"timesteps" Debra Barrera and Norberto Gomez, Jr. at Lawndale Art Center

This was my first visit to the Lawndale Art Center. I have heard so much about the Center through the years as friends have had shows there and via coverage on Glasstire. I really enjoyed experiencing the large well lit galleries and the outdoor lawn exhibition space. I saw four of the exhibitions on view that day, and I truly appreciate the printed brochures that accompanied each exhibit.  

Naturally, I had a biased motive for arriving at the Center to see Debra Barrera's work.  However, I had never seen her work before this day, and was, therefore, pleasantly relieved to find that her work appeals to my collecting aesthetics.  Don't get me wrong, the work by the other artists in the other galleries was all top-notch and well curated in their respective spaces.  But I adore well crafted drawings and sculptures, and Barrera's work fits that sensibility. I am also attracted to relationships between people and seeing what makes them tick, and this two-person exhibition embodies this.

foreground: Debra Barrera's Timesteps (for Wendy Carlos), plexiglass, Moog synthesizer, resin, graphite, water, 48" x 24" x 18", 2011

background, blue reflection on Timesteps: Norberto Gomez, Jr.'s Buddy's, looped video projection, 2011

From the Lawdale Art Center's website I learned this about the exhibition:

Debra Barrera and Norberto Gomez, Jr. participate with the viewer in
opposite formats to create a convergence of ideas that are rooted in
the investigation of manipulating the passage of time through their
respective mediums and influences. Norberto Gomez Jr. critiques and
reveres his friendships and acquaintances through time-based mediums
by utilizing chat rooms, film, and drawings. Interactive exhibits and
projected film will replicate for the viewer a sense of
acquaintanceship with Norberto himself in real time. Debra Barrera
turns toward time based mediums like the Hollywood film, music, and
performance to influence her sculptures and drawings. Although
seemingly timeless in their appearance, Debra investigates how static
objects can be imbued with the essence of the passage of time.

Gomez was born in Alice, TX. He is currently living, working and attending Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA as a PhD student in Media Art & Text. Barrera was born in Corpus Christi, TX and currently lives in Houston where she works at McMurtrey Gallery. 

I had not been to the opening reception nor did I attend an artist talk, so I sent Barrera a few questions via email:

Hampton's Court: What is the relationship between you and Norberto?

Barrera: Norby and I got our master's in painting together at UofH and the overarching theme for the show was about time based mediums and how we each would deal with the issue in our work.

HC: What is the intended dialogue you two have set up between your works, if any?

B: Like I said above we were interested in time based mediums and how to respond to them. Norby took a more personal approach and dealt with it by revisiting personal memories of favorite films and hangouts (The looping video Buddy's was a hometown bar). I dealt with time based issues by revolving the show around American and British film and books. My major influences were Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and J.D. Salinger. Every piece has something attached to it (usually found in the titles)

 Norberto Gomez, Jr.'s Buddy's, looped video projection, 2011

Gomez, an apology, ink on graphing paper, 2011 

Gomez, Cannibalism in 46 Movements (After-Baxandall part 3), ink on graphing paper, 2011

Gomez, savage rite, three-channel television set up with Cannibal Boom Is This Holocaust soundtrack, 2011

Hampton's Court: Your <website> pics of Timesteps (for Wndy Carlos) show a lid on the plexi vitrine. Yet when we visited the lid was absent and the sides were bowed out from the weight of the water. That left us with a queasy unstable feeling, and I'm wondering if that was an intended emotional reaction to the work or not?

Barrera:  I'm glad that there was an emotional reaction but sadly none of this was intended. I originally wanted the water to remain in the plexiglas with little interference, alas gravity made this impossible. Yet, looking on it all now, I welcome what happened with the piece, it is truly the only time-based piece in the show from my part of the exhibition and I did intend for the work to be a bit sad, more akin to a memorial than any other piece in the show.

Physics aside, I'd say the piece works due to the illusion of the double imagery caused by the refraction of the water.  Also, given the overall professionalism evident in the Lawndale Art Center, I was not too worried about a watery accident occurring while I was there.  It was Barrera's fine drawings that quickly drew my attention away, though.

 A Night to Remember, graphite on paper, 2011

Bonnie Blue Butler, graphite on paper, 2011

Game Show Microphone, graphite on paper, 2011

On Days Like These, Lamborghini Miura, graphite on paper, 2011

While Gomez's drawings are immediate and work in conjunction with his text, Barrera's drawings reveal time intensive marks employing painterly techniques of light and shadowing. She focuses on a lyric, a passage, or a frame and presents us with a distillation of the original story.

Snow White, polyester resin, Valium, pure pigment, cultured pearl necklace, ink, 2011

Sleeping Beauty, liquid silicone, needles, thread, 2011

Patriotic colors that caused me to consider American ideals of beauty.

Les and Bessie, vintage glasses, epoxy resin, pure pigment, ink, 2011

Seymour, vintage glass, epoxy resin, pure pigment, ink, crushed spotlight glass, 2011

Zooey, vintage cobalt glass, epoxy resin, Yves St. Laurent mascara wand, glitter, 2011

In much the same way Barrera distills time in her drawings, she captures pure moments of lusciousness in her sculptures.  Pigments, needles, bits of glass and glitter are caught in layers of resin forever trapped in space and time for us to consider ourselves and our relationships with others.

This exhibition will be on view at the Lawndale Art Center through January 7, 2012.

Art Market at Art Palace Gallery

Just a bit southeast of downtown Houston in the 3900 block of Main Street sits Isabella Court, a historic Spanish Colonial Revival style apartment building that houses several very hip and happening art galleries and businesses at street level.  Inman Gallery anchors one end with the new Devin Borden Gallery holding down the opposite end. Bryan Miller Gallery, Kinzelman Art Consulting, and Art Palace are holding down the fort in between.

I first visited Art Palace's booth several years ago when they participated in the Aqua Art Fair in Miami, one of my most favorite of the hotel satellite fairs. I attempted to visit Art Palace in 2009 when they were still in Austin, but they were not opened on that summer day and it appears that they were in the process of moving to Houston at that time.  I visited their booth in October during the Texas Contemporary Art Fair. This week I finally had the opportunity to visit the gallery itself, and my timing was perfect.  Their end of the year exhibition opened last week on Black Friday as they presented works by gallery artists with most pieces priced well under $1K and many under $100.

Elaine Bradford Beer Koozie

Pictured above is the first Elaine Bradford to join my collection. It's a modest start, but my finances are a bit lean this year. Bradford first came to my attention as she was named Jurors Choice in the Texas Biennial in 2005.  Since then, I've been seeing her work at art fairs, such as Cirrus Gallery at Aqua Miami in 2005, and reviewed on Glasstire. Bradford has been crocheting sweaters for a wide range of objects over the years; taxidermy animals, trees, rocks, bottles, and more.

 

I was definitely too late to acquire one of these miniature taxidermy deer heads! Her work seems to give a cozy warmth to objects that might not seem to warrant such extensive labor. In an art statement I found online, Bradford states: "The newest work embraces oddity, often full of abnormalities and absurdities. Antlers stretch across rooms, necks extend to the floor, and heads melt together creating these freaks of nurture. It is as though Grandma was playing mad scientist, reincarnating animals into a life of bizarre coziness, nurturing them into oddity. Like a circus sideshow, my sculptures are both sad and amusing, straddling the line between strange reality and comfortable, warm nonsense. Like a simple magic trick, this surreal illusion is all held together by a single strand of yarn."  I hope that I can commission her one day in the future to transform the many dead deer heads I'll probably inherit one day!

These Red and Green Discs, Set of 3 by Debra Barrera were the impetus for my stopping by Art Palace on this day. Debra is the new assistant to the director at McMurtrey Gallery.  We had just dropped off Rusty's new works and in speaking to Barrera I found that she has this work for sale at Art Palace as well as a two person exhibition at Lawndale Art Center.  We were on our way to Lawndale, but stopped in at Art Palace first.

Allison Hunter Portrait of a Dead Bee #4, #5, #6, and #7. Hunter and Rusty were in a group exhibition together in 2008 titled "Stretching the Truth" at the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Wisconsin.  We met her at Rusty's opening last year at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.  This was a pleasant surprise to encounter her work once again at the Art Mart show.

Dennis Nance Beefside Pillow.  This piece caused me to consider "what if Francis Bacon had made 3D plush art toys".

These silkscreen prints by Michael Sieben were seriously contending for my meager bucks.  Very reasonably priced, colorful and engaging. 

Jason Villegas.  Top Fabric drawings: Michael, MJ, Cash, Andy and Roy. Middle: Self Portrait as Garan and Self Portrait as Hair. Bottom two: Genie #1 and Genie #2. These are all going on my "after re-employment wish list".

High fire works in the background by Chris Campbell and high and low fire works in the foreground by Michael Merritt.  I enjoyed the graphic scraffito images on both of these sets, and I was happy to see ceramics in a gallery show.

A group of watercolor drawings by Daniel Heimbinder.  His works are now added to my "wish list" also.

Tim and Suzette Walker's Vaya con Dios.  They are the owners of Neon Gallery which is on W. Alabama near Montrose in Houston.  This seemed very well priced to me and I am also adding them to my wish list because Rusty and I have discussed having some neon art work made for our kitchen. Someday...

Until then, this seems an appropriate image to end this post and get ready to move on to the next.