Archive

Contemporary Vietnamese Voice / Fielding Lecht Gallery /
September 9 - October 9, 2005

On September 9, Fielding Lecht Gallery (708 Congress Avenue) opens an inaugural exhibition "Landscapes of the Soul," showcasing paintings by Nguyen Cam.

Cam's mixed media paintings feature a complex combination of calligraphic line, surface, and shape. Originating from the drawn line, instinctual calligraphic signs are painted on rice paper and attached to the canvas forming a grid that establishes the space within the paintings. This space is architectural and abstract, spatial and flat, oscillating between one sense of place and another. In one instant the calligraphy is language and the next it is an abstract, painterly space, where materials and lines interact to create landscapes that meander beyond the frame of the canvas. This re-assembled grid is often put adjacent to similar grid-like arrangements of other materials, thread, pressed flowers, or often just a painted surface, heightening the sense of fluctuating location. Cam's current body of work evolves beyond its origins in the Far East, and its re-location in the west, to embody universality that is an expression of the essence of life. Through the use of calligraphic landscape the paintings exemplify the primal connection between man and nature.

"Landscapes of the Soul" is the first exhibition at the Fielding Lecht Gallery, which will host a variety of exhibitions from primarily Vietnamese and South East Asian contemporary artists. It continues through October 9, 2005.

New Art at AMOA / August 20 - October 30, 2005

AMOA's eagerly awaited, "New Art in Austin: 22 to Watch" is finally here. Featuring Austin's recently anointed contemporary art darlings, this show has plenty to sink your teeth into, especially if you like installation art. While "22" is the type of show you could/should visit a couple of times, two brief visits reveal the immediate standouts.

Ledia Carroll's site-specific installation, "Inland Sea," (2005) seduces using minimal means. The work, essentially made of acrylic pipe and water, snakes around the north (west) room, out a door into the hall, outside around 9th Street side of the building, then into the front fountain. The simplicity of water running through clear pipe complemented by the beautiful sound of running water resonates - clean, stirring and hypnotic.

Other favorites are Shaune Kolber's, not-as-new (2003), but still intriguing landscape photos - digital prints on paper. His images self-consciously refer to the long history of photographing the American West, with a twist. Kolber includes modern-day gear laden photographers poised at look out points in order to capture perfect (and elusive) vistas of America's "purple mountains' majesty." His take on the landscape tradition becomes ironic and sometimes humorous.

Another impressive installation by Heather Johnson ("Somewhere Between Here and anywhere" 2003-05) explores the potential of line in map form. Johnson plots nails (intersections or corners?) connected by thread (streets?) to create a sprawling city plan. Similar to Carroll's acrylic pipes; Johnson's work eschews visual bells and whistles without the bang. It invites complex ideas about urban and museum space through uncomplicated media.

Only two painters proper are included in this exhibition, Jonathan Faber (abstract) and Trent Tate (representational). Is this an indication of what is "not" going on in Austin or of the "22" organizers' tastes? The catalogue essay surmises it "may result from a generational tendency towards multi-tasking, or perhaps emerged from the openness to experimentation and invention as part of our creative class."

I'm not so sure about that, but it certainly demonstrates a willingness, even gutsy-ness, on behalf of "22"'s organizers to let the chips fall where they may, instead of the more usual (and safe) assembly resulting in an ever-so-balanced show- equal parts (artist's) media, gender and age.

Four Finalists Show their Stuff / Arthouse Texas Prize

Arthouse offers up work by its four Texas Prize Finalists: Eileen Maxson, Robyn O'Neil, Robert A. Pruitt and Ludwig Schwarz. Chosen from 129 nominations by a select group of art world professionals, this group of artists represents Texas with significant and innovative bodies of work completed during the past two years. Maxson's (Houston) video and installations investigate the role of sentiment in the mass media and entertainment industries. The graphite drawings of O'Neil (Houston) address contemporary alienation and violence through the symbolic power of landscapes. Pruitt (Houston) explores issues of race and cultural identity in commercial pop culture. And Schwarz's (Dallas) paintings and installations question the machinery of capitalism and other possible roles for art in everyday life.

The Arthouse Texas Prize is the largest regional visual arts award in the United States. It is the first statewide prize of its kind for contemporary art, and it will be presented on November 4. This exhibition continues through November 13.