PAST EXHIBITIONS
2013
HOLIDAY MINI-MART & PARTY
December 14, 2013 I Art League Houston Building
Art League Houston is excited to host the second curated Holiday Mini-mART & Party which will feature holiday inspired drinks and food, a fantastic live DJ, as well as an exciting collection of uniquely made small works by some of Houston’s most significant and innovative artists all costing under $100 each!
Participating artists:
Ack! | Regina Agu | Nadia Al-Khalifah | Kelly Alison | Daniel Anguilu | Sarah Ansell | Debra Barrera | Elaine Bradford | Margaret Braun | Captivation’s/Jennifer McCaslin | Carlos Hernandez | Lisa Marie Hunter | Melissa Juvan | Harbeer Singh Kalakaar | Hipporacle | Autumn Knight | Alex Larsen | Nina Marinick | Paul Middendorf | Olivia Neal | Lovie Olivia | Angel Oloshove | Quentin Pace | Steve Parker | Catfish Perez | Eduardo Portillo | Phillip Pyle II | Preetika Rajgariah | Fernando Ramirez | Anne J. Regan | Patrick Renner | Michael C. Rodriguez | Chadwick and Spector | David Salinas | Patrick Turk | Jason Villages | Claire Webb | Mary Beth Woiccak
The Holiday Mini-mART & Party is an initiative hosted by ALH to specifically tap into and nurture the growth of Houston’s most exciting emerging artists by providing an exhibition platform where talent can be showcased and supported. The event will create a place for artistic discovery that can spotlight a new generation of artists, dealers, and collectors in Houston, and is just in time for holiday gift buying!
EVERYDAY GRACE by SEDRICK HUCKABY
November 22, 2013 – January 17, 2014 I ALH Main Gallery
Everyday Grace, an exhibition of new and recent works by Fort Worth-based artist Sedrick Huckaby, is his first solo show in Houston. The exhibition features a diverse selection of thickly painted impasto quilt paintings and portraits, along with a new series of drawings that pull from major bodies of work over a five-year period. All explore themes of spirituality, family, and the artist’s African-American heritage.
Everyday Grace features a mini-survey of work from two major series, Big Momma’s House, and The 99%, which engage with the human experience in a way that is both reverential and uncomplicated. The exhibition includes a new large-scale quilt painting, which honors the artistic legacy of the African American quilting tradition, and is based on a quilt belonging to the Founder of Project Row Houses Rick Lowe, as well as two new portraits; a self-portrait and a portrait oft he artist’s son.
Huckaby's most recent series The 99%, as opposed to the 1% so often mentioned in the press, features a powerful installation of more than 100 lithographic portraits that the artist created during a recent residency at the Brandywine Print Workshop in Philadelphia.
FALLING by MONICA VIDAL
November 13, 2013 - January 17, 2014 I ALH Front Gallery
FALLING, is the third installment of Monica Vidal’s interactive HIVE series. The exhibition features a large freestanding installation made up of brightly colored blue fabric pieces sewn together and fitted atop a collection of tent poles in the center of the gallery, as well as a selection of wall-based preparatory drawings and paintings that explore the idea of creating a portable spiritual and collective space that brings people together.
FALLING is as much of a small whimsical circus tent as it is a grown-up version of the blanket-and-dining-table forts of so many childhoods. The installation was originally inspired by a recurring childhood dream the artist had where she was stranded on the edge of a dark icy pit, surrounded by a jagged arctic wasteland. As she would repeatedly try to climb down into the pit she would end up falling in and find herself submerged in an abstract space of prismatic blues. This vivid memory, along with the artists love for quilt patterns, (especially 'The Quilts of Gee's Bend', a collective of forty-five African-American female quilt artists from a rural community in the Black Belt of Alabama), were the inspiration for the pattern and palette of FALLING.
2013 TEXAS ARTIST OF THE YEAR: GROUP SHOW by RACHEL HECKER
September 27 - November 15, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Art League Houston is excited to announce the 2013 Texas Artist of the Year exhibition, Rachel Hecker: Group Show. The exhibition features a selection of works in sculpture, painting and kinetics, and is “largely a show of anomalies’, says Hecker. ‘I work serially, and on projects that are linear and investigated over time. I also make things that have nothing to do with what I am doing. I indulge ideas that are persistent and pestering but out of context, and this is the work that is in this show.’
‘Although there is no conceptual glue, form, or subject matter that binds the work, there are themes and concerns that inform much of it. I have a complicated relationship to painting (the noun). I love its history and deplore its authority. I believe that its quaintness – as a gesture in the face of technology – is a great strength, and its torpidity an ultimate disappointment. I worry about its (and arts) dubious function as commodity. All of these things are poked at here, often with humor as a stick, and wryly.’
2013 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: TRACING OUR PILGRIMAGE by KERMIT OLIVER
September 27 - November 15, 2013: ALH Front Gallery
Art League Houston is excited to announce the inaugural ALH Lifetime Achievement Award exhibition, Kermit Oliver: Tracing Our Pilgrimage. The exhibition features a survey of seventeen works that have rarely been seen publicly, and span over a thirty year period of the artist's phenomenal yet somewhat reclusive career. An exhibition catalog will be available, featuring an introduction by ALH and an essay written by Garry Reece.
For more than 40 years, Kermit has painted nature and myth-inspired portraits and landscapes rooted in his life as a native Texan, earning public recognition while carefully guarding his privacy. After nearly a quarter of a century, he continues to be the only American artist to be commissioned each year by Hermès to create designs for its renowned silk scarves.
In 2005, Curator Alvia J. Wardlaw and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston mounted a major retrospective of his work and life. Nine years later there is a new generation who is not familiar with his work, and this exhibition gives everybody an opportunity to honor not only his paintings and drawings but also his significant place in the history of art in Texas.
FUNNEL TUNNEL by PATRICK RENNER
August 10, 2013 - January 18, 2015 I ALH Esplanade Project
Art League Houston is excited to invite the public to the grand opening and dedication ceremony of FUNNEL TUNNEL, a 180 t long sculpture by Houston-based artist Patrick Renner made of steel and reclaimed wood that snakes down the Montrose Blvd esplanade opposite Art League Houston. The installation is the first of its kind in Houston!
The FUNNEL TUNNEL public art project will increase the cultural, social, and economic value of the Montrose area. It will reflect the creative people and businesses in the area, and will add meaning and uniqueness to Montrose Blvd. With Houston being such a concrete jungle, this creative project will help humanize the built environment that we live in and invigorate the public spaces around us. The Mayor’s office has been very supportive and 90% of the funding comes from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
BLACK RADICAL IMAGINATION
ARTISTS: ADEBUKOLA BODUNRIN, EZRA CLAYTON DANIELS, CAULEEN SMITH, ANANSI KNOWBODY, CRISTINA DE MIDDEL, AKOSUA ADOMA OWUSU, JACOLBY SATTERWHITE
Screening and Q&A: August 9, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Panel Discussion: August 10, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Curated by Amir George and Erin Christovale
Black Radical Imagination is a short film series curated by Chicago-based artist and curator Amir George and LA artist Erin Christovale that explores contemporary perspectives and ideas on the black experience. The showcase features a selection of video art, experimental film, and narrative shorts by seven international emerging black artists; Adebukola Bodunrin, Ezra Clayton Daniels, Cauleen Smith, Anansi Knowbody, Cristina De Middel, Akosua Adoma Owusu and Jacolby Satterwhite, who are all members of the Black Radical Imagination Collective and whose work re-claims, re-processes and re-identifies unique stories of Black Imagination.
The notion of the Black Radical Imagination stemmed from a series of discussions around the boundaries and limitations that are historically given to people of color. Specifically, in the film industry these restrictions are often digested and kept to propel a vicious cycle of negative identification. Each artist in this series contributes their own vision of a free changing world in a post-modern society through focused observations that explore the state of black culture. The screening will conclude with a roundabout dialogue with audience members and featured filmmakers to further ponder and process the stories that are being presented. Furthermore, these conversations are set in place in order to shift the way in which black identity is defined on screen and how these stories affect the ever-changing global culture.
THE TROJAN BOX by BOX 13 ARTSPACE
August 16 - September 20, 2013 I ALH Front Gallery
The Trojan Box is an exhibition in the ALH Front and Hallway Gallery by current residents of Box 13 Artspace, a local artist run nonprofit innovative located on Harrisburg Blvd in the East End. The exhibition will feature a diverse selection of sculpture, photography, painting, and installation/video by an exciting group of Houston-based emerging and established artists including Kelly Alison, Daniel Bertalot, Elaine Bradford, Karen Brasier-Young, Michelle Chen-Dubose, Jennifer Ellison, Monica Foote, Quinn Hagood, Dennis Harper, Michael Henderson, Janine Hughes, Kathy Kelley, Jonathan Leach, David McClain, Jennifer McNichols, Tudor Mitroi, Kristy Peet, Mark Ponder, J. Michael Stovall and Alonso Tapia.
The artists participating in the show would like to expose the many artistic experiments and talents found within the building at 6700 Harrisburg Ave. and also raise awareness of the art space. Artists will discuss the BOX13 mission and highlight some previous exhibitions during the artist talk at the opening.
The exhibit will also include two slide show events at the Art League, where 8-10 artists from Box 13 will show examples of their work via slide presentation and describe their individual practice in more detail.
FERAL by BUSTER GRAYBILL
August 16 - September 20, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery + Sculpture Garden
Feral is a multidisciplinary exhibition by San Antonio artist Buster Graybill, which features a diverse selection of sculpture, video, and photography that documents the unique journey of a series of Minimalist geometric sculptures that also function as wild animal feeders. The exhibition tracks the evolution of these hybrid objects as they traverse the rural landscape and endure attacks by wild hogs, deer, rams, and critics over a 3 year period.
Graybill refers to these feral sculptures as 'Tush Hogs' and speculates that they evolved from a Donald Judd sculpture that escaped from the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. Without curators, collectors, or conservators to comfort and care for the sculptures, they quickly developed a more rugged diamond-plated armor and more muscular stature to survive in the wild.
“I harvest memories, stories, language, and objects from the rich cultural geography of rural America and use it as creative fuel” says the artist. “I am compelled by the subtle shifts and rapid changes that are occurring in the landscape as urban sprawl continues to consume and displace both nature and culture. My projects explore these moments and places of change, addressing themes of adaptation, displacement, and re-contextualization. With one foot firmly planted in the rural landscape and the other constantly testing the waters of contemporary art, I find myself thriving in the brackish water of the “in-between”.
RECORD RELEASE PARTY: THESE ARE EYES, SEE?
DAVID DOVE AND JAWWAAD TAYLOR
Saturday, July 20, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Freestyle sonic séance, sub-bass massage, blown shades of blue, articulation.
Ingredients: trombone, sub bass frequencies, electronics, words, MC, trumpet
8 PM - Special Guest performance by Lisa E. Harris
9 PM – Performance by Jawwaad Taylor and David Dove
Dance party to follow.
Projections by Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud.
DJ Rachel Orosco on the turntables.
Avant Garden on the bar.
IPCNY: NEW PRINTS 2013/WINTER IN CONJUNCTION WITH PRINTHOUSTON 2013
June 28 - August 2, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Art League Houston is pleased to partner with Print Enthusiasts, a local print collective made up of leaders in the Houston printmaking community to present IPCNY: New Prints 2013/Winter, an exhibition of over thirty prints selected from the International Print Center New York’s (IPCNY) forty-fourth Juried Print show. In conjunction with PRINTHOUTSON 2013, the exhibition features work by local, national and international artists at all stages of their careers and represents contemporary trends and techniques in printmaking.
Artists include: Miguel A. Aragon, Ann Aspinwall, Denise Bookwalter, Sabra Booth, Yael Brotman, Alejandro Casazi, Phillip Chen, Nicole Eisenman, Dikko Faust, Kevin Frances, Georgia Grigoriadou, Valerie Hammond, Yuji Hiratsuka, Jasper Johns, Louise Kohrman, Nicola Lopez, Renee Magnanti, Nathan Meltz, Thomas Nawrocki, LeRoy Neiman, Serena Perrone, Naomi Reis, Sarah Shebaro, James Siena, Tatiana Simonova, José Antonio Suárez Londoño, Sarah Sze, Yasuyo Tanaka, Liz Ward, Albert Webb, Matthew Zaccari and Paula García Arizcun.
New Prints 2013/Winter features an exciting selection of etchings, lithographs, installations, books, sculptures, and other manifestations of print processes, which foster an engaging dialogue between the representational and the surreal; the political and the imaginative; the three-dimensional and the transparent. The works not only demonstrate a broad range of aesthetic approaches, techniques, and concepts, but also function as a testament to the vivacity and creativity of printmaking throughout the world.
BĀS by RABÉA BALLIN, ANN JOHNSON, DELITA MARTIN, LOVIE OLIVIA
June 28 - August 2, 2013 I ALH Front Gallery
Bās is the fourth collaborative exhibition by artists Rabéa Ballin, Ann Johnson, Delita Martin and Lovie Olivia, which examines and transforms personal experiences, family histories, and cultural identities into a provoking visual play through the art of print-making.
Getting back to the BASics of things, the artists re-visit the desire to work from the heart; the place of impulse, desire, chance and truth. Raw ideas and organic pursuits are on their creative agenda as they fuse contemporary processes with traditional techniques using various objects, sculptures and forms in an attempt to push the boundaries of this sometimes forgotten art form of printmaking. They cut, pour, sculpt, suspend, transfer, screen and etch their way into a broader conversation.
Q&A Interviews by ALH Interns -- Rabéa Ballin
Q&A Interviews by ALH Interns -- Delita Martin
Q&A Interviews by ALH Interns -- Lovie Olivia
NEW WORK by GIOVANNI VALDERAS
May 17 - June 21, 2013 I ALH Hallway Gallery
New Work is an exhibition of new-mixed media paintings by Dallas based artist Giovanni Valderas. The work combines a variety of materials including paper, acrylic paint, wood, drawing and screen print to create complex three dimension paintings that hang awkwardly on the wall and explore themes of decaying traditional structures.
“I deconstruct the frayed elements from a piñata into my paintings, as a way of transforming the Piñata’s original identity of gratuitous celebration into one of collapse and distress” says the artist. “The use of fringe and collaged abstraction is not meant as only embellishment. While it certainly provides a tactile texture pleasing to the touch, the fringe also permeates the structure of the painting as if they were bacterial spores creating a reproduction chain specifically suited for living in unfavorable conditions. The anatomical aspect of the piñata is also appropriated and amplified, creating a complex network suggesting the strength and the inner complexity of relationships.”
ART CRITICISM AND REPORTING by DEVON BRITT-DARBY
May 17 - June 21, 2013 I ALH Front Gallery
Art Criticism and Reporting is a two part exhibition by Devon Britt-Darby that combines fragments of retrieved memories to explore themes of vulnerability, portraiture and “appropriated autobiography.” Using a performative painting process, the exhibit will piece together scenes from the artist’s past as a sex worker and a former newspaper art critic to evoke ambiguous narratives that it is ultimately up to the viewer to complete.
The first part of the exhibition features a series of text paintings conceived as portraits of the authors whose words are contained therein. Painted against abstract, reflective backgrounds that cause the words to shift in and out of legibility with changes in the light and the viewer’s orientation, the texts are appropriated from Internet forum posts and press articles written about Britt-Darby during and two cross-country road trips – one in 2004, another in 2011-2012 – that provoked alarm and public speculation about his mental state. The second installment of the exhibition features a three week residency in the ALH Front Gallery where the artist will complete a mural size painting on upstretched canvas. ALH visitors are welcome to enter the gallery and talk with the artist as he works.
COCOMIRLE BY ADELA ANDEA
May 17 - June 21, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Cocomirle is a site-specific audio visual environment by Romanian born and Houston-based artist Adela Andea in collaboration with musicians, composers and performers Markus Cone and Ian Travis from experimental sound group CHIN XAOU TI WON. The exhibition explores the relationship between technology and social interaction through an intricately woven electromechanical installation. Made up of acoustic instruments, mixing boards, electronic keyboards, flex neon, cold cathode fluorescent lights (CCFL) and computer electronics, Cocomirle engages with the visual, spatial, kinetic and phenomenological properties of sound.
A series of performances within the installation, and across a variety of media and disciplines will be presented by CHIN XAOU TI WON throughout the exhibition’s duration.
Submerging the ALH Main Gallery in electronic light and synchronized sound, Cocomirle explores ideas of working between the visual and audio field by integrating sculpture and sound using the mechanics of computer technology. “My approach to making art is to create environments that not only tear down the wall between artist and observer, but also generate a dialogue about the interaction between people and new technologies” says the artist “Collaborating with CHIN XAOU TI WON allowed me to explore this beyond the limits of visual interpretation and explore a new kind of aesthetic environment”.
THE MARTY: A MONTROSE ART PARTY
May 3, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Co-Chaired by Karee Laing and Bobby Bass
Art League Houston is excited to invite the public to our annual fundraising event The Marty: A Montrose Art Party, on Friday, May 3, from 6 - 9 PM. The event benefits ALH’s Healing Art Program, which provides free art instruction and supplies to adults living with serious illness and physical disabilities. Entry to the event is free.
This year's costume theme is Dress as Your Favorite Artist or Artwork so get ready to be creative!!! A photo booth will be on-site ready for you and your friends to have fun with!
The event will feature a live DJ spinning tunes, delicious treats from Whole Foods, beer from Saint Arnolds Brewing Company and a special event-inspired cocktail dubbed “The Andy Warhol”.
The event will feature a selection of artwork for sale by Healing Art artists in the Main Gallery, as well as an exciting silent auction featuring jewelry, dinner at Uchi, Symphony, Opera and Alley tickets to name just a few. A portion of the artwork and concession proceeds will help support ALH's Healing Art program.
Please join us in supporting this unique and valuable program, while enjoying the opportunity to purchase amazing artwork at affordable prices!
BRITAIN'S DINNERS AND TEXAN MEALS by DAMARIS BOOTH
March 21- April 26, 2013 I ALH Hallway Gallery
Britain’s Dinners and Texan Meals is a solo exhibition by British ceramic artist Damaris Booth in conjunction with the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference. The exhibition explores the unique cultural relationship that Britain and Texas have with themes of food through a series of sixteen photo-infused ceramic plates that depict the ‘leftovers’ from ten Texan meals and six British dinners, which the artist made and ate over the past month. “Having been brought up with the tradition to always ‘clean my plate’ I have acquired a fascination with leftovers. I am intrigued by how food can be rapidly transformed from being necessary and desirable to unwanted and repulsive.”
Texas dishes include: Chicken Fried Steak, BBQ Beef Brisket, Cheese Enchiladas with Chile con Carne, Meatloaf, King Ranch Chicken Casserole, Fried Catfish and Hush Puppies, Fried Chicken, Gumbo, Texas Chile and Tacos.
British meals included: Curry, Chinese, Roast Dinner, Fish ‘n’ Chips, Bangers ‘n’ Mash and Pizza.
FLIGHT, THE DAY I BEGAN TO DISAPPEAR by JESSICA FORTIER KREUTTER
March 21- April 26, 2013 I ALH Sculpture Garden
Flight, the day I began to disappear s an outdoor art installation by Houston-based ceramic artist Jessica Fortier Kreutter in conjunction with the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference. The installation features a series of three porcelain swings adorned with metallic fungus-like growths that suspend from the ALH trees. The opening reception is 6-9 PM on Thursday, March 21, 2013 in the ALH Sculpture Garden.
Inspired by the spaces that are in-between, Flight, the day I began to disappear explores the moments between reality and fantasy. The swings become nostalgic apparitions that float between the trees and sky, the remnants of memory, its possibility and its departure. “Memories of use and traces of decay connect these objects to memories of a body that has disappeared. In this fragile moment, I want to imagine what materializes from these shadows left behind and the body that would exist in these ruins”.
ORGANIC DISSOLUTION by SUSAN BEINER
March 21- April 26, 2013 I ALH Front Gallery
Organic Dissolution is a solo exhibition by Arizona-based ceramic artist, Susan Beiner in conjunction with the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference, which transforms the Front Gallery into a porcelain filled garden of tumbling exotic growth. The exhibition features a large-scale installation that rises up from the floor, made up of nearly one thousand white ceramic forms which mimic themes of geometry, human order, and overtly manufactured materials.
Dissolution is a word that can apply to many things; usually government, businesses, relationships and partnerships. It refers to what is left once something is broken up, dispersed or undone. Susan Beiner’s wonderfully chaotic ceramic and mixed media sculptures explore the resulting state, or dissolution, of all that was once natural, but is now genetically modified or altered, manufactured or processed, manipulated or cloned.
This absence of color is an expression of Beiner’s concerns about the effects of human development on the natural world. “I was thinking about genetic engineering and cloning,” she said. “We have new plant species being germinated in laboratories, and at the same time, we are depleting the earth’s resources. I started imagining what might happen to plant life that has been processed to the point of becoming sterile.”
CONNECTIONS AND DIRECTIONS
March 21- April 26, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Co-curated by Rebecca Hutchinson and Jennie Ash
Connections and Directions is a group exhibition co-curated by established ceramic artist Rebecca Hutchinson and Art League Houston’s Visual Arts Director Jennie Ash in conjunction with the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference. The exhibition features an exciting selection of work by eight emerging US-based artists, all UMass Dartmouth alumni, whose works in ceramic are daring and diverse, and represent a growing expanse of ceramic direction. Artists include Birdie Boone, Dawn Stetzel, Claire Hedden, Colleen Toledano, Ryan Blackwell, Lauren Mayer, David Katz and Matt Ziemke.
The artists in Connections and Directions reflect a rising number of emerging artists who are challenging the expectations of ceramic art. The works in this exhibition are mostly installation-based and include not only clay but found objects such as metal, plastic, cardboard, textile and wood. have your cake n eat it 2 by Birdie Boone features a variety of traditionally handmade cups that are precariously balanced on two slanting wooden shelves. Housedress and Back Pack by Dawn Stetzel feature complex 3-dimensional shantytowns that cling to and jut out from domestic objects. Claire Hedden’s floor sculpture My Mountain interweaves domestic furniture with layers of cardboard, fabric, and foam to create an ambiguous - yet familiar – form. Half Full by Colleen Tolendano features a surreal mixed-media sculpture consisting of two hollow porcelain figure-heads that are conjoined at the base by adorned metal piping. Spick and Span by Ryan Blackwell consists of a socio-political charged floor installation featuring thousands of tiny ceramic dustpans that are organized into an American flag-like design. Other Moments of an Interior by Lauren Mayer features a delicate series of folded clothing made of porcelain that hang effortlessly along the wall. David Katz’s installation Numerical Order features a series of ceramic cages interspersed throughout a corner of the gallery connecting web-like forms between the floor, the ceiling and the walls. And finally, Defining Borders and Conglomerate No 2 by Matt Ziemke feature diverse multimedia sculptures that combine clay, vinyl, metal and wood to create sprawling map-like structures that explore the relationship between urban and natural landscapes.
BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
ARTISTS: DARWIN AREVALO, DYLAN CONNER, OSCAR RENE CORNEJO, ALEX LARSEN, PATRICK RENNER, AND DAVID SALINAS
January 18 - March 8, 2013 I ALH Front Gallery
Curated by Juan Alonzo
Art League Houston and El Rincon Social (ERS) are pleased to present Bringing it All Back Home, a group exhibition organized by ERS’ Founding Director Juan Pablo Alonzo, which explores the powerful nature of everyday materials transforming into something extraordinary. The exhibition features works in painting, photography printmaking and sculpture by six of El Rincon Social’s resident artists: Darwin Arevalo, Dylan Conner, Oscar Rene Cornejo, Alex Larsen, Patrick Renner, and David Salinas. In conjunction with the exhibition, members of the ERS community will host a series of ERS inspired event including movie nights, music nights, performance art nights, critique groups, sweet bread & coffee gatherings, as well as printmaking and plaster casting workshops.
El Rincon Social, The Social Corner, is one of the most popular and exciting artist-run collectives in East End’s warehouse district. It marks a new generation of alternative art spaces that specialize in supporting Houston’s burgeoning emerging artist scene. Their mission is to create culturally-rich art environments that nurture the exchange of ideas and experiences through innovative workshops, exhibitions and events that showcase local artists and benefit their community.
The artists in this exhibition explore themes of alchemy and are specifically drawn to the organic structure of an object. This alchemic process acts as a screen to coalesce the viewer’s experience through their relationship to the everyday object, usually overlooked as trivial; such as the plaster of our walls, the cement of our streets, post-industrial scraps at construction sites, or the ephemeral chemistry utilized in capturing our memories.
THE UNCONTROLLABLE NATURE OF GRIEF AND FORGIVENESS (OR LACK OF) by KATHRYN KELLEY
January 18 - March 8, 2013 I ALH Main Gallery
Art League Houston (ALH) is pleased to present The uncontrollable nature of grief and forgiveness (or lack of) by Houston-based artist Kathryn Kelley, which explores feelings of grief, forgiveness, and the thresholds of change they bring about. The exhibition features a large scale installation made up of reclaimed wood, sewn tubes, and family portrait-like frames that suspend from the ceiling, creating a floating bridge-like structure that spirals throughout the gallery space.
After receiving an MFA from the University of Houston in 2006, Kelly expanded her body of work that reanimates, repurposes objects of refuse. Her current refuse of choice are incapacitated tractor and construction inner tube tires she harvests from road trips to various agricultural centers combined with deconstructed domestic thresholds. She is drawn to the symbolic and formal elements of the decay and weightiness of the caste off of human discards. The way in which an object has been altered by its mere existence resonates with my experiences of living. The worn, broken, torn nature of the aged object seems to make them more real, more honest. So she collects this decayed refuse. Cogitate. Distill. Discard what does not fit. They become her own. Eventually the formal and symbolic elements of the materials and current research and writing, meld. From there she moves into making, assembling, revaluing these materials, moving from spectation to production, not mechanized but sensualized by the hand, by her hand. Mind and body working in rebellion, in synch; the nonsense and sense merge as series of coherent objects. These constructs become stand-ins for the shadow self.