Keith Sonnier: “Selected Works 1994-2004”

“Keith Sonnier: Selected Works 1994-2004” suggests the artist was parked inside a garage for ten years. The collection includes mixed-media sculptures that incorporate neon lights and items you might find in your car hole. This fits right in with his MO: Sonnier was part of the Process Art Movement, which treated the preconstruction process — collecting, sorting and associating materials — as a ritual.

In the wall-hung sculpture Tisket-A-Tasket (Tidewater Series), plastic bottles of detergent, household cleaner and oil are attached to the outside of a yellow laundry basket with a blue light twisting out of the side. The towering Dauralde Abri (Abri Series) leans against the wall and is made of ladders, wire shelving, plastic cases and boxes, with two wavy green lights extending from its top to its bottom. Other pieces follow suit with more plastic bottles, wire-fence netting, plastic bowls, rusted metal boxes and Sonnier’s signature neon lights. (He was one of the first to use neon in sculptures in the ‘60s.) See your garage clutter in a whole new light from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Through December 6. Texas Gallery, 2012 Peden. For information, call 713-524-1593 or visit www.texgal.com. Free.

Tuesdays-Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: Oct. 23. Continues through Dec. 6, 2008

This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2008.