Upcoming Events and Exhibitions

Day of the Dead
Día de los Muertos

The Big Show | 2009
July 10 - August 8, 2009
Opening Reception Friday, July 10, 2009
6:30-8:30 pm

The Big Show is Lawndale Art Center’s annual open-call, juried exhibition.
It has been an important venue through which emerging and under-represented Houston area artists gain exposure since the show’s conception in 1984. The Big Show was formerly the East End Show, sponsored by the East End Progress Association, at Lawndale’s
original location.

This year Lawndale received 994 submissions by 409 artists. Guest Juror Laura Fried, Assistant Curator for the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, selected 95 works by 65 artists for this year’s exhibition.

Exhibiting artists include:
John Adelman, David Ancira, Michael Arcieri, Lori Avramis, Heather Bause, Mack Bishop 3rd, James Burns, Douglas Cason, Federico Cavazos & Sarah Jones, David Cobb, Chris Comperry, Shannon Crider, Anne Delpine, Ben Tecumseh DeSoto, Nathaniel Donnett, Jane Eifler, Xenia Fedorchenko, Orna Feinstein, Jed Foronda, Frank Fuzzy, Jesus Galvan, James Glassman, David P. Gray, Buster Graybill, Jasmyne Graybill, Chris Dethloff Greene, Natasha Hakala, Maria Cristina Jadick, Jason Kishell, Trish Klenow, Mindy Kober, Stephen Kwok, Julian Joseph Kyle, Larry Larrinaga, Cody Ledvina, Anna Lide, M. E. Buddy Marrs, Michael Meazell, Donna M. Meeks, Rahul Mitra, Christian R. Mora, Jessica Ninci, Jim Nolan, Emily Peacock, Donna Perkins, Kevin Peterson, Page Piland, Julon Pinkston, Tim Robtoy, Allan Rodewald, John Runnels, Stephen Ruth, Lynne Rutzky, Kay Sarver, Sarah Schellenberg, Tra Slaughter, Dirk Strangely, Kamila Szczesna, Tala Vahabzadeh, Rebecca Villarreal, Lillian Warren, William Witte, Catherine Zaras, Zepeda.


For complete information on The Big Show, click here.

The Big Slide Show | July 29 & 30, 2009

Please join Lawndale and Houston's talented Big Show artists for short, informal presentations about their work. Presentations start at 6:00 PM each night at Lawndale Art Center.

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August 21 - September 26, 2009
Opening Reception Friday, August 21, 2009 from 6:30-8:30 PM
Artist Talks at 6 PM


Lawndale Art Center 30th Anniversary Exhibition
Curated by Clint Willour
August 21 - September 26, 2009

Clint Willour takes a look at the last five years, since Lawndale’s 25th Anniversary Show and gathers new work from artists who have shown in each of Lawndale’s four galleries, as well as from The Big Show and the Artist Studio Program.

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Me, Mine, and not Yours | Joe Ives and Jahjehan Bath Ives
August 21 - September 26, 2009

“I’ve grown tired of your company, I wish you would go away, I need
a moment to myself, could you please be quiet.” After years of living with someone these are things that we often think when our “other” walks into the room. What if we were no longer polite, what if domestic politics took over our house, what if we could simply employ the tactics of our childhood to gain that needed isolation? For their exhibition at Lawndale Joe & Jahjehan Bath Ives present an installation of sculptures and videos for
the Mezzanine Gallery created by their antiheros who playfully make suggestions and recommendations of isolationist tactics that anyone
can employ to gain some alone time.

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Paper or Plastic | Nathaniel Donnett
August 21 - September 26, 2009

Nathaniel Donnett is interested in the study of human behavior, its psychological and emotional impact on society and how society affects
the collective and individual consciousness of African Americans and African American culture. He addresses social issues and the human condition through observational analysis, narratives, codes, and signifiers. Donnett uses traditional and non-traditional materials to reconstruct the meaning of these materials and objects while shifting through frameworks of time references and fluctuating dual meanings of communication. Donnett’s Plastic or Paper series references the historic brown paper
bag test that was used to separate darker and lighter skinned African Americans, thus creating a sense of division, neglect, ostracism and envy. This series explores its history and the effect of the test, the social residue, and its impact in contemporary society. A hierarchy was created within the African American community with issues of hair texture, skin tone, and the acceptance or rejection of African features as it relates to beauty. This work is also a metaphor that uses art as a healing agent by analyzing and confronting personal baggage.

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The Green™ cyber web | Adela Andea
August 21 - September 26, 2009

The Green™ cyber web is a kinetic installation incorporating the latest computer gadgets in an intricate spatial web design, using formal aspects
of visual geographic models of internet maps. Electronic components connected to several computer power sources suggest a static and dynamic confrontation of the virtual reality of computer generated cyberspaces with the realm of the environmentally sustainable industry
of consumer electronics. Andea uses the green cathode light in reference to the current question of “what constitutes green.” The concept of this installation is based on the complexity of the dilemma of making consumer electronics an environmentally sustainable industry. The materials are chosen for their symbolic meaning and also become the subject matter.
This installation mitigates two extremes, between the valuable resources
of information and the end responsibilities for recycling, giving a different meaning to the phrase “residual value.”

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