Best Artist

Sad and Pissed, Rachel Hecker's standout show at Texas Gallery, turned a relationship gone wrong into a powerful, poignant and witty body of work starring Hello Kitty spin-off characters. The show was punctuated by "explosion" paintings that riffed on Batman fight scene graphics, with "OOF!" and "POW!" replaced by succinct expletives that encapsulated the "pissed" aspects of breaking up. Hecker is an art-community favorite for both the high caliber of her pop-appropriating work and her enthusiastic support of fellow artists, first via the Core Program as assistant director of the Glassell School of Art and currently as assistant professor of painting at the University of Houston. Hecker is also pursuing a personal/conceptual art project titled "Rachel Hecker's Global Mission to Date Carlisle Vandervoort," referring to the board president of DiverseWorks. She has formed a grassroots organization to assist in her quest. To date, Hecker's project has included promotional buttons with slogans like "Carlisle rocks," an informal brochure and a petition signed by 101 people who feel the two should make a love connection.