Archive

Print Making / Art Slugs /
Strange Things

Local print making workshops, UT's outstanding graduate print making program, and the Blanton Museum's extensive print collection have worked in tandem to bring national attention to Austin. With this strong presence, Austin is today recognized nationally as a major printmaking center.

Slugfest, founded in 1996 by printmakers Tom Druecker and Maragaret Simpson, is one of three noted print making workshops in Austin who collaborate with established and emerging artists to produce museum quality original prints. Slugfest, says Druecker, suggests a happy gathering of art slugs, a tongue-in-cheek name coined in graduate school among print makers referring to the relatively sluggish nature of the process of print making.

In addition to printing and publishing, Slugfest exhibits original prints by a range of talented artists. Through October 26, the east Austin venue presents Strange Things from the North, an intriquing lithograph series by Illinois artist Michael Barnes. A hint of mystery as well as a sense of ambiguity fill Barnes' compositions - and as is often the case at Slugfest, imagery and process share the stage.

Contemporary Art / Austin / Downtown
In the heart of downtown Austin, Arthouse at Jones Center launches the season with Walk Ways, a show centered around the role of walking in our lives. Arthouse's storefront location on Congress Avenue makes the venue and conceptual theme a perfect match. Curated by Stuart Horodner, Visual Arts Curator, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Walk Ways showcases work by nineteen well-known contemporary artists. Each, through diverse and blended media, explores the historical aspects of walking as well as the notions of identity, geography and leisure associated with this basic activity. From Matthew McCaslin's four TV monitors mounted vertically on a hand truck, to Mowry Baden's aluminum walking cane, the media employed are as decidedly different as the conceptual basis of each piece.

Across the street at Austin Museum of Art - Downtown, Andy Warhol is attracting record-breaking crowds and state-wide attention. The exhibit, titled simply Warhol, brings to Austin for the first time 80 prints and paintings by the pop culture icon who changed the way we look at art. AMOA worked directly with the Andy Warhol Musuem in Pittsburg to organize this outstanding show which highlights the artist's work in film, television, publishing, and music. On October 30, Tom Sokolowski, Director of the Andy Warhol Museum, will lend his perspective with an AMOA lecture, Andy Warhol, The Candy Coated American Cream -- Or Not?

Around town ...

• South of the river, studio2gallery opens an inviting group photograpy show, The Heart's Eye, with work by Erika Kjorlie, Deborah Poisot, Terri St. Arnauld, Kathryn Watts-Martinez.

• Two contemporary artists, Cynthia Camlin and Irene Roderick, exhibit new work through October 25, at DBerman Gallery,17th and Guadalupe. On Saturday, October 4 (1 pm), the gallery will host a conversation with the artists at 1 pm.

• On West 6th Street, Ann Stautberg's Oriental, an exhibit of the photographer's hand-painted silver gelatin prints, continues through November 1 at Stephen L. Clark Gallery. Gordon Fowler opens at Wally Workman Gallery on October 11. The exhibit features a series of paintings, oils and watercolors, inspired by recent travel to France, Montana, and Mexico. October 24 - 26, Art on 5th will host their popular Vintage Poster Show with a range of original posters dating from 1900.

Guadalupe Arts celebrates a decade in fashion, fine arts, music and commerical imagery with an exhibit of photography by Andrew Shapter, October 4 - 30. Shapter has worked with Zarghun Dean, publisher of Tribeza, over the last several years helping develop the classy publication's aesthetic. Dean has high praise for this talented international photography.

With the GArts' exhibit, we will see the full range of Shapter's talent as both a fashion and fine art photographer. Particularly intriquing is a series shot at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. Shapter will talk about his work at 5:30 pm on October 4, just prior to the exhibit opening.

Looking ahead to November:

20th ANNUAL / EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS / MEXIC-ARTE MUSEUM

Culture and folk art come together at Mexic-Arte's 20th Annual Day of the Dead celebration on Saturday, November 1. Throughout Latin America, altars are prepared and decorated to welcome honored guests, one's ancestors. On these altars, one traditionally places a photo of the individual to whom the altar is dedicated, Zempasuchil (yellow Marigolds), candles, toys, religious pictures, cut tissue-paper decorations, and personal mementos as offerings to the returned souls along with special foods - tamales, sugar skulls, and pan de muerto (bread of the dead).