The Great God Pan Is Dead

This Weird Place between Pixels

2012-01-26T06:08:00.002-06:00

by Dean Liscum Two realities that inform This Weird Place, which was curated by Sebastian Forray, are the tension between abstraction and figuration and the digital marketplace of images that is Flickr. In his gallery talk at the Cecil Horton Gallery at Lawndale, Forray chose not to discuss the theme that unites the artists and their works, but the virtual space in which they can be found,

Geoff Hippenstiel at Devin Borden

2012-01-24T06:46:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd When I first walked into Devin Borden Gallery and saw Geoff Hippenstiel's large new canvases, the first thing I noticed was the gold and silver paint. This sparkly metallic paint calls attention to itself, in part because it's not something you see often on paintings like these--large, painterly abstractions. And to be sure, I read them as abstractions at first. And as usual, I

Links Links Links Links Links Links

2012-01-23T09:54:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Glasstire has moved their troops into key positions in Southern California, as seen in this map The Empire expands, part 1: Glasstire has started up a Southern California edition. So far it looks just like the Texas edition, except for the map. On the Glasstire Texas map, each little marker represents a whole city, if not a vast region within Texas. On the Southern California

T.J. Hunt Explores the Landscape, Discovering Nothing

2012-01-22T19:37:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd T.J. Hunt, Breaking Ground, piles of dirt taken from various privately owned sites, 2012 T.J. Hunt's unfortunate artist's statement for her installation, Breaking Ground, reads, in its entirety: My work is concerned with artistic identity and utility, investigating what it means to self-identify as an artist in the current age of ever-expanding artistic pluralism. By placing

Space Age Bachelor Pad Art by Edward Lane McCartney

2012-01-20T09:23:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd There is something oddly nostalgic about Edward Lane McCartney's new exhibit, "Shift," at Goldesberry Gallery. When you see a piece like this: Edward Lane McCartney, Folio Chromatique #7, paper, paperback books, 2011 ...you imagine it in a stylish 60s flat. This is space age bachelor pad art, and there's Martin Denny and Esquival on the stereo. Given that the work is inspired

Road Trip: San Antonio

2012-01-19T09:25:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd This is intended to be the first of a new ongoing feature. Since I got new wheels, I thought I might take a few day trips and overnight trips to see art outside the Houston city limits. So after seeing an article, "Donna Simon's Seeing Art San Antonio Tours," on Glasstire, I decided to sign up for a tour. The big attraction was that it included a studio visit. I can figure out how

Wayne White is Embarrassed by Beauty

2012-01-18T09:39:00.000-06:00

Another lazy post outsourced to someone else's YouTube video. But damn, this looks like a fun movie, don't it? You'll be able to see it in Austin at SXSW, apparently. var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};a2a_config.linkurl = "http://thegreatgodpanisdead.blogspot.com/2012/01/wayne-white-is-embarrassed-by-beauty.html";

Mark Flood's Latest Affirmation (possibly NSFW)

2012-01-18T08:22:00.000-06:00

To celebrate my opposition to SOPA and PIPA, I'm posting this video by Mark Flood without asking for permission first. Enjoy! (If you happen to be in Berlin, you can see his current show at Peres Projects through March 10.) var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};a2a_config.linkurl = "http://thegreatgodpanisdead.blogspot.com/2012/01/

Links from the Heart

2012-01-16T14:04:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Michael Bise and Adrian Page Gave him a transplant for a brand new start. This certainly is good news! Houston artist and writer Michael Bise, who has been waiting for a heart transplant for a while now, got a new heart on January 12. (And while the operation is done, I'm sure he'd still like a donation to help pay for it.) I suspect the recovery time from such an operation

Neva Mikulicz at Anya Tish

2012-01-15T19:54:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Neva Mikulicz combines drawing and video in a very witty way. Her drawings depict scenes that are ordinary, even banal. The video may or may not offer an ironic comment on the drawing, but what takes the viewer by surprise is the way Mikulicz combines the two media. Neva Mikulicz, Those Naughty Neighbors, prismacolor pencil on Pastelboard, 1 minute video loop, DVD player, 2011

Post-Industrial Pagan Megaliths

2012-01-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd At night, you come across this semi-circle of glowing objects. The light from them, especially in the cool winter air, makes you think of Christmas decorations, and their verticality makes you think of Christmas trees. This group of sculptures is collectively called Constructed Chaos and was built by James Ciosek. James Ciosek, from left to right: The Boat, found corrugated tin

Performance Art in Houston, Past and Future (NSFW)

2012-01-11T08:02:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Julia Wallace and Jonatan Lopez are the artists behind Continuum, a performance art group that have done a variety of events since starting up in 2011. They put together a retrospective video of some of their 2011 activities. As that it includes several boobs, asses and dicks, it is quite possibly NSFW where you work. Continuum, 2011 Highlights from Continuum PerformanceArt on

Forrest Bess on Antiques Roadshow

2012-01-10T06:03:00.002-06:00

Watch Appraisal: Forrest Bess Oil Painting, ca. 1950 on PBS. See more from Antiques Roadshow. This was on Antiques Roadshow last night (January 9, 2012). The appraiser is Debra J. Force and the owner is from Tulsa, apparently. Maybe Robert Gober can contact him to include this piece in his mini-Forrest Bess exhibit that is going to be part of the Whitney Biennial this year. (Hat-tip to

Studio Visit: Earl Staley

2012-01-09T18:29:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Earl Staley in his studio Earl Staley has a studio above Art Supply on Main, and I spent an afternoon there shortly before Christmas. I first encountered Staley's work in 1985 at the Fresh Paint show. I moved away from Houston a few years later, and Staley also moved away, and I didn't hear much about him until recently, when I stumbled across his enjoyable but

The Art Guys-Devon Britt-Darby Saga Continues

2012-01-08T15:52:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd The Art Guys, The Art Guys Marry a Plant Cake Topper, painted porcelain wedding toppers, model tree (plastic), model makers' grass, brass plaque, glass bell jar with wood base, edition of 12, 2009 That headline is a little misleading--nothing has really happened since Britt-Darby left town and the tree was vandalized. But new details came to light in a piece, "This Month in

The Houston Art Gallery Two-Step

2012-01-08T12:44:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd There's a new gallery in town, Heights Art Gallery (no website yet, but you can visit them at 3202 White Oak), and I went to their opening party last night. It was quite a scene. I would say that Heights Gallery is positioning itself to be the La Luz de Jesus of Houston. (In fact, I would suggest that Heights Gallery try to establish a cooperative relationship with La

Ring in the New Links

2012-01-07T11:02:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd Buster Graybill, Progeny of the Tush Hog, mixed media. My nephews are arranging the Tush Hogs into an impromptu football field in this photo. This show was on Salvador Castillo's "best of" list. (Photo by Sarah Boyd) The Best of 2011, Austin Edition: Salvador Castillo put up an entry in his all-to-infrequently updated blog 'Bout What I Sees with his list of 19 shows that he

Donald Barthelme on Conceptual Art

2012-01-05T06:22:00.000-06:00

Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs, 1965 BARTHELME: Conceptual art isn't something I'm overly fond of. It seems to me entirely too easy... RUAS: Why would you say it's easy? BARTHELME: Well, because it is easy. RUAS: To be able to delineate concepts and have people understand the concept? BARTHELME: Yes. I think as art it is entirely too easy. ... BARTHELME: Had I decided to go into the

Every Woman Artist

2012-01-04T06:27:00.000-06:00

Sherrie Levine, Fountain (after Marcel Duchamp), 1991 "Every woman artist will tell you she exists in a universe of discourse created by men, works with a language created by men, a language suffused, colored, drenched in male desire. That is, every woman artist is speaking a foreign language, like Beckett writing in French. This should not be overstressed, because the languages involved

The People's Choices

2012-01-01T19:06:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd Before we dive into the results of my public survey of the best of Houston's art scene in 2011, let me talk a bit about the poll. First of all, there were a total of 65 respondents--thank you all. On one hand, 65 is great. On the other hand, I think it represents just a fraction of the total number of people in Houston who have an opinion on what their favorite art exhibits were.

The Last Day to Vote for the Best of 2011

2011-12-31T11:19:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd This is my final reminder to vote in my survey on the best Houston art shows/performances/events of 2011. Polling closes at 11:59 tonight. it's been an interesting year for art in Houston, and this is your opportunity to let me know what you liked best! Results will be published tomorrow! The poll can be found here! var a2a_config = a2a_config ||

Most Popular Pan Posts of 2011

2011-12-31T11:05:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd I write posts, Dean Liscum writes posts, but we never have any idea in advance whether they will catch on with readers. You people are ciphers! Anyway, here are the most popular 2011 posts based on page views: 1) A Matter of Wit at Fotofest. Readers came for the nudity but I hope they left delighted with these wacky, surreal photos. 2) A Letter from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse. I

Houston Needs Tree Stump Carvers

2011-12-30T18:31:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Lion King I've discussed the tree-stump carvings in Galveston in a couple of posts in the past. In brief, Ike killed some 4000 trees on the island, and three wood carvers decided to turn some of the stumps into sculptures, such as the one above. I just got a new car yesterday and decided to drive down to Galveston for a shake-down cruise. As I drove aimlessly through Galveston's

A Tree Grows at the Brazos

2011-12-29T20:16:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Brazos Bookstore used to be my favorite bookstore. Its selection was uniformly excellent. It had the best selection of art books in town. (Now I'd give that honor to the MFAH bookstore.) And they had for a while an exhibition space, Brazos Projects, that had some amazing shows. My favorite was the Joe Brainard show in 2005. But in 2006, owner Karl Killian was hired by the Menil.

Two More Days to Vote!

2011-12-29T12:58:00.006-06:00

by Robert Boyd Come January 1st, I will stop bothering you, my patient readers, with requests to vote in my year-end poll. Until then, you can access the poll here. Marzia Faggin, Plates: Gumballs, Licorice Allsorts & Peppermint Candies, plaster, glue, acrylic, gloss, 2011 You can vote from a list of art exhibits, performances, and events--but, if you don't see a show you liked, you can write

The Bitch is Back

2011-12-29T09:33:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd Do you remember Bernie Taupin? He wrote these deathless lyrics: Goodbye Norma Jean From the young man in the 22nd row Who sees you as something more than sexual More than just our Marilyn Monroe To be fair, he also wrote these lyrics (which are inarguably awesome): My sister looks cute in her braces and boots A handful of grease in her hair chorus Don't give us none of your

Vote Early...Vote Often!

2011-12-27T06:45:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd Please cast your vote(s) in my survey of Houston's best 2011 art shows. If you are worried about or intimidated by the idea of choosing the "best" art show, don't be! This survey is designed to be easy and painless. Here's why: 1) You don't have to choose a single exhibit--you can pick as many or as few exhibits as you like. 2) You don't have to rank your choices. 3) As a

Red Krayola and Forrest Bess at the Whitney Biennial

2011-12-26T10:03:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd The Red Crayola was a rock band made up of students at St. Thomas University. It was formed in 1966 and included as members Mayo Thompson and Frederick Barthelme. They were a psychedelic band that veered heavily into pure happening. Amazingly enough, they were picked up by a Houston-based label, International Artists (run by Lelan Rogers, brother of Kenny). Their songs included

The Stendahl Syndrome, Age 2

2011-12-24T11:53:00.000-06:00

(Video by sanhelsington, Hat tip Hyperallergic) Tis the season to post insanely cute videos. Merry Christmas! var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};a2a_config.linkurl = "http://thegreatgodpanisdead.blogspot.com/2011/12/stendahl-syndrome-age-2.html";

Art at the Houston Permitting Center

2011-12-24T10:33:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Do you read Swamplot? (You should--it's one of Houston's most consistently entertaining blogs.) Every year they vote for "the Swampies", voting on various architectural, development, and planning/anti-planning successes and fiascoes in the Houston metro area. One Swampie is "Most Notable Recycling Effort"--a vote for the best remodelling/refurbishing/repurposing project in

Crude at the Station Museum

2011-12-22T18:18:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Below is a show video walkthrough of Crude by Andrei Molodkin. This show is about oil, and it is pretty much against the corrupting influence of oil on democracies like the U.S. and fake democracies like Russia. It's a provocative show for Houston. Oil money is finances much of the art institutions in Houston, either directly or indirectly. Many friends and acquaintances of mine

Houston's Best Art 2011: What Do You think?

2011-12-22T10:08:00.003-06:00

by Robert Boyd You've read what I think and what several Houston art scene luminaries think. Now it's your turn. Do you think my list was full of shit? Make your own list! To facilitate this, I just created an online poll. This poll will be up until the end of the year, and I'll publish the results on January 1. I really want to hear from you, dear readers. Let your voice be heard! LOVE

Robert Boyd's 2011 Honorable Mention

2011-12-21T19:04:00.000-06:00

All of the shows listed below were excellent, and on a different day, I might have placed any one of them in the top 10. Lisa Gralnick: The Gold Standard at Center for Contemporary Craft. This was a very interesting show that included sculptures made of plaster and gold--where the percent of gold was determined by how much gold it would take to buy the thing depicted. Stephanie Toppin's

Robert Boyd's Worst of 2011

2011-12-21T11:42:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Not every show can be a good show. And some--a lot, really--are pretty damn bad. This isn't really a list of all the worst exhibits from last year. There are some venues that almost never put up good art. I don't see much value in pointing this out. Therefore, everything listed here is from an institution that should have known better. Not only were these shows bad, they were

Robert Boyd's Best of 2011

2011-12-20T15:27:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd There were lots of enjoyable exhibits and performances this year. It's really hard to choose the best--it's even hard to choose my favorites because they keep changing. Ask me in three months, and my list might be different. That said, below are my list of my 10 favorite 2011 exhibits in Houston as of December 21, 2011 (plus a long list of honorable mentions). The shows below are

Dishonorable Mention--Houston Art Scenesters' Least Favorites of 2011

2011-12-20T12:10:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Lots of folks in the Houston art scene selected their favorite shows/performances/whatevahs for Pan--so many that it took five blog posts just to list them all (you can read them here, here, here, here and here). But of the 14 who responded, only three offered up their "worst of Houston," and two of them requested anonymity. I can understand this--writing (and thinking) about

Part 5 of the Houston Art Scene's collective favorites of 2011

2011-12-20T11:09:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd (Continued from part 4) Robert Pruitt, You Are Your Own Twin at Hooks Epstein. Mark Flood said Pruitt's You Are Your Own Twin was one of the best gallery shows he saw this year. Rod Northcutt's Indigenous Genius at Art League. Emily Sloan selected this show, writing "The audience's strong mixed or confused reactions were interesting to me." Scott Teplin, Crash at

The Part 4: Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Selects their Faves

2011-12-20T10:25:00.000-06:00

(Continued from part 3) Temple Hive by Monica Vidal wowed 'em at Box 13 Monica Vidal, Temple Hive at BOX 13. "I can't wrap my head around all the planning and measuring that goes into Monica's work. The scale of her work is really impressive, and I loved being able to walk into this one (a similar hive at Lawndale was sealed off). Her drawings are also quite nice." That's what an

The Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Fails to Reach a Consensus (part 3)

2011-12-19T21:37:00.000-06:00

(Continued from part 2.) Cody Ledvina, Gawd parents: I am real at BOX 13. Performance has a hard time in lists like this because it is so fleeting--you had to be there. That said, one of our anonymous respondents was there and wrote, "I've always been a big fan of Cody's work. This is something that's been floating around out there needing a space for a while, and I was really

The Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Fails to Reach a Consensus (part 2)

2011-12-19T14:02:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd This is continued from part 1. The shows/events listed below are everything that got one vote from the 14 respondents to my poll. Howard Sherman, Apocalyptic Wallpaper at McMurtrey. This show actually got two votes, but one was from Howard Sherman himself! I approve of an artist having high self-esteem, but thought it wouldn't be right to count that toward the total. Mark

The Best (and Worst) of 2011 -- The Houston Art Community Fails to Reach a Consensus (part 1)

2011-12-19T11:31:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Last year, I wrote my first "top exhibits of the year" post, and I will again this year (later this week), but I thought it would be nice to see what other people in Houston thought. I sent out a request for people to tell me what they considered the best (and worst) art things of the year. I wanted to hear about the best exhibits, of course, but also the best events, performances

Note on Lisa Qualls at Koelsch Gallery

2011-12-18T11:30:00.003-06:00

by Robert Boyd absence installation view There is an interesting bit of family history that Lisa Qualls is mining for this show. Her great-great-great grandmother, Lily Qualls, was born a slave. She and one of the sons of the master fell in love. It was a love that had no future in the slave-holding South. So they eloped and fled north. The family name was Quarles , and the name Qualls was

Mary McCleary Selects

2011-12-17T15:29:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Mary McLeary was chosen by The Art League as Texas Artist of the Year. That meant she got a nice retrospective exibition at the Art League, but also that she was obliged to be the jury on the 2nd annual Gambol show. There were 400 artworks submitted by Art League members, and McCleary chose 39 of them. These were displayed in the back gallery. The other works were displayed

Robert Boyd, International Multimedia Artist

2011-12-16T10:13:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Robert Boyd, The Burning I'm happy to announce that Tusk Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, has taken on painter Robert Boyd for representation. Congratulations, Robert Boyd! Robert Boyd, Morphia Of course this is a different Robert Boyd than you humble blogger. And he's the third artist named Robert Boyd that I've stumbled across. This Robert Boyd seems a bit exotic, coming

You Had to Be There

2011-12-14T14:41:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd One of the problems with this blog is that my photos of the art rarely do the art justice. (That goes double for my writing, but that's not what this post is about.) Aside from my glaring deficiencies as a photographer, there is a lot of artwork that loses a lot when photographed and shrunk down. And there is work that effectively can't be photographed. It's through this prism

The Weight of 630 Years of Tradition

2011-12-12T09:37:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd In 1422, Jan van Eyck, the first great Flemish oil painter, started drawing a salary in the Hague as a painter. From then until the death of Rubens in 1640, Flemish painters were among the best, with Italian artists as their primary competition for greatest-in-the-world status. The tradition of Dutch painting continued through the late 17th and 18th centuries, but those painters

Assorted Links

2011-12-08T14:13:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Esther Watson, Mistake Pizzas, acrylic on panel, 6" x 6" (posted on curate 1K) The Cheap Art Revolution continues. To me, the cure to the elitism of much of the art world is not picketing, but making less expensive art available. I've written about schemes for this purpose here and here. curate 1K is another source. Norah, the woman behind curate 1K, writes Living with art is

Words trace bullets in Nick Barbee's CATO

2011-12-08T07:39:00.001-06:00

by Dean Liscum Before the opening at Rice's Sewell Hall of CATO by Nick Barbee, the artist gave a talk. As artist talks go, it was par for the course. He talked about his journey as an artist. How he got interested in historical figures. How he did multiple portraits of George Washington. How his interest in historical figures lead to historical re-enactments and research. How his research lead

Debra Barrera, Alexis Granwell & Carrie Scanga at Lawndale

2011-12-08T06:20:00.154-06:00

by Robert Boyd Debra Barrera, Timestep (for Wendy Carlos), plexiglass, Moog synthesizer, resin, graphite, water, 2011 Timestep (for Wendy Carlos) was the first piece that caught my eye when I walked into the mezzanine gallery at Lawndale for their most recent show. There was something just wrong about a big, obsolete piece of electronic equipment sunk in a tank of water. And the nasty black

Some Christmas Gift Suggestions from Your Favorite Pagan Deity

2011-12-04T17:42:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd This one is perfect for both OWS haters and OWS supporters. SWAT-team Santa lays down some righteous pepper spray on that dirty hippie Jesus. (Superpunch, with a hat-tip to This Isn't Happiness.) This one is for real, amazingly. (I mean, I assume the sweater above is real, but I have no idea if it is something you can actually buy.) These Baldessari sunglasses are available

The Saruman of Menil Park

2011-12-04T12:53:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd The Art Guys/Douglas Britt/Devon Britt-Darby/defenseless baby oak tree controversy continues. On Saturday morning, people at the Menil discovered that the eight-year-old oak that the Art Guys "married" in 2009 in a performance called "The Art Guys Marry a Plant" had been snapped in two. Now this might be written off as a mere act of stupid vandalism if not for the repeated

I Don't Think Douglas Britt/Devon Britt-Darby Wants His Old Job Back

2011-12-02T11:48:00.001-06:00

"[The Houston Chronicle] strategy for print involves deliberately shrinking its readership by jacking up the cost and trimming the physical size of the paper — by seven percent with the most recent cut. Luring readers back with quality isn’t even on the table." (from "Come See and Be Seen With Me," Reliable Narratives)

Seven Blogs that Are $30,000 Richer Today Than They Were Yesterday

2011-12-02T08:45:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd These blogs' windfalls are because they received 2011 Arts Writers Grants from the Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital. I applied for this grant last year (and I'll try again this year). So if I say anything against any of the winners, it's probably my jealousy talking. Carol Deihl's Art Vent is a highly personal art blog. She writes about art a lot, but also about things

Last Day to See Dis, Dat, Deez, Doz at the Joanna

2011-12-01T09:43:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd I wrote about one piece in the Joanna's current show--the Exurb four projector piece. But there is so much more. Unfortunately, the show come down tonight at 8 pm, according to Joanna co-director Cody Ledvina. So if you haven't seen it, try to see it today! Here's a little of what you will see, if you go--this represents only a small percentage of all the pieces in the show.

Exurb Plums the Nation's Memories

2011-11-29T06:34:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Back on November 18, the Joanna opened their latest show, Dis, Dat, Deez, Doz. I'm not sure if it was a one-night only thing or if it's going to stay up. Hopefully the latter. It was a great, if somewhat overwhelming, show. Art was crammed into every nook and cranny. One piece that stood out was the sculpture by Exurb. The piece, whose name I can't remember (and which hadn't been

Is the Houston Chronicle's Art Critic Trying to Get Himself Fired?

2011-11-28T09:16:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Douglas Britt-Darby (née Douglas Britt) is apparently trying real hard to get himself fired by The Houston Chronicle. Evidently he would like to use the newspaper as a forum to speak truth to power in Houston, as they say. The Houston Chronicle has long an instrument of power in Houston. It was bought by Jesse H. Jones in 1926, then ownership was transferred to the Houston

A Painterly Show at Box 13: Dutch Invasion

2011-11-27T11:28:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Four of the five artists in Dutch Invasion at Box 13 are painters (Maarten Demmink, aka Demiak, is the odd man out). But it's not enough to say that they are painters. They are very painterly painters. The primary reason for their painting is to be paintings. Paint is the expressive medium. It isn't used ironically. That's kind of refreshing. When I look at these painters, I

Note on FotoFest International Discoveries III

2011-11-25T10:47:00.093-06:00

by Robert Boyd The show up at Fotofest right now, International Discoveries III, is full of interesting and sometimes quite powerful photos. (The photos of Dana Popa are especially rough sledding emotionally.) The show is quite large--you really have to explore every nook and cranny of their building. Two of the photographers I really liked were Francesco Giusti and Julia Curtin. Francesco

Moving toward the Office Light

2011-11-24T10:50:00.098-06:00

By Dean Liscum Fluorescent lights. If someone utters that phrase to me in the context of Houston's art scene, I think of Dan Flavin's installation at The Menil's Richmond Hall or James Turrell's The Light Inside at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Fluorescent lights. If someone utters that phrase to me in the context of work, I flashback to a windowless office I used to occupy in which even

Artcrawl 2011

2011-11-22T06:37:00.149-06:00

by Robert Boyd Among the artists and art scenesters of Houston, there is a feeling about Artcrawl of "why bother?" The art that gets shown in the spaces in the warehouse district is not all that interesting (your mileage may vary, of course) and tends to feel the same every year. Even a good artist like John Runnels shows the same pieces every year. But Artcrawl, like the Bayou City Art

What They Are Saying About West Oaks Mall

2011-11-20T15:21:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd This weekend was busy--a new show at Lawndale, a big show at The Joanna, Art Crawl. I was curious to hear what Houston's artists thought about the potential West Oaks Mall art space. Here is my beer-fogged recollection. Mark Flood was predictably skeptical. To paraphrase him, he said how can they expect to fill 22 Lawndales with art when they can't even fill one? He basically

My Life as a Doll. Feminism for the Mall

2011-11-20T10:20:00.000-06:00

by Dean Liscum Like all works of art, "My Life as a Doll" by Tara Conley and Tria Wood has a specific audience and for two reasons, it's not me. One is because my insurance company won't cover the medical cost that I would incur to become a member of their primary audience. Plus, I can't afford the surgery and a closet full of shoes by Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. (Why would anyone go under

22 Lawndales

2011-11-16T16:28:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd It used to be a JCPenney's. Now it's for art 22 Lawndales. That's one way to think of the amount of potential exhibition space that has suddenly--miraculously--become available to Houston artists. Out on the far west side of town, where Westheimer and Richmond hit Highway 6, is a hard luck mall--West Oaks Mall. Just a little history of the mall. In July, 2003, it was acquired by

The LapDance Scholarship (NSFW)

2011-11-16T10:13:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd I recently got a copy of Phonebook 3, a guide to artist-run spaces in the U.S. (Phonebook 3 deserves it's own post, really--it's literally a printed phonebook with listings for spaces, residencies, and resources published by Chicago art space threewalls. I like the idea, but what's weird is that it's a book. When the internet age came on us, the first type of book to be made

Trimpin at the Cinema Arts Festival

2011-11-13T09:01:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Trimpin speaking at the Cinema Arts Festival I saw, the Trimpin documentary, Trimpin: The Sound of Invention, last night. I wish the Cinema Arts Festival was running some movies twice, because I'd like to recommend this film in such a way that you could go and see it at the festival. But it is available on DVD. Trimpin spoke afterwards--as you can see, he is a very animated

The Zen of Nuevo Fuego at PG Contemporary

2011-11-13T00:13:00.000-06:00

by Dean Liscum In American culture, Buddhas equal zen. Susan Plum's exhibit Nuevo Fuego at PG Contemporary includes several Buddha busts in glass rectangular cages. They're well executed, but they don't take me there. I look; I appreciate, but I don't transcend. Red Buddhas I flameworked pyrex glass, cast plaster, jacaranda seed pods 2011 The most compelling aspects of these pieces are the

Your Moment of Texas Art History

2011-11-12T10:42:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd Joseph M. Glasco, untitled, mixed media collage on paper, 1978 (care of artnet) Joseph Glasco (1925-1996) was an abstract expressionist painter who grew up in Texas, lived in New York, and later moved back to Galveston, where he had a studio. He had the single most impressive work in Fresh Paint. And Donald Baechler was briefly his studio assistant. In February 1981 [...] I

!Women Art Revolution

2011-11-11T08:55:00.001-06:00

by Robert Boyd Lynn Hershman Leeson speaking after the showing of !Women Art Revolution Last night I saw !Women Art Revolution, a documentary by Lynn Hershman Leeson, which compiles video of feminist artists taken by Hershman since 1967. She's been videotaping interviews with these artists continually and has literally thousands of hours of interviews. In a sense, this film is an adjunct to

Weirdest Facebook Ad of the Day

2011-11-09T08:38:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Facebook's ad algorithm doesn't usually put anything I ever want to click through to on my Facebook page. I have to admit, this one intrigued me. It clicks through to something called Classes USA. I won't link to it--it appears to be an information gathering company that sells your personal info to for-profit colleges (which are themselves basically college loan harvesters).

Michael Bise is my Favorite Local Critic

2011-11-08T06:13:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd The difficulty of being a local critic (with an emphasis on the local) is that it is hard to be negative. You tend to know most of the people about whom you're writing. People have long memories, too. Artists will talk with disgust about bad reviews they got ten years ago, and how the critic didn't understand their work, wrote in bad faith, had a bias against the artist that has

The Great God Pan by Ron Regé, Jr

2011-11-07T18:12:00.002-06:00

by Robert Boyd Ron Regé, Jr., drew this little drawing of Pan. It makes me so happy. Thanks Ron! (You can get your own tiny Ron Regé, Jr., drawing here.)

Buttholes and Cake Decorating

2011-11-06T10:54:00.000-06:00

by Robert Boyd Douglas Crimp Noted art critic Douglas Crimp spoke at the CAMH on Saturday. Crimp was there to talk about Donald Moffett, who has a big exhibit there. I was a little worried about what the talk would be. This guy had been an editor of October, so there was a grave danger that the talk would be full of post-structuralist jargon. But he was quite accessible, if not a bit

Messinger and Rayroud Slam Slides at the CAMH

2011-11-04T14:09:00.000-05:00

On October 6, 2011, Matt Messinger and Catherine Winkler Rayroud presented as part of the CAM's Slide Slam series. For me, Matt Messinger creates lyrical works without a coherent narrative. According to him, it just evolves: a silk-screen here, pencil marks from his son there. A splash of color or a repeated symbol. Viscerally, his work hits me like Robert Rauschenberg. Maybe Messinger is

Quantity not Quality Links

2011-11-02T08:17:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Jacob Kassay, Xanax (detail), 2011. Photo: Mark Blower (ICA) What is the correct metric for judging art? Greg.org expresses disgust (but not too much surprise) about an ArtForum review of a Jacob Kassay exhibit which asked whether or not his work justified his high auction results. This seems similar to a stock analyst issuing a buy, sell or hold opinion. But the problem is that

Slow Posting in November

2011-11-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Hello Pan readers! I have a big professional exam in December and will be spending the month of November studying for it. That doesn't mean I won't write any Pan posts, but I'll slow down considerably from the breakneck pace of October (we averaged 1.3 posts per day in October, which is a record). I'll still be writing some (and of course fellow blogger Dean Liscum will be writing

Dennis Harper's Show of Shows

2011-10-31T11:05:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd I wanted to lead off with this statement. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike artists' statements? If you had read this prior to making a decision about whether to go to the Joanna and see this thing, you'd stay home and watch reruns. The problem with artists' statements is that the make even really exciting art sound boring. Fortunately, I didn't read this statement until

Ibsen Espada's Expressionism

2011-10-30T19:13:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd What does it mean to be an abstract expressionist forty or fifty years after the movement ran out of steam? That's what I asked myself looking at Ibsen Espada's new show at New Gallery/Thom Andriola. Espada was one of the artists chosen for Fresh Paint, the ground-breaking painting show at the MFAH in 1985. He had several years of real success after that. But by 2004, he was

A New Rice Owl

2011-10-30T13:48:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd I was walking to my class the other day and I saw that Rice had just installed a new sculpture on campus. Geoffrey Dashwood, Monumental Barn Owl, bronze, 2011 On one hand, a statue of an owl at Rice seems kind of corny. On the other hand, that is one handsome owl. Geoffrey Dashwood is an English sculptor who specializes in sculpting highly streamlined birds like this. This is

Recently Read Graphic Novels

2011-10-30T12:49:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists by Seth. Seth has been working on Clyde Fans forever. It seems like he got into a need to create something artistically perfect, and perhaps this is a bit overwhelming. So while he has been working on Clyde Fans, he has published three books, each of which involved techniques for curing writers block. The first, Wimbledon

Ward Sanders' Glimpses of an Imaginary Past

2011-10-30T10:52:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Ward Sanders is a San Antonio artist who has had four solo shows at Hooks Epstein. Full disclosure: I bought a piece by Sanders at his last show. His work involves getting old wooden boxes or containers and filling them with scraps of paper and objects. The result is a tiny collection of objects that seem to tell a story of recall a forgotten time or place. They are all

Recently Read Art Books

2011-10-29T19:54:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp. Yep, another book on the Los Angeles art scene in the 60s. Regular readers know that this is one of my obsessions--partly because I fell in love with it when I lived in LA. But mostly because it seems to me that you can see what happened in LA in the 60s as an example of how "provincial"

The Texas Contemporary Art Fair part 4

2011-10-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

by Robert Boyd At this point, you must be asking yourself--what else is there to say? Not much, really! But I still have a little more... The Worst Piece of Art at the Fair Boy, there were a lot of worthy contenders. But my personal "favorite" was a piece so bad it took two artists to make, Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers. Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers, Here today, gone tomorrow, fiberglass,

Texas Contemporary Art Fair part 3

2011-10-28T08:58:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd This is continued from this post. Dante Brebner, dioramas, 2010 These boxes by Dante Brebner at Muriel Guepen Gallery had a lot of people bending over into uncomfortable positions to look inside. Extremely plain from the outside, on the inside they have elaborate dioramas. Dante Brebner, Western Scene, diorama mixed media, 2011 Some booths had so much colorful artwork

Thinkin' About Performance Art

2011-10-26T09:28:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Last weekend, I saw several pieces of performance art. It got me thinking about how to think about performance art. How is a particular kind of performance art different from another? This is a framework I created over the weekend to help me think about it. The first thing that got me thinking was Jorge Galvan's sculpture/performance El Dinersito at Pan y Circos, the show I

What's the New News - part 1

2011-10-26T06:30:00.022-05:00

by Dean Liscum To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.Henry David ThoreauI'm not sure that Nathaniel Donnett, the artist and curator of "What's the New News," would completely agree with Thoreau's opinion of the news, but judging from the show I doubt he'd subscribe to Fox New's tag line that insists it's "Fair and

The Texas Contemporary Art Fair part 2

2011-10-25T21:27:00.002-05:00

by Robert Boyd The Texas Contemporary Art Fair had the disadvantage of being second, and in consequence seemed to try much harder. The Houston Fine Art Fair was big and varied, and its size allowed it to contain multitudes. It hit higher highs and lower lows. It had pieces of art that were astonishing to behold--great early to mid-20th century Latin American art, for example. It also had

Pan y Circos Walkthrough

2011-10-22T14:08:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Pan y Circos PG Contemporary Temporary Annex 3225 Milam Street Houston, Texas October 21 to November 5 Curated by Robert Boyd and Zoya Tommy var a2a_config = a2a_config || {};a2a_config.linkurl = "http://thegreatgodpanisdead.blogspot.com/2011/10/pan-y-circos-walkthrough.html";

Texas Contemporary Art Fair: Day 1

2011-10-21T12:55:00.004-05:00

by Robert Boyd I went to the Texas Contemporary Art Fair last night, prepared to take photos of fabulous people (and probably mock them here, 'cause that's just how I roll). But luckily for them, the battery was dead on my camera. So instead I just made snarky comments to my friends about the attendees. I'm a bad person. (Of course, anyone who knows me can recognize the irony of me ridiculing

TONIGHT: Pan Y Circos opens

2011-10-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Shameless self-promotion department. Pan y Circos opens tonight, at 6 pm. It's at 3225 Milam St., Houston, TX, which is the temporary PG Contemporary Annex. (And just a couple of door down. PG Contemporary is having an opening of its own.) Sharon Englestein, Big Head, vinyl and forced air This is one of the two Sharon Engelstein pieces in the show. It's going to be a great

Filthy Lucre Links

2011-10-20T09:07:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd The rich are not like you and me. For one thing, they can use art as collateral for low-interest loans. A story in Bloomberg Businessweek details how a hedge fund manager, Michael Steinhardt, used Picassos and a Jackson Pollack he owns to secure a low-interest loan for a real-estate development. A real estate developer would ordinarily finance this type of development through a

The Must-See Movies at the Cinema Arts Festival

2011-10-19T09:15:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd The third annual Cinema Arts Festival's schedule has been released, and among its many interesting items are a few movies that I personally consider must-see movies. Here are my recommendations: !Women Art Revolution by Lynn Hershman. I first heard about this documentary on feminist art two years ago at the Cinema Arts Festival when Hershman was a guest. It's gotten somewhat

Swipe File: Killoffer and Charles Ray (NSFW)

2011-10-18T19:13:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Charles Ray, Oh! Charley, Charley, Charley, mixed media, 1992 Charles Ray, Oh! Charley, Charley, Charley, mixed media, 1992 Patrice Killoffer, Six cent soixante-seize apparitions de Killoffer page 28, graphic novel, 2002 Charles Ray is an extremely interesting sculptor. Patrice Killoffer is an amazing cartoonist who was part of the French group L'Association. I don't think

Forrest Bess: Artist/Friend

2011-10-18T13:07:00.001-05:00

by Michael Senna (About a year ago, I set up a Forrest Bess Facebook page. It has attracted a small number of followers and has had a generally sleepy existence. Recently, Michael Senna posted to it--he had been Bess's assistant in the late 60s. He wrote an essay about his time working with Bess, and has graciously given me permission to reproduce it here. Coincidentally, there is a Forrest Bess

The Strangeness of Walter De Maria

2011-10-17T19:18:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Walter de Maria, Bel Air Trilogy (detail), 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, stainless steel, 2000-2011 (from an ad in Artforum) There is a strange exhibit of work by Walter de Maria up at the Menil Museum. De Maria is most famous for Lightning Field, a major piece of land art in New Mexico consisting of 400 stainless steel poles, arrayed in a 1 kilometer by 1 mile grid. The idea is that

Mark Flood at Cardoza Gallery

2011-10-16T12:25:00.003-05:00

by Robert Boyd Mark Flood, Another Painting, fluorescent paint Mark Flood dares you approach his art the same way you approach other art. I have to refrain from being sarcastic and nasty, and I have to treat his lifetime of games as an artistic strategy rather than a big "fuck you" to art and everything else. And that's not easy. Just constructing a biography of Flood is a challenge. Any of

First the President, Now 002Houston Magazine

2011-10-14T11:14:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd Hey artists! Just hours after I wrote about this spec art fiasco, here's another one, much closer to home this time. 002Magazine appears to be a magazine focusing on photos of Houston's rich people and the things they can buy, and it wants artists to design a cover for it for free. I wonder if their printer works for free? I guess advertising revenues must be way down! Now maybe

Mark Flood is my Financial Advisor Links

2011-10-14T08:58:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd A Flood of Bitterness. If you see one art exhibit this month, make sure that it's Pan y Circos. But of you see two shows, see Pan y Circos and The Bitterness of the Red Pill by Mark Flood at Cardoza Fine Art. Tonight (October 14)! See you there. The Artists Work Free Act. I keep hearing how artists hate it when people ask them to work for free. For example, people like

Gerhard Richter Painting My Links

2011-10-13T06:36:00.003-05:00

by Robert Boyd Gerhard Richter Painting on Nowness.com. Wow. Gerhard Richter's prices are too damn high. At least Gerhard Richter thinks so. Gerhard Richter is one of the world's most prized living artists, and one of his famous "Candle" series is expected to fetch 6-9 million pounds ($9-14 million) at auction in London next week. That is the highest price expected for a single work

I Like Emily Link and Jed Foronda's Art

2011-10-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

by Robert Boyd But I can't review their new show. Too many conflicts of interest. I own pieces by both artists, and I'm on the board of Box 13, where their show, False Face High, is being exhibited. I want to review it, but three conflicts is just too many. So instead of a review, here are some photos from the show. Judge for yourself--and get down to the Box and see the work in person.( I may

Apples and Oranges

2011-10-11T06:39:00.006-05:00

by Robert Boyd Paul Kittleson's new exhibit at Nau-haus, "mirror - mirror," has him playing with glass and mirrors--pressing things between planes of glass to create bizarre optical effects, for example. He uses flat patterns on paper (often contact paper) to create three-dimensional objects. This work often has a tension between flat and three-dimensional. Then there's this: Paul Kittelson,