Capsule reviews by Joelle Jameson, Randy Tibbits and Susie Tommaney
“Barnett Newman: The Late Works” “Barnett Newman: The Late Works,” which recently opened at The Menil Collection, is the venue’s major show of the spring season. It’s the first close look at the late-career works of one of the most important Abstract Expressionist painters, and it’s presented in wonderfully open galleries in which paintings and space look made for each other — as much of an experience as an exhibition. But even more important than a single major show is the opportunity the museum is giving us for the next few months to take an exhilarating visual tour through the major modernist thrust of European/American art for the hundred years from the 1860s to the 1960s — from the beginning of the turmoil in 19th-century Paris to the absolute chaos of contemporary late 20th-century America. With a couple of special exhibitions (including Newman), a stunning reinstallation of the permanent collection, and the old standby — but always standout — Surrealist holdings, the Menil is giving us here in Houston an art history experience that can only be bested at the likes of MOMA in New York or the Centre Pompidou in Paris, if even there. It’s all there: Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop. You can skim the surface through a hundred years, or you can stop at any point and go deep. To paraphrase one of the most memorable lines of the great Judy Garland as she looked in rapture at the wonders of a world’s fair in her own hometown: I almost can’t believe it. Right here where we live. Right here in Houston. Through August 2. 1515 Sul Ross, 713-525-9400, menil.org. — RT
“Drawing the Eye to Nothingness” Thedra Cullar-Ledford, in her exhibit “Drawing the Eye to Nothingness” at G Gallery, has launched a full-scale attack against what she refers to as tit cancer, but her weapons of choice are her body, her mind and her creativity. Incorporating images of the breast in all its incarnations — sustenance for the infant, object of lust or tissue on the operating table — survivor Cullar-Ledford’s message is more than just cancer awareness; she also wants to educate survivors that post-mastectomy reconstruction surgery is not mandatory. The Tit Wall Installation features dozens of concave and flat metal bowls and platters, each oil-painted with pink and brown and rose-colored breasts. It’s a wonderful optical illusion, appearing convex in form, and a fitting tribute to the unique individuality of women. Her Kitchen Performance, a series of ten photographs in collaboration with Everett Tassevigen, is a witty and artful photo-journal of a gin-infused mid-century housewife who bakes and frosts tit cakes in varied states of undress, ultimately re-enacting the surgeon’s work in a smeared frosting fishnet-stocking state of ecstasy. Women over 40 will appreciate the uncomfortable parallel as Cullar-Ledford’s housewife presses her breast flat in a Suzy Homemaker oven door. Her large-scale paintings also are powerful, especially FU Pink Shit, a montage of three smaller photos of the aforementioned tit cake, knife and fishnet hosiery, a painting of two very fresh surgical scars, and the angry graffiti words “Fuck Cancer” and “Pink Shit” interspersed with scissors, cut lines, arrows and X-marks. Similarly effective is Suck My Tits with the word “Suck” so loud it explodes off the canvas, and an angry X blotting out the word “Cancer.” Through April 28. 301 East 11th. 713-869-4770, ggalleryhouston.com. — ST
“MAAME” RedBud Gallery may house the coziest, most satisfying retrospective of a renowned artist showing in Houston now. The fact that it’s been 25 years since the last comprehensive exhibit of the work of John T. Biggers (1924-2001) alone makes it a noteworthy event. What makes it remarkable is the depth and variation conveyed in these masterfully imagined works, which sometimes seem widely varied in style but carry recurring themes and images, while reflecting the artist’s evolution from the 1940s into the new millennium. “MAAME”—an African word meaning “mother of mankind” — is at once homage to the divine feminine, slice of Americana and intimate reclaiming of culture, told in intricate, breathtaking detail in black and white lithographs, woodcuts, and colorful drawings and prints. Biggers’s work is both historical and strikingly relevant today; after all, he was creating art almost until his death. His portraits and skillful capturing of movement make work like “The Dancers” — shown in two versions, one of which is the only silkscreen print he ever produced — move in geometric shapes, starkly vibrant. In Appreciation (lithograph, 1964) is a portrait of one of his students, essentially a black Buddy Holly in realistic earnestness. Metamorphosis II (lithograph, 1992) abstracts the human form, layering multiple figures over each other like a blooming flower with cruder flowers peppering the background. However, it is The Return (colored lithograph, 1997), a bright print depicting multiple women and a shotgun house, that perhaps most fully encompasses the exhibition: The message of rediscovered identity in the African-American experience and bold artistic technique and careful details to transport the viewer as well. Through April 24. 303 East 11th, 713-862-2532, redbudgallery.com. — JJ
“The Nature of Forms,” “Intentionally Dirty” The current dual exhibitions at Nicole Longnecker Gallery — photographer Frank Sherwood White’s “The Nature of Forms” and Julian Lorber’s “Intentionally Dirty” — both illustrate the erosion of nature through thoughtful and captivating imagery, though the resemblance ends there. White plays with the shapes of rocks, often pitted and marred, seeing the curves of a human form and pairing those images with similarly shaped models. In about half of his pieces, he has placed a carefully lit subject out of the camera’s field of vision, then positioned a rough-edged glass near the curved rock, so that the human form is reflected. The results are sublime, especially in Pelvis, where the ghostly image of the model’s lap vanishes off the edge, bringing the viewer’s eye back to the strength of the curved stone. His Horizontal Torso demonstrates the ephemeral beauty of a reclining nude, so faint that she almost disappears, with the highly imperfect rock dominating the foreground. Lorber presents textured paintings that simulate the effects of pollution, with fine, powdery layers of “dust” nestling in the cracks and crevices. In almost all of his pieces, he has either placed layers of archival tape at different angles or poured a resin form to produce the same effect, creating dimensionality upon which his dust (airbrushed paint or soot) can rest. The result is appealing, as in his Torrential Amber at Dawn, morphing from brown to pale yellow to sun yellow and finishing with a tangerine orange. Also successful are his smaller pieces, especially the yellow-gray-pale mauve gradations of Somewhere it hides a well; the icy blue, gray and copper tones of Salt of the Earth; and the bronzed peach and amethyst of Untitled. Through April 25. 2625 Colquitt, 713-591-4997, longneckergallery.com. — ST
“New Work” Modern-day oil tankers and container ships serve as the subject matter for Jeff Jennings’s “New Work” exhibit at d.m. allison gallery, though the artist has captured these behemoths in their last moments of glory. After 25-30 years, these ships become uninsurable, are sold for salvage and often recycled in Bangladesh, India and China. Jennings traveled to Bangladesh to photograph the decommissioned ships for inspiration. Jennings has drawn in graphite longitudinal and latitudinal lines, then scribed the circle of a compass, and overlaid these cartographic reference points with accurate representations of these ships. The Muhammad Shah, with the tip of its stern removed, reflects hauntingly in the water alongside a ghostly sketch of a now-defunct ship. The cross-section of Joan of Arc reveals her many interior levels; the sole remaining life raft seems futile in view of the ship’s fate. Similar in style but formed into 40″ rounds are the Sabina #2, Louisa #2 and Thomas Wheeler #3; the latter is dissected with half its body resting lifeless on the water’s edge. In defiance of the ship-breakers’ assault, the Sabina #2 manages to stand majestic, tall and proud. The skies are always painted differently in each of Jennings’s pieces, and change their tone depending on the light. The oversize Vittoria portrays the sky as a yellow cyclonic wave, a foreshadowing of the ultimate demise for this already cavernous and partially dismantled vessel. The monochromatic The Elements #2, with its splotchy atmosphere of graphite and gouache, stands defenseless in her solitude. For this last moment, the ship is still intact and whole, but the fading propeller tells the story of the coming storm. Through April 25. 2709 Colquitt, 832-607-4378, dma-art.com. — ST
“Reverse Equation” Experience the cool, calming aquatic-inspired imagery of abstract painter Katherine Houston, then warm up your brain with the three-dimensional geometric mindscapes of math artist Michael Schultheis, both on display now in the exhibit “Reverse Equation” at Laura Rathe Fine Art. Schultheis plays with the concept of spherical geometry so that the edges of his compositions, which are theoretically closer to you, are full of action, while the further away centers are misty and sparse. His limaçons and cardioids — looped, dimpled and convex curves — float on equation-filled backgrounds of dusty, chalky blue and seafoam green. The environments in which these shapes live are attractive and highly energetic, perhaps evocative of other planetary realms. These floating limaçons seem to dance, interact and react to each other, sometimes flattening, merging, separating, intersecting, rotating or splitting apart. His mathematical equations represent more perfect versions of these geometric forms, though only visible within the mind’s eye, an intentional dimensionality by the artist. Katherine Houston’s reverse painting on acrylic technique is effective in Dreaming in Color, with its ghostly surface of white clouds, punctuated by a glowing turquoise form rising up from the mist. The points of a sub-surface triad begin to appear at the edges, in the east, south and west. Houston plays with depth in her nine-piece Cubes, with the varying thicknesses of the differently sized acrylic cubes adding contrast. As a whole, the piece seems to represent segmented microcosms of aquatic life. Depth also came into play with Gradation, a 15-segment joined piece that declines in height toward the center, then climbs back up again, much like our ocean floors. Through April 25. 2707 Colquitt. 713-527-7700, laurarathe.com. — ST
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.
