Up next: Doug Cason and Zepeda

Our next opening will be Friday, March 11, 2011 from 8pm to 10pm and will feature two of our favorite artists: Doug Cason and Zepeda!!!

Above image: "discard" by Doug Cason

Above image: "Zepeda likes this" by Zepeda

Isaac Powell: September 25 through November 6, 2010

Isaac Powell
Opening: Saturday, September 25 from 8pm to 10pm
through November 6, 2010

Powell's art making process is based upon the conflict and the problem solving of visual equations. Typically, he sets up problems for himself; these oppositions can pertain to the subject matter of the piece or could be conceptual or formal. Often, throughout the development of the work, collisions happen between many different types of problems. Powell finds that in the process, vitality happens when he is able to solve both the organic and the self-imposed visual equations at the same time. Often, the image retains the leftover residue, and the important visual trajectories of the initial problem or equation. This visual evidence is necessary to activate the work.

A secondary conflict Powell feels compelled to deal with is that of his own physical 'handicap'. It is important that he displaces this physical handicap by creating highly crafted hand made supports and structures for his paintings and drawings.

About Isaac Powell:
Isaac Powell is a recent graduate of the MFA program at Washington State University who now teaches Painting and Drawing at Eastern Kentucky University. Powell interweaves the themes of life, growth, reproduction, and creativity with those of his own personal history in his still life depictions and topographic reproductions. Having been born without a right hand, the flora in his work directly references the body, its appendages and digits. By addressing his own anxieties through the imagery of plant cuttings and graftings, he has developed his own vocabulary for confronting both awkwardness and beauty.

To see more of his artwork, please visit: www.isaacpowell.com

Venue info:
Gallery 1724
1724 Bissonnet St.
Houston, Texas 77005
713-582-1198

Smitty Regula: September 25 through November 6, 2010

Smitty Regula
Opening Saturday, September 25 from 8pm to 10pm.
through November 6, 2010.

Following the design revolution of appliances of the 1950’s, Joseph Buttle, a dreamer and schemer, created ShrineCo. in 1953. His dream was to make worship easier and more efficient, and sell this door to door. He did this with his patented shrines, a shrine for any icon, belief, or denomination of religion. Regula, eagerly following in Buttle’s footsteps has researched and carefully reproduced in his own artistic interpretation replicas of only a hand full of the hundreds of shrines Buttle produced and sold.

About Smitty Regula:
Smitty Regula was born in 1976, grew up, and has had many unsuccessful endeavors in his life. He started off quite a while ago informing the public about identity theft from major corporations. Smitty then joined a cult who tried to remanufacture the idea of American consumerism. After this he pushed “grind”, a failed street drug. Regula is presently attempting to follow in the footsteps of “Joseph Buttle” by selling custom shrines door to door. Now Regula drives a chicken.

To learn more about Smitty visit: www.smittyregula.com
Venue info:
Gallery 1724
1724 Bissonnet St.
Houston, Texas 77005
713-582-1198

Wash Day

Wash is a performance about cleansing, ritual and intimacy. A full day at Gallery 1724 in Houston, Texas was devoted to the washing of hair including anointing with oils. There were twenty participants and numerous observers. It was a nicely paced day of washing and talking. During Wash, conversations included memories of September 11, 2001, memories of having their hair washed by their mothers, and the love and pampering of having their hair washed by someone else. We also discussed comparisons to foot washing and baptism, vulnerability, and the intimacy of touch, particularly to the head.

The performance was documented through photographs and sound.




Above photo courtesy of Dean Liscum and Sophie Simons.


Photos courtesy of: Heather Korb, Dean Liscum, Merilee Minshew, Sophie Simons, and Emily Sloan.

Floor before, with foils...

Floor after, foils with imprint from traffic...

Emily Sloan: Wash---one day only, September 11, 2010

Wash is a one day performance of the washing of hair. Wash will be performed by Emily Sloan and the participating audience. Recent performance work by Sloan includes Napping Affects Performance, an ongoing project including performances inspired by/while napping which launched at Art League Houston this past May 2010. Sloan also organized this summer's "Salon des Refusés", an exhibition of artworks rejected from Lawndale Art Center's "The BIG Show."

Wash will take place on Saturday, September 11, 2010 from 9am to 5pm at Gallery 1724, 1724 Bissonnet St. (between Dunlay and Woodhead), Houston, Texas, 77005.

“It is the ritual situation which makes the hair “powerful”, not the hair which makes the ritual powerful.” --E. R. Leach

This event is free and open to the public.

Matthew Glover: Knitted Nudes

Opening: Saturday, August 14, 8pm to 10pm, through September 18, 2010.

The idea of Femininity is traditionally three-fold: Maiden, Mother, and Matron. In this body of work Glover attempts to use signals of each so as to unify them in the mind of the viewer into one vision of woman.

The subject matter, the female nude, falls into a tradition at least as old as the written word. In the setting of an Art Gallery, encountering an image of the female nude brings back the works of past ages, thus echoing the wisdom of the Matron figure as one of humanity's elders.

The medium, knitting, is archetypically a skill passed down from mother to daughter. By using a medium that has an assumed gender of the creator, and is, for the most part, viewed as motherly, the Mother aspect of femininity is folded into the work.

Using black and white images at first harkens to an older era, though the black and white image is, in itself, timeless. Infusing a small bit of colour into the image suggests an emerging nature and identity, that of the Maiden.

It is necessary to universalize the subject though. Each subject is acknowledged by name in the title of the piece, but the intentional low resolution of the finished piece allows the viewer to fill in the details of appearance. The models sought range the entire scope of womanhood, Matron to Maiden, Curvy to Thin. Thus the whole series, when viewed, reinforces the whole.

Melanie Jamison: Index For The Molecular Inevitable

Opening: Saturday, August 14, 8pm to 10pm, through September 18, 2010.

Melanie Jamison observes concepts of singularity through experimental music. She builds sonic indexes of field recordings, found sound, and improvised material which are then treated as an informational database. From these aural reserves, she creates textural layers of sonic collage and integrate the final compositions into multidisciplinary settings for performance and listening.

“Index For The Molecular Inevitable” addresses the recent discovery of a Tiger Electronics Talkboy corroded by a decade of battery acid. Her solution for this loss: a tricked out motorcycle helmet should transport to compositions of retro cassette tape excerpts. This visceral installation should facilitate the elemental components of destination, intention, memory, and the solitary experience.

"Index For The Molecular Inevitable" can be found in the bathroom behind the bookcase.

Bio:

Melanie Jamison is an aesthetician certified by the SuperColliding Introspective Review. She recently graduated from the Illustration program at Parsons School of Design. As a student in New York, Jamison studied Indian classical vocal training in the Kirana tradition with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. She now independently composes electronic music and participates as an experimental vocalist and sound texture contributor as a member of the female improvisational band last referred to as Pear Prickley Pear.

Last week of the "Salon des Refusés" and Pick-up info.

This is the last week of the "Salon des Refusés." The exhibition will be on view through this Saturday, August 7, 2010.

Artwork pick-up reminder for artists:

Sunday, August 8 from 1pm to 4pm
and
Monday, August 9 from 4pm to 8pm

Thank you all! We have loved hosting this event!

Lane Hagood: Old Book Smell

Opening Saturday, May 8, 8-10pm

through Saturday, June 19



Above image: Diseased Writer

from Lane:
“Old Book Smell” is a show of a group of drawings that reflect my interest in the lives of thinkers and books. Philosophers, poets, writers, artists and bohemian wanderers are what obsess me. I tend to romanticize these people and spend most of my free time sifting through bookstores looking for books chronicling the lives of these restless souls. The book as an object is something that I think of all the time. I love holding a book in my hands and digging my nose deep into its contours attempting to escape into a world that once was. To me a book is like a mask. It conceals the world and all of the monotony that everyday life brings. A book takes me away into another world where I dwell with my idols and listen to the wisdom of my heroes.

To see more of Lane's artwork, please visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yar
http://rippedosaurusflex.blogspot.com/
http://sketchklubb.com/

Dirty Drawers

Opening reception:
Saturday, July 11, 2009, 8-10pm
champagne toast and introductions at 9pm

Lorrie Aslakson, William Bailey, Rafael Castañet, Jess W. Coleman, Brian Ford, Gena Haber, Byrne Jackson, Cam Lu, Fiona F. Maclean, Austin McClure, Annette K. Palmer, and William Tone are a group meeting weekly at Art League Houston to draw and paint from the figure. This exhibition will feature their creations. Nude art models will be attending the opening reception!

11am-6pm, Tues.-Saturdays through September 1, 2009.

August 1-15--Open by appointment.
call (713-582-1198)