Boogie Shoes

 

Today we’re in the final swings of getting up the Henry Horenstein exhibit at the gallery.  For the last show, Keliy (the artist) and her husband Matt hung the pictures up themselves but generally Catherine does her own.  So this time she taught me all about installing… which, unfortunately, involves math and stuffs :(

Look at me being all handy with tools.  There’s even a giiiiiant ladder in the background. 

 

Unfortunately, the illusion is mildly mostly completely shattered when you see the image I was putting up:

BOOYAH!!!!

(Henry Horenstein: Shoes, California Institute of Abnormalarts (CIA), Los Angeles, CA, 2007)

 

And (because I couldn’t resist) a couple of completely mature and respectful shots:

    

I may or may not have caught whopping cough from ol’ George Washington there. 

(Tip in Fishnets, Jacques Cabaret, Boston, MA, 2005 / Swords, Los Angeles, CA, 2005)

 

If you’re around for the opening tomorrow between 6 and 8 p.m. at the John Cleary Gallery you should com.plete.ly stop by.  In addition to a book signing with the artist the Ruby Review Burlesque ensemble from Dallas will be performing live throughout the evening!!

Artist: KC & the Sunshine Band/ Album: Greatest Hits

De fleurs

 

One of the perks of working at the John Cleary Gallery is that I have free reign to explore drawer after drawer of the gallery’s collection.  I have mentioned in a previous post my love of Maggie Taylor’s work and when I came across “The Patient Gardener” I was reminded of a song from Claude Debussy’s Proses Lyriques entitled “De fleurs” (The Flowers).

Maggie Taylor: The Patient Gardener

 

Debussy’s lyrics, which he wrote himself, are as follows.  (Translation by Faith J. Cormier via The Lied, Art Song, and choral Texts Page)

In the desolate green boredom of pain's hothouse, flowers surround my heart with their nasty stems. When will the dear hands return to delicately untangle them from round my head? The tall purple Iris cruelly violated your eyes by seeming to reflect them. They were the pools of reverie into which my dreams softly dove, absorbed by their colour. And the lilies, white jets of water with perfumed pistils, have lost their white grace and are but poor invalids who do not know the sun. Sun! Friend of evil flowers, dream-killer, illusion-killer, holy bread of miserable souls! Come! Come! Saving hands! Smash the windows of lies, smash the windows of evil spells, my soul is dying from too much sun! Mirages! Joy will never flower again in my eyes and my hands are tired of praying, my eyes tired of crying! In an eternal crazed noise, the black petals of boredom drip constantly on my head in pain's green hothouse!

But really… why reference a Debussy song and post the poetry without also putting up a stunning performance?  My friend Janai, whom I have mentioned here before, sang the set on her master’s recital at the University of Michigan a couple of years ago and her performance of this song in particular has managed to stay buried in my sub-conscience.  Pianist (and dear friend) Jeremy Reger also brings the requisite foggy lushness to Debussy’s accompaniment.

And as always I’ll add my caveat that the image above is only a representation of what it really looks like up close.  So come in the gallery and check out this piece or any others in our collection!

Artist: Janai Brugger-Orman, Jeremy Reger

Dancing Queen

 

Due to last week’s opening at the gallery I completely failed to get up a post last Friday.  Don’t worry, though, I haven’t forgotten that…

IT’S

DANCE PARTY

FRIDAY!!!!

 

I came across these pictures while doing a bit of blog trolling on the way to work yesterday morning (Houston traffic is rife with opportunities to get off a quick text or sneak a peak at websites like Fark, where this comes from).  Terry Border’s Bent Objects is a collection of complex vignettes made from everyday items that range from humorous to dark, parody to social commentary and quite frankly I LOVE THEM. 

(For a different look at the artist, check out my completely different blog post appropriately entitled “Gentlemen Prefer Buttercreams” at the John Cleary Gallery blog!)

“Dancing Queens”

 

For Jeremy:

  

             “So Many Books, So Little Time”                     “How to Get Ahead Without Even Trying, or ‘Salome’ “

 

“Literary Interpretations”

 

   

“Fruit with Life Experience”                                                   “Adverse Side Effects”

 

For Will, our blog’s resident entomologist (sorry, Luke, but he actually has a master in bug-ology [seriously]):

“Office Supplies in the Jungle”

Artist: ABBA/ Album: Greatest Hits

A Night Like This

 

This past Saturday at the John Cleary Gallery I worked my first opening night reception, celebrating the Houston premiere of Keliy Anderson-Staley’s Imagined Family Heirlooms.

Installation shots of Keliy’s Baking Pan Series and Americans: Contemporary Tintype Portraits

 

Response was enthusiastic to Keliy’s work, which includes a wide range of photographic techniques as well as the incorporation of found objects into the exhibit.

Keliy (left) discussing her work with an interested attendee

 

Imagined Family Heirlooms, 2011

 

Patrons were also treated to milk (white Russians) and cookies, inspired by the artists Baking Pan Series and served by the gallery’s in-house bartender/baker/husband of the director, Arnaud Couturier.

Remember… milk makes your bones GROOOOWWW!!!

 

Keliy, Catherine and I would like to offer a warm thanks to all who attended and made this exhibit opening a great success!

Keliy, Catherine and I.  (Stop hogging the spotlight, “Kristin”!!!!!)

 

Installation as seen through reflection of Found Child's Dress # 1, 2011

 

Artist: The Cure/ Album: The Head on the Door

The Cookie Factory

 

In preparation for Keliy Anderson-Staley’s Imagined Family Heirlooms, Catherine and I decided to have a “theme” to go along with the drinks and snacks for the opening.  Inspired by Keliy’s Baking Pan Series we instantly thought of milk and cookies!

Installation shot of the Baking Pan Series

 

So instead of spending a Friday night out on the town, I attempted to make three different batches of cookies: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and snickerdoodle. Monica also made a surprise guest appearance to help me out with some of the baking.  Some of you may remember her from my first outing to the John Cleary Gallery oh so many months ago! Let’s see how that turned out, shall we?

So much for homemade… besides, I’ve realized I’m more of an Ansel Adams wannabe than a Martha Stewart anyway!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the opening tomorrow, Saturday March 26 between 6 and 8pm! Come for the chocolate chips and stay for the fabulous photography.  (Well, and the white Russians certainly can’t hurt either)

 

Artist: Danny Elfman/ Album: Edward Scissorhands

I’m Getting Ready

 

Installation processes are in full swing here at the John Cleary Gallery for Keliy Anderson-Staley’s Imagined Family Heirlooms, opening this Saturday, March 26 with a reception from 6-8pm.

Keliy and husband, Matt, hanging pieces from her Baking Pan Series.  I want cookies NOW!!!

 

Selections waiting for placement. PICK ME, PICK ME!!

 

Imagined Family Heirlooms harkens back to the rootless nature of the American identity, with many individuals unable to place family histories back more than one or two generations. This series of installations, comprised of both found and newly-made objects alike, suggests those photographs and sentimental objects one might have collected over the years. Domesticity in a wide range of connotations plays a central part in her works, as is evident in the use of rusted baking pans as a unifying visual motif.

As is the nature of the beast, we are sad to see Renate Aller’s One View, Ten Years exhibit coming to a close but simultaneously thrilled to welcome Keliy to her first solo show here at the gallery!

Please join us for the opening this weekend or stop by anytime during the next month to see the exhibit or peruse our other selections.

Catherine hard at work on the website!

 

Artist: Ann Nesby/ Album: The Fighting Temptations

Long Time Ago

 

One of my responsibilities at the gallery is to maintain the John Cleary blog and make announcements for upcoming shows.  So, in a little bit of cross-bloggery promotion I thought I would extend an invitation to our next opening!

Please join us Saturday, March 26, from 6 – 8 p.m. for the opening of Keliy Anderson-Staley: Imagined Family Heirlooms. The exhibition will run through Saturday, April 23. The artist will be in attendance for the opening reception.

“Young Boy” circa 1870; found and treated wet-plate collodion tintype

Born in 1977 in the woods of northern Maine, Keliy Anderson-Staley received her Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York, NY.

Imagined Family Heirlooms harkens back to the rootless nature of the American identity, with many individuals unable to place family histories back more than one or two generations. This series of installations, comprised of both found and newly-made objects alike, suggests those photographs and sentimental objects one might have collected over the years. Domesticity in a wide range of connotations plays a central part in her works, as is evident in the use of rusted baking pans as a unifying visual motif.

Installation shot of The Baking Pan Series: An Incomplete Family History

 

She has spent the last decade championing historical and alternative photographic practices, passing along her knowledge of extended technique through classes at The Center for Alternative Photography in New York and the Bakery Photography Collective in Westbrook, ME, among others.

“Relatives” 2011; 5x7” Antique Albumen Print

 

Keliy Anderson-Staley’s work has been featured in such publications as New York Magazine, Esquire Russia and F-Stop Magazine, with numerous solo and group exhibitions held in collections from around the world.

“Collage 1” 2011; 9x12 Made of found quilt fragments and found antique tintype

 

Artist: Thomas Hampson/ Album: Copland: American Songs

Color and Light

 

In honor of this, my 200th post, I thought I would kill a couple of birds (and redeem myself as a good Texan) with one post.

It’s new header time!!!

In honor of Texas Independence Day, which I missed on March 2, we are looking at the work of Austin resident Trey Ratcliff, specialist in High Dynamic range (HDR) photography and creator of Stuck in Customs, a blog devoted to his pictures and the process he uses to make them.  What is HDR photography exactly?  A dry definition, courtesy of wikipedia, explains it thusly:

[…] set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

It’s a bit easier to see the difference, however:

According to the photographer “… it was shot about two hours outside of Austin in a little town called Brady.  You’d like it.  They have a Sonic there.”  Omg I WOULD like it!

 

In fact, Trey’s picture of Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Austin was the first ever HDR image to be shown in the Smithsonian Institution.  Not too shabby, eh?

 

A shout out to my Savannah relatives!

 

“I found this beauty salon one evening when driving between Houston and Austin. It was just sitting there, all neglected…. and I felt like someone needed to pay attention to it, so I did for a short while.”  By the way, I’d totally get my hair did there.

 

“A Sea of Glass- The Chihuly Exhibit at the Belagio” God, I could go for some Skittles about now

 

In a weird way, this is kind of how I see the world… or at least how I try to see it.  If it’s gonna be in color, then why not Technicolor, right!? It’s certainly no wonder that some of the movies I have recommended previously (Amelie, The Fall) are skewed through a similar lens.  Even before I saw some of Trey’s work I would photoshop my pictures trying to evoke not necessarily what the camera saw, but the image I remembered, ambiance and all.  Two examples from my D.C. trip:

 

Before           and                       After

 

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not even beginning to try and compare myself to the above. For one, my camera consists of, well, my phone. While they may turn out relatively well for small proportioned blog usage, their nowhere NEAR Smithsonian standards. Photography is the one medium of visual art that I think I might even have the capability of doing well, and this style has certainly intrigued me.  So forget that watch (because I’m sure some of you were juuuuust about to buy it for me)… daddy wants a CAMERA!!!

Oh, and speeeaaaaaking of photography, I thought this would be the perfect time to announce that tomorrow I am starting my new job as Assistant Director at the John Cleary Gallery!!!!!  (You may recall I have posted about it ummmm here and here and here and here ad infinitum… … …) I’ll actually be the one to read about this in a GoogleAlert email tomorrow at work :)

That’s right, baby, I can now check something off of my list of life “to-do’s”!!!  It’s not ever really been something I’ve talked about, but I’ve always thought it would be the most glamorous thing to work in a gallery.  Which just goes to show—blog about something enough and who knows where it’ll lead!!! (It maybe also helps to know the owner?)  It’s just a three month stint until I head away to Europe again this summer, but I am going to revel every. single. day of it!

PLEASE DON’T FIRE ME!!!

Artist: Stephen Sondheim/ Album: Sunday in the Park with George

When the Suns Come Out

 

At one point we had to endure a brief, yet quite torrential, downpour.  If it were June I would have called it a summer shower but, you know, it’s still February.  Lucky for us it only lasted about ten minutes and the sky remained stunning for the remainder of the day.

When I was a senior in High School our church choir took a tour to Washington D.C. to perform with other choirs from around the country.  As Congressman Turner is a member of our church were were able to get a group picture taken on the steps on the Capitol building with him and Ginny!

 

With such a short span of time in the area I had to pick and choose which buildings/museums to delve into and which to just take at what essentially amounts to “face value.”  This go around the Capitol happens to fall into the latter of the two.

And, for a further insight into how my mind works, I took this picture from here because the view reminded me of one of Renate Aller’s photographs now on display at the John Cleary Gallery in Houston. You see the resemblance, right? RIGHT!?!?!

 

I dunno… some statue of some guy on some horse.  It’s probably historically important?

 

“There it is,” as David said, “your tax dollars at… something.”

 

Artist: Judy Garland/ Album: The Capitol Years

Up on the Roof

 

You know how it goes… you meet a sassy Brit, make a few Catherine Tate* references and all of a sudden you’re on the roof of an art gallery making up one fifth of a United Colors of Benetton ad.  Oh those sassy Brits, always getting me into trouble.

That’s right, folks, it’s time for another one of our (mostly) monthly installments of “Gallery Row” openings, brought to you of course by Catherine and the John Cleary Gallery. I was unable to make the last one, but luckily they held showing over for one more month.

“Untitles (42- December 2006)” from Renate Aller’s One View, Ten Years

 

In addition to the main exhibit there are always a rotation of other pieces from the Cleary collection.  I hadn’t seen this one during any of my previous visits and couldn’t look at it without thinking of one night at Blue Lake when my friend Mason and I went out to the beach and took a much needed respite from all those campers.

Where’s the soccer ball!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

In addition to geeking out over photography at the Cleary, I also love these evenings because there is such a breadth of styles and genres spread out over the various galleries.  My other favorites of the night came from Thom Andriola’s New Gallery.  Their current exhibition of Russian artist Valentin Popov’s work actually fit in perfectly with the sea-scapes next door.

“Looking into…” (2009)

 

Much like the Cleary, they also had a variety of other pieces not representing the main exhibitionist.  Or is it exhibitioner?  Exhibiter? Painter… we’ll just say painter.

Margaret Munz-Losch’s “Black Cat” (2009)

 

Gordon Terry’s “Depleted Aristocrats, marginal Poets, Unhealthy Socialites and other Deviants” (2003)

 

Upon being asked by the girl (wo)manning the wine I had to comment: “you must hear this all the time, but your accent is absolutely intoxicating!” And thus Betsy and I were instant friends.  We chatted throughout the evening (while she wasn’t answering questions about the artwork) and I even subbed in a bit:

“Ugh, darling, I’ve been at it all night and haven’t even had the chance to sneak away to the lou.”

“Sheesh, lemme take over for you!”

So… I did a little impromptu bartending (the options were red, white, or water; it’s not like I was whipping up Pisco sour’s or anything) and fielded some questions about the artist, knowing about 30% of the answers and making up the ones I didn’t. Betsy even gave me some of the tips at the end of the evening with one stipulation: you can use this to buy me a drink later.  SOLD!

Left: Popov’s portrait of Thom.  Center: Betsy Betsy  Right: Thom

 

After closing, two other art-goers invited us to the roof of a nearby gallery which was of course answered with an emphatic “YESSSS” by Betsy and me.  We were joined by her two Italian friends (their names escape me…let’s just call them Roberto and Francesco, shall we?), bringing together the Benetton add I mentioned earlier.  Also on the roof was another patron (I say “patron” because she probably actually has the money to buy the pieces on display) who was decked out in a black top hat, veil and a ruby red jacket, the culmination of which I can only describe as Alexander McQueen meets the Ringling Brothers.  Yet another reason why I love the arts… the crazies are always out!

I had the chance to follow through with my drink promise when we all headed out to Zimm’s Martini Bar. Two more of Betsy’s friends, this time a bevy of Mexican beauties, Laura and Paulina, met us there effectively rounding out our mock U.N. assembly for the evening. A lovely evening was had by all and it’s always a plus when I can add new names to the short list of friends I have in the city.

As always, I’ll put my final caveat here… GO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTISTS!!! (Hell, support foreign artists—just support!)  Much like opera, it is something that can only really be experienced in person, so just get out and DO IT!

Artist: Carole King/ Album: The Essential Carole King

Don’t know who Catherine Tate is?  SHAME ON YOU!!  Besides being my favorite companion on Dr. Who, she is also one of Britain’s best sketch comedians.  There was a point when I was in Michigan and all I could talk about was the most recent skit I had seen on The Catherine Tate Show. In honor of Matt and Joanie, Matt and Mallory, and basically anyone who has ever had a child, here are two clips from her show that I love:

 

“Do you remember that baby I had six months ago?…”