The week finally arrived for Angela Beloian and I to fly out to Houston to install our "Detritus" show at the Art League of Houston. My first out of state show. I have been super excited about the opportunity and nervous at the same time. We had to ship all our work and I decided to omit a few pieces to save money as the shipping costs added up quickly and the space is a bit smaller than the Dairy Center, where our Detritus show exhibited a few months earlier.
Houston surprised me, it has quite the art scene and a quaint historic district, where we stayed, which is in the Heights district. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, the largest city within the state of Texas, and "the energy capital of the world." My energy levels were low, I attributed this to the constant humid air vs. air conditioning contrasts. People in Houston spend the majority of the summer living in A/C.
Day 1: we pick up the rental car, drive to the Art League to see if our art survived the journey via UPS. I took 2 rubber rabbits with me on the plane and added those to the pile at Houston Art League. Two of my packages were damaged, the only 2 which I did not insure, don't think I'll use UPS to send art again. Luckily my art is not too fragile since it's mostly made of rubber and plastic bags, but the blower for my inflatables broke, which was easily repaired. We headed back to Angela's friends' home to find a branch for her 1,000 crane installation piece. She lucks out and finds a dead fig tree branch in their backyard.
Day 2: installation scheduled to begin, but repairs needed to happen first. Madame X was set up to be installed but the hanging wire broke immediately before we even hung it. Thank god for Sarah, she rigged up a chain to hang it up, it weighs about 80 + pounds, so I figured 100lb test picture hooks should work just fine. We got Madame X up, the inflatable rabbit as well as Angela's album cover piece. We needed to head out to give an artist talk at Artist SPEAKeasy in Houston. Heard some fabulous stories read by two different authors. Diggin' the art scene in Houston it's pretty hot!
(madame X is the long rubber piece left, on the wall)
Day 3: hit up Inversion coffee house for a double espresso. Inversion Coffee House is a pretty hip spot attached to the Art League. It draws its name from the now infamous Inversion house that once stood in the location of the original Art League of Houston building. In 2005, the Art League was preparing to begin construction of a new facility to house its art classes and the new coffee house. But first, two 1930's bungalows that stood on the site needed to be demolished and cleared. The director of Art League, decided it might be interesting to utilize the abandoned spaces for a temporary art project. She contacted artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck, a collaborative team that had created installations using condemned buildings. Lacking any budget, Havel and Ruck erected the work with the materials at hand, an exercise in architectonic excavation. After about 400 hours of work over a month of nights and weekends, Havel and Ruck opened the piece ( literally ) to the public in mid April 2005 by cutting a 30 ft. opening in the west facade facing Montrose Boulevard, exposing what appeared to be a vertical tornado of whitewashed wooden siding. The funnel bore through the two houses, dropping back 80 ft. and shrinking in size until it reached a 4 ft. opening onto the east sculpture garden.
After the java stop we walked into the art league, I was shocked to see Madame X lying on the floor, guess she ripped out of the wall last night. Maybe I should have named it the Beast of Burden or better yet, Pain in the Ass. Sarah came to the rescue again beefing up the wall mounts using huge screws placed into the studs. We finally got the show up and headed to Angela's friends for dinner.
(notice above madame X on the ground)
Day 4: The day of the opening. Angela has great connections in Houston and she really knows the art scene there even after 3 years of not living there. We hit up some galleries dropped off some portfolios in hopes that a gallery will want to represent us and take all our work so we won't need to ship it back, fingers crossed. We stopped by the Rothko Chapel to relax and meditate before the opening, I was so tired.
A large number of people showed up for the opening, we gave an artist talk and then mingled with the crowd. Met some really amazing artists doing incredible work. Hopefully this will fire up some inspiration for creating new work. We received wonderful feedback, so thankful for this opportunity.
Day 5: last day in Houston. Stopped into Apama Mackey Gallery to drop off a portfolio and veiw the current exhibit. We visited the museum district. Visited the houston contemporary art museum and the fine arts museum. Definitely more to see than time allowed. Thanks to Angela for being such a great tour guide! Looking forward to the next opportunity to show Detritus.
Hopefully I'll become a better blogger. Perhaps I'll get a post up of previous events, maybe. Stay tuned.
