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 Eric Avery / Slugfest Gallery A professor of psychiatry and an associate member of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Eric Avery is also an artist whose prints are on view in the exhibition "Heath Matters" at Slugfest Gallery. Avery draws from his experiences as a medical doctor and psychiatrist to teach, express social and political concerns and examine the relationships between art and medicine. One remarkable series of works consists of individual portraits of Avery's patients surrounded by cycles of scenes depicting events such as childhood abuse, drug use and molestation. The artist points out that the cyclical narratives surrounding each portrait do not necessarily correlate with the sitters' specific lives; rather, they make up the too-common larger HIV story. These black-and-white expressionistic woodcuts are printed on hand-made pulpy paper. The rectangular portraits fit inside separate raised frames, making them sculptural and quite powerful. Also on display are several of Avery's pamphlets on sexuality and infectious diseases, such as HIV. These pamphlets combine art and information, explaining diseases in a more accessible and less clinical way than most medical materials. One is even distributed in Texas prisons. A newer work, from a portfolio on well-being, is called "Baby Boomer Health Certificate." This candy-colored illustrated chart, complete with all of the major things "to do" and "not do to" to stay healthy, covers everything from monthly self breast exams to flossing your teeth. Directed especially at the artist's generation, the print acts as a graphic, but friendly, reminder of how to easily prevent disease. Yet in this context, it also highlights the discrepancy between art production and mass consumption, referencing printmaking's historic reputation as a democratic medium. Avery has had numerous solo exhibitions in the United States and his prints are in numerous prestigious collections, including the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, The Library of Congress, ARS Medical Collection at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Boston Museum of Art, and the National Library of Medicine. The exhibition continues through October 15 at Slugfest Gallery. This review by Erin Keever was previously published in XL, Austin American-Statesman, September 16, 2004, 43. |
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Margarita Cabrera / Women and Their Work Currently at Women and Their Work is the new exhibition, Margarita Cabrera: Maquila. Born in Monterrey and raised in Mexico City, Salt Lake City and El Paso,Cabrera became interested in the maquiladoras or factories south of the border around 2001. After researching and visiting these plants, she began making soft sculptures of household appliances such as blenders and coffee makers. In addition to the soft sculptures, Cabrera has created Volkswagen Beetles, another product of Mexico that has affected their economy in significant ways. The appliance sculptures along with the large scale Beetle works are made from vinyl, plastics and other materials made in Mexico, most of which are toxic. Situating her work amongst pop legends like Oldenburg and Warhol, Cabrera's point is driven home. They are grounded in American consumerism. Yet they are not merely celebratory or ironic. They address political issues that straddle borders with a smart and accessible slant. This exhibition opens October 9 and continues through November 13, 2004.
New work by artists Faith Gay and Lauren Levy is currently on view at d. berman gallery. One could say the two address family life in different ways - Gay's style is uninhibited and humorous - Levy's a bit more reserved and reverential. Gay's work continues to celebrate color and pattern. Whether in her wall installations made of fused colorful plastic beads, her larger dot-grid compositions mounted on wood, or her polka dotted and striped soft sculptures propped up around the gallery, Gay approaches her craft with unbridled enthusiasm and childlike playfulness. New to her work are the incorporation of representational elements in her beaded wall pieces that now combine figures resembling cave paintings with rainbows and hearts reminiscent of pre-teen girl doodling. Even more impressive are her op art inspired dot-rids, slickly resin coated and mounted on wood. No longer symmetrically placed within one another, her dots, or orbs, bring to mind eggs or embryos, perhaps influenced by her experience as a new mother, but in no way lacking in sophistication. Gay received her BFA from The University of Texas in 1995 and has exhibited widely in the state. Levy is known primarily for her sculptures made from buttons and wire. While two remarkably corporeal figures hang on wire from the ceiling in this show, the majority of her new work takes shape in photo-based collage. The collages are said to explore the theme of memory. Using old family black and white albums culled from estate sales, she carefully creates collaged compositions, layering silver circles made of small semi-transparent beads over the photos that may represent the cycle of life. Levy reinterprets the family photograph and thereby the family history by cutting photos, re-contextualizing them and sometimes obscuring them altogether. Levy has exhibited her work most recently in a one- person show at the Southwest Center for Craft in San Antonio. She also exhibits regularly in Austin and Houston. This exhibition continues through Saturday, November 6, 2004. For more information, please call 512.477.8877 or see www.dbermangallery.com.  |
