Non Profit

Trust Is Key

Copies of Pavilion goers' keys, from a work of public trust and participation at the 28th São Paulo Biennial in 2008.

Copies of Pavilion goers’ keys, from a work of public trust and participation at the 28th São Paulo Biennial in 2008.


Paul Ramírez Jonas’s first survey exhibition in the Americas, “ATLAS, PLURAL, MONUMENTAL,” is on view at CAMH through August 6th. The exhibition includes 25 years of Ramírez Jonas’s exploration of access, ownership, the public, contracts, belonging and trust [among other themes] through his art.
A number of the artworks feature keys – his own and the public’s. One such work he created for the São Paulo Biennial in 2008. Ramírez Jonas arranged for members of the art viewing public to a receive a key to the front door of the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion that allowed them unfettered access to this biennial venue, day and night. In exchange, each person signed a single large contract agreeing to a standard of behavior related to the venue AND they were required to leave a copy of one of their own keys. One had to surrender some measure of personal security and sign an oath and only then was one rewarded with access.
In FAKE ID, part of “Paul Ramírez Jonas: Half-Truths,” at The New Museum in NYC through September 17th, the artist and his teenage assistants will deconstruct photocopies of museum goers’ documents—school IDs, transportation passes, credit cards, and licenses—to create a new identification card. The unused material will be shredded onsite. The project is an exploration of identity and the entities that define it as well as of security and trust.
Though I thought “ATLAS, PLURAL, MONUMENTAL” terrific, and I wanted to include a post here, I kept putting off its writing. Partly because much of Ramírez Jonas’s work is fairly complicated to describe, with lots of moving parts. But I think also because of its effect on me. Even a step removed – looking at evidence and documentation of past happenings – I was intrigued, but uneasy. Perhaps I’m not as trusting as I might be.

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Early Yesterday

Jack Early's Man Boobs, 2014

Jack Early’s Man Boobs, 2014


I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to see and then learn more about artist Jack Early and his work, part of Bill Arning’s terrific “A Better Yesterday” at CAMH. Early grew up gay and creative in the south of the 1970s just as I did. The tightly cropped hypermasculine 1970s dude chest of “Man Boobs” (2014) – and the other 2 paintings in the show – all live on a background of toy soldier wallpaper – the kind typical in the boys’ bedrooms of my childhood. I felt the tension in the picture even before I heard Early say in his recorded “Jack Early’s Life Story in Just Under 20 Minutes” (2014), also in the show, “I was a gay eight-year-old in 1970. I would have chosen flowers or a circus theme, but it wasn’t lost on me that choosing soldiers would lend some air of masculinity.” He abandoned himself to pass in a world that told him it was dangerous to be him. I abandoned myself to stay safe. We all did.

Jack Early’s work is exactly what I was missing in The Speed Art Museum’s “Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art.” [see my earlier blog post, Due South.]

I could tell you more about Jack Early’s life and career, but he does it best in:
Jack Early’s Life Story in Just Under 20 Minutes!

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Not Your Old Bamboo

Sun, 1980 by Tanabe Shōchiku III. Bamboo, rattan & lacquer

Sun, 1980 by Tanabe Shōchiku III. Bamboo, rattan & lacquer

The newish (2012) Asia Society Texas Center is housed in Yoshio Taniguchi’s elegantly rendered building in the Museum District. Best known for his expansion and renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, for this his first free standing building in the U.S., Tanaguchi combined graceful design with stunningly beautiful stone, wood and glass. The building alone with it’s exquisite materials, amazing spaces and ethereal Watern Garden Terrace [complete with periodic spools of artificial fog] are well worth a visit, especially with some additional reading on the Center’s website about the building beforehand.

Another reason to stop by the Center is “Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art,” an exhibit of the work of 16 contemporary Japanese bamboo artists on display through July 30th. These skillful, soulful artists use ancient basket-making techniques to create modern, often surprising and playful works. Using humble bamboo – a type of grass rather than wood – rattan and lacquer, they have created forms that look like otherworldly pillows, sails, sets of armor, insects and water droplets. Some even resemble the baskets and flower vases from which they evolved – with a “twist.” The dark green walls and dramatic lighting of the exhibit accentuate the range of colors found in the works – from tan and brown to red and nearly black – and add drama to the sometimes alien shapes. It’s a joy to see and understand that these artists have repurposed utilitarian “making” traditions and their everyday materials to create objects for artistic expression. May this even newer tradition thrive for generations to come.

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Due South

Jeffrey Gibson's I Put a Spell On You, 2015

Jeffrey Gibson’s I Put a Spell On You, 2015

I visited friends in Lexington, Kentucky this past week. We took a drive to Louisville to see, among other things, the fairly newly completed addition to the Speed Art Museum and the main exhibit there, “Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art.” It is billed as “the first contemporary art exhibition to question and explore in-depth the complex and contested space of the American South.” The works addressed “southern themes” – race, poverty, disparity, violence, disaster and decay among others. But it felt like stuff was missing. Big Southern stuff. At least to this gay, creative, white, mid-life Southerner. Themes like anti-intellectualism. The fascism of sports in southern culture. Souless, generic development with specious claims to “local.” Limiting/damaging ideas of masculinity and femininity. Lack of encouragement or even tolerance for true excentricity/individuality. Social conservatism. And hypocrisy. I loved Catherine Opie’s pictures of lesbian couples, but they didn’t say a lot about the sometimes fraught, often dangerous LGBTQ Southern experience.
I’m not sure if the show was good or bad, or successful or not. I was just looking for some of me in the show and it just wasn’t really there. Maybe something to look at creating myself?

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A New Mood at Rice

Rice University's new Moody Center for the Arts

Rice University’s new Moody Center for the Arts

I was thrilled to meet Rice University Moody Center for the Arts’ Executive Director, Alison Weaver, and tour the facility a little over a week ago. Alison explained that The Moody’s mission is to foster connections across disciplines and to connect art with science, performance, community and more. And to go “beyond the hedges” to connect Rice University itself with Houston through the arts. [Another example of a mash-up or collaborative approach – seems to be part of the zeitgist these days.] The striking building was designed by Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan and includes areas for “making,” exhibitions, learning and performance. With the work of Olafur Eliasson, Thomas Struth, teamLab and Mona Hatoum already having been featured, The Moody is well on its way to becoming one of Houston’s premiere arts institutions.

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We’re Better Together

Signature Luncheon Invitation I was inspired by Elizabeth Vargas’ story of recovery and her efforts to remove the stigma that still surrounds mental illness and addiction at The Menninger 2017 Annual Signature Luncheon. I so appreciate Michele Arnold [Annual and Planned Giving Manager extraordinaire] including me. And I’m honored to be a very small part every week of the work that Menninger does to help those still struggling with mental illness and addiction.

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The Japanese Garden in Hermann Park – Celebrating 25 Years

HERMANN PARK EITP

I’m just getting back into the swing of things after moving house, so this is definitely a latergram. As a happy supporter and Executive Board Member of the Hermann Park Conservancy, I was thrilled to attend this year’s Evening in the Park Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Japanese Garden. [I and Art Directors David Sloat and Leah Justice created the branding for the event.] A roaring success, the event raised over $600,000. Those funds will be split between the operation of the Conservancy and the Japanese Garden itself. These galas are parties to be certain, but they raise funds to actually run these not for profit organizations – staff salaries and expenses – that aren’t typically covered by patrons’ generous capital campaign gifts.

Take a look at the Chronicle’s coverage.

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