The pursuits of a contemporary artist, particularly one whose work is largely conceptual or not lucrative—often both—is a subject about which the general public has little understanding. Many MFA recipients…
Laura Lark
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Essay
The Worst Piece of Art I Ever Made: The Best Piece of Art I Never Made
by Laura Larkby Laura LarkSince 1992, I’ve lived around the corner from a convenience establishment called Al Quick-Stop. It’s owned by Zak El Saadi, a rather handsome Lebanese man of whom I’ve always been…
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Like so many I know, whenever I find myself in a foreign land, another state, or even another neighborhood, I get that Golly, wouldn’t it be neat to live here…
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The shaped canvas in contemporary painting has always irritated me. Simply because, for the most part, it seems to cry, “look! I’m making painting interesting and current and trying to…
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Essay
Iles & Rizzoli & Isles or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love TV
by Laura Larkby Laura LarkI am a lazy person. I get lazier. But I decided, a while back, that I would bravely go where many have gone before (Dallas) to see what many have…
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You don’t view a Marlene Dumas painting; you are confronted by it. Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave, her first North American mid-career survey (organized by MOCA LA in association…
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Photography’s treated pretty indifferently in the gallery scene around here. With a few exceptions (Amy Blakemore and Dana Harper are the only ones with longtime representation I can think of…
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Okay, for those of you poor, pathetic types who just aren’t in step, I’m With Stupid* is presently the avatar for the nearly universally beloved Whinybabyland. I’m hoping that I’m…
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House of Mind, Pat Graney‘s work in multiple media (installation, sculpture, video and choreographed performances), is probably the most ambitious project ever taken on at DiverseWorks. It’s an exhaustive tribute…
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The San Antonio art scene has always intrigued me. As a longtime denizen of Houston, I realize that Houston has a lot to offer in the way of art: a…
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When you first walk through Sterne and Steinberg: Critics Within, curated by Sarah L. Eckhardt and currently on view at the Menil Collection, it may not be obvious why…
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In his poem Neo-HooDoo Manifesto, published in 1969, poet, novelist and essayist Ishmael Reed described Neo-HooDoo as “a ‘Lost American Church’ updated.” It can be useful to consider the institution…
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Honestly? My first thought when I saw Mark Fox Mark Fox installing Dust as this year’s Summer Window Series at the Rice University Art Gallery? Too bad the Pradafication (you…
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A few years back a heavy package arrived at my door, addressed to my then-husband. Inside was a bronze statue of a realistically rendered cowboy riding a bucking bronco. Perfectly…
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Judging by how often you hear museum guards order visitors to “step away from the art,” it’s easy to see how art can be irresistible. The fact that there’s a…