Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of  Wishing Well for Houston, a collaborative project by Heath Hayner, Aram Nagle, and Brian Piana, January 15 through February 26, 2010  in the Main Gallery of Art League Houston.  Originally conceived by the artists while enrolled in a Collaboration in the Arts class at the University of Houston, this much expanded and realized version of Wishing Well for Houston depicts the disparities in average median per-capita income among Houston’s super neighborhoods through a major interactive sculptural installation.

The opening reception for Wishing Well for Houston is Friday January 15, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. with an artist talk at 6:45.

The City of Houston is known for its diversity.  An underplayed aspect of this diversity is in the uneven distribution of wealth, which in its disparity, can be seen as one drives around the city.  At times, these geographical shifts in income are subtle and hard to perceive; while in other instances the differences are severe, as in the case when low income neighborhoods abut million dollars high rises.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Natural Recyclers, which features an earth media installation by Divya Murthy and Nicola Parente, created for the Art League patio, and its accompanying installation, Wasted Resolve, which takes place in the ALH project gallery, November 13 through December 31, 2009. Natural Recyclers, is a long-term project, and the first installation to take place in the Art League Patio since it opened to the public in 2008. The opening reception for Natural Recyclers and Wasted Resolve is Friday, November 13, 2009, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., with an artist talk at 6:45 p.m.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Obsession of the Essential, featuring the work of Brent Kollock, November 13 through December 31, 2009 in the Main Gallery of Art League Houston. This is Kollock’s first solo show at the Art League. His mixed media work combines the raw aesthetic of Jean Dubuffet with the obsessive spirit of Hieronymus Bosch. The opening reception for Obsession of the Essential is Friday, November 13, 2009, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., with an artist talk at 6:30 p.m.

Art League Houston, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, is pleased to announce the opening of The Image Altered, which takes place at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase Building in Downtown Houston, and runs from September 23 through November 19, 2009 as a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. This exhibition is curated by Beth Secor, and features the work of Chuy Benitez, Jesus Galvan, Cheyenne Ramos, Y.E. Torres, and Rebecca Villarreal.

The opening reception for the exhibition is Wednesday, September 23, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase building located at 712 Main Street in downtown Houston.

The Image Altered is the first in a series of four visual art exhibitions that focus on cultural heritage month celebrations. Celebrating Diversity Through Art is a unique collaboration of JPMorgan Chase and Art League Houston, which highlights established and emerging artists representative of diverse communities.

This program is supported in full by JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

There will be an artist talk with Isabelle Scurry Chapman and poetry reading by Jim Blackburn on Monday, September 21, with wine at 6:30 and reading beginning at 7:00 p.m. This event is co-hosted by Houston Audubon Society's Night Owls, a young professionals for conservation group.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Birds: A Collection of Verse and Vision with paintings by Isabelle Scurry Chapman and poems by Jim Blackburn, September 18 through October 30, 2009 in the Project Gallery of Art League Houston.  The images and poems in the exhibition are a selection of works from their forthcoming book of the same name.
 
The opening reception for Birds: A Collection of Verse and Vision is Friday, September 18, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., with an artist talk at 6:45 p.m.
  
Additionally, there will be a poetry reading by Jim Blackburn on Monday, September 21, with wine at 6:30 and reading at 7:00 p.m.  This event is co-hosted by Houston Audubon Society's Night Owls, a young professionals for conservation group. 

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Unseen and Rediscovered, an exhibition of photographs by 2009 Texas Artist of the Year, Keith Carter, September 18 through October 30, 2009 in Art League Houston's Main Gallery.  This exhibition features previously unknown and never exhibited photographs by the artist, spanning a period of four decades (1970-2009).  
 
The opening reception for Unseen and Rediscovered is on Friday, September 18, 2009 from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. with an artist talk at 6:15 p.m.  A catalogue, with essay by Clint Willour, accompanies the exhibition. 

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Visual Harassment, an exhibition of paintings by El Franco Lee II. Although small in size, the paintings of El Franco Lee II are an epic document of social and urban history that although exaggerated in the telling, never flinch in the face of truth.

The opening reception for Visual Harassment is on Friday, July 17, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. with an artist talk at 6:30 p.m.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Detritus, an installation of works by Angela Beloian and Jessica Moon Bernstein. Finding inspiration in a plethora of mundane discarded materials, Beloian and Bernstein re-evaluate society's notion of trash, using mass produced materials to create organic art forms.

The opening reception for Detritus is on Friday, July 17, 2009 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. with an artist talk at 6:15 p.m.

Houston, TX (May 18, 2009) - Art League Houston is pleased to announce its annual Healing Art Summer Sale and Benefit taking place on Friday, June 26, 2009 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The event includes an art exhibition and sale, with proceeds benefiting the Healing Art program and its participating artists.

Now in its 18th year, Art League Houston's Healing Art program provides free art instruction, creative expression and a supportive community to adults living with serious disease and disability, including HIV/AIDS, cancer related illnesses, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, and physical disabilities. The paintings created by these artists are amazing and affordable too! The annual Healing Art Summer Sale and Benefit is an exceptionally festive evening which includes an art exhibition and sale, light summer fare, drinks, music, and a raffle!

Don't miss this outstanding event and opportunity to support a program that has helped improve the lives of many individuals in our community. Be prepared to fall in love with the artists and their work and don't forget to bring your pocketbooks!!!!

Art League Houston is pleased to announce ConcealDisclose, an exhibition of paintings by Hagit Barkai and photographs by Tala Vahabzadeh, which will be on view in the ALH project space May 8 through June 19, 2009.

Both women come from the Middle East, and their works are filtered through the vantage point of personal experience. Although they work with different media, subjects, and approaches, both Vahabzadeh and Barkai deal with issues of concealment and disclosure, hence the title of the exhibition.

Houston, TX (March 23, 2009) Art League Houston is pleased to announce Vulnerable Ecologies, a site specific installation by acclaimed British sculptor Susan Stockwell. Made entirely from massive quantities of recycled computer components manipulated and transformed, Vulnerable Ecologies is Stockwell's first installation in Houston.

All of the recycled computer components used in the installation are generously provided by the Houston electronic recycling company TechnoCycle.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce its very first graffiti exhibition, The Boardroom, which features collaborative, large-scale murals by artists, WEAH, ACK!, and Raiko Nin, as well as animations by filmmaker Alex PR!MO Luster. The murals for this installation were created specifically for this exhibit, on site at Art League Houston and will be on view March 6 - April 17, 2009.

The opening reception for The Boardroom is on March 6, 2009, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m. Entertainment will be provided by the YA Crew break-dancers, and a DJ to be announced. The opening event is cosponsored by Youth Advocates, Inc.

This project is funded in part by the generosity of AndrisinAbbey, Charter Custom Homes, Rob Greenstein, Elizabeth and Stuart Lewis, The Mandy and Kyle Palmer Foundation for the Arts, Stonewall Constructors, and Susie and Steve Streller.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Repository, an exhibition of photographs and videos by Sarah Sudhoff, March 6 - April 17, 2009. Following surgery for cervical cancer in 2004, photographer Sarah Sudhoff began investigating the effects of the illness on herself and others, resulting in a series of photographs and videos that presents an unflinching account of the artist and her illness.

Alongside this exhibition, a panel discussion will be held on Saturday, March 21 from 2:30 - 4:30 pm. entitled Artists and Illness. Panelists for this discussion include: Rachel Ainsworth (School of Public Health), Dr. Patricia Eifel M.D. (professor of radiation oncology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center), Michael Galbreth (artist and Art Guy), Lynn Ganschnietz (artist and ALH Healing Art participant), Sarah Sudhoff (artist and educator), and Sandra York (artist). This event is free and open to the public.

Art League Houston, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, is pleased to announce the opening of Gift of the Spirit, which takes place at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase Building in Downtown Houston, and runs from January 29 - February 27, 2009 as a celebration of Black History Month. This exhibition is curated by Beth Secor, and features the work of Mequitta Ahuja, Ann "Sole Sister" Johnson, El Franco Lee II, Kaneem Smith, and Dr. Clarence Talley Sr. The opening reception for the exhibition is Thursday January 29, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase building located at 712 Main Street in downtown Houston. Gift of the Spirit is the second in a series of four visual art exhibitions that focus on cultural heritage month celebrations. Art League Houston is pleased to be invited to participate in Celebrating Diversity Through Art, a unique collaboration of JPMorgan Chase and Art League Houston, which highlights established and emerging artists representative of diverse communities. This program is fully supported by JPMorgan Chase.

Art League Houston is proud to host an exhibition of the Gold Key winners in the art category of the Scholastic Art & Writing Competition. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the largest, longest-running and most prestigious recognition program of their kind in the United States. The Awards were established in 1923 by M. R. Robinson to encourage, foster and reward creativity in our nation’s classrooms. During its 83 year history, some of nation’s most celebrated writers and artists, including Richard Avedon, Truman Capote, Robert Indiana, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Maynard, Joyce Carol Oates, Phillip Pearlstein, Sylvia Plath, Robert Redford and Andy Warhol, have been recognized in this competition.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of Harris County seeks to recognize and encourage young artists and writers in public, private and home schools.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Museum of Unnatural History, a dioramic installation of new works by Elaine Bradford, on view from January 9 - February 20, 2009. Museum of Unnatural History consists of dioramic displays similar to those found in natural history museums, and which serve as "natural habitats" for the artist's fantastical crotchet covered taxidermy creatures.

Co-sponsored by Brazos Bookstore in Houston and The Feminist Press at the City University of New York

Art League Houston and Voices Breaking Boundaries are very pleased to present We the People: Writers' Voices from Iran, Palestine, and Pakistan featuring authors: Fady Joudah, Farnoosh Moshiri, Sehba Sarwar and Bapsi Sidhwa. Co-sponsors of the event are Brazos Bookstore and The Feminist Press at CUNY. This event is in conjunction with Art League Houston's exhibition We the People..., featuring artists Delilah Montoya, Orlando Lara, and Soody Sharifi, November 7 - December 27, 2008. The reading also highlights the recent Feminist Press publication, And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women, edited by Muneeza Shamsie that includes works by Ms. Sidhwa and Ms. Sarwar. Copies of And the World Changed and others by these writers will be available for purchase at the event.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Tête-à-tête, an exhibition of works by artists Anila Quayyum Agha and Lisa Qualls. Both Agha and Qualls are known for work that is both multilayered in context and materials.

For the exhibition, Houstonian Lisa Qualls has created a series of drawings, mixed media works and sculptures, in which she overlays and combines text, pattern, imagery and form drawn from historical, cultural and text sources. Her work speaks of the transience of peoples and how the shifting and intermingling of populations have alte red the collective cultural identities of societies.

A native of Pakistan, Anila Quayyum Agha recently moved from Houston to Indianapolis, Indiana to teach at the Herron School of Art and Design. In her work, Agha uses textile processes, such as dyes, wax resist, and embroidery to create drawings that explore how social and gender-based issues result from the concepts constructed by history, traditions, and contemporary society

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of We the People, a multimedia photography and video installation by Delilah Montoya, Soody Sharifi, and Orlando Lara, October 31- December 27, 2008. This timely exhibition was created in order to explore the relationship of two ethnic minorities, Moslem and Hispanic Americans, to the current US political landscape, and to give voice to these Americans who are often negatively misrepresented in the media.

Art League Houston and Nameless Sound are pleased to announce a concert featuring Paul Winstanley and The Nameless Sound Ensemble, which will be presented at the Art League on Sunday, October 12, 2008 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. General admission is $10, $8 for students, and young people 18 years and younger free. Seating is limited and is on a first come, first serve basis.

Paul Winstanley, a.k.a. Paul Guilford, will perform on electric bass and electronics, and will be accompanied by the Nameless Sound Ensemble which features Chris Cogburn (percussion), David Dove (trombone), Ryan Edwards (guitar, voice), Sandy Ewen (guitar), Sonia Flores (bass, voice), Lucas Gorham (guitar, lap steel, electronics) and Jason Jackson (saxophones).

HOUSTON (September 15, 2008) - Art League Houston, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, is pleased to announce the opening of Del Otro Lado (From The Other Side), which takes place at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase Building in Downtown Houston, and runs from October 1 - October 24, 2008, as a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Del Otro Lado is the first in a series of four visual art exhibitions that focus on cultural heritage month celebrations. Celebrating Diversity Through Art is a unique collaboration between JPMorgan Chase and Art League Houston, which highlights emerging artists representative of diverse communities.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of "Melissa Miller, Texas Artist of the Year 2008" September 5 - October 10, 2008. Melissa is well known for her poetic and enigmatic narrative paintings of animals set in environs where one may find the wolf with the lamb or the llama with a herd of cows. This exhibition will feature paintings and prints from the 1980's and '90's, as well as more recent work.

Michelle White says of Miller and her work,

Miller [arranges] her animals in a remarkable variety of unlikely and sometimes outlandish combinations, a hare is perched on the back of a primate, who screams in the moonlight. A jack rabbit and a team of Rhesus monkeys teeter on stilts for prancing frogs, a cheetah, a sheep, and a fox line up and gaze at the viewer in peaceful, but unexpected accord. In a contemporary context, animal painting is indeed anachronistic, but therein resides the power of Miller's seemingly unassuming subject. Representations of animals have long been carriers of metaphor, allegories of the equally enigmatic social and psychological behavior of human beings. Miller's work continues in this tradition and like many renderings of animals in the visual landscape, her paintings have the uncanny ability to tell us about ourselves.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten´s creative and highly original bass playing has been highly regarded all over the world and he has done several performances with major international artists such as Evan Parker (UK), Paul Lytton (UK), Joe McPhee (US), Joe Lovano (US), Yusef Lateef (US), Tony Oxley (UK), Iain Ballamy (UK), Dave Liebman (US), Chris Potter (US), Zim Ngqvana (SA), Benoit Delbeq (FRA), Dr.L.Subramaniam (IND), Billy Cobham (US), Jean Luc Pounty (FRA). He has frequently appeared at important international jazz festivals in Den Haag, Liége, Montraux, Athens/Georgia, Cape Town, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Paris, Istanbul, Saalfelden, Nice, Groningen, San Francisco, San Sebastian, Lüc, Nancy, London, Perpignan, Molde, Perth, Kongsberg, Berlin, Houston and legendary clubs such as New Morning in Paris, Quasimodo in Berlin, Ronny Scotts and Pizza Express in London, Knitting Factory and Tonic in New York, Empty Bottle in Chicago, Blue Note in Yokohama and Hemlock Tawern in San Francisco. His musical expression is based on the language of jazz and improvised music, acoustic and electronic, but his interest in rock and ethnic music also shows through his collaborations with the Norwegian rock bands Motorpsycho and Cato Salsa Experience as well as his work through Rikskonsertene. In July 2003 he released his solo-CD "Double bass" on the norwegian label SOFA. He has at the tender age of 33 already managed to establish himself as one of the most important exponents of the younger generation of musicians on the european scene today. In July 2004 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten was awarded Kongsberg Jazzfestival official "Vitalprisen" - the highest award for jazz musicians in Norway.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Thunder Within The Earth, a drawing exhibition curated by Beth Secor, and featuring the works of Jack Livingston, Philip Maysles, Matthew Sontheimer, Marco Villegas and Liz Ward The exhibition is on view in the ALH main gallery July 11 - August 22, 2008. The opening reception for Thunder Within The Earth is July 11, 2008 from 6-8 p.m., with a curator and artist talk at 6:15.p.m.

This theme of similarity and yet great difference underlies Secor's selection process for all the artists featured in Thunder Within The Earth, a title once again chosen from the I Ching. Thunder Within The Earth specifically refers to the hexagram "Fu" (Return or the Turning Point) and conjures up an image of a quiet but powerful force. "I took the image from "Fu/Return" because each of the artists, at one time or another has lived in Houston, and I imaged this exhibition as symbolizing a return to the city. When I initially selected them, I hadn't come up with a profound theme or a thread that would hold the show together, but had simply thought of people whose work I strongly admire, and who draw in one fashion or another- whether it be in gouache or silverpoint or floor wax and ink, It wasn't until I began to receive images for the show that I realized all the works have a certain powerful quietness to them, a most fortuitous coincidence. None of the works shouts or screams, but all of them possess some quality that resonates strongly upon the psyche," says Secor.

Art League Houston's annual Summer Exhibition and Benefit Art Sale takes place on Friday, June 20, in the Art League Houston galleries, 1953 Montrose. The evening will include music, hors d'oeuvres provided by Whole Foods Market, door prizes, cash bar, and a sale of art created by students enrolled in the Art League's Studio School and the Healing Art Groups. Festivities from 5:30 until 9:00 pm. The exhibition will be juried by Kerry Inman of Inman Gallery.

Proceeds from the sale will provide free art classes and art supplies to members of Art League Houston's Healing Art Programs serving those with HIV/AIDS and cancer related illnesses, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, and other physical challenges.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Of Winter to Spring by Suzanne Manns, May 3 - June 13, 2008 in Art League Houston's School Gallery. This exhibition of work emphasizes her individualized and extremely personalized relationship with nature. The opening reception for Of Winter to Spring is May 3, 2008 6-8 PM, with a talk by the artist at 6:30 and music by DJ DelSur.

For a number of years, Suzanne Manns' work has been directly influenced by her garden and the landscape directly surrounding her home. Her Houston Heights bungalow is surrounded by a densely layered and compact urban English garden. Within her prints, Manns balances images from her garden, focusing on shifts of scale, and meditating on the fragile, yet enduring nature of life. Recording bits and fragments from this environ of which she is so intimately familiar, Manns creates highly individualized imagery, filtered through her own physical and psychological perceptions. Rather than being simple portraits of nature, the resulting works become a diary of intimate experience.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Observer's Event Horizon, an exhibition of new glass works by Stacey Neff, May 3 - June 13, 2008 in Art League Houston's Main Gallery. Observer's Event Horizon is an exhibition of sculptural souvenirs from a fancifully imagined territory of malleable time and space. This is Ms. Neff's first opening in Houston. The opening reception for Observer's Event Horizon is May 3, 2008 6-8 PM, with an artist talk by Stacey Neff at 6:15.

Neff's unusual glass works pair supplies found in automotive/nautical factories with the ancient material of glass, combining multiple units hand blown in a traditional glass style into singular, large forms. Taking the well formed ideas of science on artistic adventures, Observer's Event Horizon explores a frontier of equalized relativity between the macrocosmic and microcosmic worlds. The works included in this exhibition are sculptural snapshots encompassing a panoramic view from the Hubble telescope to the micron microscope, converging between the known and the imagined. For example, The Great Rhombi Cub octahedron and Icosahedrons geometric bases of her Star Seed pieces exist as visually manifested echoes between a star nursery in a far away galaxy and a bacteria on a human heart. Her Europa loop, which references one of Jupiter's moons, describes a world and an orbit, a particle and a wave. Breathing Stone VI, without the anchor of relativity, explores something as large as the landscape of an asteroid, or as tiny as the crevices of magnified pollen, or the spaces between seeds in a pomegranate. Stacey Neff says about her work, "My inspiration ignites at Conscilience, the fusion of art and science. In the words of J.E. Hoke, 'Science may create a vehicle to take you anywhere you want to go, but only myth will give you a reason for going.'"

Art League Houston is pleased to partner with FOTOFEST 2008 and its Twelfth International Biennial of Photography and Photo-Related Art in presenting three separate exhibitions of works by Chinese-based artists, Sun Guojuan, Chen Lingyang and Liu Lijie, March 8 - April 19, 2008. The opening reception for Sun Guojuan: Sweetness Forever, Chen Lingyang: Twelve Flower Months and Liu Lijie: Another Episode will be at Art League Houston on Saturday, March 8, 2008, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

These conceptual, mixed-media works are presented as part of Current Perspectives 1999-2008, a series of 11 one-person presentations by leading contemporary Chinese artists. Current Perspective exhibitions feature predominantly color, large-scale, staged, constructed, and digitally produced works by Chinese mainland-based artists, which address issues of religion, ethnicity, gender, urban transformation, identity, globalization, and the inter-relationship of contemporary art to classical Chinese art and history.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce "Pysanky...", an exhibition of paintings and decorated eggs by Nestor Topchy on view at Art League Houston, February 11 through February 23, 2008. An artist talk with Mr. Topchy will take place on Tuesday, February 19 at 6 p.m. Nestor will also teach a Pysanky Ukrainian Egg Decorating Class at the Art League School, Thursdays 1 - 4 p.m., April 3- May 8, 2008. Nestor Topchy's paintings, which are his own unique take on classical works by artists such as Botticelli and Giotto, combine two ancient traditions -- the Novgorod Russian or Byzantine tradition of icon writing, and Pysanky, also known as Ukrainian decorated eggs.

Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of "Black Box", an installation by Phi Phi Oanh, January 25-February 22, 2008. This is Phi Phi's first exhibition in her native Houston. The opening reception for "Black Box", Friday, January 25, 6-8 p.m., begins with a talk by the artist at 6 p.m. and features music by DJ DelSur. A catalogue, with an essay by Nora Taylor, accompanies the exhibition.

Starting with the raw materials and basic utilitarian art forms traditionally found in Asia, such as lacquer coffers, coffins and chests, Oanh has created a series of 16 oversized boxes whose proportions echo those of a burial casket. Rich paintings adorn the lids, combining sensual abstraction with precise figuration. Organic materials including the lacquer resin, stone pigments and precious metals form the palette in which Ms. Oanh has created her work

Art League Houston is proud to host an exhibition of the Gold Key winners in the art category of the Scholastic Art & Writing Competition. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the largest, longest-running and most prestigious recognition program of their kind in the United States. The Awards were established in 1923 by M. R. Robinson to encourage, foster and reward creativity in our nation’s classrooms. During its 83 year history, some of nation’s most celebrated writers and artists, including Richard Avedon, Truman Capote, Robert Indiana, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Maynard, Joyce Carol Oates, Phillip Pearlstein, Sylvia Plath, Robert Redford and Andy Warhol, have been recognized in this competition.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of Harris County seeks to recognize and encourage young artists and writers in public, private and home schools.

Penny Cerling detail from The StarvingThe Starving Artist and the Art of Nursing , a new book from artist and author Penny Cerling.

Eric Michael Jones' digital photographs are inspired by stories - both fairytales and contemporary fiction, such as the work of the Brothers Grimm and Raymond Carter, among others. Some influences in his work are clearly recognizable, while others are not, with the stories used simply as launching points for image making. As in fairy tales, a reoccurring sub-theme runs through the work - an ominously foreboding landscape (the horrible woods, the threatening sea), a place where children go willingly or otherwise, to work out their greatest fears and anxieties.

Blind Philosophy is a one-night exhibition of over 33 works Gilbert has created using human ashes over the past 7 years. A catalogue, with essays by Gus Kopriva, Catherine Anspon, and Susan Albert accompanies the exhibition.

The human ashes that Gilbert uses in his paintings are either unclaimed cremated remains obtained at funeral homes, or those willed to him by others.

"the Private," an exhibition curated by Clint Willour of early drawings and prints (1976-1987) by Dixie Friend Gay, 2007 Texas Artist of the Year - Sept. 7 - Oct. 19, 2007. Although well known for her lush depictions of landscapes and waterways, the majority of these erotic, exquisitely detailed early works have never been publicly exhibited. The opening reception for "the Private" is Friday, Sept. 7, 6-8 p.m. beginning with a talk by Dixie Friend Gay at 6 p.m. A catalogue, with an essay by Christopher French, accompanies the exhibition.

Informed by both painting traditions and the natural and built environments, Veneman's large paintings are complex, with rich multi-layered surfaces that describe a space which is at once illusory and tangible. Carefully drawn lines appear to be ropes and architectural structures, as they are engulfed by waves and swirls as chaos overcomes order. Planes overlap and intersect, blending together or sharply conflicting. Forms dissolve and reemerge, their color, marks and texture altered. The accompanying series of small black and white ink drawings forms a counterbalance to the highly-charged colorful spaces, offering clearly readable glimpses of spatial environments in flux.

Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are, April 30 - June 16, photograhps and stories of Houston-based evacuees and survivors of the hurricanes produced by the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston Project. The opening reception is May 8, 2007, 6-8 p.m., beginning with a talk by project co-directors Pat Jasper and Carl Lindahl, and photographer Alice McNamara at 6 p.m. Music will be provided by Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, a native of New Orleans, who is one of the Houston-based survivors featured in the show.

Popunation was a collection of large-scale wooden sculpturesclustered in areas around the gallery. The sculptures depicted everyday actions of characters, but with a twist of absurdity. The setup and placement of each piece are akin to that of a carnival sideshow, something that is meant to be gawked at.

The Northern Ireland (Location of Victims' Remains) Bill, passed in May 1999, provided an amnesty to help the identification and location of people who had disappeared during the 'Troubles'. These images show locations which were identified and became known as the 'Sites of The Disappeared', where the IRA buried people they murdered in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The works were a response to the notoriety of D.W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 film and blockbuster hit, The Birth of a Nation, which depicts the Ku Klux Klan as liberating people from the African American menace. Despite its subject matter, the film is still included as one of the 100 greatest classic American Films by the American Film Institute. The show consisted of large-scale drawings on paper, intended to be fictitious Birth of a Nation comic book covers.

The 2005 Texas Artists of the Year, The Art Guys present an exhibition featuring some of their famous and infamous art works made with and about food.

"Vital Surge aptly describes both Joan Fabian's life and her work. The desire to live is a vital aspect reflected in Fabian's work. Joan's artwork became crucial to her while she was battling cancer because it provided her with a positive focus. The surge relates to spurts of energy, as the way in which Fabian is influenced and energized by the stimulation, motion and culture of busy cities. Joan's artistic forms, full of color and patterns, dance around with this positive energy and they challenge the normal reaction of human instinct. Fabian's travels to Pakistan made her question value systems and the way we judge what we call art as well as what we consider being beautiful."

At the Metropolitan Multi Service Center (1475 West Gray)

Art League Houston and Chase present “Affinities,” an art exhibit celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, curated by Mari Omori. The exhibit examines what it is to be both an Asian Pacific American artist working in America and an American artist whose work evolves around the eastern thought. Presented through a dynamic range of media, this melding of the east and the west has created the uniquely beautiful and powerfully original assemblage of works in this exhibition.

Artists exhibited include: Bennie Flores Ansell, Amita Bhatt, Serena Lin Bush, David Chien, James Lance Frazior, Mimi Kato, Kay Nguyen, Seifu Sandaiji, Kiriko Shirobayashi, Masaru Takiguchi, Yi-Chi Wang, Weihong and June Woest. (view works from the exhibition) Opening reception: Monday, May 9, 2005 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. JPMorgan Chase Building

Rendered with thick applications of radiant colors, Livermore's paintings are intensely personal, dream-like explorations of the natural world. Over the past 25 years her subjects have ranged from the ordinary to the sublime, including luminous floral arrangements; the hustler bars and frenetic streets of Juarez, Mexico; and the storied Jornada del Muerto Valley in New Mexico. Annabel uses Juarez, Mexico as her primary subject from early on, focusing on everything from Palm Sunday processions to prostitutes and transvestites in gritty bars. Her subjects are often shadowy yet united with incessant grace. Although no one has actually met Annabel, her oil paintings of dour moutainscapes, luscious flowers and grim street scenes have claimed many enthusiasts and followers.

"The Implosion" Text by Arthur Wortmann, courtesy Mark Magazine,Issue #2, Spring 2006 "In the summer of 2005, an extraordinary structure on Montrose Boulevard in Houston took motorists by surprise. A wooden building had obviously been struck by a passing tornado. Sucked by a raging force from the back of the building, the boards of the facade frantically twisted into what looked like a horizontal chimney that had ripped a hole through a second wooden building sanding several metres behind the first. Passers-by were inescapably drawn to the vortex of the wooden wreckage; if they didn't blink, for a fraction of a second they could see straight through both buildings.

It was not a diabolical natural disaster that was responsible for this scene but a pair of artists, Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. The two wooden buildings - used for decades by the local arts council, Art League Houston, as classrooms and exhibition space - were to be replaced by a new-build project. For the few months that they awaited the demolition crew, they were reincarnated as an architectonic installation. Owing to the lack of a budget, Havel and Ruck erected the work with the materials on hand: dismantling the existing building, board by board, they used the old timber to realize their installation. The project became a kind of exercise in architectonic excavation; they turned the premises inside out. Impossible to illustrate the implosion of a recycling process in a more salient way.

If ever a structure deserved the label 'uncanny', it has to be Inversion House, a building stripped of its soul, devoid of life. Its gaping hole fulfilled the same role as the hall closet in Mark Danielewski's brilliant novel House of Leaves (the space tunnels into a dark and never-ending void) : both were sinister signs of the presence of another dimension. That the installation has now been demolished is an apt part of the picture. As a memory, the image is a haunting reminder that although architecture exists to provide shelter, buildings do not always assure peace of mind."

Curated by Zena Stetka- Howe & Don Stevenson