Newswire

Twenty-five year old literary journal Gulf Coast has always had a soft spot for the visual arts, and now it’s official: the magazine will merge with the recently defunct visual arts journal ArtLies. The merger will be officially announced and celebrated on April 26 at 6pm at the Glassell School of Art, with a reception and reading by author Emma Straub.

In addition to the lobster salad, Cartier watches and who’s-who guest list, last Saturday’s Untitled Art Ball benefiting the Dallas Museum of Art featured a video parody of the popular TV series Downton Abbey, titled “Downtown Artsy,” re-cast with DMA staff and supporters and bristling with product placements and hilarious British accents.  Culturemap Dallas put it  on YouTube:

Blouin Artinfo has a report on the Dallas Art Fair’s social side, grudgingly admitting that the fair, and the city “maybe — just maybe” has a shot at becoming an international art center. They report a few important sales at the preview on Thursday, both of pieces by artists currently showing at other venues in Dallas: Blouin says that David Lewis Gallery sold a $12,000 painting by Charles Mayton (whose work was recently on view at Alden Pinnell’s Power Station), and Jonathan Viner Gallery of London sold a $30,000 painting by Dan Rees, who currently has a show of gloppy, gravel-encrusted paintings at the Goss-Michael Foundation. Although it’s generally agreed that the fair looks better than ever, attendance and sales on Saturday, traditionally the fair’s biggest day, were spotty– one theory is that potential patrons were busy preparing themselves for Saturday night’s enormously swank Untitled: Art Ball fundraiser at the DMA next door, others blamed gorgeous spring weather.

North Texas Sky by Dixie Friend Gay photo: Amanda Potter of El Creative

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs unveiled 7 new public art commissions this week at Dallas Love Field Airport. The Love Field Art Collection is part of the modernization project at the airport.  The newly art-ified terminal opens to the public on April 16.

1). Sky by Brower Hatcher

2). North Texas Sky by Dixie Friend Gay (Houston)

3). Dallas History Medallion by David Hatcher (Dallas) Note: Three more medallions will be installed.

4). Untitled by Lane Banks (Dallas)

5). InFlight by Paul Marioni

6). Blueprint of Flight by Martin Donlin

7). Back in a Moment – Sherry Owens (Dallas)

Lacking a convenient building to demolish, the Art League Houston is sending out a call for scrap lumber for Funnel Tunnel, Patrick Renner’s 185-foot public artwork now beginning construction along the Montrose Boulevard median.  They’re looking for the good, the bad and the ugly- 2×4′s 2×6′s , even 2×10′s- along with painted and unpainted lengths of board of all types, but NO PLYWOOD! They ask that all donation be free of nails, and fasteners, too. Call (713) 523-9530 to schedule a drop off!

It’s the inaugural effort of the Art League’s new Esplanade Project, which aims at placing more pieces on more Montrose medians in the future.

Houston artist David McGee recalls an encounter with a Picasso impersonator on TV for videographer John Carrithers.

This Friday, April 12, from 7-10 p.m., Big Medium, the Austin art org behind the upcoming West Austin Studio Tour (as well as the Texas Biennial, the former Cantanker Magazine, and the East Austin Studio Tour) is holding a pre-tour catalog debut and fudraiser at co-working space VUKA, at 411 Monroe in Austin. The fat catalogs are $20, and preview some of the many artists and spaces to be incuded on the WEST itinerary. Can’t make it- order online!

This year, artist studios and exhibition spaces on the West Austin Studio Tour will open on the weekends of April 27-28 & May 4-5 from 11am – 6pm.

Like global warming, and with similar speed, contemporary art’s omnivorous inclusion of the temporary and the handmade has caught up with the traditional art of flower arranging, as it has with quilting, pottery, ballroom dancing, and other traditional artforms, leaving them as islands defined by their own internal conventions, rather than by technique.

The contrast will be deliciously sharp as Treasure: Florescence, one of the largest competitive flower shows sanctioned by the Garden Club of America alights at the Museum of Fine Arts on  April 16-17 showcasing floral and horticulture arrangements by garden club experts, renowned floral designers, and other noted personalities.

As in years past, many of the flower arrangements will be interpretations of works from the MFAH’s permanent collection. The odd and intricate rules for this ancient niche art form are available online, and include the important anti-misting guideline.

Buckingham’s family hierarchy

In a joint letter to “family, friends, and colleagues,” glamorous Jacqueline Buckingham and DMA Director Maxwell Anderson announced their divorce on her website and her facebook page on April 9. The facebook notice also contained a plug for Buckingham’s upcoming book, “Separating into Wholeness: Revolutionary Relationships & Evolutionary Families,” which details the divorce process. The letter describes their new relationship thus: “although a legal marriage bond is behind us, we are moving forward with new vows as dedicated partners in parenting, committed champions of each other as individuals, and strong supporters of each other’s careers, dreams, and life’s work.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat along with the Greenfield Foundation have announced that Houston painter Trenton Doyle Hancock is the winner of the $30,000 Greenfield Prize, awarded this year in visual art. Hancock was selected from a small group of finalists that included Nicole Eisenman, Maureen Gallace and Byron Kim. The jury that selected Hancock included Dan Cameron, chief curator of the Orange County Museum of Art; Valerie Cassel Oliver, head curator of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and James Rondeau, curator of the department of contemporary art at The Art Institute of Chicago. Hancock will present a  talk on “My Life, My Work” at the Ringling Museum of Art on April 20, and get his award at the Foundation’s annual $175 a plate Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 21, in Sarasota, FL.

Video still from Feat of the Beast by Mev Luna, from last year’s fest.

Senorita Cinema, Stephanie Saint Sanchez’s Latina film festival is seeking short films and videos by Latinas for this year’s fourth annual event, set for June 7-9, at locations around Houston. The deadline for submissions is May 1.

Supported by grants from The Neighborhood Centers’ “Seeds for Change” initiative and the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Idea Fund, this year’s fest will also include a community open market featuring organizations and artisans on site for its “Shorts Program,” as well as an after party with live music and refreshments. In addition, organizers will host a video poetry workshop and a meet and greet lunch with the filmmakers.

Why should ogling acres of fine art be the exclusive province of the leisured? For the first time in its five year run, the Dallas Art Fair, partnering with CultureMap, is offering free admission to downtown workers, who simply visit the fair’s ticketing page, select one-day pass and enter the code DAFProfessional2013. But watch out: contemporary art can be habit forming: as fair co-founder John Sugrue said,”There’s nothing like experiencing the Art Fair. Come once, and you’ll often end up coming back two or three more times during the weekend.”

For those of us who just can’t get enough contemporary art, this week’s Dallas Art Fair has sparked several fair-like events in its train, in addition to the fair’s own official satellite show, Caja Dallas, at the Dallas Contemporary. Here’s a selection:

The Fallas Dart Air, now in its second “Low and Slow” edition, locates some choice cuts from the finer low-budget Dallas art galleries and nonprofits among the ribs at Mama Faye’s BBQ at 2933 Commerce St. on April 13 from 7-11:30.

Also in a second edition, Robert Boyd’s PAN Art Fair occupies a suite at the Belmont Hotel from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 13. Featuring a spread of Boyd’s favorite artists (Christine Bisetto, Christopher Cascio, Nathan Green, Jim Nolan, Michelle Mackey, Emily Peacock, and Benjamin Terry) crammed into every nook of the Belmont’s charming decor.

Caja Dallas at the Dallas Contemporary is a project of SEVEN (seven exhibitors, that is: BravinLee programs, Catharine Clark Gallery, Inman Gallery, Pierogi, P.P.O.W., Ronald Feldman, and Postmasters) The event is touted as “a real working and functioning art fair inside a non-for-profit institution,” and previews on Wednesday evening, April 11 from 6-8 and runs from April 11-14. On Saturday, April 13 at 12:30, two panel discussions at the Dallas Contemporary will try to figure out what it all means.

The fifth annual Dallas Art Fair itself returns to the Fashion Industry Gallery on April 11-14, 2013

To kick off its new “Conversations with the Director” lecture series, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston is splurging on a big name: high-end artist Jeff Koons will discuss his “enduring fascination with Picasso” with MFAH Director Gary Tinterow on April 23 at 6:30 p.m., sponsored by high-end fashion house, Louis Vuitton. For only $35 ($25 if you’re a member, $15 students) you can listen in!

Partly, it’s a come-on for new members: people who sign up for a $60 membership to get the $10 discount for the lecture also get a free $20 ticket to the Picasso Black and White show and a year’s worth of other perks.

Up next: in June, Tinterow will chat with media sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

On Saturday, April 6 from 8 a.m.-3 p.m., the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston is selling off a pile of broken and not so broken musical instruments, art supplies, furniture,  and assorted spring cleanings to raise money for it’s community arts programs. Musical instruments $5 and up, with free Starbucks coffee for the first 50 customers! 908 Wood Street Suite 150, Houston.

Laura Gilbert, writing in The Art Newspaper, has a fascinating account of the gray market in salvaged art, a suddenly important and visible secor of the at market dealing in the reselling and repair of art claimed as damaged or destroyed in the wake of hurricane Sandy’s rampage through New York. Last December, Columbia University’s Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery hosted “No Longer Art”, an exhibition of featured art deemed a total loss, but saved unobtrusively by insurance companies for possible resale. The show was  organized by Mark Wasiuta and artist Elka Krajewska, who founded the Salvage Art Institute (SAI) in 2010 to examine the afterlives of these artworks.

Spring Glow, a quasi-art party and light show “Where Mad Max Meets Houston” is set for tonight, April 5, at The Silo, the concrete shell turned  alterna-venue at 4601 Clinton Drive. Organized by New Arts Collective, a non-profit consortium of Art Car Artists and Performance Artists, the $30 event is a fundraiser for the org’s free-to-the-public New Year’s Eve GlowOrama Parade, and also marks the Silo’s 10th anniversary year as a place to sweat off your body paint.

The Houston Arts Alliance has cooked up a new marketing push labeled “Houston is Inspired,” and is convening a forum for the managers and PR people from Houston art organizations to “to unite all of Houston’s arts and culture organizations under the “Houston is inspired” banner, turn our patrons into arts ambassadors, cross-promote our offerings to one another’s audiences, and increase awareness for all of our organizations. We need your input.”

They certainly do. I think they may have hired the same itinerant branding wizards that fled Oklahoma after selling the state “Oklahoma: State of Creativity”, and “Oklahoma: It’s OK”. The web domain “houstonisinspired.com” has already been bought (although it’s parked right now), but there are plenty of similar names still available:

The Houston is Inspired rally happens on April 15 from 3-5 at the Asia Society Texas Center, 1370 Southmore blvd.

The headline for this piece is drawn from artist Randy Twaddle’s unofficial, but widely known Houston. It’s Worth It campaign, the only effort to even semi-successfully craft an identity for Houston since the old “Space City” era.

Scranton carries the torch

Houston artist, welder and filmmaker Lee Benner has put together a film tribute to Houston artist Mike Scranton and the good old days (the 1980′s) at Commerce Street Artist Warehouse, filling in some local art history. The 19 minute collage includes vintage footage of shenanigans at the legendary Houston art space, as well as interviews with reminiscences from Brian Murphy, Rick Lowe, and Deborah Moore. As a younger Mark Flood, captured in a brief video clip, says: “gosh, I can’t remember- it’s the signifification, it’s important, it’s what makes it happen”

Cantanker, after fourteen printed issues of themed interviews, artist projects and other “bizarre and interesting things” has called it quits with an email of thanks from the editors, and a last-minute sales pitch for the box set of all fourteen issues for only $40, even as they announced that all back issues are now online. Email editor@cantanker.com to get your copy. The announcement was hardly unexpected; last December, the magazine put out its last issue, titled “The End,” along with an exhibition at Big Medium, its nonprofit parent, juried by the Austin art shakers and Cantanker founders Sean Gaulager (Executive Director/Curator of Co-Lab Projects), Shea Little (founder and Co-Director of Big Medium), John Mulvany (artist and art program head at the Khabele School), and Debra Broz (artist and Acting Director at Pump Project Arts Complex).