…and speaking of group shows

I certainly don’t envy the organizers of the Texas Biennial. I’m sure
it’s a gigantic undertaking with no real institutional support, no
large coffers to plunder biannually, no dedicated staff or venues.
Basically it’s a gypsy operation that somehow congeals a show from the
muck of Texas arts every other year. So it doesn’t surprise me that
things have been a little slow to take form this year, like
their website, where a digital call for entries should have been
available about a month ago. I feel their pain, getting stuff online
can be a real bitch. It was a little unsettling though, that the official deadline for
submission was less than 3 weeks away and still there was no way to
submit. But fortunately they’ve extended their deadline for the group
show until the end of June. I still have to get all my materials
together for the Art In Public Places proposal though… Hopefully that
form is online soon, since that deadline is still at the end of May!

On other fronts, Arthouse has uploaded the list of artists selected for
their New American Talent show, curated this year by Nato Thompson,
curator and producer for Creative Time. This edition once again
features a large amount of Texas artists, 31 out of 43 (or 72.09%) to
be exact (unless you still consider Eric Gibbons a Texas artist, in
that case numbers change a bit). I wonder if this high showing of Texas
artist is due to a vast majority of the entrants coming from Texas
(most likely) or if somehow Texas artists are given higher priority
(from a show at Arthouse, I highly doubt that). I assume NAT23 will
likely be one of, if not the last show before they close down for
renovations. It’ll be sad when they’re not around!

 

And on a complete tangent, I was planning on creating a post that
recreated the monster rave scene from Blade, starring Wesley Snipes,
professional actor and tax evader, using animated GIFS I found online,
but I couldn’t figure out how to hack Glasstire’s blog format. So in
the spirit of random groupings of things, I’ve adorned this entry with
the participants of the imaginary rave.

 

And on a last group-related note, and because any excuse is a good excuse, go visit
Guthrie Lonergan‘s Internet Group Shot, which was included in the New
Museum‘s Unmonumental Online online show.