Jane Eifler, MFA 2008
Solo Exhibition Hallworks Series
June 1–August 19, 2007
The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art.
Selected by Suzanne Weaver, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Dallas Museum of Art
2801 Swiss Avenue, Dallas TX 75204
Eifler's interest in abstraction is evidenced in a battalion of richly painted invented forms that hover (as if on a reconnaissance mission) over map-like slabs of wild color. Interlocking shapes repeat themselves into patterns reminiscent of islands or lakes squeezed by legions of tightly packed forms. These forms then act as chains of strange flora or fantastic creatures that bind the system together. A tension exists in these paintings that question whether chaos is organizing itself into order, or if order is splintering into chaos.
Kelli Vance, MFA 2008
Interiors
July 6–28, 2007
Joan Wich & Co.
4411 Montrose Blvd., Houston TX 77006
In her first solo exhibition, Kelli Vance, delivers a knockout punch of great painting and compelling storytelling. Her large domestic psychodramas oscillate between quiet screams and non-events. In these paintings internalized tension and anxiety are externalized without the requisite hyperbole. Beautiful to look at and difficult to get out of your head—this is mature, resonant work from a young artist to watch.
No Skeleton Armies, Please
Work by seven artists including Michael Bise, MFA 2005; Cody Ledvina, MFA 2009; Nick Merriwether; Eric Pearce, MFA 2003
July 2007
The Joanna
4014 Graustark, Houston, TX 77006
Brian Rod and Cody Ledvina (MFA 2009) continue the vibrant tradition of Houston's DIY artspaces with the incarnation of "The Joanna". As with the best artist-run spaces, The Joanna operates outside of the constraints of the market system, and embraces irreverence and a permissiveness that is rarely seen in commercial galleries, and only gentrified in museums. This collaboration between Rod and Ledvina is a gallery, project space, laboratory and evolving entity. If No Skeleton Armies, Please is an indication of things to come, then The Joanna is destined to enter the annals of Houston?fs most memorable cultural experiences.
El Franco Lee II, BFA 2007
Nexus Texas
August 18–October 21, 2007
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
5216 Montrose Blvd., Houston TX, 77006
El Franco Lee II is one of 16 artists featured in the exhibition Nexus Texas at the Contemporary Arts Museum. Spanning generations, subjects, and media, Nexus Texas presents new work by a group of artists living and working in the state. Second largest in the union, the "nation state" of Texas offers an exciting nexus of maverick pride, go-go entrepreneurship, and cultural blending. These factors, combined with its strong museums, galleries, art schools, and collectors, make Texas fertile territory for distinct and thriving visual art scenes. The exhibition highlights some of the inventive ways artists forge their own visions as they negotiate art and life in Texas and the world.
Otabenga Jones and Associates
Jamal Cyrus, BFA 2004
Lessons from Below
Sept. 13–Dec. 9, 2007
The Menil Collection
1515 Sul Ross, Houston TX 77006
Jamal Cyrus (BFA 2004) has exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally. His work was included in the 2006 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York along with his art collaborative Otabenga Jones and Associates.
At the invitation of the Menil Collection, Otabenga Jones and Associates created Lessons from Below, a hybrid exhibition-classroom-
performance piece (on view Sept. 13–Dec. 9, 2007). In this provocative and deeply engaging piece, the group transformed the museum environment of the Menil Collection into a platform on which to explore "the cultural tension of knowledge as both an effective form of self-empowerment and a culprit of racist ideology."
Ann Marie Nafziger, MFA 2008
The Affair at the Jupiter Hotel
September 14–16, 2007
Jupiter Hotel, Room 240
Portland, Oregon
Ann Marie Nafziger will be represented by Mark Woolley Gallery in Portland's intimate version of an art fair. The Affair art fair will include over 40 galleries from around the country and will show work by exciting established and up and coming artists, with requisite surprises such as Jhordan Dahl's bathroom video installation.
Ann Marie Nafziger, MFA 2008
Be Blue (sky)
October 3–27, 2007
817 S.W. 2nd Avenue
Portland, Oregon
Ann Marie Nafziger will be showing new work in the group show Be Blue (Sky) at Mark Woolley Gallery in Portland, Oregon. The multi-media exhibition explores and celebrates the color BLUE and its associations.
Jane Eifler, MFA 2008
Few, Some, Several, Many, and More
curated by Jade Walker
October 13–November 10, 2007
Creative Research Laboratory
2
University of Texas, Austin, College of Fine Arts.
2832 East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Austin, Texas
Jane Eifler is one of 28 artists included in Few, Some, Several, Many, and More, a group exhibition that examines multiplicity in every aspect of daily life from mathematics to food ingredients. Ideas of multiplicity manifest in diverse forms in this show, from the number of components included in a work to the actual layering of material involved in the process. Multiple-steps, multi-media, or collaborations between artists are all variations of multiplicity found in the exhibition.
Michael Bise, MFA 2005
Birthday
October 20&nasb;November 24, 2007
Moody Gallery
2815 Colquitt, Houston TX 77098
In this solo exhibition, Bise presents six new drawings, including an epic 17' piece based on the experiences surrounding the death of his father. The title of the exhibition is "Birthday," which references both the fact that his father's funeral was held on his fiftieth birthday and the idea that death forever changes the living, initiating a new kind of life; a rebirth.
Brian Piana, MFA 2007
Lawndale has Many Friends
November 16, 2007–January 5, 2008
Lawndale Art Center, Grace R. Cavnar Gallery
4912 Main Street in the Museum District
Houston, TX 77002
Lawndale Has Many Friends is a large-scale abstraction of the Friends section of Lawndale's own MySpace site. The iconic blue, white, and gray MySpace Friends template is painted floor-to-ceiling. Connecting lines—recreating an online user's clickable pathway through the site—bridge the individual pages together. Each "friend" piece hangs separately on the gallery wall so that the artist can change the order of the pieces as friends are added to Lawndale's MySpace page. The development of Lawndale Has Many Friends is being documented on its own MySpace page, which may be viewed at www.myspace.com/bplawndale.
Julie De Vries, MFA 2007, and Heather Shore
Operaskia
November 16, 2007–January 5, 2008
Lawndale Art Center, 4912 Main Street in the Museum District
Houston, TX, 77002
Lawndale Art Center and the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts present Operaskia, a performative work-in-progress by visual artist Julie De Vries and classical musician and singer Heather Shore. "Silhouettes, through abstraction, amplify the meaning of recognizable objects and allow a viewer to identify with characters and images through an economy of means. Opera is similar in its power to romanticize through music and voice causing an audience to identify with a character." —De Vries and Shore
Buffalo Bayou Trail Show
November 17–December 2, 2007
Buffalo Bayou ArtPark (BBAP)
East and west of the Sabine Street Bridge.
100 Sabine Street, Houston TX 77007
Elaine Bradford, DePose, Aram Nagle (MFA 2006), Richard Nix, Whitney Riley, Emily Sloan (MFA 2009), Marty Joyce and collective Abby Normal Arts are included in TRAIL SHOW—an exhibition of temporary sculpture along the trails of Buffalo Bayou. Projects include large-scale lampshades installed on the existing lampposts, a graffiti tag mowed into the grass, and a giant installation of concrete posts that spell out "Art Ruined My Life" in Braille. Also on view will be other temporary works in the ArtPark, including new sculpture by Cory Wagner, Assistant Professor of Sculpture.
Ken Mazzu, MFA 1997
Artifacts of Reason
November 16–December 14, 2007
Poissant Gallery, 5102 Center St., Houston, TX 77007
713-868-9337
Reginald Rachuba and Jeanne Cassanova, MFA 2008
December 1, 6:00pm–9:00pm, Sat., December 8, 1:00pm–4:00pm or by appointment.
The Joanna
4014 Graustark, Houston, TX 77006
Rachuba and Cassanova pull from a wealth of contemporary images, oftentimes creating multiple narratives woven between each other. Reginald primarily works with paintings and drawings while Jeanne's work spills into sculpture. Their use of the Joanna will encompass the main spaces as well as the front and back yard. Those in attendance can be assured a multi sensory onslaught of "image spillage."
Ann Marie Nafzeiger, MFA 2008
Thesis Exhibition
January 17, 2008
Project Gallery, University of Houston, FA 4th Floor
In this one person exhibition, Nafziger will create an installation that explores abundant growth, using observed moments from the natural world as a structure to investigate the accumulating nature of information and personal memory.
For more information: www.amnafziger.com
Jeanne Cassanova, MFA 2008
New Work
Saturday, July 12–Saturday, August 2, 2008
Presented in Conjunction with ArtHouston
Joan Wich and Co.
4411 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, TX 77006
Cassanova's paintings are lush, dense compilations of dissociated imagery, painting methodologies and formal inventiveness. The work is cognitively dissonant, perceptually challenging, and oftentimes aggressively scaled. It is the kind of work that you are lured into and stay with voluntarily—it is immersive. These paintings are visual banquets, hellish nightmares, and vehicles for reverie. They feel like dreams turned inside out.