Christopher Blay and Brandon Zech on a founder of glitch paintings, tapestries of sex and car crashes, and some infernal pictures in East Texas.
“Any artist who has a ‘miscellaneous’ section on their website — I wanna go see their show.”
To watch last week’s Top Five episode in which Christina Rees and Brandon Zech talk about a show that starts with a stolen car, a Houstonian’s photographs in Dallas, and an artist who exploits targeted advertising, please go here.
1. Erin M. Riley: A Reminder of Being There
September 13 – December 13
Jonathan Hopson Gallery (Houston)
A solo exhibition featuring work by Erin M. Riley.
From the gallery:
“Erin M. Riley is a fiber artist who makes large-scale tapestries using a centuries-old hand weaving process. For her work, Riley sources yarn from shuttered textile mills around the United States; she then washes, strips and hand-dyes the wool before weaving on a Macomber loom. Her finely wrought wool and cotton weavings rely on implied narrative and personal history, ingeniously toggling between access and obscurity. This exhibition will feature her meticulously crafted, tapestries depicting intimate scenes that reflect on relationships, memories, fantasies, addiction, sexual violence and trauma.
“The images I weave are consumed and scrolled past at a speed that is maddening, but tapestry stays slow,” says Riley. At the same time, the process of sitting at the loom “allows for a total disconnect from the internet while also having a connection to binary and early computer technology.”
2. a) John Pomara: Digital_debris
October 14 – November 21
Barry Whistler Gallery (Dallas)
“Barry Whistler Gallery is pleased to present John Pomara’s newest body of work, Digital_debris. The exhibition runs October 14 th – November 21 st . The gallery is currently open by appointment only.
“Digital_debris will feature a collection of new oil enamel paintings on aluminum, as well as, unique UV pigment ink on canvas pieces. As the artist explains the title of the show, ‘Is very descriptive of the moment historically, but actually how the work is created. So it has a double meaning for me.'”
2. b) Kirsten Macy: Always A Little Sad
October 14 – November 21
Barry Whistler Gallery (Dallas)
“Always A Little Sad will feature a collection of oil enamel paintings on canvas. The oil enamel is layered onto the canvases: ‘I make slow methodical layered and delicate paintings… I started making this body of work before the various social and environmental traumas of 2020. Gradually and unconsciously, I removed elements that bring me joy and replaced them with emotional, vision like landscapes, halos, telescope views and TV screens.'”
3. Going Through a Phrase
October 10 – January 3
Galveston Arts Center
“Galveston Arts Center (GAC) presents Going Through a Phrase, a group exhibition of text-based works by Alicia Eggert, Candace Hicks, Stephanie Patton, Andrea Tosten, and Rachelle Vasquez on view in the main gallery from October 10, 2020. Through neon signage, calligraphy, and textiles, each artist employs familiar fonts and shapes to communicate ideas, warnings, personal reflections, and social commentary. By bringing words into physical form, these works disrupt the constant flow of information we receive in the modern world, inviting viewers into a visual conversation.”
4. Jack Delaney: The Worlds Within
August 24 – October 10
Performance: October 8, 6 – 8PM
Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Gallery (Kilgore)
From the release:
“This is a solo art exhibition featuring paintings, drawings, and prints by Jack Delaney done over the last few years. Delaney is focused in narrative representation using kitsch and folk imagery inspired by surrealism, regionalism, mythology, fantasy, science-fiction, and the circus, to name a few sources.”
5. American Watercolor Society 153rd International Exhibition
October 9 – November 28, 2020
Longview Museum of Fine Arts
An annual exhibition featuring watercolor paintings from international exhibits.
From the Museum:
“AWS’s annual Exhibition is one of the most revered watercolor exhibits in the world. Forty paintings were selected from more than 1,100 artists worldwide for this exemplary show. Underwritten in part by the City of Longview, and the Cultural Advisory Commission.”
