19th Annual ARTCRAWL Houston – November 19, 2011
BOX13 Artspace will participate in the 19th Annual ARTCRAWL Houston on November 19, 2011 from 10am to 9pm. Stop by and visit with our resident artists or come late and enjoy the opening of two new exhibitions.
For more information on ARTCRAWL Houston, please visit: www.artcrawlhouston.com
Dutch invasiON
November 19, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Opening reception November 19, 7-9:30pm (during Art Crawl)
A reception for the Dutch artists will be held on Saturday, December 10, 2011
from 6 – 8PM. Panel discussion at 5PM.
Dutch invasiON
Curated by Maria Smits in collaboration with Mrs. J. Bolten-Rempt
with work by Christine Bittremieux, Anna Bolten, Hans de Bruijn, Demiak
and Jessica Muller
Front & Back BOXes
Dutch invasiON presents the work of five artists living and working in the Netherlands. They are Christine Bittremieux, Anna Bolten, Hans de Bruijn, Demiak (Maarten Demmink) and Jessica Muller. In the variety of their artistic approach one can find one common subject: it is all about space. Every one of them appropriates space in a different way, the outside space, interior space and conceptual space translated into two or three dimensions. This preoccupation with space in and around us is typically Dutch.
Timothy Harding – Omitted
November 19, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Opening reception October 1, 2011, 7-9:30pm
Timothy Harding
Omitted
Window BOX
Omitted is a new work within Timothy Harding‘s on-going series of constructed drawings that explores scribbling and how it is used to omit information. Usually, the artist works in a controlled environment. The acts of concealing and revealing information are, ideally, decided upon by the artist. Whether or not the studio and process work are seen is normally at the discretion of the artist, as well. In review of the documentation of my past construction processes, Harding has become fascinated with his own inherent awkwardness. Harding has captured a number of the awkward positions and interactions that take place throughout construction. This awkwardness exists in stark contrast with the final work seen by the viewer. In a response to the highly controlled image that is normally seen, he has decided to intentionally show the awkward scenarios that are not usually desirable. However, the urge to control has become instinctive and the scribble represents Harding’s tendency to try and hide what he has already presented.
Eliza Fernand – Quilt Stories
Saturday, November 5, 2011, 1 – 5PM
Researching quiltmaking from a contemporary art perspective, Quilt
Stories is an interactive performance and temporary installation that is traveling across the country. Viewers are invited to visit Eliza inside of a tent quilted of reclaimed fabrics and share their stories and anecdotes about quilts. A collaborative quilt, pieced in a white circle, creates a space for people to gather and contribute their own stitches in this ritual of skill.This summer the piece has traveled from the Northwest, through the Western Plains, to the Midwest; the tour extended to the East Coast this fall. Eliza is visiting community gathering places, quilt museums, sewing communities, contemporary art spaces, scenic American landscapes, and other adventurous destinations. As she and her project are introduced into new communities, the aspects of the project materialize differently in each place. This project is funded in part by Kickstarter and a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Monica Vidal – Temple Hive
October 1 – November 5, 2011
Opening reception October 1, 2011, 7-9:30pm
Monica Vidal
Temple Hive
Downstairs Front BOX
Temple Hive is the second in Monica Vidal‘s series of large scale forms whose purpose is to distort the relationship between body and sculpture. The first, Tumor Hive, represented the enormous emotional impact of an excised lump of cells gone amok. Temple Hive is inspired by the idiosyncrasies of Vidal’s youth as they linger into hypothetical adulthood. She was then, as she is now, obsessed with escape, for both body and mind.
Vidal explains, “When I was young we had gold-colored, polyester curtains in our dining room. They had a dense, abstract pattern and if you stared at them for long enough you saw rows of crouched figures, the heads tucked down and their knees brought up. At least, if I stared at them long enough, I did. On weekends I spent my time in a homemade tent of blankets and dining room chairs, tucked away from my rowdy brothers. I liked my space, even if it was just the mini mental vacation provided by picking out the pattern in stippled sunlight through curtains.”
Temple Hive is meant for the act of isolating yourself from the world to contemplate pattern and texture. It is an ode to sunlight and quilts and calico and brocade, all at once. It was built from triangles into hexagons-like the cells of honeycombs– and as they spread they also collapse. Vidal created this space for herself and to share.
Lisa Choinacky – Reality Is Only A Rorschach Ink-Blot, You Know
October 1 – November 5, 2011
Lisa Choinacky
Reality Is Only A Rorschach Ink-Blot, You Know
Downstairs Back BOX
All of existence can be understood as a relationship. Alan Watts posited that our physical world is a system of inseparable things where everything exists with everything else. In this system of metasystems, each relationship aggregates with many, giving form to the universe. And within this pattern, even the most seemingly disparate of elements ultimately reveal themselves to be conjoined and interwoven. Is it coincidence that the world is made up of undividable opposites? Lisa Choinacky seeks to examine how this relates to that.
In a life-sized Rorschach-esque diorama consisting of plywood and still projections Choinacky explores symmetry, opposites & relationship. Choinacky has collaged together mirror images of basketball players in motion, illustrating that when we accept that the universe runs off a blind energy, this can cause a very insular worldview. We form teams and then we form opponents. The opponents occasionally rise to meet each other in pursuit of the same goal, bifurcating and mirroring one another, each existing because of and for the other.
In layering these images/pieces in a space, Choinacky aims to work towards total awareness of connectedness and order, while demystifying the idea of the cosmic fluke. She has chosen to identify and explore sites of mirroring and convergence to highlight the relationship points that bind us, and the universe, together.
Krista Birnbaum – NEW GROWTH
October 1 – November 5, 2011
Krista Birnbaum
NEW GROWTH
Window BOX
NEW GROWTH uses artificial plants to reference the forms that living plants take around the Houston area. Inspirational forms range from the manicured to the overgrown. When Krista Brinbaum moved to Houston, she was struck by the carefully shaped plants and hedges fitting neatly inside fences or trimmed to enhance a brick wall. Meanwhile, posts and buildings in neglected areas sprout wild green hair-dos.
Birnbaum’s work is motivated by a desire to understand my own relationship with nature. She finds new impetus for her work when confronted with an unfamiliar landscape. These unfamiliar encounters force her to find new explanations for her simultaneous desires to both be unified with and in control of nature.
Jed Foronda & Emily Link – False Face High
October 1 – November 5, 2011
Jed Foronda & Emily Link
False Face High
Upstairs BOX
False Face High is a series of new work from Jed Foronda and Emily Link. Through installation, sculpture and 2D works, Foronda and Link articulate shared cultural apprehensions in tandem.
Jed Foronda’s work is influenced by notions of identity through personal history and daily observations. These ideas are portrayed through an array of unconventional sources to the viewer. Emily Link works to expand upon existing myths and legends to create another dimensional layer that stems from her experiences. In these legends, she acts as Shaman; the expert of their origins. Link’s work is part of an ongoing series of works dedicated to the excavation and reinterpretation of personal narratives through the employment of soft sculpture forms and recurring characters, illustrative drawings, and hand-crafted artifacts.
Sentition – Joe Meiser
August 6 – September 10, 2011
Downstairs Front BOX
Sentition
Joe Meiser
“Our human perceptions and faculties are limited, allowing us only a partial understanding of the world around us. Many of our questions about the true nature of things cannot be answered conclusively, and yet, humans have a fantastic tradition of explaining the unknown. These explanations can offer us comfort, and can make it possible to be at ease with a world which might otherwise overwhelm us. The human tendency to mythologize is both the subject and strategy of my work-while analyzing our compulsion to create metaphysical narratives, I simultaneously weave my own.
“Our physical bodies are limited and impermanent, and in humanity I observe a universal desire to transcend these limitations, whether it is through the cultivation of metaphysical beliefs, or the modification and augmentation of the physical body. The body feels quite permanent to its owner, but it is actually a temporary material object. Each owner of a body is well acquainted with, and necessarily bound up in the physical. My interest in sculpture is connected with my acute awareness of the physicality of my existence. Sculpture provides a means for me to solidify my thoughts materially, with a broad range of motions that are often physically challenging.
Response – Culture Laboratory
August 6 – September 10, 2011
Downstairs Back BOX
Response
Culture Laboratory in collaboration with Noah Simblist
Artist and writer, Noah Simblist, has offered a statement to the members of Culture Laboratory Collective: ”I am writing this (self reflexive) sentence but it is writing you.” In “Response” the artists have each taken a word from the statement and developed art, interpreting and elaborating on their fragment of the sentence.
The exhibition pinpoints the individuality of the participating artists and their localized attempts to remain part of the larger group discussion, while inversely opening the artist community to influence from an outside source. The exhibit allows multiple interpretations and relational aesthetics, favoring the complexity of individuation and community vitality over homogenization.
A version of “Response” in collaboration with Ben Lewis of “Art Safari,” London, was held at Richland College, Dallas in early 2011. The success of the exhibit prompted another collaborative effort to further explore the discourse and relation of object to context.