Art at the State Fair of Texas

The State Fair of Texas ended last weekend.  I managed to go twice this year.  We went once on a Friday night that was billed as "High School Day", so there were hoards of high school aged kids in groups.  It took us 45 minutes to get to the fair even though we only live less than 3 miles from the fair grounds. I went back on a weekday for a very short visit to simply take pictures of things I missed or did not have sufficient sunlight for the first time.

Believe it or not, there is art to be found at the State Fair.  Granted, most of it is what many would consider to be 'Community' art.  I find it fun to see what the art hobbyists, enthusiasts and crafters are making each year.  Sometimes they echo high art, but more often than not it is pure fun outsider art.

I'll start with the Fine Art on exhibition.

I made a special visit to the fair grounds just a few days prior to the opening of the fair to see the exhibition "Generations: A Woman's Conversation" at the African American Museum. This exhibition features the work of six women artists: Annette Lawrence, Vicki Meek, Letitia Huckaby, Anita Knox, Valerie Bennett-Gillespie and Marilu Flores Gruben.  This exhibition ran from June 4 through October 29.  These artists investigate the notion of image and its power to suggest ideas that women should embrace.

Annette Lawrence, Untitled, tape, paper, china marker, graphite

installation shot with Annette Lawrence's Untitled in the middle flanked by Letitia Huchaby's Debutante Gown on the left and Something Old, Something New on the right.

Letitia Huckaby, East Feliciana Altar Piece

This was the 125th anniversary year of the State Fair of Texas.  People do come to the fair from all over the state to exhibit their livestock and to participate in the rodeo competitions.  I'm not sure how far the "State" aspect extends into other venues however.  Case in point: Friends of Lottie Sculpture Garden.  Lottie Minick is a local artist and her husband designed the fountains that designate both ends of the sculpture garden area. I met Lottie at this year's White Rock Lake Artists' Studio Tour and she explained to me that she invites her North Texas sculpting friends to participate in the sculpture garden during the fair each year.  She had hoped for a few more of her friends to participate again this year but they were not all able due to other commitments.

Lottie Minick holding one of her sculptures on the 2011 White Rock Lake Artists Studio Tour 

The signs accompanying each of these sculptures only list the artists' name and phone number.  No title, media, size or dates of creation.  They all seemed to be made of metal, some with glass and some with tile.  There were more than these, but these are more than ample representation:

 Lottie Minick

Laura Abrams

Pascale Pryor

Justine Wollaston

David Hickman

Richard Perrin

Cynthia Daniel

Brad Abrams

Terry Jones

A caricature artist at work at the fair

Kings Handmade Embroidery

These are odd.  Silk embroidery 'paintings'. Most are idyllic representations of village scenes, beautiful women, horses, seascapes, florals - basically Thomas Kinkade 'art' done in silk.  These were for sale in the Embarcadero Building along with hot tubs, mattresses, foot massagers, and other household furniture and appliances. Oddly enough, there were red labels on the framed 'art works' that said "No Photos".  Not sure if they didn't want anyone spreading the good news about handmade silk embroidery paintings or perhaps Kings is afraid of unfavorable blog posts.  I couldn't resist, so I stood away and used the zoom feature on my little Sony Cybershot.  duh

also not exactly 'art', but exciting design on testosterone overdrive

One of my favorite exhibits every year at the fair is the Creative Arts Building.  I end up spending more time in here than anywhere.  I look for the arts and crafts that have been created by my friends from church as well as items created by students of my local art educator friends. And then there are the interesting objects that have been executed well that catch my eye.  There are also objects that have been made from kits, boxes of legos, and collectables that leave me scratching my head every year.

John Touhey, a friend from church

KeLaine Kvale, a student of several of my art educator friends

Jan Scogin, a friend from church.  Jan had three ribbon winning works in the fair.

Kent Bushart

Kent Bushart.  I've enjoyed Kent's dioramas for a couple of years now

Origami with money.  I wonder if this artist ever sees all the art-fair art that is being made of money these days?  

Oh, and don't forget the annual butter sculpture:

Bill Davenport and the Golden Treasures of the Pharaohs

Curated by Charles Dee Mitchell.  Presented at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, September 17 - October 22.

Last weekend was busy in Texas arts.  Bill Davenport kept bar at the Glasstire booth at the Texas Contemporary art fair.  An actual 'art' bar that Bill created himself and stocked with his unique hand-painted bottles.  As Houston occupied itself with the second art fair in two months time, Dallas witnessed the final weekend to view Davenport's work at the MAC.  The MAC's press release tells us that Davenport filled the large gallery with works that reference the "mysticism of ordinary man's treasures."  Davenport is a contributing editor for Glasstire and a freelance art critic for the Houston Chronicle, and he has had numerous regional art exhibits during the past decade.  Glasstire has posted a variety of articles as of late regarding the state of the Dallas commercial art scene.  It was interesting to see the demonstration Davenport presented to Dallas viewers in this exhibition at the MAC that was curated by a Dallas art critic and curator.

installation shot of Big Owl and Nopale

both are paper mache over steel, 2011

Big Owl, 108" x 60" x 60"

Nopale, 50" x 82" x 132"

Strawberry, painted ferroconcrete, 25" x 29" x 29", 2011

Moldy Cheese and Stein

Moldy Cheese, polyurethane foam and acrylic paint, 4" x 4" x 4", 2011

Stein, ceramic, 6" x 4" x 5.5", 2009

Wood Pretzel, plaster gauze and acrylic paint, 14" x 21" x 12", 2011

Big Owl

Swiss Cheese, polyurethane foam and acrylic paint, 3.5" x 6" x 4.5", 2011

Steve Keene Painting at Watral Studio

This is one of the Steve Keene paintings that my good friend James Watral purchased via the internet a few years ago.  This Keene painting is dated 2003.

This pic shows the Keene painting hanging in Watral's studio kitchen as Watral discusses clay with fellow ceramic artist Ted Adler.  They were discussing each of their separate experiences of studying under Toshiko Takaezu as we lifted our glasses and toasted her memory.  Takaezu had just passed away a month before this picture was taken.

Texas Contemporary Art Fair - October 20-23, 2011

We drove down to Houston on Thursday, October 20 to attend the Texas Contemporary VIP Preview Party.  The fair was held at the George R. Brown Convention Center. This was my first visit to the center even though I had worked in downtown Houston several times over the years when I was with Texas Commerce Bank.

I suppose I could be like NPR's Michele Norris and recuse myself from covering this event since my partner, Rusty Scruby, had work in the fair. But hey, I'm not a journalist and this is my blog - so I can do whatever I want!  We did not attend the Houston Fine Art Fair held last month also in the GRB Convention Center even though Rusty did have work in that fair also with PanAmerican ArtProjects. Overall, the Texas Contemporary art fair seemed very local/regional to me.  There were no single Dallas commercial galleries represented, but there was one Austin gallery, two San Antonio galleries, eight Houston galleries, and a slew of regional non-profit spaces such as Ballroom Marfa, Artpace and Blue Star Contemporary Art Center both of San Antonio, Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Glasstire, Rice University Art Gallery, CADD (the sole Dallas presence), PhotoFest, Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, Skydive, Project Row Houses, the Houston Center for Photography, Art League Houston, Blaffer Gallery and more.  It was fun to meet some of the local Houston visual arts professionals. However, based on the news that has posted since the close of the fair, it does not appear that sales were as great at the Texas Contemporary as they were at the Houston Fine Art Fair or sales were not the main focus of the Texas Contemporary.  I believe sales were in the hopes of the commercial galleries that participated, though.

most of the team from Turner Carroll Gallery with Rusty on the right standing in front of Hung Liu painting

Rusty's reconstructed photograph on the left, a large Rex Ray painting in the middle right, and an Eric Zener mixed media painting on the far right.

Deborah Oropallo, Head Nurse, pigment on canvas, 1/3 

Turner Carroll Gallery had one of the larger booths with outside walls on each end to hang additional works. 

Rice University Art Gallery invited Brooklyn based artist Steve Keene to make and sell hundreds of paintings throughout the duration of the fair. I did not find any information about this in the Rice U booth on Thursday or Friday, so I emailed them today and asked for a statement. Anna Foret of RUAG replied to my request within 20 minutes, thank you very much!  Keene had a month long painting marathon at Rice University in 1998. He has perfected his assembly-line performance based painting style since 1990. The pdf that Foret sent me states, "Keene's populist spirit allows any visitor to the fair to walk away with a painting for a mere $5.  As he says, 'I want buying my paintings to be like buying a CD: it's cheap, it's art and it changes your life, but the object has no status.  Musicians create something for the moment, something with no boundaries and the kind of expansiveness is what I want to come across in my work.' To date, Keene estimates he's sold over 250,000 paintings."

Interestingly, my good friend James Watral has a Keene painting that he bought on the internet a few years ago, so Rusty and I thought we recognized Keene's work when we saw it at the fair.

All of the paintings sold out on Thursday night.  Keene was back at the fair on Friday morning painting more panels.  We were told, however, that the panels would have to dry and would not be available to sell until Saturday.

Steve Keene, Planet of Apes II, paint on panel, 2011

We left Houston on Friday night, so we only purchased this one painting.

These Peter Soriano sculpture/drawings (aluminum, stainless steel cable, and spraypaint) at Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. gallery from New York, NY made for one of the more interesting booths, in my opinion.

Jason Willaford, Out of Site - Out of Sight, chromed oil drums, courtesy of Boltax Gallery

A video was also shown in the Video Theater of Jason Willaford's based on his Out of Site - Out of Sight installation.  Boltax Gallery is from Shelter Island, New York, NY.  Jason lives in Dallas with his wife Ree and their daughter.  Ree owns Galleri Urbane which is under the same roof in Dallas as Cris Worley Fine Arts. I spoke to Ree at the fair, but I never did see Jason.

Cris Worley of Cris Worley Fine Arts and Danette DuFilho of Conduit Gallery represented the Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas at the fair on Thursday and Friday.  Other CADD members sat the booth on Saturday and Sunday.

Tracey Snelling, El Diablo Inn, mixed media, 44.5" x 107.5" x 51", 2010, courtesy Rena Bransten Gallery

me in the Rena Bransten Gallery booth with more Tracey Snelling sculptures and prints.

Rena Bransten Gallery of San Francisco, CA brought these wonderful Snelling sculptures. Snelling also shows with PanAmerican ArtProjects in Miami.  I met Tracey at Art Miami in 2007 as she set up her sculptures for PanAm's booth at that fair.

Vic Muniz, Pictures of Paper, White Brazilian Orchid, After Martin Johnson Heade,

digital C-print, edition of 10, 71" x 43.5", 2010

detail of White Brazilian Orchid, After Martin Johnson Heade

Rena Bransten Gallery also exhibited works by Vic Muniz that were amazing for their crisp sharp detail captured in the C-print.  These actually looked like collage.

Elaine Bradford, Tragus Januali (Pushmi Pullyu), taxidermy Aoudad sheep, crocheted yarn, mixed media, 62" x 48" x 60", 2009

I enjoyed this Bradford sculpture at Art Palace.

three Tom Orr prints (middle of wall)

Waterfall I, Waterfall II, and Waterfall III,

Etching, 2008, each are in editions of 20

at Manneken Press

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes du Maroc: Reclining Odalisque, 2008

three chromogenic prints mounted to aluminum and protected with Mactac luster laminate, 1/15

Yigal Ozeri, Untitled; Priscilla in the Park, oil on paper, 2010

These two were shown by Jenkins Johnson Gallery of San Francisco and New York.  I had seen a number of Lalla's works at the art fairs a few years back and then I saw a solo exhibition of her works at Anya Tish Gallery in Houston a couple of years ago.  The Ozeri painting was one of my favorites at the fair, though my pic is not the best representation.

Cal Lane, Untitled (Gas Can), plasma-cut steel, 18" x 14" each, 2008

Samuel Freeman gallery of Los Angeles, CA exhibited these works by Cal Lane.  I recognized Lane's work immediately having seen it earlier this year in Miami at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. Lane does such intricate work with delicate rusted repurposed metal containers.

Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers, Here today, gone tomorrow, Blue Raspberry, fiberglass, wood, paint, 2011, edition of 20

Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers, All that Glitters, fiberglass, paint, ceramic, and faux gold leaf, 2011, edition of 6

Dean Project brought these cool and yummy sculptures to Houston for the fair.  They had exhibited these at the Dallas Art Fair earlier this year.  These sculptures are also in an exhibition at the Robert V Fullerton Art Museum at Cal State Univeristy San Bernardino.  The title of that exhibition is "Uberyummy" and my good friend John Oliver Lewis also has sculptures in the show.

 Lauren DiCiccio, One Dollar Bill, stitched thread

Lauren DiCiccio, National Geographic, stitched thread

I really responded to these DiCiccio works at Jack Fischer Gallery. DiCiccio spends hours creating these objects by hand to give us pause to consider how much longer will we have printed media, currency and other things such as handwriting that are being replaced with digital information.

Susie Rosmarin, Gray #2, acrylic on canvas, 2011

 Shawne Major, Punctum, plastic toys, mixed media, on fabric, 48" x 36", 2009

detail of Punctum

Rachel Hecker, Sorry We Closed, acrylic on canvas, 60" x 80", 2011

I think I liked everything Texas Gallery brought to the fair.  But I chose these three works to show.  Rosmarin amazes me with her OCD geometric paintings.  The yellow colors of Major's Punctum joyously screamed at me 'take me home'.  Luckily it had a red dot, so someone else must have heard it before me. Hecker's painting is a bold and obvious statement of current economic conditions.

Glasstire had a miniature horse as an added attraction at the VIP opening on Thursday night.  This was just Houston's second art fair, so they took the 'fair' concept a bit more literal than other art fairs might.  But they also served tequila drinks, gratis, at the VIP event, so it was a really fun booth!

On Friday morning the crowd was sparse.  I could see the bar installation that Bill Davenport created for the event.  Bill continued to paint 'liquor bottles' that were being sold for $35.

It was fun to meet friends I've only known on facebook as well as to see friends we've known for ages.  And it was great to see so much work by artists that we know.  As I like to say, it was the reality version of facebook!  I do hope, however, that sales were strong enough to bring the fair back next year. Oh yeah, and it would be nice if it could happen concurrently with the Houston Fine Art Fair or any other fair that might arrive on Houston's doorstep next year.