Archives 2008: Jan - June

January 18 – February 23, 2008
Opening Reception Friday January 18, 2008, 6:30-8:30PM
With artist talks at 6:00PM



Children in Heat | Jason Villegas, Jessica Rudick and
Timothy Warner

January 18 – February 23, 2008

As a group, these artists are concerned with world events and the somewhat dark direction the world may be hurtling towards, while individually maintaining a strong sense of humor in the work. The exhibition for Lawndale Art Center will be a group show that combines the photography, sculpture, installation and multimedia work of these artists:

Jessica Rudick takes stories from her own life and from the lives of those around her and transforms them into visual narratives that are both familiar and voyeuristic. Through her imagery she exploits experiences that are often private and uncomfortable, while at the same time extremely amusing, and relatable in their bluntness. In the show Children in Heat, Jessica will have two series on display. One recreates a private text message exchange between a couple engaged in a sexual relationship and the other an illustration of discovered sexuality.

Jason Villegas says “My art is an indigenous rainforest child wearing a Michael Jackson t-shirt and nothing else, while carrying a monkey...”. By combining the imagery of consumer culture and design that is derived from a third world aesthetic, Jason creates sculpture and installations that intend to question the construct of modern societies by addressing current class systems and the effects of globalization.

Through the creation of characters and situations that lie somewhere in between real world current events and fantastical future cataclysms, Timothy Warner creates new narratives about people and their interaction with each other and the world around them. Warner’s work weaves shreds of tenderness and honesty into nihilistic romantic fantasies and alternate universes. Central to this is an impulse to pull towards (and from) the Western narrative tradition, yet with an aim towards emotional responses of amusement, horror, wonder and revulsion. This distillation manifests itself in the form of photo/video, performance and sculpture.


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Jessica Rudick




Jason Villegas




Timothy Warner

 

 

The Best That I Can Give You and
Less Than Half of What You Deserve | Katie Pell
January 18 – February 23, 2008

In her own words, Katie Pell describes her use of the Mezzanine Gallery “to create a diorama in which you will be the feature. The star. The axis of glory . The Best That I Can Give You and Less Than Half of What You Deserve is an environment created to honor all that you have accomplished and all of your best qualities (misunderstood as they may be). Using drawing, photography, text, sculpture, and love, Katie will surround you with all the beauty of the animals of the forest, give you an audience of your peers and wait for you with a very beautiful dawn at hand. Lets celebrate the rest of our lives.”

“How on earth can I celebrate you? I could never do it up big enough, I could never afford to treat you the way your accomplishments deserve. So allow me to try to honor your greatest creation - you! All the rock stars, are the little furry creatures of the forest, all the gods that swarm around if they only could find you, are here waiting to surround you with love. This installation is in your honor; so come visit as many times as you like; and keep up the good work.” – Katie Pell



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Moving In | Maria Guzman
January 18 – February 23, 2008

In the Grace R. Cavnar Gallery, plywood boxes of various sizes are filled with found and designed objects to become small scale living spaces. These pieces capture some of the challenges and excitement that comes from moving to a new place, and working to fit in, to feel in control, and to feel at home. Viewers will have the experience of walking around the home of a small stranger struggling with these compromises. For the artist, these boxes are simultaneously the most comfortable and protected spaces imaginable, and the most vulnerable, with all of her private world opened up for everyone to see.


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After 9/11: Pen and Ink Drawings | Lynne Rutzky
January 18 – February 23, 2008

As a visual artist interested in time-based process art, Lynne Rutzky uses a repetitive mark making method to achieve a meditative state and to explore images that emerge from that process. Using this method the artist produced a body of drawings in response to continuous media coverage and the events on and following 9/11 and the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. The drawings reference a sense of national loss of innocence and child-like fears conjured up by the attack and the subsequent war. The artist will display some of the nearly 100 pen and ink drawings created on this theme and ranging from the grotesque to the whimsical , which emerged during this meditative process.



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Artadia Awards Information Session at Lawndale
Saturday, February 9, 2008
3:00 PM

Artadia and Lawndale Art Center are co-hosting an information session about the Artadia Awards on Saturday, February 9th at 3 PM. Lila Kanner, Artadia’s Director of Programs will be present to discuss the Artadia Awards process and answer questions about Artadia’s first online application for the Houston program. Artadia implemented an online application system in fall 2006. The Lawndale Art Center is located at 4912 Main St, Houston, TX 77002.

Press Release
More information visit: www.artadia.org/news.html



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Be the Best That You Are!

The Best That I Can Give You
and Less Than Half of What You Deserve
Saturday, February 23, 2008
3:00 PM

Surround yourself in the beauty of the animals of the forest. Katie Pell's installation in the Mezzanine Gallery, The Best That I Can Give You and Less Than Half of What You Deserve, is in your honor. Stop by Lawndale on Saturday, February 23, 2008 between 3:00 and 5:00 PM to visit with Katie and have your pohoto taken in her installation. Keepsake photos will be given to the first 100 visitors.



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Lawndale Night at Hello-Lucky!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
5:00 – 7:30 PM

Hello-Lucky will host a special Lawndale night Saturday, February 23, 2008 from 5:00 to 7:30PM. Stop by and learn about opportunities to get involved with Lawndale Art Center and then shop ‘til you drop. During the months of January, February and March Hello-Lucky is generously donating a portion of in-store sales to Lawndale Art Center. Hello-Lucky is the creation of Lawndale Studio Artist Teresa O'Connor.

Spread the word and spread the love.
You are amazing, you are.

Hello-Lucky
1025 Studewood Street
(at 10 1/2 and Studewood in the Heights)
Houston, TX 77008
Tel. 713-86hello(43556)

Thurs. - Sat. 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
and by appointment

http://hello-lucky.com/

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Museum Educator's Open House
Saturday, March 8, 2008
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

The Houston Museum District will host the 12th annual Museum Educators Open House on Saturday, March 8, 2008 from 9:00AM until 1:00PM. The event is free for all Houston area educators, school administrators, home school educators and student teachers to explore five museums and hear from representatives of more than 30 museums and cultural organizations.

Lawndale Art Center will be represented by a booth at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston during this event. For more information or to pre-register for this event, please visit: www.houstonmuseumdistrict.org


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Bayou City Art Festival
March 28, 29, 30, 2008
Memorial Park
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

As a Non-Profit Partner of the Art Colony Association, Lawndale Art Center hosts a booth in the Creative Zone of the Bayou city Art Festival. Lawndale Art Center’s booth offers a fun and easy art activity for children visiting the festival.

Volunteer opportunities are available with Lawndale at our Memorial Park Creative Zone booth and with BCAF event staffing. Register with Lawndale now to recieve more details about volunteering at this event!


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March 7 – April 12, 2008
In conjunction with FOTOFEST2008
Opening Reception Friday March 7, 2008, 6:30-8:30PM
Artist talks at 6:00 PM


Transfigurations | Hana Hillerova
March 7 – April 12, 2008

Hana Hillerova's new sculptures trace her interest in matter's dynamic qualities: the wake of spiritual entities into the material world and the transcendence of matter into energy. Constructed of mirrors, the sculptures merely change the direction of light in the room instead of claiming a space of their own.




Houston Cultura | Chuy Benitez
March 7 – April 12, 2008

Since 2005, Chuy Benitez has been using digital panoramic photography to help build a fresh identity for the Mexican American community of Houston, TX.

The digital panoramic format gives a cinematic presentation to each image and allows the emergence of many decisive moments within each photographed scene. Benitez has also developed a series of environmental portraits that transforms the QuickTime Virtual Reality movie format, originally created for the internet, into flat diptych prints and presents many leaders of Houston Cultura within their own personal spaces.



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Reverent Estimations | Adam Schreiber
March 7 – April 12, 2008

The works included in Reverent Estimations are photographs detailing research clean-rooms, post-use corporate architecture, and a presidential archive. Seen together, the work is a reimagination of surfaces and repetitions found within these spaces; deliberate meditations on the architecture of relics, technology, and the marginal spaces between. As mundane fantasies, the pictures are meditations on their own instability as documents and attempt to extend indeterminacy to the act of viewing. Varied in scale and subject, Reverent Estimations is a conflated body focused neither on the personal nor the impersonal, but the point at which fascination becomes an organizing principle for a second life.


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Broken Dreams | William Stewart
March 7 – April 12, 2008

William Stewart draws from his experience growing up during the Great Depression where he witnessed the desperate circumstances many businesses faced. Failed businesses often represent someone’s Broken Dream. Many have worked endless hours and put their hearts into them, in the end, all for nothing. The over 100 snapshots for this installation were taken in Houston’s old Third Ward, and nearby neighborhoods, where broken dreams abound. Stewart’s project serves as a curbside documentary of the dissolution of a community.


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Making Meatballs with McCabe
April 12, 2008
12 – 2pm

Come meet resident artist Lynne McCabe and learn how to make her famous cousin Tricia's, mother- in -law Mrs Schiano's, neapolitan , by way of Escia, 'marriage', meatballs. The eating of which has procured at least three marriage proposals, in the family alone. After the cooking demonstration join us as we devour a mountain of meatballs in the name of socially engaged practice and possible nuptials.

Space for this event is limited. Please contact Dennis Nance at dnance@lawndaleartcenter.org to reserve your space at the table.


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Lawndale's 13th Annual
20th Century Modern Market
April 22–27, 2008


Click here for more information.




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Collaboration Among the Arts Final Projects
May 3, 2008
3:30 – 5:30 pm

Spring 2008 will mark the fourth year of Collaboration Among the Arts, offered by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts in conjunction with the School of Art, Creative Writing Program, Moores School of Music, and School of Theatre & Dance. The current Collaboration Among the Arts course culminates in final projects, two of which will be presented in the Lawndale classroom space on May 3, 3:30 – 5:30 pm. One project involves a performance of the XBOX game Guitar Hero, overseen by UH School of Art faculty member Mary Magsamen; and the second project includes a modest display of “buttons” (art-objects infused with pre-recorded sound) which the students have installed throughout Houston, overseen by UH School of Theatre & Dance faculty member Kevin Rigdon.


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May 9 – June 14, 2008
Opening Reception Friday, May 9, 2008, 6:30-8:30PM
With artist talks at 6:00PM


what we want is too late | Danny Kerschen, Lynne McCabe,
Teresa O’Connor

May 9 – June 14, 2008

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 the Lawndale Art Center at 4912 Main Street in the heart of Houston’s Museum District. This exhibition features residents for the second year of the Lawndale Artist Studio Program, interdisciplinary artist Danny Kerschen, performance/video artist Lynne McCabe, and installation artist Teresa O'Connor.




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Drawing in Space | Curated by J Hill
Work by Daniel Adame, John Adelman, Annette Lawrence, Cory Wagner & The Art Guys

May 9 – June 14, 2008

"For artists of all backgrounds and disciplines drawing is a fundamental part of the art-making process. For some the result has finality and results in a product; The Drawing. For others it is a way to think through engineering of a more elaborate project and results in a sketch. This is not to say that picking up a pencil and putting pencil to paper is the basis for art-making across the board. Drawing is much broader than that and artists of all kinds approach it in many different ways. Rather, drawing is fundamental simply because it is an activity, a process, in which artist can think and do... simultaneously. That process or activity is the underpinning of this exhibition. That is to say that this not simply a show of drawings, but is an exhibition about drawing."-J Hill

Click here to see video of Daniel Adame's performance at the opening reception on May 9, 2008.

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3 Months and 90 Days | Catherine Colangelo
May 9 – June 14, 2008

Catherine Colangelo works with notions of time and memory, using drawings in gouache, pencil and dye on paper, to explore the passage of time, the hit-or-miss snatches of memories that our brains recall. For her installation in the Grace R. Cavnar Gallery, Colangelo created a 4” x 6” drawing every day for 90 days. Together they become a whole that represents a visual record of the artist’s life (moods, artistic inclinations, etc.) over 90 days. Three larger works, executed over a period of one month each will also be on view. As a whole the installation records the reality of the time spent by the artist working over a period of six months. Working with gouache and pencil on paper, and sometimes integrating text, Catherine is interested in exploring the passage of time and way random bits of time stick in our minds to become our memories.


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The Suburbs of the Emerald City | Joshua Smith
May 9 – June 14, 2008

The Suburbs of the Emerald City consists of handmade geodes with Monopoly houses in the formation of housing developments inside each. Geodes take millions of years to form through tremendous heat and pressure and are considered precious when found. The housing development which in many cases build up over night carry in them an immediacy of the ideal. The installation raises questions dealing with but not limited to individuality versus conformity, the ideal versus the reality, and what makes a house a home.


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Empty Bowls Houston
May 17, 2008
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
For tickets go to emptybowlshouston.org


Empty Bowls Houston is a unique lunch event and fundraiser that brings together the arts and crafts community to fight hunger in our area and benefits the Houston Food Bank. For a minimum donation, guests enjoy a simple lunch and select a bowl from hundreds of one-of-a-kind; hand-crafted bowls donated by Houston area ceramicists and craft artists. The event will be held again this year at two neighboring facilities: the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft at 4848 Main Street, and the Lawndale Art Center at 4912 Main Street.


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Artist Studio Program Workshop
Getting Design From Your Work - Teresa O'Connor
May 22, 2008

6:00 - 7:30 pm

Current Lawndale Artist Studio Program resident, Teresa O'Connor offers a workshop to aid artists in entering the marketplace. O'Connor wants to take the fear out of buying art and is an advocate for bringing art into our everyday surroundings. Learn from her experience with ventures such as Art Star and Hello-Lucky how you can turn your huge talents and overflowing creativity into something that someone else will want to buy.  O’Connor’s workshop will focus on producing multiples from your work, including t-shirt design, prints, etc.
To register for this event, please contact Dennis Nance at dnance@lawndaleartcenter.org or call 713.528.5858.


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Artist Talk
A Conversation with Marcos Ramirez
June 12 , 2008

6:30 pm

Internationally renowned artist Marcos Ramírez (known as ERRE from the Spanish pronunciation of the first letter of his surname) has long drawn his inspiration from the confluence and collision of cultures along the US/Mexico border. Born in Tijuana in 1961, his studio sits within the shadow of the crossing at San Ysidro, where he watches "these, my worlds, like the two edges of a scar brought together by a common wound, they way they continue to endure one another, to seduce one another, to penetrate one another."

Art critic John Bryant, former Executive Director of ArtLies, talks with Ramírez about the issues that propel his quest for truth and social justice. Whether photography or large-scale installations, Ramirez’s work addresses complex social/political issues by creating opportunities for communal reflection and progressive solutions.

This Program is co-presented with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores/Consulado General de México and Lawndale Art Center


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Documentary Film Screening
DEAR Camp - Brian Neal Sensabaugh
Directed by Lee Gamel
June 20 , 2008

8:00 pm

DEAR Camp was an installation by Brian Neal Sensabaugh at Lawndale in December 2006 – January 2007.  For this exhibition, Sensabaugh traveled to his hometown in Arkansas and retrieved the contents of his brother and father’s deer hunting camp.  Sensabaugh transported these items to Houston and reinvented the contents.  Sensabaugh’s version of the deer camp was installed in the Grace R. Cavnar Gallery, complete with pink walls, lace-covered antlers, and a fire pit ablaze with pink felt flames.  The process of making and the creation of the installation became of interest to a filmmaker from Austin, Lee Gamel.  With his own camera and team of one, Gamel followed Sensabaugh through his current life as an artist and revisited his past in Arkansas.  Through family interviews and personal testimonies, Gamel reveals Sensabaugh’s tale of survival, triumph and ultimately happiness.  The installation and the film bring together two polar opposites – Sensabaugh’s familial and private self.  The result is a full-length documentary entitled DEAR Camp that will premiere at Lawndale Art Center on June 20, 2008 at 8pm.


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