“Above Ground”

At Premium Goods’s “Above Ground” you can spend more on a pair of limited-edition sneakers than on a piece of original art – and they like it that way. The show features four area artists: Shizoq, Heidi Valdez, Derek Shumate and Melinda Mosheim. “In 2006, I just started to hunt down artists who did urban lowbrow,” says Mosheim, who curated the show (the title refers to exhibit’s effort to make underground art more mainstream).

Among the works on view is Shumate’s The Seeker, a portrait of an African-American man. “His style,” says Mosheim, “I think they call it dirty painting. Not meaning raunchy, but dirty in the sense it has several layers, it has drippies on it. It’s very urban, spontaneous. It’s rooted in the street, and what you see in street art. When you see graffiti, you see layers and layers of tags, one on top of the other. Derek has had that element in his work before, but I think this time he really worked the layers. He’s got torn posters in there, then paint, then figurative work. It’s a very interesting blend.” Noon to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Through April 26. 2416 Times Boulevard. For information, call 713-523-8825 or visit www.premiumgoods.net. Free.

Mondays-Saturdays, 12-7 p.m. Starts: Feb. 4. Continues through April 26, 2008

This article appears in Feb 21-27, 2008.