Lawndale’s Big Show: call for entries, and a cease-fire

This is the year that I officially cease carping about Lawndale’s Annual Big Show for not being the wonderfully free, come-one-come-all brawl it once was. Times change, institutions change, even cities change.  Even with the $30 entry fee, (this is the last time I’ll mention it) it’s a pretty good way for unknown and undershown artists living within 100 miles of Houston to get a foot, or an artwork, in the door. It’s still juried from actual work, like some sort of art yard sale, they still hand out serious prizes, and, as a final acknowledgement of the Big Show’s firmly establishment status, there’s a Salon de Big Show Refusés being held this year at Gallery M Squared (more on this later). Drop off your creations on June 15 and 16; this year’s guest juror is Larissa Harris, Curator at the Queens Museum of Art.