Art Criticism and Reporting: Part Two

Devon Britt-Darby

FRONT GALLERY

June 3 - June 21, 2013

Art League Houston is pleased to present the second half of Art Criticism and Reporting, a two-part exhibition by Devon Britt-Darby that combines fragments of retrieved memories to explore themes of vulnerability, portraiture and "appropriated autobiography." Using a performative painting process, the exhibit pieces together scenes from the artist's past as a sex worker and a former newspaper art critic to evoke ambiguous narratives that are ultimately up to the viewer to complete.

The second installment of the exhibition features a three-week residency in the ALH Front Gallery where the artist will complete a wall-size painting on unstretched canvas. Because Britt-Darby will begin by working on the floor surrounded by his work, the paintings from part one will still be up on the walls for at least the first week of the residency. Part two concludes with a closing party from 6-9 p.m. Friday, June 21.

Britt-Darby, the visual arts editor of Arts + Culture Houston magazine, will also be working on the July/August issue of the publication in the gallery - that is, he will actually be writing and editing art criticism and reporting in the space. Britt-Darby will frequently post updates on the residency's progress and a video diary on his blog, reliablenarratives.com. Viewers may follow his progress on Twitter at @dbhypend and/or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/dbhyphend.

During gallery hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays), ALH visitors are welcome to enter the gallery, talk with the artist as he works, and contribute to documenting the process with their own cameras if they wish. (If he's napping, visitors may still enter but are requested to do so quietly.) If the artist is working after hours, viewers are welcome to watch, photograph and shoot video through the window, but only invited guests will be allowed inside. Because Britt-Darby will sometimes have to leave the space during gallery hours while fulfilling his duties to the magazine, sometimes viewers will confront not the artist himself, but the evidence of his presence.

The wall-size painting will use text from a police report documenting a 2004 arrest that led to a stint in a forensic psychiatric hospital. The final installation will probably also include other works created in the space during the residency.

"The idea behind the residency is total vulnerability," Britt-Darby says. "The critic, whose process is normally invisible to his readers, who only see the edited product - exposes his entire process while unfolding a tale of his lowest moment that isn't even in his own words."

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

June 21, 6 - 9 PM                      Closing Party

ABOUT DEVON BRITT-DARBY

Devon Britt-Darby studied photography and painting at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, later earning a communications degree at the University of Houston. From 2011 to 2012 he collaborated with Reese Darby on The Art Gay Marries a Woman, a performance that drew national coverage in Salon, the Huffington Post, Texas Monthly, the Houston Press, PaperCity, CultureMap, The Great God Pan Is Dead, The Stranger (Seattle), Bad at Sports (Chicago), and Art Fag City (New York). His work has been featured in a solo exhibition; Keepsakes from Several Occasions at Zoya Tommy Contemporary (2012) and a three person exhibition;  ProjeXion: Tim Gonzalez, Devon Britt-Darby and Alexandre Rosa at Avis Frank Gallery. The former art critic for the Houston Chronicle, Britt-Darby is the visual arts editor for Arts + Culture Houston magazine.

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