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Indepth Arts News:
"Made You Look!"
2000-03-25 until 2000-05-28
Austin Museum of Art - Laguna Gloria
Austin, TX,
USA United States of America
Made You Look! The Nineteenth Annual Family
Exhibition (through May 28, 2000), presented by Van Kampen Funds Inc., at
AMOA-Laguna Gloria, 3809 West 35th Street.
Nothing is more central to visual art than the way in which artists direct the
viewer s eye to see the world in a new way. For the nineteenth in its series of
annual Family Exhibitions, the Austin Museum of Art will present the work of
seven internationally, nationally, and regionally recognized artists whose works
challenge viewers of all ages to learn to look more carefully. Photography, as
a medium or model, plays a central role in the exhibition, but the works
presented here reveal that serious looking takes longer than the click of a
camera s shutter. Full appreciation of an object, space, or image comes through
careful scrutiny--looking around, looking in, looking through, looking deeper.
Visual challenges and surprises abound in the work of the artists in this
exhibition. New York artist Spencer Finch creates pale, glimmering mosaics that
only over time reveal their photographic imagery of snow and clouds in locations
that few humans ever see, like Mount Everest. Houston multi-media artist Mark
Wade has created a series of wall-mounted boxes whose photographic vistas of the
natural world must be accessed through peepholes in their commercially inspired
exteriors. On closer inspection, the glamorous hats, dresses, and shoes in the
black-and-white photographs of Michiko Kon of Japan turn out to be made entirely
of sushi.
The exhibition will also explore the way artists make intangible elements such
as time, space, and thought visible. British-born, California-based artist
David Hockney, known primarily as a painter, builds multi-layered photocollages
that reflect the movement of the artists eye across the scene he is recording,
while condensing the passage of time. Houston painter Charles Mary Kubricht s
own time-intensive process becomes a key feature of her work. Dividing her
image into multiple panels, she paints each one individually, then recomposes
them into a final whole. San Antonio installation artist Rebecca Holland
encourages viewers to consider the Museum building s distinctive architecture by
exposing a long-hidden window behind the gallery and using expanses of gossamer
dental floss to delineate light and space. Sculptor Jorge Yázpik of Mexico
carves stone sculptures in which positive and negative spaces are integral to
the work as a whole. And a group of local Austin artists including Christa
Blackwood, Belinda Casey, Jimmy Jalapeeno, Naomi Schlinke, and Philip Wade will
extend the exhibition onto the grounds by choosing a view at Laguna Gloria and
framing it with a specially designed box. This Eye of the Beholder tour
encourages viewers to see what the artist sees as he or she begins to create an
image.
Made You Look! The Nineteenth Annual Family Exhibition is organized by the
Austin Museum of Art and is curated by Katelena Hernandez-Cowles, the Museum s
Head of Education. Made You Look! will be accompanied by the Children s
Participatory Gallery designed by Austin artist Nathan Jensen. This gallery
will include a number of innovative hands-on activities for children based on
the exhibition s themes. The Family Opening will include activities for
children and their families and a special performance by the Creeps, Austin s
slow-motion performance group. Specially trained youth docents will give
interactive tours of the exhibition to the public each week. Made You Look!
will be the last exhibition scheduled at Laguna Gloria prior to a major renewal
and restoration initiative to begin late 2000. During this period, outdoor
sculpture on the Laguna Gloria grounds will remain on view for the public, and
the Art School will remain in full operation.
The Austin Museum of Art is funded in part by the City of Austin under the
auspices of the Austin Arts Commission, and by the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Additional support is generously provided by the Austin Museum of Art Guild and
Members of the Museum. American Airlines is the official airline and The
Driskill is the official hotel of the Austin Museum of Art. Promotional
sponsors include the Austin American-Statesman, The Austin Chronicle,
CitySearch, and Pentagram.
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