Third Ward Horsemen

Seen on Francis St., Friday, June 3.

I LIke Art #2: Carlos Runcie-Tanaka

Carlos Runcie-Tanaka is a Peruvian ceramicist. The show at The Station Museum of Contemporary Art consists of four pieces, three of them very large and requiring rooms of their own. If there was ever a show that one could call spooky, this was it. The light was low in the galleries. Tuneless flute music played softly in the background.



This one is called Huayco/Kawa/Rio. The spheres are made from broken ceramic shards. The random arrangement reminds one of stones in a riverbed. The photo above doesn't really succeed in matching the uncanny feeling of being in the flow of a river that one has walking through this piece.



This one is called Tiempo Detenido/No Olvidar. The photo is a bit fuzzy because I shot it with existing light. That was necessary--this room is completely dark except for the spotlight on the central figure and the red lights coming from beneath the mourners. It appears to be a funeral scene. It was apparently inspired by a real incident in Runcie-Tanaka's life. He was a guest at a Japanese embassy reception when the compound was invaded by members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). This hostage event was the MRTA's last hurrah--Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori sent in the military to rescue the hostages. One hostage was killed (I presume that hostage is represented by the dead figure in the ceramic group), and all the guerillas were killed--eight of them by summary execution after they had surrendered.

The Station Museum frequently shows political art, but despite the inspiration for the piece above, and the dedication of the show to the recent victims of violence in a clash between police and indigenous protesters in Peru, this is not a political show. The art is contemplative. The textures and colors and shapes, as well as the siting of the art, inspire the viewer to linger. Runcie-Tanaka's work will be up through mid-October, so make a point of seeing it.

Houston Art Odyssey

I have some time off for the 4^th, and I decided to use that time museum and gallery going. The Kathy Kelley post was one fruit of this. But really, most of what I saw didn’t affect me as strongly. Very little wowed me. These were shows not really worth a blog post each. It doesn’t mean they were bad, necessarily.

The thing is, with a lot of them, I do have something that I want to communicate. Just nothing big. So I am going to use something they taught us in business school for communicating with possible future subliterate bosses and co-workers—bullet points.

Mitch Debrowner at the John Cleary Gallery.

• This image from the announcement is by far the coolest photo in the show. Never a great sign.

Kelli Scott Kelley at the Hooks-Epstein Galleries.

• I like the fact that her name is Kelli twice. It would be even better if her name was Kelli Kelly Kelley.
• Her art reminded me of the cover art from Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case. Um, that was a really good album.

Michael De La Cerda at the McMurtrey Gallery.

• This guy’s art, made of epoxy resin, looks like candy. I want to eat it.

Edward Lane McCartney at Goldesberry Gallery

• McCartney wasn’t showing, but they had some of his pieces in back. They are made of hundreds of little plastic army men glued together and are really cool.
• A commenter tells me that each army man was individually tied together, not glued. I'm sure if I had gotten down and looked very closely at this piece, I would have noticed this. Sorry for the error, E.L. McCartney!
  

North Looks South at the Museum of Fine Arts.

• It is really excellent that the MFAH is making a special effort to collect Latin American modern art. It’s a good specialty to have.
• That said, if I see another piece of freaking op art (especially kinetic op art), I will kill.
• Seriously, they should have displayed this art with “Miniskirt” and other songs by Esquivel playing in the background, cause that’s what this art was—decorations for space age bachelor pads.
• Carlos Cruz-Diez is the biggest offender.

• But in his favor, he did design the groovy crosswalks that are now in front of the museum.
• The city of Houston should license these designs from him and put them in place at every intersection in the city. Seriously.
  
• The pieces by Helio Oiticica and Lygia Clark are boring “neo-concrete” abstractions (ideal for hanging in Oscar Niemeyer buildings inhabited by robots—or military technocrats). The MFAH should get later work by these artists, which were sensuous and funky, and which prefigured the work of the arte povera artists as well as contemporary Brazilian artists like Ernesto Neto and Vik Muñiz.

Contemporary Conversations: John Chamberlain, American Tableau at the Menil Museum.

• It must be really, really hard to move that sculpture.
• Do they ever have to re-weld it after a move?

Jan van der Ploeg at Gallery Sonja Roesch.

• Very efficient art. You can get everything there is to get out of it in about 20 seconds.

The Great Texas Sculpture Roundup at the ArtCar Museum.

• The Art Guys prove once again that a great idea trumps artistic skill every time. Their piece for the show consisted of anodized pails, plywood, and old shoes—and was the best thing in the show.

Aerosol Warfare Gallery.

• Does this place really exist? I couldn’t find it. I think Google Maps steered me on a wild goose chase. Grr. I will try again.
  

Houston Light Guard Armory

What's up with this building?



It's at the corner of Caroline and Truxillo, completely boarded up and surrounded by barb wire. It appears to be owned by the Houston Community College, but a little research shows that is is slated to be the new site of the Buffalo Soldiers Museum. A good recent article (with excellent pictures) about it is here (Cite). The large open interior would be ideal for a museum or even a rental hall (which the famous Armory building in NYC is used for--and has been at least since 1913).