LAWNDALE ART CENTER ARTIST STUDIO PROGRAM 2016-2017
RANDI LONG MELINDA LASZCZYNSKI
Randi Long, Fecific Spuckups (installation view), 2017
SARAH WELCH
WITH ESSAYS BY LAUREN ROSENBLUM PHOTOGRAPHY BY RONALD L. JONES
4912 Main Street | Houston, Texas 77002 | 713.528.5858 www.lawndaleartcenter.org | © Lawndale Art Center, 2017
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INTRODUCTION
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RANDI LONG
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MELINDA LASZCZYNSKI
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SARAH WELCH
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ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
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SPECIAL THANKS
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EXHIBITION PHOTOS
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or nearly 40 years, Lawndale has served as a catalyst for the creative expression of Houston- and Texas-based artists. Critical to this effort is Lawndale’s Artist Studio Program. Established in 2006, the Artist Studio Program nurtures the artistic practices and professional development of three artists annually by offering a nine-month honorarium, a project stipend, 24-hour access to a private studio space, networking opportunities, and a culminating exhibition in the spring. The Artist Studio Program is vital not only to Lawndale’s mission of supporting artists but also to the Houston community. This year, Lawndale welcomed three remarkable young artists—with wildly divergent artistic practices—as our 2017-2018 Artist Studio Program participants: Melinda Laszczynski, Randi Long, and Sarah Welch. Lawndale further welcomed the participation of Lily Cox-Richard as Artist Studio Program Director and special thanks are due to Lily for her efforts in coordinating the participants and their exhibition and publication, entitled Temporary Havens. This year, Lawndale was thrilled to engage Dean Daderko, Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as guest curator of Temporary Havens, and Lauren Rosenblum, Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as essayist for the accompanying publication. We are grateful to Dean and Lauren for their thoughtful and skilled contributions to the exhibition and publication—the first-ever Artist Studio Program exhibition to engage an outside curator and writer. The publication is, in and of itself, a first and we are grateful to designer Kayla E. and to printer James Beard for their contributions to this project. The Artist Studio Program would not be possible without the support of many individuals. Lawndale is particularly grateful to Kathrine G. McGovern and The John P. McGovern Foundation, as well as to the Board of Directors and staff for their contributing efforts to this vital program.
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Stephanie Mitchell, Executive Director
he residents in Round 11 of Lawndale’s Artist Studio Program create new visions, sounds, and ideas that will change the way you experience the world around you. Through Sarah’s prints, drawings, hand-drawn animations, and a newly created comic book that explores the nearfuture in an ecologically disrupted Gulf Coast; Melinda’s expansive, gestural installation of playfully perverse, glittery and gritty abstract paintings and sculptures enlivened with video; and Randi’s household items and refuse wired together to produce explosive sound, as well as quieter collages and scores that synthesize the act of looking and listening, these artists invent worlds for us to enter, explore, inhabit, and enjoy.
Fecific Spuckups (detail of platform), 2017
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n each of the three stages, Randi Long’s sound sculptures stand poised —simultaneously ready to be played and recuperating from the previous cathartic release of droning sound. On one, an amp hums with a continuous, soft monotone that belies the sonorous power of it in action and provides a soundtrack for viewing. On another, a silent, silver sculpture stares upward into space. When the artist turns it on, the severed fan begins spinning like a turntable, the needle circles uncertainly around an incised wooden disc, and amplified sound waves move through the cylindrical acoustic horn made of a disassembled and reconstituted trashcan. It has a low, dark sound that feels like an overwhelming grumble in the bottom of the chest.
Dean Daderko, Guest Curator 05
“I THINK THAT THE OBJECTS WEAR THEIR PERFORMANCE, THEIR DEGRADATION, AND THEIR MANIPULATION.”
Above Fecific Spuckups (details) 2017 Right Fecific Spuckups (earplugs available) 2017
Long hijacks found and household objects, here a trashcan, a vacuum, a bicycle wheel, record sleeves from the 1960s, a gas mask, and a garage-door opener, to make what could be called either instrumental sculptures or sculptural instruments. She likes that they appear to have a certain amount of wobbliness, yet are reliable. She says, “The more structurally sound they get, the less interesting I think they are.” Their impressive stature rests in this tension between the appearance of instability and proven auditory function. The artist turns on a motor, the wood disc starts turning quickly and haphazardly, and noise echoes through the metal horn. With each use, elements shift and loosen. She notes, “When I start straightening this part, that part gets really weird. So I straighten that out, and this gets real weird again. The tinkering and adjusting feel authentic to the life of these structures within the gallery. I think that the objects wear their performance, their degradation, and their manipulation.” 06
The sculptures take on as much of a life as she pushes them to hold and she is driven to bring them to the brink of failure. So much so, that the artist wonders if the otherwise explosive sculptures are in fact dead when they are not being played. -Lauren Rosenblum -Lauren Rosenblum
What it Feels Like (detail), 2017
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Fecific Spuckups (detail), 2017
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entral to Melinda Laszczynski’s installation is a network of paintings and objects brought together by a meandering, spray-painted line in a color called Sparkling Canyon. This path is littered with numerous sculptures: discarded jewelry draped over folded, opalescent mylar and a severed My Little Pony attached to a plastic foot. Paintings line the painted trail. Many are layered with strata of bold acrylic paint. They are thickly impastoed paintings scraped back to reveal an embedded advertisement or more sparkles. The artist says that she is interested in the ways paintings can have multiple spaces within. They have titles drawn from lyrics of 1990s pop songs from the artist’s childhood, such as the Mariah Carey songs “Heartbreaker” and “Dreamlover,” and the Janet Jackson song “What Have You Done For Me Lately.” 09
in a light blue field. Its limbs stretch outward towards the four corners and, in places, are enveloped by dusty-gray shadows. It takes on a bodily presence, a skin-like coloration with the folds and wrinkles that come with aging. It is unburdened by the societal pressures of keeping up appearances and enjoys the clear blue sky.
What it Feels Like, 2017
“[LASZCZYNSKI] WANTS THE VIEWER TO EXPLORE HER PAINTINGS LIKE THEY ARE EXPLORING THEIR OWN IDEAS AND SENSES.� However, the painting What It Feels Like has a flat surface and purposefully awkward, queasy coloration. The surface holds a curtain of rainbow glitter. When shifting from side to side in front of the panel, the glitter appears to cascade in all directions: green shifts to yellow and then red, blue becomes green and sometimes orange and then red then back again. Small bits of thicker, black paint interrupt the otherwise flat surface and create brief moments of visual hesitation. Through this iridescent veil, a tan bulbous form floats with-
Sparkling Canyon (detail), 2017
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This painting’s title is the repeated whisper-shout refrain in the song “The Great Collapse” from the Nine Inch Nails album Things Fall Apart (2000). Laszczynski listened to this band a lot in high school, a time also filled with angst. This distant but familiar feeling gained new relevance as the artist worked on the painting after the 2017 presidential election. Yet, she wants the viewer to explore her paintings like they are exploring their own ideas and senses.
“[THE WORK] IS UNBURDENED BY THE SOCIETAL PRESSURES OF KEEPING UP APPEARANCES AND ENJOYS THE CLEAR BLUE SKY.”
-Lauren Rosenblum -Lauren Rosenblum
Materials list for Sparkling Canyon (detail), 2017
Apply, Reapply (animation still), 2017
Scan for Music to Get Through
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arah Welch’s comic, Holdouts takes place in a not-so-distant future. Two friends, Lee and Sebastian, are living on the Gulf Coast that has become a hinterland with no government oversight or utilities, and among the few people that remain. In this world, no work had been done to prevent climate change: the sea level is rising, the coast is eroding, there are frequent flooding events, and the temperature is increasing. Lee and Sebastian’s bodies burn from both these conditions and the lotions that are purported to protect them. The story follows the pair over the course of one harrowing day, during which rainwaters encroach upon their houses and the escape vehicle puts them in equal danger of drowning. Ultimately, they have to decide on whether or not to stay, considering the challenges of this difficult life and the fading memory of a home they once knew. 13
“WELCH CREATES THIS WORLD OF SCIENCE FICTION NOW ACCUSTOMED TO THE NEW, VERY REAL ECOLOGICAL ORDER IN HOUSTON THAT FLOODS AND HEATS TO NEW EXTREMES.” 14
It Was Nice...While it Lasted (risograph take-away print), 2017
Welch illustrates a verdant world overflowing with lush foliage. Her characters are rendered in green and gold, as if wearing camouflage that binds them to the landscape from which they are so physically alienated. Her reading room installation is equally as monochromatic and brings a drawn world into a lived space. A bench stands at the center of the room as a place for reading and for staring out the window onto a Houston street and a Chevron station. It is surrounded by a shelf with the Holdouts comic, botanical drawings of Houston wildflowers, and two short, looped animations.
excerpted panel from Holdouts, 2017
Holdouts, 2017
In one animation, Lee applies a sunscreen product called Helioshield that is supposed to make her less susceptible to burning alive. The character moves in a disjointed manner, manic with desperation, knowing the vulnerability of her body and that it is already too late. While their landscape is getting increasingly more beautiful with overgrown plants, humans are unable to survive in its conditions. Welch creates this world of science fiction now accustomed to the new, very real ecological order in Houston that floods and heats to new extremes. She reflects, “the unlikeliness that world governments will do much to prevent these things, makes it feel necessary to begin a grieving process, to consider all the inevitable loss.” Stack of original drawings for Apply, Reapply animation, 2017
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-Lauren Rosenblum
RANDI LONG LONG received her BFA in Sculpture from the University of
Houston in 2014. She was an artist in residence at Project Row Houses and Alabama Song in 2015. Long collaborated with Gabriel Martinez and James Radcliffe for the project Noise Truck, which received an Idea Fund Award in 2016 and 1st Place, Grand Trophy for Best Music at the Orange Show’s 2016 Art Car Parade. Long has performed in projects with Nameless Sounds at AvantGarten, DiverseWorks, and MECA.
MELINDA LASZCZYNSKI LASZCZYNSKI received her MFA in Painting and Draw-
ing from the University of Houston in 2015 and her BFA in Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2010. She recently had solo shows at Cardoza Fine Art and galleryHOMELAND in Houston, TX, and group shows include Galleri Urbane (Dallas) and Inman Gallery (Houston). Laszczynski was featured in the 2015 Amarillo Museum of Art sculpture biennial and New American Paintings MFA Annual in 2014 and 2016.
SARAH WELCH is an artist, illustrator, and comix-maker. After receiving a
BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and moving to Houston in 2012, she began the ongoing comic book series, Endless Monsoon. Welch is a co-organizer with Zine Fest Houston and regularly publishes prints, zines, and comics in collaboration with local print shop, Mystic Multiples. Welch is a past Idea Fund recipient, past resident at UT Dallas Centraltrak, and was recently awarded a 2017 Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant and Arch and Anne Giles Kimbrough Fund Award.
LAUREN ROSENBLUM is the curatorial assistant of Prints & Drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and will soon start as a doctoral student at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
TEMPORARY HAVENS was guest curated by Dean Daderko, Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. 17
Melinda Laszczynski: I would like to thank everyone at Lawndale Art Center for their support and steady supply of caffeine throughout install week; Tracey Ceniceros and Dean Daderko for letting me borrow their amazing small projectors; and Curtis Harwood and Khrystah Gorham for covering my shifts at Houston Watch Co. so that I could have extra studio time. I would also like to thank the members of BDGRRRLSCLB, Caroline Roberts, Amy Beth Wright, Tracey Ceniceros, Charis Ammon, and Gao Hang, for their feedback and critique throughout the residency. Lastly and always, I thank John Forse for his patience, encouragement, and for pushing me on the scaffolding I was terrified to be on to create the large wall painting.
Sarah Welch: Thank you to everyone at Lawndale Art Center, especially, Stephanie Mitchell, Lily Cox-Richard, Emily Link, Cinthia Gomez, and my fellow residents, Melinda Laszczynski, and Randi Long. Thank you to the folks who offered me guidance and encouragement on this project; Natasha Bowdoin, Dennis Nance, Rachel Cook, John Pluecker, Jorge Galván Flores, Sharad Patel, Gabriel Martinez, Dean Daderko. Thank you for the invaluable love and support of my friends and Zine Fest Houston co-organizers, María-Elisa Heg & Anastasia Kirages. Thank you to my friend & fellow artist, Sebastian Gomez de la Torre for being my beautiful muse. Thank you to my family: your stories are very important to me. Thank you above all to my partner and faithful printer, James Beard. You are a positive, motivating force within my life.
Randi Long’s sculptures have been cued to play her off the stage before she can even begin her thank you speech. To the cosmic powers that brought this crew together, to challenge, support, and know each other in these trying times: we are all deeply grateful. 18
Installation views of Temporary Havens
Middle Melinda Laszczynski Sparkling Canyon 2017
Top Sarah Welch Holdouts Reading Room 2017
Right Randi Long Fecific Spuckups 2017
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Installation views of Temporary Havens
Middle Sarah Welch Holdouts Reading Room 2017
Top left and right Randi Long Fecific Spuckups 2017
Left Melinda Laszczynski Sparkling Canyon 2017
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