Meredith "Butch" Jack: Playing in the Sandbox, Too

MEREDITH JACK PLAYING IN THE SANDBOX, TOO Nov 17, 2017–Jan 7, 2018

Meredith “Butch” Jack: Playing in the Sandbox, Too Essay by Pete Gershon Butch Jack is the secret weapon of Houston’s art community, a much-beloved sculptor’s sculptor in the tradition of James Surls, Jim Love, Ben Woitena, and Hannah Stewart. If he’s not as well-known as his contemporaries, it could be because of a spotty exhibition history, a dearth of newspaper profiles, or perhaps even an affable, low-key demeanor befitting his Midwestern background. An accomplished fabricator, iron-caster, and ceramicist, Jack landed in Houston in 1976 and for thirtythree years commuted almost daily to Beaumont where he taught sculpture and printmaking to successive generations of art students at Lamar University. You might not recognize his name, but just about every artist in Houston knows and respects his work. Richard Stout characterizes Jack’s art as “a collage of shapes, spaces, and attitudes…clean and informed by our time and culture. He’s an important part of the art making team in this city.”

pursuit,” he observes. “It looks like fun, so you try it, and it is fun, so you try it again.

The more you do, the better you get, the more fun it is, et cetera, to point where I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.”

Born in Kansas City in 1943, Jack grew up in rural Tonganoxie, twenty-five miles to the West. As a child, he traveled along with his contractor father, flying from job to job in their own light airplane. “By the time I had graduated from high school, I had seen some of the country and had a basic familiarity with metal forming and machining, carpentry, and concrete,” he wrote in an early artists’ statement. “I had no particular expertise, but the pattern was set that technologies weren’t mysterious, that there was a way to make anything and, most importantly, that I could assimilate those technologies. I had no barrier.”

Jack enrolled at the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1961 with a vague interest in history and the law, but he caught the art bug during his freshman year and never looked back. Graduate study at the Tyler “I really like Butch because he is a ‘no School of Art in Philadelphia (MFA, 1972) bullshit’ type of person,” says Emily Peacock, was followed by a short term of service who cast him as the protagonist’s widowed in Vietnam. Drafted in January 1969, he father in her 2016 film August. “He taught me continued to draw while specializing in how to weld at his studio. There was work communications as part of the 369th everywhere and he was making several Signal Battalion at the Ton San Nhut Air sculptures at the same time. It made me Base in Saigon. “I was the Southeast Asian realize what a dedicated artist Butch really equivalent of AT&T,” as he puts it. is. He gets up in the morning and has coffee Returning home in 1970, he found a teaching and a cigarette and makes art. It’s just what gig at a tiny outpost of the University of he does.”

Minnesota system. Soon weary of the harsh Playing in the Sandbox, Too shows off a Minnesotan winters, Jack researched the art different and quite unexpected side of Jack’s scenes in Austin and Dallas but determined artistic personality. A sequel to a 2010 solo that Houston’s possessed more of the show at Lamar’s Dishman Gallery, this vigor and intellectual rigor he sought. A exhibition offers site-specific conceptual series of small cast metal “Texas Fantasies” works, many of which incorporate systems presented in a handful of exhibitions at the of coded communication. “It bothers me Art League Houston, Galveston Arts Center, when an artist has a ‘one right way’ that and the O’Kane Gallery at the University of they never vary from,” says Jack, “whether Houston’s downtown campus announced it’s the material they use or the general idea his arrival in Space City, but just as often he behind what they’re doing.” The show’s title showed his work in such far-flung locales suggests a sense of risk-taking, exploration, as Charleston, South Carolina, Lincoln, and, of course, fun. “Art is a very addictive Nebraska, and Muncie, Indiana. In the years 2

and decades since, his abstracted work in iron, bronze, steel, clay, aluminum, and other media has occasionally been displayed at small commercial galleries, university art museums, and outdoor sculpture expos, a consistent if understated presence. “I might be the best sculptor in Houston you’ve never heard of,” he jokes.

The body of recent works on view in Lawndale’s O’Quinn Gallery takes coded communication as its unifying theme.

Developed in 1837 by painter and inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, Morse code represents alphanumeric characters with a series of dots and dashes. Typically, these are received as pulses of electric current relayed to an electromagnet in a straight key receiver, like the vintage model included in the show. In other pieces, the code is manifested with such everyday materials as driveway reflectors and Post-it notes. Often, wry humor is hidden in plain sight. The teeth on the blade of what appears to be an ordinary double-handled crosscut saw spell out the sentence “What do you think you saw?”

One of the oldest pieces on the show, Rosetta, presents President Dwight Eisenhower’s scarcely-heeded warning against the rise of the military-industrial complex in three parallel formats: written English text; in ASCII computer language; and in Morse code depicted in a grid of shaded boxes. “I came by my interest in Morse code honestly,” says Jack. “As a kid flying with my father, I’d listen to the LORAN navigation aids, where the voice announcements were followed by the same information in Morse code. Then I learned Morse code in the boy scouts….

When it came time to think about symbolic communication, it was all right there.”

The show’s centerpiece is a cyclone form rising from a five-foot welded metal base referencing the morphology of the brown recluse spider. The circular rings stacked to the gallery ceiling are castoff remnants of laminated particle board left over from Jack’s commercial concern, the fabrication of turntables for pottery wheels. The video

component, edited by Jack’s collaborator Prince Varughese Thomas, juxtaposes footage from Vietnam War film reels with clips from MGM’s 1939 musical fantasy The Wizard of Oz. In this context, Jack uses Judy Garland’s plaintive observation “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” to tell an autobiographical tale of a young art student from Kansas whisked away to the deadly battlefields of the Vietnamese countryside.

These large-scale installation pieces are more than a lark for a cast-metal fabricator looking to spread his wings and try something different. They position Jack neatly on the cutting edge of contemporary art world discourse. Compare Terra Infirma, the solo exhibition by London-based artist Mona Hatoum concurrently on view at the Menil Collection. Both shows use conceptually-layered sculptural works in a variety of media to tell a human story of life lived in a precarious world. Jack points out that he “was blowing glass grenades exactly like [Hatoum’s] back in 1981” and reminds us of how many regional artists have presaged the work of international superstars while toiling in obscurity.

“I think what this show is about is how information is able to be presented through various channels,” Jack remarks.

“Somewhere along the way I became aware of the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics and other methods for abstract communication. I saw the actual Rosetta Stone many years later in London.

Semaphores were a big thing in the Boy Scouts. I had seen the 1950’s TV series about naval warfare in World War II and the ‘blinkers’ for ship-to-ship communication.

There’s just all these various means for the transfer of info; how could I ignore all that? So, this show is an abstraction of an abstraction of information.

“People can do as much decoding as they’re willing to do,” Jack continues. “That’s the closest I can come to answers. I’m actually just trying to raise some questions.”

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Meredith Jack Playing in the Sandbox, Too Exhibition Checklist

“Six Kinds of Tough Shit”

by David Brown, 2017 Post-it® Notes Dimensions variable An Interrupted Conversation, 2017 Plastic panels with braille notation 16 x 14 x 14 inches (each) Plumb Loco, 2003 - 2017 Plumb-bob, string, wood 180 x 20 x 20 inches Three Wall Drawings of Dead Artists, 2017 Stamp, ink, masking tape 32 x 37 inches (each) From left to right: Bert Long, photographed

by Margaret Lowsinki Virgil Grotfeldt, photographed

by Deborah Grotfeldt Lee Littlefield, photographed

by Liza Littlefield Falling Rocks, 2010 - 2017 Granite and styrofoam Dimensions variable Equivalence, 2017 Aluminum tube, cotton hooded sweatshirt Dimensions variable Rosetta, 2017 Video projection, charcoal, telegraph sounder Dimensions variable Crosscut, 2010 Steel 11 x 96 inches Fasci for the Last 10 Presidents, 2017 Steel conduit, bicycle reflectors, steel, wood 130 x 26 x 26 inches 4

Caught in the Cyclone, 2017 Wood, steel, video projection, calcium carbonate 180 x 60 x 70 inches Video production by Prince V. Thomas Janice in Fibonacci, 2017 Labels Dimensions variable

Meredith Jack Playing in the Sandbox, Too

Meredith Jack was born in Kansas City, Kansas and grew up in the small, rural community of Tonganoxie, Kansas. His father was a construction contractor and the family business was involved with the construction and operation of grain storage facilities. He entered the University of Kansas in the fall of 1961 enrolled as a history major. After two years in the general education system he entered into the Bachelor of Fine Arts program in the Drawing and Painting Department. He graduated in 1967 with an emphasis in Printmaking. The next fall he enrolled as graduate student at Tyler School of Art, in Philadelphia, PA. and received the Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture in the spring of 1972. The next fall he accepted a teaching position at the University of Minnesota, Morris. In 1976 he relocated to Texas, settling in Houston after determining that neither Austin nor Dallas had the combination of art activity and intellectual climate that he was seeking. In 1977 he re-entered the teaching profession at Lamar University, where he is Emeritus Professor. He maintains his residence and studio in Houston.

Pete Gershon is the program coordinator for the Core Residency Program at the Glassell School of Art and was the founding publisher of Signal to Noise: the journal of improvised and experimental music from 1997 to 2013. He is also the author of Painting the Town Orange: The Stories Behind Houston’s Visionary Art Environments (History Press, 2013) and Collision: The Contemporary Art Scene in Houston, 1972-1985 (Texas A&M University Press, fall 2018). Gershon currently serves as Chair of Lawndale’s Programming Committee.

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Meredith Jack Curriculum Vitae

Education 1972 1967

MFA, Sculpture, Tyler School of Art/Temple University Philadelphia, PA BFA, Drawing & Printmaking, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Employment Emeritus Professor, Sculpture & Printmaking, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX Selected Exhibitions 2017 Texas Sculpture Group 2017: Profusion in the Void, Artspace 111, Ft. Worth, TX 2016 Beneath the Surface: Meredith Jack & Devon Christopher Moore, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, Houston, TX If I Knew What It Looked Like, I Wouldn’t Have Made It, Beeville Art Museum, Beeville, TX * SculpTour, North First Street, Abilene, TX 2015 May the Rainbow Always Touch Your Shoulder, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, Houston Love Street – The Houston Scene, City Hall, Houston, TX Eye Candy, Spring Street Studios, Houston, TX 2014 Texas Sculpture Group 2014: A Panoramic View, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX The Beat’n Trail, Alliance Gallery, Houston Arts Alliance, Houston, TX Transitions, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, Houston, TX 2013 Circular Logic and Other Things, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX In-DEPTH: Texas Sculpture Group Exhibition, Art Car Museum, Houston, TX, 2012 Meredith Jack: Back in Black, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX * Diverse Things, Mark A. Chapman Gallery, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS * 2011 Intersecting Impulses, Williams Tower, Houston, TX Texas Atomic Iron Commission, Dishman Museum, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX Texas Atomic Iron Commission, Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, TX Texas Atomic Iron Commission, Texas Woman's University, Denton, TX 2010 Meredith Jack, Wagner-Sousa Modern Art, Galveston, TX * Playing in the Sandbox, Dishman Museum, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX * 6

2009 Transparent/Translucent, University of Texas Art Gallery Museum, San Antonio, TX Texas Atomic Iron Commission, Texas Sculpture Symposium, San Angelo, TX Iron Pour Blood, Quarter Gallery, Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 2008 Meredith Jack, Wagner-Sousa Fine Art, Galveston, TX * Past & Present, Humanities Fine Arts Gallery, University of Minnesota, Morris, MN 2007 IronTribe, Burris Hall Art Gallery, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, NM Art on the Green, Kemp Center for the Arts, Wichita Falls, TX 2006 Iron-06, Iron Gorge Museum, Telford, Shropshire, England Virgil Grotfeldt and Meredith Jack, Art Museum of the Permian Basin, Odessa, TX 2005 Meredith Jack, Art Car Museum, Houston, TX * Contemporary Cast Iron, National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, TN 2004 Hot Topic: A Contemporary Invitational, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, NE Outdoor Group Exhibit, Sloss Furnaces National Landmark, Birmingham, AL 2003 And Now for Something Completely Different, RAW Space, Houston, TX Mass In Between Void, Poissant Gallery, Houston, TX Gallery Artists, Galerie Luca, Zaltbommel, NL 2002 Meredith Jack: Recent Sculpture, Dakota Lofts, Houston, TX * 2300 Degrees/2002, Grounds for Sculpture, Mercerville, NJ HIP, University of Minnesota, Morris, MN 2001 Meredith Jack and Virgil Grotfeldt, Galerie Luca, Zaltbommel, NL Outdoor Sculpture, North Harris College, Houston, TX 2000 Minatures, Hooks-Epstein Gallery, Houston, TX Houston Sculpture 2000, First City Plaza, Houston, TX 1999 Meredith Jack, Weekend Gallery, Houston, TX * Small Ironies, University of Minnesota Studio Arts Gallery, Minneapolis, MN

* indicates solo exhibition

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Meredith Jack Curriculum Vitae, cont.

1998 Cast in Iron, Grounds for Sculpture, Mercerville, NJ 32nd Annual National Drawing & Small Sculpture Show, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1997 Meredith Jack, San Antonio College, San Antonio, TX * Meredith Jack, Weekend Gallery, Houston, TX * 1996 Sculpture Visions, North Harris College, Houston, TX Group exhibition, Midtown Art Center, Houston, TX 1995 Reflexes & Reflections, 1727 S. Indiana Gallery, Chicago, IL Seen from Above & Beyond, Weekend Gallery, Houston, TX * 1994 Outdoor Sculpture, Buffalo Bayou Art Park, Houston, TX Texas Selections from the Collection of the Art Museum of SE Texas, Dishman Museum, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 1993 27th Annual National, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX Houston Sculptors, North Harris College, Houston, TX 1992 Our Fragile Environment, Dougherty Art Center, Austin, TX Meredith Jack, Art League of Houston, Houston, TX * 1991 Angelic Enlightenment, Judy Youens Gallery, Houston, TX Dishman Competition, Dishman Art Gallery, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 1990 Another Reality, McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX 24th National Drawing & Small Sculpture, Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1989 Meredith Jack, Art League of Houston, Houston, TX Another Reality, Hooks-Epstein Gallery, Houston, TX Another Reality, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR 1988 Pumping Art, Anderson & Anderson Gallery, Minneapolis, MN The Art of Cast Iron: Contemporary Sculpture, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 1987 A Celebration of Texas Art and Artists, Art Registry of Texas, Houston, TX Pumping Art, Anderson & Anderson Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 8

Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts, West Bend, WI Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, Richard F. Brush Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY Discoveries in Sculpture '87, Museum of East Texas, Lufkin, TX 1986 Cast Iron: Art & Industry, Museum of Decorative Metals, Memphis, TN Two Person Exhibit, Longview Museum & Art Center, Longview, TX Meredith Jack, Artigiani Galleries, Houston, TX 1985 Propaganda, Midtown Art Center, Houston, TX East End Show, Lawndale Annex, Houston, TX Networking '85, Robinson Galleries, Houston, TX Networking '85, Edinborough International Festival, Edinborough, Scotland Networking '85, McLarin Gallery, Ayr, Scotland Networking '85, Main Fine Arts Gallery, Mayfest, Glasgow, Scotland 1984 Introductions ‘84, Robinson Gallery, Houston, TX Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, The Armory, Burlington, NC Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, Memorial Gallery, Albany, NY 1983 Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum, Austin, TX Outdoor Sculpture, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, TX 1982 Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, 720 Dearborn St., Chicago, IL Celebration of Texas Sculpture, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 1981 Impressions of Houston, O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston - Downtown, Houston, TX Landscape Sculpture, Sheldon Memorial Art Museum Lincoln, NE Invitational Exhibition, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, TX 1980 Two person exhibit, O'Kane Gallery, University of Houston - Downtown, Houston, TX Two person exhibit, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC 1978 Biennial Texas Invitational, Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, TX National Small Sculpture Exhibit, Ball State University, Muncie, IN 1977 20th Delta Art Exhibit, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AK Dimension 12, Art League of Houston, Houston, TX * indicates solo exhibition

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Meredith Jack Curriculum Vitae, cont.

1976 Midwestern Biennial, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE 17th Midwestern Invitational, Roarke Gallery, Fargo, ND 1975 37th Annual Exhibit, Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA Minnesota State Annual, St. Paul, MN 1974 11th International Art Show, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba , Canada Meredith Jack, Southwest Minnesota State College, Marshall, MN * 1973 Meredith Jack, University of Minnesota, Morris, MN * Minnesota State Annual, St. Paul, MN 1972 Two Person Exhibit, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA 1969 4th Annual Juried Exhibit, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ 8th Award Sculpture Show, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA 1968 Design '68, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA 7th Award Sculpture Show, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA 1967 National Student Printmakers Exhibit, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Design '67, Cheltenham Art Center, Cheltenham, PA 1966 13th Designer-Craftsman Exhibit, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS Public Collections Houston International Airport, Houston, TX Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX DelMar College, Corpus Christi, TX Lamar University, Beaumont, TX University of Minnesota, Morris, MN Compaq Computer Inc., Houston, TX Texas Eastern Incorporated, Houston, TX First Fidelity Savings, Groves, TX

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* indicates solo exhibition

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Major support for Lawndale Art Center programming is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation, Houston Endowment, the John P. McGovern Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and The Wortham Foundation, Inc.

Lawndale Art Center 4912 Main Street Houston, Texas 77002

www.lawndaleartcenter.org