a sound series to accompany his new body of work created during Lawndale's 2012-2013 Artists Studio Program. These works are a visual / aural extension of the sound and concept of his ongoing work with the experimental music project, future blondes network.

Fragments: Architecture of the Holocaust, An Artist’s Journey through the Camps

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:15:38 GMT

01-31-2013 to 01-31-2013 - Artist Karl Koenig applied his photographic eye and used the remarkable effects of his gumoil photographic printing techniques to explore the architectural remains of 10 Nazi concentration camps. His style and expressive printmaking method have allowed him to offer a unique interpretation of what these buildings may have been like for concentration camp prisoners.

Koenig discovered the polychromatic gumoil method in 1990. The actual photographs were taken over a 10-year period (1994-2004) of 10 different camps. Based on his book of the same title, the exhibition highlights one print from each camp: Mauthausen, Breendonck, Theresienstadt, Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Vught, Auschwitz, Auschwitz II and Majdanek.

In discussing his work prior to his death in 2012, Koenig said, "I aim to lead viewers to look intensely at specific buildings or architectural details, horrible or ordinary as they may be, and find themselves transported inside them.... Once inside, however, the observer is inside the hell of the camps."

Library hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

I'll Send the Message Along the Wires

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:50:55 GMT

05-10-2013 to 05-10-2013 -

Through installations, sculptures, videos, and sound pieces, Justin Boyd's work explores Americana and the American Landscape in search of true American spirit and inspiration. In finding these moments and stories that define us and the environment we live in, it is Boyd's hope to make work that expands upon those histories and locations, and opens them up for current day exploration and participation.

Boyd will be creating a site-derived sound installation in the Cecily E. Horton Gallery employing the sounds of heartbeats, railroads, comets and homecoming mum-bells.

James Turrell: A Retrospective

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:23:25 GMT

04-07-2013 to 04-07-2013 - Concentrating on the extraordinary MFAH collection of work by James Turrell (born 1943), this retrospective makes many of the artist's installations accessible to the public for the first time.

At the conceptual core of the exhibition is "The Light Inside", which is permanently installed in the museum's underground Wilson Tunnel. Also included is "Vertical Vintage", a grouping of a dozen light-based installations that allow visitors to test the limits of their perception, study the play of illusion and witness how light shapes space. Additionally, the artist's "Mapping Spaces" portfolio and related works to describe his Roden Crater project are featured.

The presentation has been conceived jointly by the MFAH, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (SRGM) in New York City. Each venue will present historical and new projects by the artist during the spring and summer of 2013 to illuminate his career. The Houston segment of the exhibition is overseen by Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH Curator of Contemporary Art and Special Projects.

Late Surrealism

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:45:00 GMT

05-24-2013 to 05-24-2013 -

An artistic and literary movement that began in the early twntieth century, Surrealism can be characterized as a retreat from the rational and an inquiry into the mysterious depths of the psyche. Explore works of art from Mark Rothko, lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky in the exhibition highliting mid twntieth century Surrealism.

Muse: An Exhibition

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:32:16 GMT

03-29-2013 to 03-29-2013 -

Jade Cooper, a Houston based artist, will present a series entitled Muse. Composed of twenty, two-dimensional works of Black American females, including ten oil painting portraits done on canvas and wood panel and ten charcoal drawing portraitures.

According to the artist, "The portraits will illustrate the subject's unsolicited role as a source of inspiration infused with symbolism related to her as the subject but less obvious to the audience, allowing the viewer to connect and develop their own narrative to accompany the work." HMAAC visitors know Cooper from her extremely popular installation The Domino Effect for the Houston Museum of African American Culture / American Association of Museums Community Service Project. That installation was extended for two months due to visitor demand.

This exhibition results from a 2012 Individual Artist Grant Award funded by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

Neil Armstrong Autographs Exhibit

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:09:04 GMT

04-03-2013 to 04-03-2013 -

In life and even after death, Neil Armstrong continues to be an international iconic figure as the first human to step onto another planetary surface. Equally, in life and even after death, Neil Armstrong’s autograph is the most valuable on this planet. This is partly due to his abrupt no-autograph policy launched in 1994 due to his disdain for his signature being used as a commercial instrument and other factors impacting this very private person. He also exclaimed that in 1969 legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh advised him to never sign autographs.

The Heritage Society is proud to host an extensive display of Neil Armstrong autographs from the collection of Anthony Pizzitola who began pursuing the modern day Christopher Columbus in 1979. The exhibition will include both famous and rare signed photographs. Pizzitola is a member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club and is the author of Neil Amstrong: The Quest for His Autograph. Pizzitola also contributed to First Man, Armstrong’s authorized biography by Dr. James Hansen.

Based on his collection and knowledge of the famous astronaut, Pizzitola is a recognized authority who has been interviewed by the local media and the British Broadcasting Company. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Olivewood Cemetery: Past, Present, and Future

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 13:53:35 GMT

02-20-2013 to 02-20-2013 -

Just northwest of downtown Houston, near a bend of the White Oak Bayou and in the shadow of the Katy Freeway, lays the city’s first incorporated African American burial ground—Olivewood Cemetery. Years of overgrowth have made the cemetery virtually unknown to many who drive past it every day, but guarded therein are the remains of former slaves, veterans of the armed services, and many of Houston’s prominent African American founders.

Join the Heritage Society Museum Gallery in exploring the founding, growth and future plans for the preservation of this lost gem of Houston’s past. This exhibition was developed in coordination with the Descendants of Olivewood, a 501 (c)3 organization dedicated to the restoration, preservation and maintenance of Olivewood Cemetery.

The Museum Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is free.

Parallel Practices: Joan Jonas & Gina Pane

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:32:07 GMT

03-23-2013 to 03-23-2013 - Parallel Practices: Joan Jonas & Gina Pane brings together a selection of works by two artists born a short time apart who are renowned for their foundational contributions to the field of performance art.

Jonas and Pane were proto-feminist artists, working in New York and Paris respectively, who worked multidisciplinarily at a time when many of their peers focused their attentions on a single medium. Through selections of their sculpture, photography, video, drawing, installation, and live arts, Parallel Practices celebrates the shared and complementary aspects of Jonas' and Pane's art, and highlights the differences that characterize their unique bodies of work.

Parallel Practices also marks the first comprehensive exhibition of Gina Pane's work in the United States.

Perspectives 181: Human Nature

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:35:36 GMT

03-01-2013 to 03-01-2013 -

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's Teen Council is pleased to present Perspectives 181: Human Nature, a group exhibition featuring work by Houston area teen artists. The exhibition explores conceptions of humanity: what it is to be human or inhuman. The exhibition features work by 49 teens in a variety of media ranging from photography to video and sculpture.

Human Nature is a meditation on human nature--its appearance and character--from the perspective of those who will shape the next iteration of humanity. The exhibition reminds us that where there is dark, there is also light, and it is this dualism that makes us human.

Human Nature is the 8th biennial youth art exhibition organized by the CAMH's Teen Council. Drawing from an open call, the Teen Council received over 300 submissions responding to the questions: Is there a universal human experience? In order to explore human nature, must we examine our base animal instincts? Or does that which makes us human originate from a higher order?

Precariot

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:55:18 GMT

05-10-2013 to 05-10-2013 -

Precariot is a self-portrait of the artist as a continental drifter in perpetual precarity. The Precariat is a term that combines the word "proletariat" with "precarious" to describe an emerging "barbarian" class of migrant laborers and professionals living and working precariously, holding temporary underpaid jobs, lacking a political voice and increasingly frustrated by their living and working conditions.

Attracted by its revolutionary aspects, Massa Lemu embraces the label and adopts it as his title. For Lemu the old patriot was proud of, and ready to die for fatherland, the "precariot" however is one whose only possession is the unstable and indeterminate terrain of precarity, staking claims and maneuvering in this uncertain landscape. In the age of heightened mobility, Precariot focuses on processes of inspection and scrutiny, labeling and branding to highlight the realities of migration.

Reminiscential

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:38:40 GMT

04-05-2013 to 04-05-2013 -

With the investigation of memory, remembrance and the materialization of these ideas as a common thread, artists Clare Finin, Rebecca Drolen, Robert Thomas Mullen and Deme Wolfe-Power have created distinctive works that pay homage to the rich history of memento mori objects and Victorian sentimental and mourning jewelry. Through the use of materials often regarded as repulsive or grotesque, many works in the show ask viewers to reevaluate and challenge their conventional notions of beauty.

The Artist’s Palette: Primary Colors on Paper

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:28:42 GMT

03-05-2013 to 03-05-2013 -

Color influences every day life from evoking emotion to politcal affiliation to seasons and holidays. First discovered by Sir Issac Newton in the 17th century, the color wheel has played a vital part in color theory. The primary colors, red, blue and yellow, are the stars of the exhibition:The Artist's Pallet. Visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to explore the colors one by one.

The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia: A New Beginning

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:26:50 GMT

05-03-2013 to 05-03-2013 - The Cyrus Cylinder is making its way to U.S. soil for the first time in 2013. Valued throughout the world, the Cyrus Cylinder is truly an object of world heritage. Renowned as an international symbol of tolerance and respect, the cylinder was constructed in Babylon for the Persian King Cyrus the Great.

The exhibition will make its way to Houston following its premiere at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. The final leg of the United States tour will include New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War and the Holocaust

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:20:26 GMT

04-25-2013 to 04-25-2013 - Although World War II is one of the most documented conflicts of the 20th century, western audiences have had little exposure to Soviet photographic images. The exhibition "Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust" features 58 photographs revealing the war as presented through the lens of the most important Soviet photojournalists.

Printed over six decades, the collection highlights works by Evgenii Khaldei, Georgii Zelma and Dmitrii Baltermants, among others, from the dawn of the Soviet era and throughout the Great Patriotic War, also known as the war's Eastern Front. A large number of Soviet photojournalists were Jewish, and the exhibition explores aspects of what this religious and cultural identity might have meant when confronting war and Nazi persecution through Soviet and Jewish eyes. Charged by the Stalinist state to tell the visual story, these artists were emotionally and intellectually connected to recording the Holocaust. With their compelling war photography, they were the first to document the liberation of Nazi sites of atrocity - three years before others chronicled the liberation of concentration camps in Germany.

The exhibition encompasses art, culture and aesthetics with photographs spanning the Nazi-Soviet war, from June 22, 1941 until V-Day on May 9, 1945. The opening section contextualizes the wartime images within the Constructivist and Socialist Realist tradition of Soviet photography from the 1920s and 1930s.

Featured photographs include several currently housed in private collections that have never before been displayed to the public. Ranging from large-scale dramatic prints to intimate-scaled vintage prints, the exhibition calls attention to the afterlife of the photographs and the continued interest of contemporary society and the art world in viewing them.

Unwoven Light by Soo Sunny Park

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:50:12 GMT

04-11-2013 to 04-11-2013 -

"Unwoven Light," a new installation by American artist Soo Sunny Park for Rice University Art Gallery will be a suspended, undulating structure made from shaped sections of chain link fencing. Within the chain link cells thousands of iridescent acrylic Plexiglas shapes will reflect and refract both natural and artificial light. Changing colors from yellow to magenta to deep purple when viewed from different angles, the effect will be similar to the shifting hues and sheen of butterfly wings or peacock feathers.

Uprooted

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:17:43 GMT

04-12-2013 to 04-12-2013 - Through the use of personal objects, rare documents and photographs, a new exhibition at Holocaust Museum Houston highlights the experiences of two Jewish families featuring materials from the Museum's own permanent collection.

For centuries, the Jewish people endured many periods of discrimination combined with periods of tolerance. From expulsions from Spain in 1492 to pogroms in Russia to full citizenship rights in France, they were forced to adapt to ever-changing policies of governments and forced migrations.

The exhibition includes numerous artifacts and documents on view for the first time. The Abramowicz-Mescherowsky-Teixidor and Levenback-Bielitz collections permit the examination of the difficult choices faced by these particular Jewish families - choices like placing a child alone on a Kindertransport or whether to remain in hiding and, in some cases, join the resistance or having to flee to foreign countries. The exhibition exemplifies the hope that safety could be found and lives re-established elsewhere, despite the annihilation policies of the Nazi government.

"Uprooted" will deepen the understandings of the Holocaust for many visitors as they discover the narratives of Lea and Mendel Abramowicz, Georg and Tanya Mescherowsky, Shura and Lorenzo Teixidor, Hedi Basch-Levenback, Joan Toggitt, Lily Bielitz and other family members.