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.
  

Rice Village Has Had a Whorehouse In It

Does this look like a whorehouse to you?

This one comes from the Village News (June 9, 2009) via the ever-vigilant Swamplot.

It seems a nondescript commercial building at the corner of Sunset and Morningside was, until recently, a whorehouse! "Johns" may be sad to see the Southampton brothel close, but the neighborhood is glad to see the nuisance gone.

The location of the Asian Massage Villa, 2401 Sunset [...] appeared vacant after a notice of eviction was served by the property owner.

Asian Massage Villa Was at 2401 Sunset, but its little door was around the side and towards the back on Morningside. There was no sign, just a lighted doorway and some stickers indicating donations to emergency responders.

In the past year there have been at least three arrests for prostitution listed in the HPD calls for service, and several other vice investigations at the address.

Last August, Village News reported on Asian Massage Villa having an arrest for prostitution, but in order to clase a shop you have to show a pattern.

Isn't this weird? With drug forfeiture laws, you don't even have to be proven guilty before the cops can seize your property. But with brothels, the police must show that there is actual repeated crimes there, not one-off episodes. And quite rightly so. It should be difficult for the cops to seize your property.

After HPD gathered evidence of a pattern of prostitution, city attorneys talked to the owner of the property about evicting the offending Asian Massage Villa, informing the owner that a lawsuit could be filed on the grounds of statutory nuisance. The property owner cooperated and issued a three day eviction notice.

Now isn't this interesting--instead of doing what they did with The Penthouse Club and All Stars Men's Club, where the now enforcible sexually oriented business (SOB) licensing law was invoked, the city just leaned on the owner. Why?

My theory is this. Once the city has established a pattern (with repeated busts for prostitution), in order to close a SOB, they have to file a lawsuit against it. The penalty is not only does the business close, but the location can't be used for anything for a year--regardless of who the owner is! (The SOB also has to pay the legal fees for the city.) But this is a long, expensive process for the city, with no guarantee of victory. So it made sense to probably threaten the owner of the property at 2701 Sunset with a SOB licensing lawsuit. The city attorneys probably said, "Look, we know you aren't running this whorehouse. You just made a bad decision about who to rent to. But if you don't evict those people, we will sue them--and when we win, you will not be able to rent that place for a year. So play along, pally."

So why didn't they just threaten Anargyros G. Mylonas, the owner (according to HCAD) of the Penthouse Club and All Star's Men's Club? Because the really want to punish him and more important, prevent him from opening another strip club somewhere else in Houston. The way this law is set up, by removing the possibility of commercial use for the property for a year, the owner is likely to be driven into bankruptcy (or at least have his capital tied up for a year). That way, you don't have the SOB popping up somewhere else under a new name.

So with the Asian Massage Villa, the city seems to have taken the easy, quick route to closing the business (with the risk that it will reopen somewhere else relatively quickly), whereas with the Penthouse Club and All Star's Men's Club, they took the difficult, lengthy lawsuit route, which probably puts Mylonas out of business (this business, at least) for good. I am only guessing about the city's strategy, but I suspect they figured using the maximum approach with two highly visible SOBs was more cost-efficient than using the same approach for the discreet neighborhood whorehouse.