clear view

photos from Helen Altman's latest exhibition at Talley Dunn Gallery.

Latest installation of wire birds.  Helen has started using manzanita branches for perches.

Coconut Palm, 2013, acrylic on paper, 42 x 29 3/4 inches

Coyote Looking Back, 2013, torch drawing on paper, 30 x 22 1/2

Helen Altman: clear view
June 8 - July 27, 2013
Talley Dunn Gallery

MOODY GALLERY

HELEN ALTMAN

HALF-LIFE

SEPT 10 - OCT 15, 2011

RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST

SATURDAY SEPT 17 6-8 PM

 

 

Line of Fire, 2011, acrylic on wall, flicker flame bulbs, misc. elements, 119 x 123 x 10

 
This exhibition follows the exhibition Floater that was on view at Moody Gallery in 2007. The work featured in Half-Life includes a wall installation of torch drawings, tree paintings in acrylic on paper, moving blankets, and burnt dictionary pages that illustrate an array of animals. Also on view is a wall painting of a beaver dam with flicker flame bulbs, as well as snow globes with cast plastic forms of the World Trade Center Towers, and cast plastic goldfish in water. Some of the works included in Half-Life were also on view in the exhibition Tree Line at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont in the spring of 2011.
 
Helen states- "Many of my works use commonplace materials and objects. I respond to readymade objects that are often discarded or flawed in some obvious way. Alterations in these familiar things elevate them and draw parallels to our own human predicament.

I am also interested in mimics and replicas. It is a happy moment for me when I can create objects that are simultaneously convincing and yet blatantly absurd in their obvious artificiality."

Helen Altman's work has been exhibited in numerous museum exhibitions. Selected solo exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Glassell School of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Grace Museum, Abilene. Selected group exhibitions include the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the Old Jail Art Center, Albany; the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas; and the Chelsea Art Museum, New York. Her work is also included in the permanent collections of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

Half-Life is on view at Moody Gallery from September 10 through October 15, 2011. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, September 17 from 6-8 pm.

MOODY GALLERY 2815 Colquitt Houston, TX 77098
Gallery Hours: Tues-Fri 10:30-5:00, Sat 11:00-5:00
713-526-9911
http://www.moodygallery.com/

Helen Altman at Talley Dunn Gallery

Stacey and I stopped by Talley Dunn on Saturday July 9th to see Helen's lastest exhibition.  The torch drawing installation was wonderful.  It was not overwhelming and we enjoyed standing back from the work and trying to not miss a single drawing.   Stacey likes the owls, I like 2 large deer drawings and we both liked the jack rabbits.

In the foyer for the small gallery where the torch drawings are installed were a handful of wire birds and set of paintings of trees on paper. 

Fountains

From top:
Helen Altman, Niagra,  water fountain, cast resin and miscellaneous objects
Jaume Plensa, Crown Fountain Public Art Video Installation
Bruce Nauman, 3 Heads Fountains;  "3 Andrews" and "Juliet, Andrew, Rinde", epoxy resin and fiberglass heads wired together

Moody Gallery at the Dallas Art Fair

Had a chance to visit with Better, Lee and Clint Wilbour at Moody Gallery on Saturday morning.  Moody featured most or all of their artists.  

 On the wall, Helen Altman works on paper and Michael Kennaugh - center

 Al Sousa art on the wall and David Ireland sculptures on the shelf.

Jim Love

Tree Line by Helen Altman

Tree Line, organized by the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, features the work of Fort Worth-based artist Helen Altman. The exhibition includes Altman’s torch drawings, tree paintings on paper, packing blanket works, snow globes, and goldfish pieces among others. Altman’s work centers mainly on mimicry and replication, and the themes that surface in her works include separation, loneliness and overcrowding, individuality and loss of identity.

Opening Reception Friday, April 15th 6 to 8pm

Exhibition through July 10th

Art Museum of Southeast Texas
500 Main Street
Beaumont, Texas

Beasts and Bunnies

2011 will begin with the most anticipated exhibition to see, for me, in a long time. Don't miss this exhibition!

Opening Reception - Saturday, January 8th 5:30pm - 7:30pm @
The MAC
3120 McKinney Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75204

Helen Altman, Frances Bagley, Celia Eberle, Margaret Meehan: Beasts and Bunnies
Beasts and Bunnies is a group exhibition that investigates the phenomenon of four artists’ crossed aesthetic paths involving animals literally and conceptually as subject matter. The exhibition features an installation titled Call and Response.

Animals have appeared in varying cultures, religions, mythologies, literature, art and entertainment throughout history. This project will bring together four artists to investigate “the animal” both literally and metaphorically. Helen Altman, Frances Bagley, Celia Eberle, and Margaret Meehan have all worked using animal imagery before and share a similar sensibility. Through sculpture, painting, photography, works on paper and video these artists each push and prod at the boundaries between nature and culture as well as the assumed distance between animal and human behavior.

As a group, they will look at the symbolism of the animal body and the tension between wild and domesticated. Using critical reflections on social and gender issues, the exhibition will cause the viewer to look deeper at what is “animal” and consequently at their own human nature.

Helen Altman lives and works in Ft. Worth, Texas. Altman earned her MFA from the University of North Texas, Denton, in 1989. Frances Bagley lives and works in Dallas, Texas and received her MFA from The University of North Texas, Denton.

Frances Bagley’s work is included in museum and corporate collections including The Dallas Museum of Art, The El Paso Museum and the National Museum of Women in Washington D.C.

Celia Eberle's professional record spans over twenty years with work that has frequently garnered critical attention. In 2007 she completed a residency in sculpture at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her work can be found in the Dallas Museum of Art and numerous private collections.

Margaret Meehan has exhibited across Texas and the United States. Meehan is currently living and working out of Austin, Texas. Her drawings and sculpture-based installations derived from 19th c. daguerreotypes let the innocent collide with the monstrous, evoking race, gender, and empathy for otherness.

Exhibition run through February 12th

Spotted Deer @ The Grace Museum

The Grace Museum is proud to present Helen Altman: Spotted Deer.

This exclusvie exhibition features the artists most recent torch drawings, hand woven wire birds and printed blankets inspired by the fragility of nature. Altman's statement, "It is a happy moment for me when I can create objects that are simultaneously convincing and yet blatantly absurd in their obvious artificiality" supports her signature combination of masterful technique and common place materials. The exhibition affords a view of the balance of nature as fragile and impermanent and yet well worth our effort to nurture and preserve.

The Grace Museum
102 Cypress Street
Abilene, TX 79601
Phone: 325-673-4587
Email: info@thegracemuseum.org

Helen Altman installation photos from DCKT

Photos from DCKT Contemporary Art in New York.

Helen Altman at DCKT, New York

DCKT Contemporary presents HELEN ALTMAN’s solo exhibition of mixed media works. ALTMAN explores notions of reality versus artificiality in everyday life. Her interest in mimicry and replicas results in objects that are convincing and sincere while simultaneously absurd in their obvious artificiality. ALTMAN's Goldfish is a 45 gallon aquarium filled with a multitude of individual cast plastic fish. The faux goldfish in the “feeder tank,” as well as several goldfish bowls on view, address concepts of individuality, loss of identity, overcrowding, separation and loneliness.


Lotus Bed consists of lotus leaf skulls on top of a chenille bedspread with cocoons sewn on. The skulls resemble something an insect would make and the cocoons mimic wasp eggs sometimes laid on living caterpillars that serve as the host for the growing wasp larvae. Here, the bedspread itself (“chenille” translates from French as “caterpillar”) serves as host. The bed becomes a victim and the stand-in for the absent sleeper. With Weeping Iron, a dialogue between an inanimate object and the missing user is created. A clothes iron sits in an empty laundry basket atop a pile of wrinkled clothing. The iron is in fact a working fountain, weeping as if trapped and overwhelmed by an extraordinary task which it cannot complete.

Also on view will be a selection of ALTMAN’s torch drawings and wire birds.

ALTMAN’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Recent solo exhibitions include the Galveston Arts Center, Dunn and Brown Contemporary (Dallas) and Moody Gallery (Houston). Recent group exhibitions include Walter Maciel Gallery (Los Angeles), University of North Texas Art Gallery (Denton) and the Chelsea Art Museum (New York).
The exhibition will be on view at

DCKT Contemporary, 195 Bowery (at Spring Street).

Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11am – 6pm; Saturday, noon – 6pm; Sunday, noon – 5pm.

Helen Altman

Upcoming Helen Altman exhibition at DCKT in New York
"Greetings from Home" opens February 20th


Goldfish, 2009
cast plastic, epoxy, lead weights, monofilament line, 45 gallon aquarium & stand, distilled water
57 x 37 x13"

Niagara

One of my favorite Helen Altman sculptures "Niagara".

Pinky Diablo at VAL Fundraiser, Friday night October 3rd.

Pinky Diablo painted and painted and entertained at the annual VAL fundraiser.

Elaine Neinkamp with her original Pinky that she won during the raffle.

VAL Annual Fundraiser: October 3rd & 4th

Pinky Diablo, "Death Comes to the BOA", 2008, watercolor - collection of BS

On October 3rd, between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, the Visual Art League of Lewisville will be commencing its fourth annual fundraiser. As in previous years, VAL will be offering donated, original artworks for sale, all for under $50.00. Most of these works will be the products of VAL members generously given to help support and maintain our gallery. We have been proud that we have one of the finest, non-profit gallery spaces in North Texas. The cost of rental and utilities for this space has been underwritten by city grant but, like most arts organizations today, we are being asked to carry a larger share of our expenses. Our annual fundraiser is our primary effort at raising these funds. To begin this year’s fundraiser we will be shaking things up by raffling works created specifically for VAL and largely on site by regionally known artist and eminent zoologist Pinky Diablo (AKA: Tom Sale). Pinky will be producing art during the event and is open to suggestions (within reason and propriety) offered by those in attendance. A required entry fee of $5.00 will give each attendee the opportunity to win a framed “Pinky” of their choice. Drawings will be held 5 times during the evening, starting at 6:30pm and repeated every 30 minutes through 8:30pm. All of Pinky’s pieces remaining after 8:30 will be available for purchase (unframed) between $35.00 and $50.00 each. The fundraiser will recommence on Saturday, the 4th (without Pinky), and run from 11:00 to 6:00pm. All proceeds will go to supporting the Visual Art League of Lewisville. All art lovers are invited. (Contributed by Bruce Schiefelbein)

The Houston Chronicle

I now know that Helen's egg boxes in the picture above were all lost to the flood waters. Tracy's work survived the disaster.

lonely at the top

After climbing his way to the top the giraffe did not want to relinquish his newly found power knowing it could crumble at any time.

Tracy Hicks' and Helen Altman's opening reception in Galveston

Helen's "Circle of Friends"

Tracy Hicks

Helen Altman's work

Over 700 people attended the opening reception on Saturday night August 23rd at the Galveston Arts Center. I could not be more happy for 2 of the most deserving artists working today. I would love to see Tracy have a major retrospective of his work, including the work that first attracted me to his art in 1991.

Galveston Arts Center

Beginning August 23rd The Galveston Arts Center will have solo exhibitions by 2 artists which I have enjoyed and respected for many many years. There is a 10 year survey of Helen Altman's work "Natural Concerns" and Tracy Hicks' global warming series opens the same day. The exhibition runs through October 5th. Can't wait!