Op Ed

We may have invited plenty of trouble on ourselves for thinking life should be risky, but at least we resist.

Of course, if you want to really dream, you could imagine downtown Houston looking like Paris with the Seine running through it.

Here in Texas there are more art venues, art-school programs, and artists than ever before. And a dire lack of honest, engaging, readable critical writing about any of it.

Imagine if the MFAH had lived up to the bootstrapping spirit of this crazy swamp and done something really radical.

These days, no one trolls liberal America better or harder than Republicans do. 

Transcendental Style essentially induces boredom as deliberate technique in order to produce a sort of “ambient plane,” and then cracks it open with a moment of ecstasy and release.

It’s not so much about liking, or “liking,” a casting decision. It’s about believing in the character.

If I would prefer to find my pleasures elsewhere than this new direction of museums, then obviously there are artists who are already way ahead of me.

"Hello. I would like to purchase some of your works as a surprise gift to my wife in honor of our upcoming wedding anniversary."

Where your “heart” is? Where your memories are? How does a place change things? How does a place change people? How does the design of the built environment colonize space and nature to manufacture desire in the landscape of capitalism?

I’m afraid I’ll never be really moved by a work of art again.

If the art that comes after Childish Gambino’s 'This is America' video doesn’t move the needle in fixing whatever it is raging against, then we should stop making protest art, because it’s not working.

Here’s what I think. I think the fair is, this year, powered along by its own momentum. I think it’ll take a couple of years to feel the impact of new directors and a fair without Chris Byrne.

You could publish the most interesting and entertaining article in the history of humanity on Facebook, but if you don’t put money behind it, nobody will ever see it.

I’m the wet blanket. I’m going to rain on the parade.

The artist John Forse has recently moved from Houston to Paris, TX. 

I like to imagine someone would buy that place and decorate it like a 1980s Upper East Side apartment, with peony chintz and framed prints of horses.

Late capitalism has forced many of us to live in a continuous desperation, ever reacting and improvising. You must look to the sky and see which stars beguile you.

We can’t fault galleries for doing what they have to to stay in business any more than we can fault artists for creating sellable work. We can, however, reexamine our expectations about the art we come across.

"Art is a cultural form, which means you can't pursue it without access to culture. There’s only so much you can do in a vacuum."