Friday, November 27, 2009

You and Me and Everybody We Know, new work by Susan Giller

Visual Art League of Lewisville is pleased to present "You and Me and Everybody We Know" new work by Dallas artist Susan Giller. Susan is an artist who loves many disciplines of art. Having devoted many years to figure drawing and clay sculpture she feels a close connection with the importance of self discovery in art making. Her first professional job in art was as a tapestry weaver with Scheur Tapestry Studio in Manhattan. There she made corporate tapestries for IBM, RJR Nabisco, Lakewood Wineries as well as private collectors. Her love of drawing developed during this time having the experience of attending the Art Students League, The School of Art and Design and Parsons School of Design, taking many drawing classes. In addition to teaching drawing and clay with the different schools in the area, she has worked with children and seniors on large scale mural installations. Susan shows her figurative clay sculpture at Goldesberry Gallery in Houston and participates in different shows in the area. In 2009, she was chosen for New Texas Talent through the Craighead Greene Gallery in Dallas Susan's exhibition at VAL "You and Me and Everybody We know" opens Saturday, December 5th with a reception at 7pm that is open to the public.


The Conversation

During these last years I have been absorbed with your relationships and my relationships and everybody we know relationships. The animal in man has been an ongoing obsession since I was a child. Viewing them much like seeing animals in the clouds. Somehow I am stuck on birds, cats and rabbit’s. They have come to represent you and me and everybody we know. I enjoy playing with many medias and love stepping over the boundaries of mixing them all together. The hot days of June and July this year found me scratching and sanding and drawing and scratching some more into the canvas. It was heaven and got me through the heat.


At The Gate

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Michel Letko @ RedBud Gallery

Although my trip to Houston was short, I saw this great exhibition by Michel Letko at the RedBud Gallery on 11th Street in the Heights. I felt as though I had stumbled across a science lab experiment that may have gone bad.









Right next door I met Dan Mitchell Allison who gave me a quick tour of the Texas Collaborative Arts Studio as well as a tour of his new gallery Naü-haus Gallery where Perry House's exhibition "Happyville" was on display.

From the Naü-haus Gallery website:
For Perry House the Happyville series is another version of Vanitas. "The neighborhoods are still-lifes in a way. They are in transition like everything in our lives." The traditional vanitas painting was popular in the Netherlands in the early 1600's and contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures.

In Perry House's latest body of work the colors are indeed joyful, there is plenty of perspective, with recognizable architectural elements not evident in earlier works even while the world and worldly things are floating away and the happiness precious but fleeting. (courtesy DMA Nau-haus 2009)

I also stopped by G Gallery next door to RedBud which featured a group exhibition titled "TRANSFUSION". This exhibition featured the new "Associate Professors" for the World Famous University of Houston School of Art. Artists include; Margarita Cabrera, Sculpture, Jillian Conrad, Sculpture, Abinadi Meza, Photography and Digital Media. Introduction by Sandra Zalman Professor of Art History

Planes, Trains, Autos, Boats & Bikes @ The Art Car Museum, Houston, Texas

Visited the 5th annual open exhibition at the Art Car Museum in Houston. This year's exhibition is titled "Planes, Trains, Autos, Boats & Bikes" and occupies all galleries through December 18th of this year.

The Art Car Museum is located at 140 Heights Blvd.
Hours: Wednesday thru Sunday 11am-6pm

This was my favorite group of works that includes L to R, works by Forrest Prince, Ann Harithas, Ron Hoover, with sculpture by Jim Robertson.

"Zipper Blues" by Jim Hatchett
This work is by my great new friend, Jim Hatchett, I hope to see more of Jim's work in the near future. "It's from a series loosely refered to as the" Desert Altars," inspired by trips to Big Bend", Jim Hatchett

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Natchitoches Art Guild Gallery

While in Natchitoches, Louisiana visiting this wonderful and beautiful town on the Cane River we wondered into the Natchitoches Art Guild Gallery. The most interesting and if I was an artist the most disgusting thing about this space was that there was probably about a thousand paintings and photographs stuffed into the space. There was so much tacked to the walls the work was invisible. The artist of the month was Jerry Sharplin and his work was outstanding. Being the artist of the month in this gallery meant that you could display maybe a dozen works on a four foot span of wall, however, it too was surrounded by the guild member's art.