PaperCity Magazine

January 2017 - Houston

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62 FAIR WELL Catherine D. Anspon recaps collectible moments at Houston Art Fair, year six. Photography Daniel Jackson. T he rebranded Houston Art Fair moved from NRG to a cooler art-centric venue — Silver Street Studios — while retaining its Opening Night beneficiary, FotoFest. Here are top moments from the convergence curated by new Fair owners, Urban Expositions, producer of the well-regarded, design-minded SOFA fair in Chicago, and headed by VP of Art Group, Donna Davies. In keeping with its new imprint, year six had a strong craft element — perfect for Houston, with its long-standing makers' movement, the presence of the Craft Center, and the fondly remembered Goldesberry Gallery. If you were looking for a cache of studio jewelry, important glass, or a goblet by international notable Gaetano Pesce, this Fair was your place. Stealing the show: booths by Whitespace Collection (home to Pesce's rubberized cre- ations), TAI Modern (HQ for museum-quality basketry), and Palette Contemporary and Charon Kransen, each with a dizzying array of collectible baubles. Among hometown exhibitors, Deborah Colton Gallery paired Dorothy Hood paintings (coinciding with the late artist's museum retrospective at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, on view through January 8) and the Corning Museum-collected glass sculptures by Susan Plum, intricate cosmologies of consciousness. Other highlights from Houston exhib- itors included FotoFest's projections, especially a video by Tom Turner that probed the cosmos via lunar cycles, and the James Surls sculpture standing guard at Gus Kopriva's Redbud Gallery; priced at $25,000, it went to a new home. Also at Redbud: a bounty of works on paper by art-history big guns ranging from Dorothy Tanning to Toulouse-Lautrec. Meanwhile, Koelsch Gallery rolled out a droll display of Donna Rosenthal's doll-sized dresses fashioned from ephemera. On other walls, retiring Galveston Arts Center curator/ Texas talent scout Clint Willour organized an exhibition culled from Silver Street resident artists, which made a nice foil to the more formal booths of the Fair. Other standouts were the surreal architectural mash-ups by The Merger at Havana-based Collage Habana and startling masks presented by Northwest Coast-based Cassera Arts Premiers. Finally, the panel "Reviving Houston's Lost History" presented projects in the works that aim to rescue Houston's significant art scene from the sands of time. It featured panelists Patricia Johnson, Theresa Escobedo, Pete Gershon, and Chelby King. Providing more star power — and a shot of mezcal — was Cheech Marin, who paired a tasting of his new artisanal mezcal with a signing of his latest art volume detailing works on paper from his personal collection. Cheech Marin An art patron Donna Davies, Geraldina Wise Marshal Lightman toasts with a Pesce goblet. Sylvie Christophe Apama Mackey Ana Villaronga-Roman Lisa Slappey with a Dorothy Hood Elise Weber, Janus Lazaris Donna Rosenthal with one of her creations Duyen Huynh Nguyen Deborah Colton Lester & Penelope Marks Matt Adams Mady Kades, Jennifer Butkevich, Ken Kades Susan Plum Victoria Lightman

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