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DARKFIRE
Sean
Caulfield
Opening Reception - Friday, May 13, 6:00 - 8:00
p.m.
Artist talk at 6:30
p.m.
Houston, TX
- Art
League Houston is delighted to announce
DARKFIRE, an exciting collaborative exhibition by Canadian artist
Sean Caulfield and Canadian writer Jonathan
Hart (typography and design by
Sue Colberg). This exhibition features a series of intaglio
prints and poems inspired by passages of text from Dante's epic poem,
The Divine Comedy, which describe bodies and environments in
transformation. The opening reception is
Friday, May 13
from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. with an
artist talk at 6:30
p.m. This exhibition is a participant of PRINTHOUSTON
2011.
DARKFIRE presents a
series of twenty wall-dependent intaglio prints with ten corresponding poems
exploring themes of technological change, biological decay, mutation and
metamorphosis. This body of work depicts a disintegrating world of darkness,
populated with anthropomorphic machines that appear man-made in one light and
organic in another, reflecting the constantly changing biological and
technological environments in our everyday
lives.
Seductive yet menacing, and familiar yet
strange, Caulfield's imagery fluctuates between themes of hope and fear.
Mysterious forms are plunged into rich landscapes of black and gray, while
others emerge from silent pools of water, wounded and leaking, spewing tentacles
of fire into unseen landscapes.
By tapping into
society's fear of an apocalyptic future, Caulfield and Hart develop a
provocative aesthetic that encourages the viewer to reflect upon changes in
their environment. DARKFIRE not only celebrates the powerful
relationship between imagery and language, but also embraces the transcendental
qualities that continue to exist within Dante's compelling literature.
About Sean
Caulfield
Sean Caulfield is a
professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, and
has exhibited his prints, drawings and book works extensively throughout Canada,
the United States, Europe, and Japan. Recent exhibitions include: Perceptions
of Promise, Glenbow Museum, Return to the Surface, Davidson Gallery,
Seattle, Washington, Imagining Science, Art Gallery of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; among
others.
Caulfield has received
numerous grants and awards for his work including: Triennial Prize at the
2nd Bangkok Triennial International Print and Drawing Exhibition,
Bangkok, Thailand; SSHRC Fine Arts Creation Grant; Canada Council Travel
Grant; and a Visual Arts Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council, Illinois, USA.
Caulfield's work is in various public and private collections including:
Houghton Library, Harvard University, USA, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,
England; Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, among
others.
About Jonathan
Hart
Jonathan Hart teaches
at the University of Alberta and has held visiting appointments at Harvard,
Toronto, Cambridge, Princeton, the Sorbonne Nouvelle and elsewhere.
His scholarly books include Empires and Colonies (2008);
Shakespeare: Poetry, History, and Culture (2009); Shakespeare
and His Contemporaries (2011) and Literature, Theory, History
(forthcoming). His most recent books of poetry are Dreamwork
(2010) and Musing
(2011).
About PRINTHOUSTON
2011
PRINTHOUSTON 2011 is Houston's first summer-long
print event dedicated to celebrating the art of print-making and print
collecting in Houston through a series of print inspired exhibitions, lectures,
workshops and special events at museums, commercial galleries, non-profit
spaces and
artist run spaces in Houston.
PRINTHOUSTON is organized by PrintMatters, a Houston based non-profit
organization devoted to promoting traditional and contemporary printmaking in
Houston. Find out
more information at www.printmattershouston.org.
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VOODOO
POP
Trey Speegle & Mary
Hayslip
Thirty Years of Friendship & Art
Opening Reception - Friday, May 13, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Artist talk at 7:00
p.m.
Houston, TX - Art
League Houston is pleased to announce
VOODOO POP, an exciting
collaborative exhibition by self-taught Houston artist Mary Hayslip and
Texas-born, New York-based artist Trey Speegle, which chronicles and
celebrates the artists' thirty years of friendship and art through an innovative
installation of sculpture, photography, printmaking, painting, collage, textile
and found art. The opening reception is Friday, May 13, from 6:00 -
8:00 p.m. with an artist talk
at 7:00
p.m.
Mary Hayslip and Trey Speegle have been friends for over thirty years,
initially meeting on the dance floor of what is now the Menil's Dan Flavin
Installation in Richmond Hall. Although Trey moved to New York in 1980, their
admiration for each other's creativity only grew with passing time. They
continued to visit one another frequently, trading ideas, collecting each
other's work, and encouraging each new phase of their ever-expanding interests
and obsessions.
VOODOO
POP is a
retrospective exhibition revealing three decades of the friendship of Hayslip
and Speegle. The show features a selection of display cases containing mini
collections of each other's artwork, personal correspondences, photos and
individual artworks, as well as a series of wall-dependent, limited edition
prints and unique sculptures. These works function as rich historical artifacts
that not only describe the prolific history of the duo's friendship, but also
highlight the intrinsic connections
between friendship and
art.
About Mary
Hayslip
A
native Houstonian, Mary Hayslip enjoys cultivating the historic house and garden
once occupied by her great grandparents. Raised by antique-collecting parents,
her life and artwork are truly inseparable. Her home is an ever changing
installation and creative lab where she explores and experiments working in many
different media including: collage, ceramics, beading, sculpture, textiles,
found art and multi-media installation.
Hayslip has developed a unique iconography and personal philosophy that
transcends, and yet bridges, the conventional separation of art and craft.
Mary's unique methodology and process adapts any given medium to her will and by
creating a personal set of guidelines for each new adventure, she diligently
lives and works by her own rules.
About Trey
Speegle
A unique mix of
commercial and fine art has characterized Trey Speegle's diverse career. Using
one of the world's largest collections of vintage paint-by-number paintings as
source material, Speegle draws inspiration from them as a "visual vocabulary."
Through double
entendre, word play, and affirmations, Speegle explores themes that resonate
with a broad "Pop" appeal: hope, love, longing, and loss.
VOODOO POP is
also the thirtieth anniversary of his first solo show in Houston entitled
"RePop," which was an early Warholian take on Houston society and culture.
Speegle's 2011 solo exhibition in New York at Benrimon
Contemporary, It's Not About You," featured "The RePop Shop" with items he
originally created for a collaboration with Anthropologie Home, as well as
limited edition items created for the show. A selection of these items will be
exhibited and available at Art League Houston.
In 2009, Speegle was
commissioned by Stella McCartney to create a backdrop for her runway show in
Paris. Large-scale reproductions of the painting were shown in McCartney's store
windows in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Beijing in the spring of
2010.
Trey lives and works in
New York's Meatpacking District and in a converted barn in the upstate Catskill
Mountains.
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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 785 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.
SUPPORT
Art League Houston is funded in part by a grant from the
City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
This project is
supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Art League Houston
acknowledges the following private foundations and corporations for their
support this season: Art Colony Association Inc, Axiom, The Brown Foundation,
Inc., CenterPoint Energy, ExxonMobil Foundation, Felvis Foundation, Houston
Endowment, Inc., Krewe of Olympus-Texas, Inc., Lone Star Chapter of the National
Multiple Sclerosis Society, John P. McGovern Foundation, Mrs.
Kathrine McGovern, New Leaf Publishing, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Inc., Oshman
Foundation, Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Saint Arnold Brewing Company,
Southwest Precision Printers, Target, Susan Vaughan Foundation, The Wachovia
Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Wortham Foundation, Inc.
Art
League Houston also wishes to thank its many generous individual donors for
their support.
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