Bryan Wheeler: The Souls of Texans Are In Jeopardy In Ways Not
Common To Other Men These nine works by Bryan Wheeler, the younger
of the Wheeler Brothers who curate the annual “Ulterior Motifs” show in
Lubbock, display the lexicon of motifs that folks instantly recognize
as the Texan’s signature: vast Western landscapes peppered with
fast-food joints, swimming pools, diving jetliners, fish and cheesecake
T&A. They’re the surreal fever dreams of a sexually aroused art
student unleashed in the realm of Salvador Dalí and armed with a
box of crayons and stencils stolen from Jasper Johns. Wheeler uses
fields of acrylic stripes to juxtapose his network of images and text,
giving the mixed-media works a trippy optical effect that bolsters the
surreal content, like a pop-cultural bric-a-brac cabinet viewed under
the influence of psychedelics. G Gallery says these are brand-new
works, though some, I swear, are about five years old. Wheeler’s work
is engaging, funny and strangely troubling, but I wish he’d work with a
new inspirational palette — or at least start eating at new
restaurants. Whether it’s Sonic, Arby’s or McDonald’s, it’s beginning
to taste like the same old buns and meat. Through May 25. 301 E 11th
St., 713-869-4770. — TS
“Casual Encounters” Named after the infamous Craigslist
category, this show explores the dangerous, ugly and surreal world that
exists just on the other side of that risky line one crosses when
placing or answering such an ad. From Derek Albeck’s flawless graphite
portraits of hapless, stoned fools to Will Boone’s large-scale Xerox
prints of actual dead bodies, there’s a creepy, desperate cautionary
tale being played out in Domy Books’s little gallery. Patrick Griffin’s
documentary photographs capture street scenes of graffiti and altered
signage in which the urban environment appears to display its abused
soul. French contributes a series of prints depicting iconography in
the medieval/heavy-metal vein, the kind of content that might attract
one’s wildest dream/worst nightmare casual encounter on Craigslist.
Local street artist Give Up had a hand in putting this show together.
His darkly haunting, nihilistic imagery is here, too, but I still wish
he’d contribute something more substantial to gallery shows instead of
the same posters you see on the street. Maybe I should just give up.
Through June 6. 1709 Westheimer, 713-523-3669. —
TS
Round 30: Home. Space. Place. The latest installations at
Project Row Houses focus on the idea of home and its significance to
cultural identity. Some explore the Third Ward neighborhood literally,
such as Gregory Michael Carter’s Walk with me…, which contains
a glassed-in convenience store window outfitted with an old cash
register, tobacco advertisements and a tongue-in-cheek Xerox sheet of
famous African-American mugshots. The window is juxtaposed against a
turbulent room of maze-like patterns on the walls, English fox-hunt
wallpaper and various ephemera. Lance Flowers uses his Project Row
Houses turn to display his urban-iconography-inspired artwork and
supplements the installation with a coat of bright orange paint,
photographs and a foreboding pile of junk TVs littered with unopened
bottles of cheap “champagne” — an ironic comment on the class
status of urban art. Other standouts include Lisa Qualls’s Spirit
Level, an elegant work that divides the room with clotheslines.
From them hang white garments printed with portraits of their assumed
wearers. And Rashida Ferdinand’s Lullaby breaks the Greenwood
King house into separate spaces of color, image, text and texture that
convey memories of the artist’s grandmothers. Ferdinand inexplicably
leaves one space blank. Perhaps it’s to imply the emptiness of loss or
the solace of knowing one’s way home. Through June 21. 2521 Holman,
713-526-7662. — TS
This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.