Glasstire Top Five: September 12, 2013

by Glasstire September 3, 2013
Angel Oloshove

Angel Oloshove

1. Group Show (50 Humans)
The Brandon, Houston
September 7 – October 13

The Joanna is dead, long live The Brandon! Cody Ledvina, Patrick Bresnan and Dan Fergus invite you to the opening of their new gallery with a gargantuan group show featuring almost everybody. Despite awful crowding and a narrow focus on small paintings, the old Domy Bookstore space on Westheimer (next to Cafe Brasil)  has been beautifully refashioned, and an astonishing feat of careful, sensitive installation as well as a stellar selection of small but serious works makes the show feel like a major museum survey folded into a, well, bookstore!

 

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Florian Baudrexel, Frame, 2013 in The New Sincerity at Lora Reynolds

2. The New Sincerity
Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin
September 7 – November 2

Is the ethos of the present moment defined by irony or sincerity? Understated works by Florian Baudrexel, Colby Bird, Rosy Keyser, Roy McMakin, Julia Rommel, and Fabrice Samyn tell the tale.

news sincerity green shelfRoy McMakin
Green Shelf, 2008
Poplar with oil enamel paint
31 x 9-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches

 

 

 

 

fuchs fish3. Francesca Fuchs: (Re)Collection: Paintings of Framed Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Photos
Texas Gallery, Houston
September 12 – October 12
Opening: Thursday, September 12, 6–8 p.m.

Texas Gallery’s big wall piled high with a super-salon of  forty-eight of Fuch’s atmospheric re-paintings of artworks. Still lifes to landscapes to geometric abstractions, all leveled by loose brushstrokes and thin washes of muted color. An ocean of art!

 

moving pictures4. Moving Pictures
Brand 10, and X spaces, Fort Worth
September 7 – October 26

A wide-angle survey of Texas video works featuring: Frances Bagley, Tim Best, Rebecca Carter, Mark Collop, Colette Copeland, Matthew Cusick, Liz Hickok, Hillerbrand+ Magsamen, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Kerry Pacillio, Liz Rodda And Nina Schwans.

Moving Pictures is the last show at Brand 10’s West 7th Avenue location. The organizers, Christine Bisetto, Matthew Clark, Heagan Bayles and Kathy and Charles Webster, will be closing that space and operating out of the Locke Street AND X space concluding a three-year experiment.

 

TX biennial5. Works by Selected TX★13 Artists
CentralTrak, Dallas
September 5 – 28
Opening: September 21, 2013, 7–10 pm

Though it’s difficult to say with certainty what exactly the Texas Biennial is going to present at CentralTrak, HOMECOMING! Committee, is definitely in residence this month. As part of Biennial programming, The active Fort Worth collective is gathering broken IKEA furniture which it will assemble and ship back to Sweden to help relieve that country’s chronic trash shortage.

On September 21, more Biennial related events include a performance by Julia Barbosa Landois, and, possibly, a presentation by the Dallas Collective, which was commissioned to do another Biennial project at Ballroom Marfa. Stay Tuned.

8 comments

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8 comments

Emmanuel September 15, 2013 - 16:59

What is the criteria for distinguishing these shows as the Top 5? Is this the Editor’s Pick? If so, could the Editor/s elaborate upon their method’s?

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Rainey Knudson September 16, 2013 - 08:15

I’m not positive about this, but I think the editors have a preference for shows that dont misuse apostrophe’s.

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Bill Davenport September 16, 2013 - 09:04

Here’s my method:

Every Wednesday night, I look through all the current Glasstire listings (if we’re doing our job right, everything that’s anything is in there) and pick out the five events I’m most anxious to see, or which hold out the best hopes of being great, or at least interesting, or at least underknown or, as a last resort, newsworthy.

I haven’t seen all the shows in the top five. It’s not a considered critique, it’s an educated guess at what might be worth your while to see this weekend. Several times, after seeing the shows for myself, I know I’ve guessed very wrong. Go see them yourself, and tell me about it.

My acknowledged biases: I give preference to shows about to open. I try to spread the love among the major Texas cities.

Of course, being human, I’ve got other biases, too. Work I know, galleries I respect, a soft spot for youngsters who are trying. I’m sure there are more- please tell me about them, and propose corrections.

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Emmanuel September 16, 2013 - 11:22

1. Rainey, that is a petty answer referring to the typo whilst dodging any consideration toward the substance of the inquiry. Darling, I believe you were once captain of this glass vessel and I expect you might recall that typos do happen.

2. Bill, thank you for a considered response. I am correct to assume the responsibility is yours. As a reader, it is helpful to recognize a context and possibly some criteria from the Editor. ‘Top 5’ is strong endorsement for what seems a bit arbitrary. I hope not to descend toward the decisive behavior found commonly on website comment threads that “if Bill likes it, then I like it” nor the inverse “if Bill likes it, then I dislike it”. I might agree with some of your picks, but I posed the questions because I would prefer some engagement and an ability for relevant discussion.
Thanks again Bill.

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Emmanuel September 16, 2013 - 11:55

In regards to this particular ‘Top 5’ posting, I found all but one to be listings of group shows. I have not attended all these exhibitions, so my perspective is generally about group shows as an industry tendency and not directed at any one particular show identified in this ‘Top 5’.

I often find group exhibitions lacking. Even when they include artists I am interested in, it seems common in group shows that the aggregate of the works tend to render individual pieces insubstantial and the whole exhibition lacks context. It is not just a matter of breadth prioritized over depth, but that happens as well.
There are also the group exhibitions in which it appears that the individual works are there to illustrate the curator’s thesis.

This is just a comment thread for a website which I have no decision making agency, so instead of elaborating too much upon my own predilection, it seems more productive for me to understand how the Editor/s derive their choices.

I would like to read what other reader’s and contributor’s positions are about editorial criteria.

Thanks again Bill for taking my questions seriously.

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Bill Davenport September 18, 2013 - 15:06

I agree with you about group shows. I picked the Brandon show because it pushed several buttons: I actually saw it, and it assembled samples from dozens of underknown but worthy artists with very little crap. It was also news: a new curatorial venture by people who have brought forth interesting projects in the past.

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Lauren Browning September 18, 2013 - 08:28

Well, my show didn’t make the “Top Five” cut, but I hope that you’ll all come out to see it anyway. 🙂

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Dan Havel September 18, 2013 - 15:33

If you like solo artist shows, come by Avis Frank Gallery to see Dan Havel WITHOUT Dean Ruck. I’m hoping I’m in the second top five….up ’til Oct. 1…just down the road from you, Bill.

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