June 26-August 29, 2004

This years 2004 Houston Area Exhibition showcases the work of Serena Lin Bush, Rachel Cook, Vicki Fowler, Michele Grinstead and Nancy O'Connor, Laura Lark, Stephanie Martz, Brendan Mulcahy, Teresa O'Connor, Karyn Olivier, Chad Sager, Maya Schindler, Eric Schnell, Anthony Thompson Shumate, and Hilary Wilder - fourteen artists selected from a pool of 375 working in a 100 mile radius of the city of Houston.

The Houston Area Exhibition has been a significant component of Blaffer Gallery's program since 1974-sometimes beloved, sometimes less so, but always provocative and stimulating. On eight occasions over the past thirty years, artists brought their work to the museum and a panel of judges made selections from actual works of art. For this ninth installment in the series, the format for the Houston Area Exhibition has been reconfigured. Blaffer decided to limit the number of jurors and invited Bill Arning, Curator of the MIT List Visual Arts Center and a novice to the Houston art scene, to be the sole selector. Breaking with a decade-old tradition of a hands-on selection process, this year's exhibition is the result of a careful portfolio review and a series of on-site studio visits. Arning selected twenty-six artists for preliminary visits, following a rigorous review of 375 dossiers. The fourteen artists presented here represent Arning's personal take on the current Houston scene.

Bill Arning: "While I have juried many such shows over the years, the process of educating myself on the many fine artists working in this region was a much more in-depth effort than most museums require or are prepared to support. The number of applicants was far greater than anyone expected, and although I had a number of days to explore the artist's studios, I was left feeling that I had barely scratched the surface. I did not experience this as frustration, but more as a reminder that there will always be more worthy art to encounter, a fact that continually replenishes this curator's soul."

The participating artists share certain aesthetic particulars-such as an interest in the intersection between the real and the imagined, the influence of popular culture in our daily lives, the conjunction between architecture and object, the conflation of the personal and the universal, and the infusion of social and political content into formal aesthetic concerns. Several are engaged in installation work (Michele Grinstead/Nancy O'Connor, Teresa O'Connor, Eric Schnell, Hilary Wilder), others work in varying sculptural modes (Karen Olivier, Maya Schindler), two are performance-based (Rachel Cook, Vicki Fowler), others are involved with video (Serena Lin Bush, Anthony Thompson Shumate) and photography-based media (Brendan Mulcahy, Stephanie Martz). Only two base their practice on one of the most traditional of artistic forms-drawing (Laura Lark, Chad Sager).

The work of these fourteen artists stands as a compelling cross-section to the vibrant creative life of the area. Many of the artists are at the beginning of their careers while others are better established. Together they offer viewers a decisive vision of current trends in contemporary art in and beyond Houston. Arning comments on his selection: "I believe that the results will be startling and provocative, and each of the artists is working at a very high level within his or her chosen field of play. I anticipate that I, as one viewer, will find each and every piece wonderful-and although I am in the privileged position of knowing each artist's body of work and having heard the artists speak on their intentions for these pieces, I hope that at least a portion of the audience will share my passionate response."

Bill Arning is curator at MIT's List Visual Arts Center and is according to Boston Magazine's 2002 "Best of" issue, the best Curator in greater Boston! Since joining the List Visual Arts Center in 2000 he has organized such critically acclaimed exhibitions as Inside Space - Experiments in Redefining Rooms, 2001, AA Bronson's Mirror Mirror, 2002, and Influence, Anxiety and Gratitude, 2003 and Son et Lumiére in 2004. Arning was the chief curator at White Columns Alternative Arts Space, New York, from 1985-1996, where he organized the first New York exhibitions for many significant American and international artists of the period. As a writer on art and culture, Arning's essays have been published in Time Out New York, The Village Voice, Art in America, World Art, Trans, Polliester, Bomb, and Honcho magazines and numerous museum catalogs. Recent essays include "Brief Encounter on the Piers" in Tony Feher, Bard College Museum and "The Sleazy Allure of Chris Burden" for Henrik Olesen - Sexuelle Zwischenstadien, Fabricious Projects, Copenhagen. His article Elaine Reichek's Rewoven Histories, was included in the Phaidon Book anthology Art and Feminism, in 2001. His essay "Everybody's Gay, (If Kurt Cobain said it, it must be true)" was published in Semiotexte anthology Imported: a Reading Seminar, ed. Rainer Ganahl.

This project was made possible by a generous grant from The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation. Additional support was provided by Karol Kreymer and Robert Card, M.D. Blaffer Gallery exhibitions and programs are generously supported by the City of Houston through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County; Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation; The George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; KUHF 88.7FM; Lannan Foundation; Neuberger Berman Foundation; University of Houston Foundation; and Blaffer Gallery Corporate Partners: Compass Bank; Jay Marks Mazda Hyundai; Methodist Hospital; Morgan Stanley/ Erik P. Littlejohn; Verizon Wireless Communications. Education programs are sponsored in part by Cooper Industries; Mr. and Mrs. Joe L. Hixon; Kraft Foods; and Texas Commission on the Arts.

Related Programs

Saturday, June 26, 1 pm, Dudley Recital Hall, Moores School of Music
Contemporary Salon "The Evolution of the Houston Area Exhibition" with guest curator Bill Arning, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Michelle Barnes, Director, Community Artist Collective, Alison de Lima Greene, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Prince Thomas, artist. The discussion will be moderated by Nancy Hixon, Assistant Director, Blaffer Gallery.

Wednesday, July 7, 2004
Brown Bag Lunch Tour with artists Serena Lin Bush, Laura Lark, and Hilary Wilder

Wednesday, July 28, noon
Brown Bag Lunch Tour with artists Rachel Cook, Stephanie Martz, Chad Sager

Wednesday, August 25, noon
Brown Bag Lunch Tour with artists Brendan Mulcahy, Anthony Thompson Shumate followed by a performance by Vicki Fowler, Driving My Own Force