Archive

New American Talent / Arthouse at the Jones Center

New American Talent: The Nineteenth Exhibition will be on view at Arthouse at the Jones Center from Saturday, June 12 and through Sunday, August 22, 2004. This nineteenth annual juried exhibition is fresh; there is something for everyone; and it's a good barometer of what's going on in contemporary art around the U.S. Included is a variety of media, such as painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media.

The New American Talent series seldom disappoints due to Arthouse's choice of jurors. Through the years, Arthouse has secured some of the most relevant and renowned curatorial talent to jury these shows. Former jurors include Dominic Molon (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), Kathryn Kanjo (ArtPace, San Antonio), Anne Umland (The Museum of Modern Art, New York), and Robert Storr (The Museum of Modern Art, New York).

This year, honors went to Jerry Saltz, Senior Art Critic for the Village Voice in New York. Saltz currently teaches at Columbia Graduate School of Art, New York and The Art Institute of Chicago. A contributing editor at Art in America, he has written for Frieze, Parkett, Flash Art, and Time Out, New York. Saltz was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism in 2000 and 2003. He was nominated for a compilation of his writings entitled Seeing Out Loud: Village Voice Art Columns 1998 - 2003.

With regard to his selection process (and when simply viewing art), Saltz looks for three things, "Vision (or The Visionary), Originality, and Burning Bush energy." According to Saltz, two artistic tendencies emerge from the remarkable 80+ works on view: craft and collage. The former reflects the artist's meticulous attention to the crafting, or the making of the object, and the latter to his or her desire to create paintings from materials other than paint. This year's New American Talent offering showcases the work of more artists than ever before - 82 artists from the United States - 34 of whom currently live and work in Texas.

Around Town / West 6th Street

Kate Breakey photography at Stephen L. Clarke Gallery through July 3

f8 Fine Art Gallery group show, Summertime Hues, through July 31

Jan Heaton's cool, refreshing watercolors at Wally Workman Gallery through July 31

Young Latino Art Exhibition / Mexic-Arte Museum

The Ninth Annual Young Latino Art Exhibition (YLA No. 9) is currently on view at Mexic-Arte Museum. Another fine summer group show, YLA No. 9 features the work of thirteen emerging (under 35-years old) artists. Also, this year's exhibition has a new twist; former participants in the show selected it. The jurors are Candace Briceno (Austin), Amorette Garza (Corpus Christi), Miguel Escobedo (El Paso), Eduardo Garcia (Laredo), and Juan Miguel Ramos (San Antonio). The artists are Xochitl Paredes, Enoch Rios, Matthew Rodriguez and Sergio Rodriguez (Austin); Jorge Alegria, Gerald Lopez and Selina Silvas (Corpus Christi); Alejandro Almanza, Miguel Castro and Ricardo Dorado (El Paso); Gil Rocha (Laredo); and Jerry Cabrera and Joanna Zamarron (San Antonio).

As with most group shows, it is important to achieve balance and YLA No. 9 does so. A standout is Matthew Rodriguez's, nostalgic, playful yet edgy installation, consisting of 22 separate works, some paintings on cake tins, some color photo copies of his family, a vintage television encircled by children's chairs on which his video focusing on the American railroad and railroad car graffiti. Other highlights are Miguel Castro's hypnotic video installation entitled Rope, centering on a detail of a rope projected onto a large white plastic sheet. The video is accompanied by a monotonous sound arrangement of 6 notes played repeatedly-the piece has no readily discernible beginning nor end. Enoch Rios' polaroids of highway overpasses, signs and urban sites are intriguing, although his label comes off as somewhat sophomoric.

Mexic-Arte's website states that this exhibition challenges audience's notions of what Latino and Mexican American art comprise. Overall this is true. Even in Gil Rocha's paintings addressing familiar Latino concerns, that is, life in border towns, immigration and the transportation of illegal aliens; the artist's heavy use of personal and symbolic vocabulary lend his work a broad and immediate appeal.

After YLA No.9 closes don't miss Leyendas de los Cromos Mexicanos and eleventh Serie Project, both on view July 2 through August 29. Leyendas de los Cromos Mexicanos features illustrated calendars the Galas de Mexico, publisher and editorial house (1930-1960). The Serie Project, Inc. is a non-profit Latino arts organization located in Austin, Texas that produces, promotes, and exhibits serigraphs created by established and emerging artists.

Lance Letscher / Manny Farber /
Austin Museum of Art Downtown

On view at the Austin Museum of Art through August 29, 2004 are two exhibitions, Lance Letscher: Books and Parts of Books, 1996-2004 and Manny Farber: About Face. Both of these artists organize complicated pictorial ideas that draw the viewer in to examine their individual approaches to art.

Austin-based artist and former sculptor, Lance Letscher is recognized primarily for his collages. While this is his first traveling museum exhibition, his work is increasingly popular and for good reason. His carefully constructed collages are both tactile and substantive. For any fan of modernism, they will resonate, combining stylistic hallmarks of art historical greats - the colors and shapes of Cézanne, the geometry of Mondrian, as well as Hoffman's push/pull. Letscher's compositions range in tone from quietly elegant early images of birds and plants to bold and energetic abstracted pinwheel collages. Yes, his process is described as painstaking, obsessive and highly detailed, but the end results are works of integrity, strength, and directness.

Manny Farber, as well as a film critic for such publications as New Republic and the Nation, is an acclaimed painter. An abstract expressionist in the 1960s, Farber's paintings became more autobiographical and narrative in the late 1970s. Gradually Farber began to focus on still life imagery, executed from peculiar perspectives. Juxtaposing household items such as potted flowers, books and dishes with notations, he uses exuberant colors to create energetic compositions. Many see Farber's experience as a film critic informing his process, which is often compared to the making of a movie. For example in Domestic Movies, the painting is almost spliced in two, by the artist's use of contrasting aqua and yellow backgrounds. Although he bisects the composition, painted objects overlap into each other's scene if you will, creating a quirky, idiosyncratic style all his own.

In conjunction with the Lance Letscher exhibition at AMOA, is Provisional Beauty: New Works by Lance Letscher on view at d berman gallery May 27 through June 3. There is a gallery talk June 5.

Summer programs ...