Archive

Milt Kobayashi / GSC

Gallery Shoal Creek is celebrating a twenty-year anniversary with artist Milt Kobayashi. GSC began its relationship with Kobayashi in 1985. Since then the artist has developed a loyal and appreciative following who have watched as his work has grown and changed.

It is tricky pinning down Kobayashi's work. A Japanese-American, based out of New York, he paints remarkably French post-impressionist-looking scenes with an updated palette and sensibility.

Images of women and men, alone and in groups appear moody and evocative of late nights and inner demons. Rumpled clothes, ruddy complexions and messy hair render Kobayashi's subjects intriguingly bohemian. His intimate portrayals are personal translations of what he has witnessed on city streets, in movies and at museums. There are plenty of (Japonisme) bright patterns to provide visual allure amongst these subtly dark depictions.

Milt Kobayashi: A Milestone Exhibition will be on view Friday, February 18 through Saturday, March 12.

Lots of Langston / Juan Garcia Captures Memories

Davis Gallery has a big Sandra Langston show up right now. It runs through Saturday, February 26. Langston has created paintings, prints, charcoals on paper pastels and sculpture. (whew!) Along with oil on canvas Italian landscapes, she has painted a series of the same female figure in various contemporary interiors. There are also some strangely symbolic paintings dealing with male/female relationships, most of which depict figures in rural front yards of Victorian (?) homes (a motif that turns up repeatedly). Political, cultural, and domestic issues are addressed in what she terms "narrative paintings." Also enjoy the more straightforward large-scale graphite on paper works such as one of an unmade bed and another of a large tree. Very nice.

Flatbed World Headquarters features Juan Garcia: Finding That Place You Thought Was Forgotten, through Saturday, February 26. A recent graduate of the art program at Texas State University in San Marcos, Garcia explores how memory functions in waking life. In colorful etchings, lithographs, and monotypes, fleeting memories that move in and out of our consciousness are made tangible. His expressive and spontaneous images are non-objective, so that each of us may infuse them with our own remembrances. Garcia combines splashes of color and brushstrokes with carefully rendered drawings, creating an elegant balance of passion and nuance.

Garcia explains, "What I aim to achieve is a feeling similar to when you're walking down the street and a thought, or memory quickly pops in your head. Briefly, you are engulfed in this memory. You can remember everything down to the slightest detail... And then, in a flash, the thought is gone, and you're left in this state of confusion, trying to reestablish what you were doing at that time, and also trying to recall a memory, you can't even recall anymore."

Also on view in February, March, April, and May is Selections From Flatbed Editions. This is an ongoing exhibition in several of Flatbed's gallery spaces featuring original, signed lithographs, etchings, woodcuts, and monotypes by contemporary American and international artists such as John Alexander, Katherine Brimberry, Michael Ray Charles, Ken Hale, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Lynda Kaffe, Cassandra James, Robert Levers, Melissa Miller, Lamar Peterson, Burton Pritzker, Dan Rizzie, Margo Sawyer, Katie van Scherpenberg, Mark L. Smith, Frank X. Tolbert, and Liz Ward.

Around Town / An Eclectic Mix in February

On February 3, 6-8 pm (1st Thursday) Artworks will open the exhibition, Paint the Town Red. The Cuban Jazz band, Thousand Fires: Cien Fuegas, will perform. On view and for sale will be works by well-known local artists such as Freddie McCoo, Julie Freshman, Kathy Hudson, Rory O'Neal, and Tatjana Versaggi. All in the month of love.

Russell Collection Fine Art's walls are filled with works from Paris' Belle Époque or "beautiful era," through February 28. The exhibition of primarily prints features work attributed to four French artists: Jules Cheret, Manuel Robbe, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and James Tissot. The exhibit consists of over 50 pieces.

Until Sunday February 20 you can still catch Portable Worlds: New Photography by Eduardo Muñoz Ordoqui at Gallery 106. The photographs from Portable Worlds are described as narrating "in a concise and figurative manner, experiences similar to those of accounts of journeys. They rescue readings, houses, life experiences."

Mexic-Arte Museum is presenting Seven Worlds: Ceramica Veracruzana, through Sunday, February 20. Mexico occupies a prominent place in ceramic tradition. "Seven Worlds" or "Siete Mundos" showcases the work of fifteen artists who currently live in the State of Veracruz. The concept of "seven" takes shape in sculpture, utilitarian items, miniatures, installation, relief, collaborative works and other objects.