Touring Women of Abstract Expressionism at the Denver Art Museum in 2017, you couldn't help but wonder if work by Dorothy Hood belonged there. Long associated with the term "under-appreciated," Hood's work could have been included in this show which highlighted the overlooked work of a dozen or so female artists. Women of Abstract Expressionism … Continue reading Kindred Spirits Without Categories: Nevelson and Hood in Houston
My first image of Houston was from Wim Wender’s movie Paris, Texas. The city is depicted as a geometric jungle of glass and concrete, like a dreamland of the future. I have come to know Houston much better since then, and become familiar with hubbubs of Houstonians; nevertheless, that image still resonates. The Texas Contemporary … Continue reading Report from Texas Contemporary Art Fair 2016
It has been too long-American art institutes need to look into mid-century modernism outside of the New York school. Suddenly, there is a flourishing interest in the state of Texas, particular of Houston. Macrocosm/Microcosm: Abstract Expressionism in the American Southwest just concluded at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams … Continue reading It’s Big in Texas – Reductive Landscape by McKie Trotter and Jack Boynton at William Reaves Gallery
Williams recalls when once someone told her that there was nothing in Missouri. "I felt hurt," she says. "I love my home state. And I feel whenever someone takes a painting of mine home, they take a piece of Missouri with them. I am so happy for that."
ArtafterX is keeping us busy. It's also getting expensive. In the coming days we'll be launching the kickstarter campaign to raise some dough. Your contribution will help us uncover and chronicle the people and places that made the art scene in Dallas from 1960-1980. Art After X -- Forming Contemporary Art in Dallas from Eric … Continue reading ArtAfterX Kickstarter Campaign
My favorite of all is "School Bus Line". It is, as the title suggests, pure yellow. The structure is airy and dynamic. It tells just as much about the space it does not occupy as about the space it does. Hanging on the wall, its kinetic rhythm captures more negative space than the sculpture itself physically occupies.
Most of the Houston antiques stores I have been in are on the small side, and while small can be wonderful, I had to wonder how I had missed this big one. I may have passed it by with the notion that a big mall will necessarily be filled with lesser things. While bigger is … Continue reading Into Houston’s Antique Pavilion
It's not often that a piece of public art of any consequence is added to a cityscape. The recent installation of a work by James Surls in the Upper Kirby neighborhood in Houston warranted a drive. The 35-foot tall Tree and Three Flowers sculpture is unmistakably Surls. The pointed petals spiral out from the stainless … Continue reading Public Art Blooms in Houston
When the first modern art gallery in Texas opened in 1950, Betty Blake, the owner of Betty Maclean Gallery, struggled. “I worked like a dog but I still didn’t sell much," she told the Dallas Morning News (March 28, 2012) "People in Dallas then would rather buy Cadillacs!” Yet she considered the art scenes in … Continue reading Texas Modernism from Cowtown
Dan Sutherland’s current solo show “SEEM” at Moody Gallery consists of mostly small oil paintings and graphite drawings. They echo our experience in which the extraordinary visual cognition bound to our fragmented memory. From afar, they possess the dynamics and elasticity of a sculpture. (In particular, the tightly controlled spatial relationship reminds me of papier-mâché … Continue reading From Analog to Digital — Scenes from Gallery Openings In Houston (Jan 18)
Urban Art & Antiques 