Issue Magazine - February 2016

THE ARTS MAGAZINE OF THE ART STUDIO, INC.

WORKING AT HIS CRAFT PAGE 8

FEBRUARY 2016

INSIDE: HERVY HINER, LATIN AMERICANS, HOLLIS HAMMOND, AND MORE

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Auditions open for local show celebrating motherhood The third-annual Southeast Texas “Listen to Your Mother” show is seeking local amateur and professional writers to share their heartfelt, hilarious and inspirational stories about motherhood on stage.

Auditions are open to men and women of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Auditions will be held Feb. 27 and March 5 at the Ben J. Rogers Regional Visitors Center, 5055 Interstate 10 Access Road in Beaumont.

Show dates are April 28-29.

For complete audition information, visit www.listentoyourmothershow.com/southeasttexas

ISSUE Vol. 22, No. 5 Publisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Art Studio, Inc.

A View From The Top Greg Busceme, TASI Director

Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andy Coughlan Copy Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephan Malick Contributing Writers . . . . . . . . . . . Caitlin Duerler, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elena Ivanova Contributing Photographers . . . . . . Caitlin Duerler Distribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olivia Malick

WE JUST HAD A birthday, our 32nd, on Dec. 12. I always consider it a minor miracle that we survived and a lot of other people are scratching their heads about it, too. Be that as it may, The Art Studio is here to serve the artists and the community, and will do so for the foreseeable future. Lucky us, lucky artists.

As you may know, or not. we have been working with a small board of directors to maintain the organization’s integrity, but not large enough to take on more expansive projects. We feel that The Studio is capable of broader programing and we would like the input of our peers about direction and focus.

We hope to create a larger presence in the Southeast Texas community and want to explore what those possibilities are.

We have noticed an uptick in participation for all events and more people “wander in” to see what we are all about.

I think it’s from keeping the grass cut.

The Art Studio, Inc. Board of Directors President Ex-Officio . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Busceme Vice-President. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angela Busceme Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Roberts Members at Large: . . . . . . . . . . . Sheila Busceme, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elizabeth French, Andy Ledesma, Stephan Malick, Heather Butler The Art Studio, Inc. 720 Franklin Beaumont, TX 77701 409-838-5393 www.artstudio.org info@artstudio.org The ISSUE is a monthly publication of The Art Studio, Inc. Its mission is to publicize The Art Studio and its tenants, and to promote the growth of the arts in Southeast Texas. ISSUE is also charged with informing TASI members of projects, progress, achievements and setbacks in TASI’s wellbeing. Further, ISSUE strives to promote and distribute the writings of local authors in its “Thoughtcrime” feature.

ISSUE is provided free of charge to members of TASI and is also available, free of charge, at more than 30 locations in Southeast Texas.

Regular features include local artists of note and reputation who are not currently exhibiting at TASI; artists currently or soon to be exhibiting at TASI; Instructional articles for artists; news stories regarding the state of TASI’s organization; and arts news features dealing with general philosophical issues of interest to artists.

Contents SETX Collector Hervy Hiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4 Hollis Hammond at Dishman Art Museum . . . . . . Page 6 Eulipion Constructs of David W. Granitz III . . . . . . Page 8 Latin American Artists at MFAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 10 Barclay’s ‘Pear’ at High Street Gallery . . . . . . . . . Page 13 Perez at Finder’s Fayre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 13 Around & About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Thoughtcrime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 15

Cover photo of David Granitz III

by Andy Coughlan

Whatever the cause, I want to respond quickly to the interest in our organization and put our best foot forward.

A little update on our fire alarm upgrade.

The sprinkler company is testing our sprinkler heads, which are in excess of 50 years old and is why they need to be tested. If the test is OK we are good for a while. But if any fail, all heads will have to be changed over a period of time at around $35 per head. The bill is estimated at $2,400 without the sprinkler heads. Here’s the good news, we have donors for the $2,500 to cover the cost of the repairs and they are near and dear to my heart — my parents Charlene and Carlo Busceme. Thanks mom and dad, true patrons of the arts.

The next thing we need is an upgrade in our phone system. It has gone down three times in

See VIEW on page 14

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS AT THE ART STUDIO FEBRUARY

M AR C H

Eulipion Constructs: The Recent Artwork of David Granitz III Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 6

Recent work by Carlo Busceme IV Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March 5

BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ART STUDIO Membership in The Art Studio, Inc., provides invitations to all exhibitions and one year of ISSUE, the monthly arts magazine of The Art Studio. It also gives free eligibility for members to enter the annual membership art exhibition (TASIMJAE) and participate in various exhibitions throughout the year.

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4 • ISSUE February 2016

Volume 22, No. 5

‘A Passion to Collect’ HINER’S COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Story by Caitlin Duerler

This is the latest in an ongoing series about Southeast Texas ar t collectors.

BEHIND ARMORED WALLS AND a heavy, steel door with a complex lock, fertility sculptures with round bellies and buttocks stand guard over stacks of paintings and sculptures.

The works belong to Dr. Hervy Hiner, a local nephrologist and owner of Sugas Deep South Cuisine and Jazz Bar, whose extensive collection has exploded from his home and restaurant to fill an old bank vault.

Once Hiner started collecting in the early ’90s, he reached out to galleries in San Francisco, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington D.C. and New Orleans who searched extensively to find art to suit his tastes.

“It started with just a few prints, and over the years I kept wanting to add to my collection of African American art,” he said.

Hiner realized that to get the best art for his collection, he should focus on finding works by artists who do not always get the critical recognition they deserve.

“It is hard to find AA artists who are established because they are few and far between, so I chose to focus on them when building my collection — you can’t collect everything so I found my niche,” he said. “The longer you do it, the more versed you become in collecting and define your likes and dislikes. Once it got started, it just carried on.”

His collection sheds a much-needed light on the artistic achievements of African American artists from the past, as well as today. The works are not just a reflection of the artists’ experiences during times of racial conflict, but also a survey of movements in the painting canon. Works like Hughie Lee-Smith’s “Clown Man” (1980), imbue a realistic scene with a surrealistic quality not unlike works made by René Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico.

The earliest piece in his collection is an 18th-century portrait painted

by Joshua Johnstone. The subject is a young white child. At the time, the only African Americans who were trained to paint were those who were fortunate enough to have a family who was kind to them and help them receive training, Hiner said.

“There weren’t many African American in the 18th and 19th centuries who were in a position to buy art, so they mostly had white patrons,” he said. “For example, of all the portraits that Joshua Johnstone painted, there is only one picture with an African American subject. Before, it was pretty much plantation owners and people who paid for their portrait to be made.”

His paintings also include many important works produced during the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights movement. A large, Charles Alston painting with Civil Rights protesters gathering is opposite a piece that shows Jacob Lawrence’s of a scene at a ’30s jazz bar, incorporating his trademark bold colors and shapes.

Hiner regularly loans works in the vault for major exhibitions around the country. The Art Museum of Southeast Texas showcased his paint-

Volume 22, No. 5

February 2016 ISSUE • 5

Dr. Hervy Hiner, left, is a prominent collector of African American art and African tribal art. ings in a show in 2010. More recently, the Smithsonian American Art Museum — which boasts the largest collection of African American art in the world, around 2,000 works by 200 artists — borrowed several works for their 2012 traveling exhibition “African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond.”

The tribal sculptures that he has accumulated have a different motivation.

“My collection of contemporary work and my collection of tribal pieces are two separate things,” Hiner said. “With the paintings, I was attracted to the older pieces because African Americans at the time didn’t have a lot of training and learned on their own and made good art, while the more contemporary artists are often those who have received extensive training and are fairly well established in the art world.”

“The tribal arts is a little bit different. The artist who makes

ISSUE photo by Caitlin Duerler

these kind of works is usually someone who is carrying down a tradition they learn from other villagers, rather than have classic art training. In the villages, there were only so many people who would be assigned to make the masks and other art.”

Most of the work in his collection is a celebration not just of the African American experience, but also the female form.

Many of the works that Hiner is drawn particularly to feature beautiful women with elongated necks and graceful limbs such as “Trio V” by Elzier Cortor.

Although the vault is filling up, Hiner continues to add to his collection.

“It’s just my passion to collect — there isn’t one particular reason,” he said. “Some of it is the aesthetic, but I have always been attracted to good art — and if it’s good art, people are going to appreciate it.”

“Clown Man” (1980)

by Hughie LeeSmith is part of Hervy Hiner’s collection of African American art.

6 • ISSUE February 2016

Destructive Beauty

Volume 22, No. 5

‘HAMMONDS’ WASTELAND/WONDERLAND’ EXPLORES VALUE OF POSSESSIONS CONSUMER CULTURE IN AMERICA is a wonderland; there are always new, shiny things to buy to assert one’s individuality. However, the flip side to this constant consumption is accumulation and even waste.

Hollis Hammonds’ show “wasteland/ wonderland,” on view at the Dishman Art Museum, asks spectators to reconsider the objects we amass after they are transformed by disaster. The show features not just drawings, but also an installation and video projection.

“I believe that the experience of my work is more satisfying in multiple forms and dimensions,” Hammonds said.

“I tend to decide what medium, size, and technique I will use based foremost on the ideas I hope to express. Most of my drawings are rendered in either ink or charcoal, but I work at all scales and in a variety of styles, from illustrative

Story and photos by Caitlin Duerler

TALL STACK by Hollis Hammonds

and detailed drawings to more expressive and gestural ones.”

The artist became transfixed by the power of natural disasters after a fire burned down her family home in Kentucky when she was 15-years old. Many of her drawings deal with this theme, such as 2015’s “Smoke House NightTime” and “Smoke-House Daytime,” where billows of smoke plume from burning houses. Other drawings, like “Salvaged: Big Catch” (2014) address the material objects left behind and piled up after such disasters.

Hammonds said that she often wonders how families deal with the loss of their possessions following some sort of natural disaster.

The focal point of the exhibition is an installation piece made from pieces of an original installation in Women and their Work — an Austin gallery — as well as found objects from Beaumont.

A view from the inside of Hollis Hammond’s site-specific installation in the Dishman Art Museum.

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February 2016 ISSUE • 7

Hollis Hammonds’ site-specific installation, made from found detritus, dominates her exhibition “wasteland.wonderland” at the Dishman Art Museum through March 6.

The roof of the installed house is blown off and a tornado funnels from inside the house to the ceiling.

Wooden curlicues spiral around hundreds of threads holding dilapidated furniture, wicker baskets and lamps. Hidden in the tornado is a video projector which illuminates a drawing behind it with beautiful, but destructive, smoke clouds.

“The video projection on the drawing is an expressive work, engaging the viewer to feel the turmoil and drama of the burning house,” Hammonds said. “The sculptural installations engage the viewer in another way, through tactile interaction. I simply like to engage the viewer through a variety of forms.”

“I like the playfulness I find in illustrating my ideas in a variety of materials. There are unique problems to solve with each type of media.”

On the wall adjacent to the video project, a huge drawing shows trees jutting outwards from a littered forest floor. The large scale of this piece puts the viewer face-to-face with debris, discarded objects and other trash. Although it is a work of imagination, the implications of accumulation are very much grounded in reality.

Hammonds’ visual art is not just about recounting the memory of a house fire, but also tells a story. Her current project that she is working on during a residency in Chapel Hill, N.C., combines her great drawing

ISSUE photo by Caitlin Duerler

skills with storytelling to produce a memoir style comic.

“In my work for exhibitions, I have always been interested in narrative and storytelling. Sometimes the story is told through the installation, sometimes in multiple images, sometimes using words,” she said. “The graphic novel project, although slightly outside of my traditional studio practice, seems a perfect fit for my interest in storytelling and personal narratives.”

A reception will held Feb. 5, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The show is on view until March 6.

The Dishman Art Museum is located on the Lamar University campus at 1030 E. Lavaca St. in Beaumont.

8 • ISSUE February 2016

Volume 22, No. 5

A Passion for the Work CRAFTSMANSHIP MARRIES IMPROVISATION IN GRANITZ’S FEBRUARY SHOW AT TASI ANYONE DRIVING PAST THE Art Studio late at night for the past few months has probably noticed the lights on the second floor piercing the darkness. It is not the result of some slovenly tenant leaving the lights on, but David W. Granitz III literally burning the midnight oil.

Granitz is preparing for his first solo show in February, and working long hours is not the chore one might think — it’s a pleasure. In fact, Granitz has done little else since he made the decision to quit his home-building job to focus on making a living off his art.

“All I have to do right now is focus on my art, and that is a very rare thing for an artist,” he says. “I feel that a lot of things are working for me in my artwork. I feel more creative and I feel like it is culminating into a point and that the artwork for this show is going to be the evidence of this opportunity — I’m passionate about it.”

His first solo show, “Eulipion Constructs: The Recent Work by David W. Granitz III,” opens Feb. 6 at The Art Studio and runs through Feb. 27. An opening reception will be held 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Feb. 6.

Granitz is soft spoken and thoughtful. But the 37-year old has an intense passion for his art, and he becomes animated and excited the more he talks about the work.

Story and photos by Andy Coughlan

“Art for me is a passion, and to act like it’s not within me would be to neglect the true roots of who I am,” he says.

“For me to do anything else — I don’t have an option any more.

“If I did anything else and I gave up this, I would be throwing away all these years and what I have achieved, all the travel, all the decisions I’ve made to cultivate my life to enhance my artwork.”

The long hours actually fit into the Beaumont native’s philosophy of art. It’s about hard work, he says.

“That’s very important to me,” he says. “I think there’s a big misperception about artists and their art. Art really requires, at least the kind of art I like doing, requires the passion but it’s not a lot of fun. For me, it has to do with something that’s more ingrained in my soul.

“I don’t know why I need to do it, I just need to do it. And even though I might be uncomfortable doing it, I do it. It’s that satisfaction that I get.”

Granitz smiles as he talks about the “fear and anxiety” of facing a blank canvas.

“Making the first mark is one of the most stressful things and one of the most liberating things at the same time,” he says.

Granitz cites artist William Kentridge’s thought about the limitless expanse of potential in the mark.

“And it ends up a coffee pot — this reduction of all this potential down to a mark that as you start working on a piece kind of builds itself — it’s self-defining in a way,” Granitz says.

Granitz is methodical and patient in his work, and that patience is the reason he is only now having his first solo exhibition, although he has exhibited in group shows many times over the years.

He earned a degree in studio art from Lamar University in 2007. When he graduated, he and another student worked on a project for Jefferson County to create a monument to the oil industry for Southeast Texas’ seven counties. Unfortunately, the project fell through because of funding issues.

“It was pretty much time wasted, but granted, it was a great experience,” he says.

So Granitz decided to take advantage of an opportunity to move to California. A patron told him they had a shack in the woods he was welcome to live in and make art.

“So as soon as I found out I wasn’t doing the monument, I saved up my money and bought my art supplies and moved out there to that little cabin — all I did was make art and read about art,” he says.

While in California, Granitz says he painted maybe 10 pieces, but spent a lot of time studying.

David Granitz, right in his tenant space at The Art Studio, will present his solo show “Eulipion Constructs” in February. Part of the show will feature a series of still life “trace monoprints,” shown left taped to his studio wall, made by transfering oil-based printing ink from mylar sheets, above, onto paper or canvas.

Volume 22, No. 5

February 2016 ISSUE • 9

“I learned so much that all the extra stuff was worth it, not just the number of pieces I painted — it’s the art of living,” he says.

However, the California winter was hard and once he made it through that, Grantitz decided to was time to come home. He has been here ever since, working and finding time to make art where he could. A wide variety of jobs meant he learned a variety of skills.

“The physicality of the object is important to me,” he says. “If it’s sculpture, that’s great; if it’s painting, that’s great. All of it has to do with something physical. Even though these (paintings) are two-dimensional objects, well, they are three-dimensional objects the way I look at them.

Anything I have to build, basically, I want to put all my effort into.”

In college, even though he was a painting major, Granitz says he resisted being forced into a category or a label.

“My professors really wanted to corner me to pick one thing, but I realized, as I let myself develop naturally, that doing a lot of things is my thing,” he says. “If you look at my works, there are a lot of differences — the common thread, obviously, is that I make them — so I pushed that thesis into sculpture.”

Granitz built wooden frames and painted on them, thereby deliberately blurring the boundary between painting and sculpture.

“I cheated my painting requirement,” he says.

The show’s title is inspired by jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Theme for the Eulipions.”

“It reflects the spirit of the artist doing something in the world,” Granitz said.

In the spoken word introduction of “Theme for the Eulipions,” poet Betty Neals defines the artist as a Eulipion — a “journey agent” — and that all artists’ works are a gift to the world.

Like the creative musicians whose sounds fill his studio space, Granitz incorporates improvisation as free-form images overlay “chiseled” geometric forms — the works reflect a carefully constructed foundation of skills acquired over years of study and practice.

Granitz points to a painting in progress that is made up of a series of straight lines that overlap to form a seemingly random diagonal pattern.

“These lines look rigid, but when you get up close, I used a ruler to draw the lines and then I paint up to the line, I feel like I’m chiseling lines sculpturally and embracing the imperfect edge,” he says.

It is the imperfection that draws Granitz to ink transfer drawings — or “trace monoprints.”

“There’s something about imperfection that I like embracing,” he says. “Even though it seems like it’s very straight lines and rigid — people will get that impression — when you get up close you realize, ‘Those aren’t perfect likes, why didn’t he use tape?’ I don’t want to use that manmade product, that turns me off. I like the work that goes into it.

“When I say chiseling, it’s like that, because it’s very hard work filling those lines in — I’m putting in the time and effort.”

Some of the recent works are landscapes, but they are not the typical trees and fields one might expect. He points at a work in progress that features a criss-cross pattern of lines.

“This was built by a couple of things,” he says. “A love of music, which inspires me, but also memories of places that I’ve been. That memory is abstract. I get a sense of objects and I make my lines using that basic abstraction technique.

“In my head, as I was doing this, I was thinking, ‘Let’s draw lines that signify contours of things in a landscape and the moonlight highlighting these contours.’ The reason I am filling it in with black is because it’s a night scene. The white lines are moonlight highlighting the loose forms

See GRANITZ on page 12

10 • ISSUE February 2016

Volume 22, No. 5

ON THE CUTTING EDGE

WOVEN WATER: SUBMARINE LANDSCAPE, 1994, right,

by María Fernanda Cardoso.

STRESS (IN MEMORIAM), 2004–2012, below, by Yoan Capote.

‘Contingent Beauty: Contemporary Art from Latin America’ at MFAH “The Beautiful is always strange.”

– Charles Baudelaire.

Review by Elena Ivanova

THE WORD “NON-TRADITIONAL” IS too trite to describe the exhibition that turned the second floor of the Caroline Wiess Law Building of MFAH into a Mecca of contemporary

art this winter.

If pressured to summarize my impressions of 32 works created during the past three decades by 21 established artists from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela, I probably would start by saying what this exhibition is NOT:

it is not a show of paintings, sculptures, prints or any other familiar art forms. The artists created their own forms and ways of expression using a wide range of materials, very few of which fall into the categories of traditional art-making and even then only by accident.

Human hair, teeth, dried starfish, coca leaves, sugar cubes, bed mattresses, pieces of demolished monuments — these are a few examples of the materials employed by the artists who, while being completely and utterly idiosyncratic in their work, share one thing in common. They are all nonconformists – and not only in relation to art, but also in relation to politics, social issues, environment and culture.

Speaking on the opening day of the exhibition, Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham

Curator of Latin American Art and Director of International Center for the Arts of the Americas, said: “The theme of the exhibition is Contingent Beauty — not as an end in itself, but as a tool to engage the viewer in modern issues. The artists approach these issues in nontraditional ways... They are all innovators who continue in the tradition of avant-garde.”

In the catalog, Ramírez further elaborated that the notion of beauty, as it is definied within the framework of the exhibition, “relies on the work’s capacity to elicit visceral reactions from viewers in a way that leads them to transcend the specific experience of the work and envision some form of social change... The beauty of these works thus lies within their latent power for “change” and the unleashing of

Volume 22, No. 5

February 2016 ISSUE • 11

ESTADÍSTICA (STATISTICS), 1995–2000, far left, by Tania Bruguera.

2IPM009, 2009, left, by Magdalena Fernández, Venezuelan CALAVERA 4 (SKULL 4), 2009, below, by Grupo Mondongo (Juliana Laffitte, Manuel Mendanha, Agustina Picasso).

this power is contingent on a variety of factors, not the least of which are its viewers.”1 Some works in the exhibition affect us instantaneously, others require a longer contemplation. “Stress (in memoriam)” by Cuban artist Yoan Capote is a visual metaphor for the named emotional condition which is often accompanied by teeth grinding. The base of this rectangular concrete structure contains approximately 1,000 human teeth. The upper part looks like a heavy roller that is ready to go over them like a grindstone over grains. We get the meaning of Capote’s work immediately, even though we may not know that the artist created this piece in memory of severe food shortages experienced by Cubans in the early1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.

The work of another Cuban, Tania Bruguera, “Estadística” (“Statistics”), also affects us on a visceral level, although it takes more time to realize its meaning. This large-scale composition is a replica of the Cuban flag, only the stripes are brown/black instead of the traditional blue.

It becomes obvious only at a very close distance that the stripes are made of strands of human hair which have been wrapped in pieces of cloth. The artist collected locks of hair from her friends and neighbors for several months, and the wrapping strips came from clothes donated for this purpose by the Cuban diaspora. This work is a poignant statement about the economic and emotional devastation experienced by the people who lost so many friends and family members during the recurrent waves of emigration. At the same time, as a collective work of hundreds of anonymous people, it can be seen as a symbol of resistance to Castro’s regime.

Large-scale installations are a characteristic feature of

this exhibition. We walk into a world created by an artist’s imagination where we are confronted with mythical beings, fantastic happenings or dream-like scenes. “Lezart I” by Brazilian artist Tunga uses our natural fascination with mysterious-looking objects to draw us in and, once we are hooked, we find ourselves wandering through a complex maze of a story within a story.

Blending anthropological findings and a common fable of conjoined twins, Tunga created his own myth in which two sisters are connected by their hair. The girls became sacrificed and their scalps were preserved by a woman who embroidered images from her dreams with their hair strands which, in the process, turned to gold.

Using copper wire, iron plates and powerful magnets, the artist created a composition in which components are connected by a magnetic force, braiding and knotting. Since all components look like machine parts rather than human body parts, viewers are emotionally distanced from the

gory contents of Tunga’s myth. Like Matthew Barney’s “The Cremaster” cycle, “Lezart I” engages us intellectually while keeping us entranced by its visual enigma. One may say that the composition casts a spell over viewers, who tend to linger around it, mesmerized by the black and gold wire strands that run like rivulets between the two magnetic boards.

Colombian-born, Australia-based artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso takes us on a journey to the depths of the sea. Displayed in a gallery illuminated by strategically placed spotlights, “Woven Water: Submarine Landscape” poses a challenge to our perception of reality. Material objects and their shadows become interchangeable. We are surrounded by strange shapes that seem to be swirling and floating as if engaged in some mysterious dance.

At the same time, there is a dark side to this beauty. The structural elements of Cardoso’s shapes are dried bodies of starfish. Once living creatures, they became souvenirs sold at the oceanside. The artist brings our attention to numerous environmental issues involving commercial fishing and, ultimately, the impact of human activities on the planet.

A different kind of world greets viewers with a merry beat of raindrops on the roof as they enter the digital installation “2iPM009,” from the series “Pinturas móviles” (“Mobile Paintings”) by Venezuelan artist Magdalena Fernández.

Inspired by Piet Mondrian’s compositions, Fernández multiplied Mondrian’s familiar grid by exponentially projecting it on the walls. Nothing is what it looks in this illusionistic world. The unmistakable patter and drumming of rain is actually a meticulously edited acoustic montage of sounds made by the Slovenian choir Perpetuum Jazzile as they snap their fingers, slap their legs and stamp their heels on a wooden surface.

Argentinean artist Guillermo Kuitca has completely reconfigured the traditional art of painting. Instead of using canvas, Kuitca started painting on... mattresses. Although at

See LATIN on page 12

12 • ISSUE February 2016

Volume 22, No. 5

GRANITZ from page 9

LEZART I, 1989, by Tunga.

LATIN from page 11 first glance it may look like a whim – acting iconoclastic just for the fun of it, – the artist’s choice of medium was not arbitrary. A bed is a universal symbol of locality; Kuitca regarded it, in his own words, “as territory, as physical space that you occupy, as plane surface in the most material sense of the term.”2 “Le Sacre” is an installation of 54 mattresses which the artist designed, stuffed and sewed himself. By painting maps on these mattresses, he integrated two locational extremes: the public and the private.

The geographical places which he depicted are remote, little known towns and villages.

However, on Kuitca’s maps, they are given prominence, with their locations marked by large buttons, which makes viewers perceive them as centers, hubs or metropolises.

Looking at these maps, we begin to understand that our perspective on the world is biased and that the notions of center and periphery are shifting in present times.

Some works in the exhibition are amazingly detailed and intricate. Three large-size skulls by the Argentinean art collective

LE SACRE, 1992, by Guillermo Kuitca

Grupo Mondongo may appear like a variation on the popular Renaissance subject of “memento mori.” However, a closer look reveals that in fact every section of each skull is composed of tiny figures culled from global culture and politics. For example, “Calavera 4” (“Skull 4”), among other things, includes the story of the Evolution, the Nativity, the Last Supper (with Hitler, Marx, Mao and other 20th-century dictators around the table instead of Christ and his disciples), the Guard Room at Versailles, “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, King Kong with Hokusai’s “The Great Wave of Kanagawa,” “Lady with an Ermine”

by Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Jackson and Bubbles by Jeff Koons. Simultaneously playful and profound, “Calaveras” of Grupo Mondongo address the dichotomy of truth/untruth, life/death and reality/fiction in contemporary culture.

It is impossible to do justice to all extraordinary works included in this exhibition in a short article. Every one of them is a world in itself, waiting to share its mysteries with a thoughtful viewer. At the same time, all works, despite their uniqueness, are connected by their creators’ passionate involvement in contemporary world. The dialogue is ongoing and we have an open invitation.

The exhibition “Contingent Beauty: Contemporary Art From Latin America” is on view at MFAH through Feb. 28. For more information, visit www.mfah.org.

around you in space.

“Some are far away, some are close.

It’s really like the chiseling I was talking about. I was chiseling this physical landscape in my mind.”

Once the landscapes are drawn laid out, Granitz goes back over the pieces and works in free line drawings over the pieces to add depth and texture — building and constructing the three-dimensional.

“I will warm up for a few days intensely, then do my drawing transfers on top of it, along with free-line textures to complement this real rigid environment,” he says.”

Granitz says his key word is dialectic — the philosophical discussion of metaphysical contradictions and their solutions.

“It’s consistent with all things — good and evil, hot and cold. When you get down to it, all things have opposites,” he says. “That’s really at the heart of what I am interested in.”

Granitz said that this new commitment to be a full-time professional artist is a challenge, he is cultivating a positivity in his approach to art and life.

“I know the realism of the situation with my art, I know the odds, but I do feel like the challenge right now has lit something in me — the pressure — maybe it’s something I needed,” he says.

“I feel like as soon as I knew I was going to (do it), I turned to face the canvas and

things just settled for me. I found this process, this exciting and new type of art that I haven’t done yet, really moving inside me.”

There is a lot of precariousness to his situation, Granitz says, adding that he is drawing on his past experience living a minimal lifestyle in the California woods.

“I feel very prepared at this chance to make my art,” he says. “It’s almost like a wolf in the woods in winter. You know there’s food out there and you either hunt with all your life to get that food or you’re gonna die. There’s a real visceral feeling in my gut of, if things go wrong I could be on the street in a month.

“I know that, deep down, if I need to get a job I’m going to be able to do that — but it sounds terrible. The thought of having to do anything else after this just sounds horrible. So I think it has helped me.”

Granitz has traveled and lived in California, Arizona, places that have great natural beauty. He sees a bond with nature that connects through his paintings.

“It’s all about universals and nature is where you find happiness in modern life — that’s where I am at,” he says. “That’s why I’m doing these landscapes. Shit’s crazy right now — I’m just trying to find something universal that people can connect with that causes a deep breath. Life can be about simple things if we want it to. I think that will help us. That’s my Utopian vision. It’s definitely there in the art.”

The Art Studio is located at 720 Franklin in downtown Beaumont.

1 Mari Carmen Ramírez. The Contingencies of Beauty. In: Contingent Beauty: Contemporary Art From Latin America. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 2015, p. 20.

2 Mari Carmen Ramírez. Guillermo Kuitca: Painting as [Dis]ocated Battlefield. In: Contingent Beauty, p. 125.

David Granitz, reflected in a mirror, works on a painting in his studio space.

Volume 22, No. 5

February 2016 ISSUE • 13

High Street Gallery to host Barclay’s ‘Pearl,’ Feb. 12 BEAUMONT NATIVE JAMIE BARCLAY will present “Pearl,” an exhibition of recent work, at High Street Gallery, Feb. 12.

Barclay earned her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Lamar University in 2010. After completing her degree she moved to South Korea where she discovered she had a love for teaching. She continues to pursue both passions, teaching kinder through eighth grade art at All Saints Episcopal School here in Beaumont.

“I believe that ever ybody has creative potential, maybe some of us were taught not to recognize it in ourselves for one reason or another, but it is possible to be creative in whatever you do."

The current body of work, “Pearl,” uses a variety of materials from traditional mediums such as oil paint and canvas to the less frequently encountered Capiz shells

and Handira sequins. “‘Pearl’ is about the power that our thoughts can have,” Barclay said. “They can physiologically create form in our neural pathways or drive us to create representative forms. This matterless thought or idea has become a sort of circus flea to my mind, invisible except for the things they set in motion.

“In a lot of ways, a pearl is a perfect representation of the mental rumination that gives way to form, so I named my ‘flea’ ‘Pearl.’”

A reception will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 pm at the galler y, located inside Victoria House at 2110 Victoria St. in Beaumont.

The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be ser ved. The artwork will be for sale by the artist.

For more information, visit High Street Galler y on Facebook or email VictoriaHouseTX@gmail. com.

FINDER’S FAYRE TO EXHIBIT RECENT WORKS BY YOLANDA PEREZ, FEB. 4 FINDER’S FAYRE ANTIQUES WILL host a series of recent artworks by Yolanda Perez, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Feb. 4.

The art exhibit is part of the Contemporary Local Artists Show Series (C.L.A.S.S.) presented in the antique store located at 1485 Calder Ave. in Beaumont’s historic Mildred Building.

“My idea for C.L.A.S.S. came when I realized that the artists here in Beaumont might really benefit from increased exposure to an audience they have not been reaching,” said store owner Dexter Augier.

“I am excited that I can do this, and that C.L.A.S.S. might provide just one more step in helping an artist share their gift with the world.”

The opening reception is part of the First Thursday festivities held at the Mildred.

Entry is free and the work will be for sale.

The featured multimedia artist Yolanda Perez is from Savannah, Ga., and is currently a tenant at The Art Studio, Inc. in Beaumont.

“My work is eclectic, culturally relevant, vibrant, dramatic, organic and highly stylized,” she said.

To create her artwork, Perez incorporates traditional craft methods such as Indonesian batik, Arabesques mehndi pattern work, and Oaxacan embroidery.

“This current work is derived from my various travels throughout the United States, South Korea and Australia. I am greatly influenced by different world cultures and the skilled folk artisans within their societies,” Perez said. “I blend the primitive kitsch elements of these cultures into my work through the use of symbolism, technique, natural images and religious iconography.”

Perez works with a variety of mediums such as painting, photography, printmaking and other various mixed media. She said she emphasizes intense colors, rich textures, and expressive line quality to evoke drama in her pieces.

“I would like to show the viewer art from a different perspective and share a voyage made of a mass flight of ideas manifested into a less structured and more versatile aesthetic,” she said.

For more information, call Finder’s Fayre Antiques at 409-833-7000.

14 • ISSUE February 2016

Volume 22, No. 5

Around & About If you come across any interesting exhibitions, museums or other places on your travels, share them with us.

Call 409-838-5393, or contact us through our web site at www.artstudio.org. Be sure to include the location and dates of the subject, as well as any costs.

In commemoration of Black History month, the BEAUMONT ART LEAGUE will host ARTWORK OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS IN THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE AREA. In addition, the Beaumont Art League has plans for an art workshop for children and feature visual arts documentaries, “Colored Frames,” and “Five African American Artist & Innovators.” This will be a first exhibit of its kind in the Beaumont Art League History.

The exhibit is Feb. 6 through March 12, with a opening scheduled for Feb. 13, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The exhibit will consist of artwork from local artists Igalious “Ike” Mills, Kwanzza Edwards, Shedrick “Shakey” Lewis, Henry “Art” Smith, Wayne Goodman, and Rebecca Rodgers and more, in the two galleries that make up the Beaumont Art League.

All artists participating in the exhibit have exclusive and creative ways of viewing the world and life experiences and translating their interpretation of that reality on canvas and other mediums.

Port Arthur-based Igalious “Ike” Mills was born one of ten children that grew up on small cotton farm located in Nacogdoches (the oldest town in Texas). He attended San Jacinto Jr. College, Pasadena and received a BFA in 1977 from Lamar University. Mills was the first African American to receive a BFA from Lamar University. Mills is skilled in abstract and traditional painting, drawing, pen and ink, water coloring, sculptor and mixed media, and has a strong background in abstract painting and drawing.

“The significance of my artwork deals with light, color, and sound, which is the direct channel for the expression of soul,” he said in a release. “I create to bring a spiritual message back into the physical world, to evoke the emotions within the observer, to raise the conciseness of the soul. I am absorbed into it all, light, color and sound.”

Kwanzaa Edwards is a mixed media artist from Port Arthur. Growing up with a love for cartoons, anime and comic books, her work combines comic illustration with traditional painting techniques to tell stories that relate to common emotions of everyday people. The people in her work depict the relatable high and lows of understanding identity. Originally self-taught, Edwards earned her BFA in painting from Lamar University in 2014. She currently works as an art teacher in Port Arthur.

Henry “ART” Smith is a native of Beaumont. Smith states he was born to make a statement in this vast culture. After obtaining a degree in Bachelors of Fine Arts from McNeese State, he taught art in the Beaumont Independent School District. His style of art falls from Pop Art/Realism to Sports Portraits and Jazz Impressionism. Smith primarily uses acrylic for his masterpieces.

Shedrick “Shakey” Lewis is a 37-year-old Beaumont native. Lewis earned a degree in Criminal Justice from Lamar University in 2003. Although he only took up painting five years ago, Lewis states that he has been an artist his entire life.

“After an on again off again relationship I finally realized my gift,” he sates in a release.

“Art has always been a major part of my life.

Art is my freedom, my escape from what the world considers normal or typical. Being creative is mind freeing and therapeutic for me.

Art allows me to explore and discover.”

Wayne R. Goodman, a Beaumont native, is the second of eight children. He received a certification in drafting from Lamar University in 1970, after which he served in the United States Airforce. An avid reader Goodman values, beliefs and paradigms is what developed and shaped his societal awareness into his expression of historical art to children. It is his cultural awareness that inspired him to create “book art” for young and old alike. Goodman’s said his folkloric style of drawing brings to life the family values and traditions his parents instilled in him.

Rebecca Rodgers’s enjoyment of drawing came from watching her aunt in Louisiana.

“Her drawings were really illustrations that told vivid stories of life and I wanted to draw just like her,” she said.

As Rebecca tried to mimic her aunt’s style, she realized in a middle school art class that she had a style of her own — portraits.

“Being able to pull an image from my mind or even draw a subject from a photograph is always mind boggling to me. To have such instinctive talent is a true blessing.”

BAL is located at 4179 Gulf St. in Beaumont.

For more information, call 409-833-4179, email info@beaumontartleague.org, or visit www.beaumontartleague.com.

The league is open Thursday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

VIEW from page 3 as many months and we are beside ourselves about what to do, along with the repairpersons who come to fix it. We are trying to avoid a whole new system for the usual reasons — MONEY — but I think technology has backfired on us and is trying to destroy us like the HAL 9000 in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Digital meets analog and neither one is happy with our phone system. Any suggestions? We’re stumped!

And thank you Andy Coughlan for producing a quality magazine month after month, year after year. I appreciate your labor of love and we will never forget you for it.

RECENT ART STUDIO NEW OR RENEWING MEMBERS INDIVIDUAL David & Toni Bost Ryan Gist Betty A. Iles Henry Ramsey K.R. Wallon Rachel Wright FAMILY/GROUP Rodney & Sandra Price FRIEND/BUSINESS Jesse Doiron & Uliana Trylowski Steve Moore PATRON Pete Churton & Beth Gallaspy

Mission Statement Founded in 1983, The Art Studio, Inc. is devoted to: providing opportunities for interaction between the public and the Southeast Texas community of artists; furnishing affordable studio space to originating artists of every medium; promoting cultural growth and diversity of all art forms in Southeast Texas; and providing art educational opportunities to everyone, of every age, regardless of income level, race, national origin, sex or religion.

PURPOSE The purpose of The Art Studio, Inc. is to (1) provide educational opportunities between the general public and the community of artists and (2) to offer sustained support for the artist by operating a non-profit cooperative to provide studio space and exhibition space to working artists and crafts people, and to provide an area for group work sessions for those artists and crafts people to jointly offer their labor, ideas, and enthusiasm to each other.

GOALS 1. To present public exhibitions 2. To provide educational opportunities 3. To provide accessible equipment for artists 4. To provide peer feedback through association with other artists and crafts people OBJECTIVES 1. To present nine art exhibitions per year 2. To maintain equipment for artists in a safe working environment 3. To provide better access to artists for the public 4. To offer regularly scheduled adult and children’s classes 5. To develop and maintain public activities with all sectors of the community 6. To develop and maintain equipment to aid artists in their work 7. To provide a display retail outlet for artists 8. To expand programming and activities with increased facility space

Volume 22, No. 5

February 2016 ISSUE • 15

Thoughtcrime

The Spinning Orb It is hard to know, No matter what one might think, What goes on beneath the crust Of this ever-spinning orb,

Returned

Sometimes parched, sometimes wet Mostly abused and uncared for

“Tell me. Not one of you is dead,” he said.

Our kit thrown down in dark, we looked the devil,

In the proper manner.

There’s no denying it.

One day, the orb tilted

sure, if only he could see.

Submission Guidelines and Disclaimer ISSUE solicits and publishes the work of local authors. Poetry, short fiction, scholarly works and opinion pieces may be submitted for review. All works must be typed and may be sent to TASI by email or by messaging the ISSUE Facebook page.

The opinions expressed in “Thoughtcrime” do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TASI, its Board of Directors, ISSUE’s editorial staff, or donors to TASI. Send typed works to: ISSUE, 720 Franklin, Beaumont, TX 77701 or e-mail issue@artstudio.org Authors must submit a daytime telephone number and email along with all submissions. Pen names are acceptable, but authors must supply real names for verification. All printed works are protected by copyright. The author retains rights to any published work. ISSUE does not notify of rejection by mail or telephone.

And went crashing into the darkness.

“Well, what?” he called insistent as fatigue.

But then it righted itself

And we insisted upon sitting down and shutting up.

And carried on as if nothing was wrong.

Rinse, wash, repeat,

For, indeed, not one of us was dead, And we were fine with that, so what the hell was he on all about.

Someone lit a cigarette.

“Whose dead?” he yelled.

Until one day, nothing was wrong The spinning orb just traveled, Just moved through the darkness Not overwhelmed, but excited Solar winds whistling by,

This time, loud enough to raise the one he wanted there to be.

The occasional chunk of debris

“No one! Goddamn you. None!” ached someone back.

Carelessly bouncing off.

“Thank God,” he said and slumped into the night.

The spinning did not stop

“Thank God,” I thought. “Goddamn.”

But there was a change — Or so he thought.

Jesse Doiron

Andy Coughlan

WE WANT YOU FOR BAND NITE Listen to original music by local musicians at For upcoming gigs, visit The Studio’s facebook page

$5

admission

All ages welcome • 21 and up BYOB and have your ID.

Beautiful Day Oh what a beautiful day!

Comute with nature and Hear sounds of birds Chattering in the trees.

Reach inside and get the Duck call.

AAAAcccccKKKggee.

It gets quiet so he Can hear the freeway That always gives him ease.

D.J. Kava

720 Franklin, Beaumont, Texas 77701

Non-Profit Org U.S. Postage PAID Permit #135 Beaumont, TX

RETURn SERVICE REqUESTED

INSIDE • ‘EULIPION CONSTRUCTS’ BY DAVID GRANITZ • THOUGHTCRIME: MUSINGS FROM AREA POETS • HERVY HINER’S ART COLLECTION • LATIN AMERICAN ART AT MFAH

When you support The Art Studio with your membership, you receive ISSUE, Southeast Texas’ and Southwest Louisiana’s alternative press, as well as class schedules, invitations to opening receptions and various Studio functions.

Volunteers These people are the life blood of our organization. WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU! To volunteer, drop by The Art Studio, Inc., or call 409-838-5393.

Elizabeth Fontenot Bryan Castino Heather & Adam Butler Rhonda Rodman Sue Wright Cyndi Grimes Rhonda McNally Andy Coughlan John Roberts Beau Dumesnil Karen Dumesnil Sheila Busceme Kailee Viator Caitlin Duerler Stephan Malick Gabe Sellers Scott & John Alexander Heather Adams Terri Fox Avril Falgout B.J. Bourg Michelle Falgout Stacey Haynes Joe Winston John Fulbright Mark Jacobson Nathaniel Welch Tracy Danna Jaime Barclay Gina Garcia Hayley Hardin Spencer Holland Tack Somers Jack Hays Tyler Hargraves Aslinn Garcia Chase Kiker Paisley Polk

THIS MONTH:

JOIN US FOR ART OPENINGS ON THE FIRST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

FEBRUARY 6-27 GALLERY RECEPTION IS FEBRUARY 6, 7-10 P.M.

This project was funded in part by the B.A. & E.W. Steinhagen Benevolent Trust through the Southeast Texas Arts Council.

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