For 30 years running, The Big Show at Lawndale has been treating Houston to an exceptional collection of local works in an effort to entice art lovers and put the spotlight on undiscovered artists. This year's efforts continue the tradition of offering beautiful artwork from a variety of mediums.
The show, which opened on Friday night, features 115 different works from 106 different artists. The selection was juried this year by Erin Elder, the visual art director of Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe. Elder had her work cut out for her. A total of 981 works were submitted by 382 different artists. They don't call it "The Big Show" for nothing. The exhibition is certainly large and widely varied. I was hard-pressed to find any two artists whose work overlapped in style, which I appreciated.
If there were any common themes, it may have been the idea of the "selfie," which showed up in several pieces. It's odd to think about the "self-portrait" taking on a more technological viewpoint, since it is as old as art itself. It's difficult to even express the difference between the traditional self-portrait and the "selfie," save linguistics. The selfie just feels more egotistical in some respects. Whether this was intended by the artists of The Big Show or not, it felt that way.
Kia Neill's photo montage "Selfiempowerment," for example, is a picture of the artist (presumably) in digital form. Her eyes and forehead are covered by what can only be described as a heavily made-up rendering. Her eyes, adorned with neon blue coloring, look as if she has just stepped out of some dystopian future. The layering of facial images gives her the appearance of scars, which makes the image strikingly disturbing.
John Slaby's oil painting Selfie, similarly, tends toward narcissism. A superbly rendered lifelike piece, it shows the artist as a never-ending continuum. The image of his face covered by a cell phone repeats over and over and over, like a mirror looking at another mirror. It is quite commanding as an illustration of society's newly found love with pictures of itself.
In terms of commonalities in mediums, multiple artists incorporate found objects into their work, a trend that's been growing in contemporary art in the past few years. I love found pieces as a part of something new. It's a way to mesh timeworn objects with the present and in doing so can give the impression of a connection to the past. An example of this, and perhaps my favorite piece in the show, is Torie Shelton's "Wonder & Curiosity." Shelton has placed various "curios" in a large antique cabinet. The objects, some found and some created, are otherworldly. In addition to glass baubles and such, Shelton has created merged-animals from felt. There is a bat/deer, a kangaroo/giraffe and, the one I wanted to steal, a frog/hippo, aptly named a "frippo." The entire piece is as fantastical as it is engaging.
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