Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/322791
JUNE | PAGE 6 | 2014 Soto Season: Get thee to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, for an immersive experience that rivals last summer's James Turrell retrospective. "Soto: The Houston Penetrable" stands as the most monumental creation to date and the final work of its kind — a decade in the making — by the late Latin American kinetic modernist Jesús Rafael Soto. Envisioned in 2004 and posthumously carried forth, it takes over Cullinan Hall in an undertaking that required special engineering to improve upon Mies van der Rohe's architecture that could support "a Texas Cadillac." Now the ceiling can support four two-ton 1958 Cadillacs — hence, it's up to snuff to bear the load of Soto's piece, which features 24,000 PVC tubes (in simple shades of clear or yellow, hand-painted and hand-tied), stretching 28 feet from ceiling to ground (though September 1). Trenton Rules: At Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Trenton Doyle Hancock gets his due in a 20-year drawing survey organized by senior curator Valerie Cassel Oliver. Revel in Hancock's messy mixes of collaged and cutout drawings to obsessively rendered graphite masterpieces populated by cartoon-inflected cosmology (through August 3). This show reflects the CAMH's important return to Houston-centered programming. Galveston Way: Lensman Don Glentzer serves up images imbued with enigma that evoke the traditions of constructivism (at DesignWorks, through July 5). Fashion Hearts Art: Mid-month, Uptown's contemporary fashion destination BB1 Classic will start curating art at the new Upper Deck Gallery. Our favorite finds: Michelle T. Ellis' Turner Studio Ceramics, hypnotic little pots that harken to Greco-Roman pottery; photog Randy Bessire's scenes of vernacular Texas; minimalist studio jewelry from Michele Cruz; and Andrew Groocock's sculptures in the tradition of the De Stijl movement, accompanied by some very strong drawings. Be there Saturday, June 14, for a Father's Day opening and meet the artists. Catherine D. Anspon Art Notes © ESTATE OF JESÚS RAFAEL SOTO; PHOTO CARRITHERS STUDIO Y ou'll be seeing plenty of Houston artist/native son Selven O'Keef Jarmon's vision unfolding in the coming months at Art League Houston. We predict a traffic jam along Montrose Boulevard as ALH's gleaming metal exterior slowly disappears behind a heroic skein of four beaded tapestry curtains. But don't just be a bystander. Support the project, which brings groups of craft artisans to town from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, extending over a five-month period. Attend the benefit that contributes to the cause Thursday, June 5, at Barbara Davis Gallery, where you can meet Fifth Ward-raised Jarmon — who began as a fashion designer but whose career has always intersected the art world and social practice — and welcome the skilled beading contingent from South Africa. From $100, tickets/details, Jill Nepomnick, Art League Houston, 713.523.9530, jill@artleaguehouston.org. Catherine D. Anspon Bead It, the Benefit Hotel Granduca Austin has broken ground. If you've given up on a res at Four Seasons and Hotel Saint Cecilia during SXSW, Austin City Limits and UT game days, take heart. Giorgio Borlenghi, patriarch of Hotel Granduca Houston, hears your pain. Borlenghi's Interfin Companies and Riverside Resources of Austin joint-venture the luxe 194-room hotel, which sits atop a hillside on the corner of Bee Cave Road and Loop 360, scheduled for completion late 2015. Hotel Granduca Austin Here's the latest from the Houston Fine Art Fair, arriving September 18 – 21, at NRG (formerly Reliant) Center. HFAF's opening-night proceeds go to Asia Society Texas Center, while the Fair continues its tradition of touting those whom have shaped our community — watch for MFAH's founding photography curator Anne Tucker to be anointed with the Lifetime Achievement Award, while scholar/erudite British-born art historian David Brauer will be called to the dais for the inaugural HFAF Illumination Award for Achievement in Arts Education. (Both began their respective posts at the MFAH in 1976; it was a very good year.) Also recommended at HFAF: Former Houston Chronicle art critic Patricia Johnson's curates a Hall of Fame section devoted to three decades of Houston artists, with an emphasis on monochrome painters. And weighing in as special HFAF advisor/committee chair will be gallerist Deborah Colton, who's exhibited at the Fair since its founding four years ago; Colton's also a regular at owner Rick Friedman's Art Aspen. houstonfineartfair.com. Catherine D. Anspon BZZZ: HOUSTON FINE ART FAIR ANOINTS TWO MFAH NOTABLES S chool's out, and Recipe for Success Foundation has the perfect recipe to cure "We're bored!" For the third year, the food-centric foundation hosts Eat This! Summer Camp, a series of five-day camps throughout June and July for kids age 8 to 11. Up-and-coming epicureans partake in cooking and gardening, of course, but the crux of the camp is an inside look at the food-marketing juggernaut — specifically, those efforts aimed at children. Campers are taught to recognize misleading claims and see beyond flashy promotions and packaging, better equipping them to make healthy eating decisions for the rest of their lives. Foodie friends of the organization — including Chefs Advisory Board members Jon Buchanan of Trevisio and Ruffy Sulaiman of Hilton Americas– Houston — offer their expertise on all things farm-to-table, giving campers the ultimate guide to growing, cooking and buying food. Each week's camp culminates in a group project that ties together all elements of the experience, from garden bounty to cooking and creating a healthy prepared product, down to the branding and packaging. Houston chef and restaurateur Ryan Pera will judge the projects, and the winner's creation will actually be carried on the shelves of Pera's Revival Market in the Heights. RecipeHouse at 4400 Yupon hosts the camps June 2 through the week of July 14 through 18. $350 per child and includes meals, snacks, supplies, recipe journal and a Recipe for Success apron. Visit recipe4success.org, or contact Marisol Castro at 713.520.0443, marisol@ recipe4success.org. Caroline Starry LeBlanc CAMP FOODIE The name Joe Mancuso is instantly recognizable in the Texas art firmament, calling up images such as stacks of concrete building blocks — Brancusian with a formal beauty that contrasts with the sculpture's humble materials, which are straight out of Home Depot. Then there are his paintings, executed in recent years in latex and collage painstakingly applied to canvas — complex ideas often inspired by an object as simple as the pattern of an antique brooch. His current arsenal of ingredients, as he explains, may be the most tantalizing yet: resin, newsprint, concrete, latex paint, dried flowers. "Many of the materials I use have a predetermined factor to them, whether it is the color, or the nature of the medium," he says. Looking at a litany of figures and forebears including Andy Warhol, Richard Serra and Claude Monet (the list goes on), the Texas-based painter/sculptor reveals, "The artists I admire somewhat contradict one another, which is what I find most interesting. However, my influence isn't limited to just artists. I'm mostly influenced by the feelings I get and my surrounding environment. I try to avoid what other artists are doing and instead respond to everything I come into contact with." Mancuso gives viewers a preview of his new series "Because You're Mine" (a riff on the Johnny Cash classic "I Walk the Line") that opens in September, at Barbara Davis Gallery's booth during year four of the Texas Contemporary Art Fair at George R. Brown Convention Center. "The title of the exhibition is a paradox in itself — it's both tragic and romantic," the artist says. "Right now, I am working on a large-scale sculpture: a chandelier created from dried roses that are coated with epoxy and concrete powder and hang from a cascading wire structure. The concrete removes any color the roses once had, making it like a dimensional drawing. The flowers express the same dichotomy as the title — their process from life to death is so quick. The softness of the petals is heavily contrasted with the hardness of the concrete." Mancuso has exhibited internationally and is widely collected in Texas publicly and privately including representation in the permanent holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He is also in the collection of playwright Edward Albee, who is known as a talent scout for America's most extraordinary visualists. Contemporary Canvas: Joe Mancuso BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE TEXAS CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR September 4 – 7, 2014 H O U S T O N txcontemporary.com BARBARA DAVIS GALLERY, HOUSTON Joe Mancuso's Colorform, Flowers (detail), 2013, at Barbara Davis Gallery Joe Mancuso in studio T he Brilliant Lecture Series, in conjunction with Tenenbaum & Co., presents King Michael: A Glorious Tribute to the King Of Pop Saturday, June 28. The on-stage spectacular spans Michael Jackson's career, from his beginning, with his brothers in The Jackson 5 all the way through his solo career including such hits as "Thriller," "Billie Jean" and "Beat It." The cast includes vocalists and dancers who were approved by the man himself and have truly mastered the moves. You will swear the King of Pop himself is performing. Tickets from $70, through 832.487.7041, brilliantlectures.org. Erin Oppenheim A Moonwalk to Remember Michael Jackson, circa 1974 Jesús Rafael Soto's Houston Penetrable, 2004 – 2014, at MFAH Selven O'Keef Jarmon, Barbara Davis, and Rosine Kouamen with BCCKT's Serenade, 2011, at Art League Houston