Show Listing
Exhibitions on View May 19th - June 23rd, 2012
BOX 13 ArtSpace Presents
Exhibitions on View May 19th, 2012, 7-9:30PM
Opening Reception May 19, 2012, 7-9:30PM
"Chinaman's Suitcase" - Miao Jiaxin
Downstairs Front BOX
"Palinka & Lone Star" - Radu Runcanu & William Witte
curated by Emily Peacock
Downstairs Back BOX
"Playmates" - Ariane Roesch
Window BOX
"Breathe" - Britt Ragsdale
Upstairs BOX
Houston, Texas - BOX 13 ArtSpace is pleased to present four exhibitions opening May 19th, 2012, 7 - 9:30PM. In the Downstairs Front BOX Chinaman's Suitcase showcases the photos and videos of Miao Jiaxin's performance work. In the Downstairs Back BOX,Emily Peacock curates the work of Radu Rancanu and William Witte in Palinka & Lone Star. Ariane Roesch outfits the window BOX with an installation of her plush computer Playmates. In the Upstairs BOX, Britt Ragsdale asks the viewer to take a moment with Breathe.
The exhibitions continue through June 23rd, 2012.
An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 19th from 7-9:30PM at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 6700 Harrisburg, Houston, TX 77011.
"Chinaman's Suitcase" - Miao Jiaxin
Downstairs Front BOX
Miao Jiaxin is a Chinese born artist who received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently lives and works in New York City. Chinaman's Suitcase includes selected video and photography informed by that diverse and sometimes contradictory geography. For example, Miao constructs situations in which his mother laboriously hauls his naked body in a suitcase through the streets of Shanghai or he himself hauls smoked ducks through Manhattan and, after spray-painting them in bold colors, offers them for sale in a China Town market. He constructs rituals where he and cohorts meticulously wash, iron and hang 20,000 dollar bills out to dry or music videos based on the Tao de Ching translated into text-speak. His work often relies upon his cultural heritage but it is merely a springboard to consider the complexities of family, sexual identity, power and spirituality in contemporary ways.
Miao Jiaxin - From his early practice as a street photographer tracking Shanghai prostitutes to the development of a pseudo-transvestite web celebrity, Miao Jiaxin has evolved an edgy and protean practice. Beginning in Shanghai, Miao then immigrated to New York, Miao replaced the alienation of the body and labor with that of the abject alienation of urban life. He documents his performances by creating photographs and videos. Some of his performances include blending his naked body into the bleak streets of a midnight Manhattan, sleepwalking in striped pajamas through a vacant city and through urban crowds, dressing as a Chinese businessman for a year when working towards his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and live-feed erotic performances on an interactive pornographic broadcasting website. His work has been shown nationally and internationally in China and Europe. Miao lives and works in New York City.
"Palinka & Lone Star" - Radu Runcanu & William Witte
curated by Emily Peacock
Downstairs Back BOX
Palinka & Lone Star is an exhibition that combines the work of two artists who grew up and were educated in two different cultures. Radu Runcanu grew up and was educated in Romania, whileWilliam Witte was born and raised in Houston, TX. After meeting through their positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, they have been continuously discussing their artistic views and endeavors. They also frequent each other's studios and critique each other's work. Runcanu and Witte approach their work in a parallel fashion. The exhibition displays their influence on each other and their similar approach to art making despite disparities in their upbringing.
Radu Runcanu - Born in 1976, in Cluj, in the heart of Transylvania, Romania, Radu Runcanu is a painter and sculptor who now lives and works in Houston. He received his BFA in Sculpture in 1999 from the Arts University of Bucharest. He focuses on investigating the symbolic dimensions, the complex universe (whatever that would be) hidden behind everyday objects and images. In his art he is using objects, human bodies, landscapes or media images to build ideas, not to represent them. That is, to build individual, subjective histories with a hieratic appearance (if not quite "aura"). What Radu is searching to capture when representing these objects (being them contemporary or historical imagery, still-frames from a TV broadcast, or a simple tablecloth) is their timelessness. More exactly, their status as vehicles for a message with many possible reading levels: a message from the contemporary mythology.
William Witte - William Witte is a painter who lives and works in Houston, Texas. He received his M.F.A. at Texas Tech University, with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing. He is mostly interested in creating works that blur the lines between figurative and abstraction. Witte is currently working in concept of combining symbols to create a content neutral piece. His work has had several solo shows and been exhibited in numerous group shows throughout Texas.
"Playmates" - Ariane Roesch
Window BOX
PLAYMATES are felt sculptures, that resemble plush toys, which are based on early personal computer models which implemented the change from a computer being a business-only computing machine to also being an entertainment hub that can be enjoyed by the whole family at home. EachPLAYMATE is handcrafted in an edition of ten and are uniquely packaged in their own carrying case/ storage box.
Being idle is conventionally defined with a negative connotation as a form of inactivity without purpose or effect. My definition uses the word in a positive manner as defined by Tom Hodgkinson inHow to be Idle (2005). The state of idleness is used to address leisure time as our own time when we are doing what we want to do with no specific outcome determined. The PLAYMATES instructions for idling are simple - cuddle for comfort, nestle to nap, play for pleasure, and peruse and ponder. EachPLAYMATE has slogans embroidered that are personified statements from the original advertisement of the machines, for example 'I have enough power to get things done' or 'I am more than just an intelligent terminal'. Each box contains a booklet explaining the history of personal computers through found editorial texts in magazines, advertisements, and sales guides from the early 1980s, as well as showcasing the original advertisements of each of the machines the PLAYMATES are based on.
Ariane Roesch is currently living and working in Houston, TX. She received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2011 and her BFA from the University of Houston in 2007. Her work has been show nationally and internationally at Horselaw Press, Zuerich, Switzerland, Michael Rosenthal Gallery, San Francisco, CA, and the Texas Contemporary Fair in Houston, TX. She is also the founder of UNIT, an online store featuring limited edition prints, products, and publications. Her work questions the physical and psychological structures that make up our everyday, ranging from essential building structures such as electrical wiring, to the basic conduct of how people communicate and behave. She is interested in how we situate ourselves within a mechanized society.
"Breathe" - Britt Ragsdale
Upstairs BOX
Breathing, something we do over 25,000 times a day, often goes unnoticed. The only time someone acknowledges his or her breath is when it is irregular. As a past sufferer of anxiety attacks, Britt Ragsdale learned to control the attacks through controlled breathing, a practice that impressed on her the power that inhalation and exhalation has over the physical, mental and emotional state of a person.
Through research, Ragsdale learned that one person's breathing easily influences the breathing of others. This reaction is why a mother may place a baby with respiration troubles against her chest or why a man and woman in close contact will start to respire at the same pace. In Breathe, looped stop-animation videos are combined to create an installation that draws attention to the human breath and the power it has over our physical, mental and emotional states.
Britt Ragsdale is a visual artist currently living and working in Houston. Born and raised in Southeast Texas, she graduated with a BFA from Lamar University and an MFA in Photography/Digital Media from the University of Houston in May 2011. She is currently a resident artist at Box 13 Art Space and co-founder of the artist-run mobile exhibition space, The Lens Capsule. Through photography, video, sculpture and performance, she creates visual constructs based around social anthropology and psychoanalysis, especially in connection with pretense, self-representation, collective identity and the techniques through which they are formed.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
BOX 13 ArtSpace
6700 Harrisburg Blvd
Houston, TX 77011
713-533-8692
www.box13artspace.com
box13artspace@gmail.com
Gallery Hours: Saturdays 1-5PM or by appointment
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