Among the many things going on in Alejandroworld, from social and political commentary to the gentle hijacking of everything from Modernism to Madison Avenue, the underlying proposition seems to be: Why can't art be funny? Why does it have to be so "serious?"
David Shelton Gallery selected as Critics Choice for Best Gallery in San Antonio.
David Shelton seems to delight in bringing together unusual groupings of artists, and Good and Well, currently on view, is a prime example. Mimi Kato's digital compositions, steeped in Japanese culture, play alongside kitschy sculptural assemblages by Leslee Fraser and abstract paintings by Aaron Hans Forland. But somehow, the installation feels natural as the three very distinct formal and conceptual approaches play off of, and enhance, one another.
By bringing these artists together, Shelton demonstrates how a strong eye can tease the affinities out of divergent artwork, and how an art collection can be strengthened by textural and conceptual contrasts as much as by the threads that run through it.
Spaztek is the alter ego of Houston-born Cruz Ortiz, 38, who for years has portrayed his fictional doppelganger in video art and photos-and depicted him in folk-tilting screen prints-in exhibits from L.A. to Madrid. The character, says the artist, who has been alternately celebrated and criticized for his take on Mexican-American lifestyles, offers a funny but fundamentally serious spark for dialogue about Hispanic identity in modern America.
Ortiz hits the Contemporary Art Museum Houston May 6-July 11 with an exhibit that features his primitive-style prints, video pieces, robotic found-object sculptures and possibly some performance art, all of which interprets the anti-hero Spaztek's search for love.
Exotic Matter, the breathtaking show at David Shelton Gallery, stays on his walls only until May 8. Go marvel at Joey Fauerso's sexually charged, rigorously investigative and (yes) beautiful paintings, which are all about surface. Well, and depth. And also nudity. And renderings of exploding plant life so lush you want to disrobe and roll around in them. Michael Velliquette takes paper-cutting past the ordinary "painstaking" or "elaborate" territory into, well, the exotic; they're relics from a culture you're not altogether familiar with, but always knew was out there somewhere. The show's been held over for two weeks, and Michael McClure Ph.D., assistant professor of Contemporary Art and Theory at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, saw fit to write an essay about it; we think it's worth driving north to see it.
In addition to being a painter of substance and resonance, Joey Fauerso is an astonishing technician. It is work the trip out to Shelton's gallery just to see the dense black that Fauerso achieves in "Feel What it Feels Like"--in watercolor, a notoriously difficult medium.
Michael Velliquette's work is sort of like coming upon a new species of orchid or butterfly in the wild. In addition to being a painter of substance and resonance, Joey Fauerso is an astonishing technician. It is worth the trip out to Shelton's Stone Oak gallery just to see the dense black that Fauerso achieves in "Feel What It Feels Like" - in watercolor, a notoriously difficult medium.
"Fauerso explores the existential human condition in her cosmic figurative paintings, while Velliquette is making exquisitely detailed masks and totems using the child’s craft of colorful cut construction paper."
Given its title, it's sort of ironic that the painting has the power to stop you in your tracks. "San Antonio Commute," the anchor work of "Foretopia," a small and wondrous group exhibition at David Shelton Gallery through Friday, is not exactly landscape; it is perhaps more accurately a portrait of the land, a "forced decorative imitation of nature," as its creator, painter Sara Frantz, puts it.
"Foretopia," also features new work by San Antonio artists Judith Cottrell, Jayne Lawrence and Vincent Valdez.
Not many contemporary artists embrace Remington and Russell for inspiration. Holly Hein Brooks and Bryson Brooks do. The young San Antonio painters' "Westerns" depict cowboys ropin' dogies and such - without any trace of irony. Holly, a former equestrian rider, lays the foundation, sketching the bones of an image, often from photographs.
Not many artist couples - from Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner on down - actually paint the same painting. The Brooks, who live and work in what was once an industrial freezer space at the Blue Star arts complex, truly collaborate.
"That he "paints" with a mosaic of jigsaw puzzle pieces pulls viewers into works such as "Love Birds Redux," an orgy of organic romanticism and expressive, raw-color brushstrokes"
There was a decision early on (prior to the start of these paintings) to merge representation with abstraction.
"This work to me is about discovery," says Austin painter Jonathan Faber, whose series of drawings and paintings on view at David Shelton Gallery began "with this idea of developing a visual language around the act of recalling experiences or memories."
"...the exhibition demonstrates an interesting combination of mediums, and an educated exploration of abstract art."
"Curator Miki Garcia, executive director of the Santa Barbara Contemporary Art Forum, has assembled a lively show brimming with wit and cleverness..."
The inaugural "Multiples" show, featuring works in a wide range of media by some of the region's most accomplished and respected artists, is well worth the drive.
Within Multiples, the aptly titled exhibition, the David Shelton Gallery has collaborated with several artists to create multiple works. The gesture seems to have been returned tenfold. Multiples delivers to the viewer a body of work united by craftsmanship, that delves into the distinctly modern while maintaining direct ties to the classical. As the viewer moves from one piece to the next, each body of work successfully adds to the exhibition a new dimension rooted in the individual artist's distinct sense of style. Shortly thereafter, this plethora of individuality proceeds to collide into an interesting, and well thought out exhibition.