Art League Houston Presents

Long Way She Wave

Five wall drawings by Marco Villegas

On view July 9 - August 20, 2010

Opening Reception Friday July 9, 2010, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Art League Houston, Main Gallery

Art League Houston

1953 Montrose Boulevard

Houston, Texas 77006

For Immediate Release:   For more information contact: 

Sarah Schellenberg, 713.523.9530 or sarah@artleaguehouston.org

Photos and complete biographies available on request

Houston, TX (June 1, 2010) Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of   Long Way She Wave, a series of five wall drawings by Houston artist Marco Villegas, July 9 through August 20, 2010 in the Main Gallery of Art League Houston.   The Long Way She Wave drawings take as inspiration the woodcut prints of the 19^th century Japanese artist, Katushika Hokusai, and are a perpetual motion of visual forms simulating the ceaseless motion of waves.

The opening reception for Long Way She Wave is Friday July 9, 2010, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. with an artist talk at 6:45. 

The first of the five Long Way She Wave wall drawings begin with a distant image of a group of waves that grows larger and larger, making each successive drawing in the series increasingly abstract until the drawings come full circle, to reveal their original subject matter, and repeat their pattern anew.

The ocean waves are constants across time and place with their relentless rolling, tumbling and crashing.  As such, waves become a metaphor for the machinations of chaos and order that exist in perpetuity between man and nature.  Long Way She Wave is an ode of sorts to that perpetuity, created by Villegas with no small sense of urgency as the BP oil spill threatens the natural order, creating chaos along the Gulf Coast.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Marco Villegas was born in Monterrey, Mexico and has resided in Houston for over thirty years.  He attended the Fine Arts program at the University of Houston from 1986-1991.  In 1990 his work was selected by Edward Albee for a group show at Hiram Butler Gallery, called What I Found in Houston.  Since that time Villegas has exhibited frequently around Texas, including recent exhibits at the Dallas Contemporary and the Wichita Falls Museum of Art.  He has been a visiting artist with Writers in The Schools (WITS) and taught a printmaking summer workshop through the Blaffer Gallery Education Depart.  In Houston, he is represented by Meredith Long Gallery and his work in included in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston collection.

 

 

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Art League Houston presents

Lonesome Travelers

Photographs by Mario Perez, Bryan Schutmaat, and Robert Ziebell

Curated by Beth Secor

On view July 9 - August 20, 2010

Opening Reception Friday July 9, 2010, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Art League Houston, Project Gallery

Art League Houston

1953 Montrose Boulevard

Houston, Texas 77006

For Immediate Release:   For more information contact: 

Sarah Schellenberg, 713.523.9530 or sarah@artleaguehouston.org

Photos and complete biographies available on request

Houston, TX (June 1, 2010) Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of  Lonesome Travelers, a photography exhibition with works by three Texas-based photographers, Mario Perez, Bryan Schutmaat, and Robert Ziebell, July 9 through August 20, 2010 in the Front Gallery of Art League Houston.  This exhibition is curated by Beth Secor.

The opening reception for Lonesome Traveler is Friday July 9, 2010, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. with an artist talk at 7:00 p.m. 

Although the work of each artist in the exhibition is distinctly different, there are shared elements among the three. All three photographers live in Texas, all three have primarily chosen images taken from their travels, and all three gravitate toward subjects that many would deem too ordinary to photograph (a stack of watermelons, an empty hotel room, a sleeping man in the street) only to turn around and show us their subjects are not so ordinary at all.

Secor says about the exhibit, "I grouped these three photographers together because when I look at the collective imagery I am attracted to the aesthetics and drawn to their narrative quality.  Looking at them makes me want to have adventures and write stories, like those Kerouac's, whose book the title of the exhibition is based.  In my narratives, Ziebell's woman in a market who happens to be standing behind a plant is in reality Coatlicue, the mother of the gods;  Schutmaat's hotel telephone rings, and the caller announces mankind's destiny; and Perez's chihuahua Buster is an all seeing being, who with a single sniff, can read one's thoughts in ways far superior to the mind meld methods of Mr. Spock."

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Mario Perez became a photographer four years ago.  Prior to this he had a 20+ year painting career during which time he received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts for Works on Paper and the Kimbrough Award from Dallas Museum of Art.  Among other venues he has shown his work at The Drawing Center and Bonin & Alexander in New York, Sala Diaz in San Antonio, and Lawndale and DiverseWorks Art Space in Houston.  His work is in the permanent collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art.  Since taking up a camera, Perez has had the unique distinction of having his photographs used by Horner, Inc. in their advertisements for the Flaco Jimeñez Signature Model Accordion, an instrument created to celebrate the lifetime achievements and legacy of accordion legend Flaco Jimeñez.

Bryan Schutmaat recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Houston, and he will pursue an MFA in Photography this fall at the University of Hartford, where he'll study alongside notable artists such as Hellen van Meene and Alec Soth. Since picking up photography in 2003 he has shown his photographs in galleries in France, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, and widely in the United States. His work has appeared in the Humble Art Foundation's Collectors' Guide to Emerging Art Photography and Vogue Girl Korea, as well as on the front covers for novels by Margaret Atwood and Andrew Zornoza.  His work has also been in a number of online publications including Fjord, F-Stop Magazine, Je Suis une Bande de Jeunes, and countless photo blogs. Schutmaat's awards include a 2010 Curator's Commendation at HCP's 28th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition, Juror's Choice Award at Art Alliance Center of Clear Lake's Annual Exhibition, and First Order Award at Watkins College's Brownlee Curry Juried Student Art Exhibition, among others.  He is currently a member of Young Photographers United.  

Robert Ziebell is a lens-based artist who earned a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan School of Art in 1979 . A former Core Fellow of the Glassell School of Art, MFAH, Ziebell has exhibited his photographs and screened his films at venues that include the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Austin Museum of Art; FotoFest Gallery; Phoenix Art Museum; Athens International Film Festival (Ohio); Ann Arbor Film Festival; and Florence Film Festival (Italy), among many others.  His feature film THE STATE I'M IN, will be celebrating its 20 year anniversary this fall at the Museum of Fine Arts/Houston. When it was first released it had been screened at the Dallas Museum of Art; Wexner Center in Columbus Ohio, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, The Film Center at the Art Institute in Chicago as well as other prestigious institutions.  Ziebell has received grants and awards from the Southwest Media Project (SWAMP), Cultural Arts Council Houston/Harris County, Texas Commission on the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, and the NEA.  His interactive panoramic DVD-ROM, Las Posaz: Steps and Falls was also recently published by ARTpix and is distributed by MicroCinema. His photographs of Las Pozas and his still life/landscape work was included in two issues of Grand Street magazine, #72 on the theme "Delusional", and #70 under the theme "Against Nature". His work is in the collections of the MFA/H, The Austin Museum of Art, The City of Austin, and Pain Webber Corporation, among others. Currently Ziebell is working on a series of artist's apps for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch and the new iPad. He currently splits his time between South Texas and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Beth Secor is an artist, writer, educator and curator who lives and works in Houston, Texas. 

 

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ABOUT ART LEAGUE HOUSTON

Art League Houston is one of Houston's longest operating non-profit visual arts organizations and was the first alternative art space in Texas.  Founded in 1948 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1953, Art League Houston (ALH) was created to promote the public appreciation of and interest in the visual arts.  During the past 62 years, ALH has provided over 780 exhibitions to the Houston community, showcased the work of nearly 12,000 artists, and instructed over 36,000 students through the Art League School and outreach programs.   

OUR MISSION

The mission of Art League Houston is to cultivate awareness, appreciation, and accessibility of contemporary visual art within the community for its cultural enrichment.  Art League Houston provides an opportunity for all members of the community to experience the contemporary visual arts.  We achieve our mission through exhibitions, education, and outreach programs.

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