Glasstire’s Best/Worst of 2006
AUSTIN / SAN ANTONIO: Oliver Boberg’s tricky and seductive architectural photos at Lora Reynolds, the poetic and touching experience of Cauleen Smith and A. Van Jordan at Testsite, and E-Flux at Art House, which allowed for rare access to hundreds of contemporary video works and a great excuse for some curated screenings. An entrancing favorite was Nuclear Football by Korpys/Loffler, an unflinching look at the bizarre rituals of the presidency. The Blanton has a room from its permanent collection up right now; pieces by Emily Jacir, Christian Marcley and Anton Vidokle seem as if they were meant to be together in a room packed with politics and an investigation of time. Droppin’ Drawers at Okay Mountain had some surprisingly fresh drawings gathered from around the world to this exciting collaborative space. Other great drawings in Austin this year included Eric Zimmerman’s dystopian spaces that sit somewhere between architecture and abstraction and Heyd Fontenot’s portraits, which dripped with wry humor and a strange postmodern classicism at Art Palace.
-Noah Simblist
Though they have the advantage of exhibiting toward the end of the year, like Oscar contenders, Cauleen Smith and A. Van Jordan’s I want to see my skirt and Eric Zimmerman’s Simplon Pass were Austin’s most satisfying shows in 2006. Both were fully realized and very moving to sit and look at. In Testsite’s living room, Smith and Van Jordan created a pulsing duet of film and poetry born of the photographs of Malick Sidibé. Further south at Art Palace, Zimmerman’s deliberate drawings evoked interior and exterior architectures of pain and progress.
Other moments, inside and outside the city, included Paul Chan’s animation (which made the Blanton’s bittersweet opening a bit more sweet) and Cameron Jamie’s fantastic work, everywhere this year but hidden at the Whitney, where it was so disorienting that I nearly turned green.
As for stinkers, I’ll be chicken and instead encourage artists and gallerists to think big and beyond their navels in 2007. If a work takes less than a day to complete, it’s probably not ready for our eyes. Austin’s art community regularly participates in several self-defeating activities, including valorizing the shallow. Serious work requires time, energy and thought, so let’s see some blood, sweat and tears. We arrest ourselves with anything less.
-Marie-Adele Moniot
Mimi Kato @ Joan Grona, San Antonio. It’s time to hop through the year-end countdown. These are the events that made life in the Texas art world either magical or bothersome.
Stinkbombs of 2006 1. The T-shirt show at Stella Haus 2. Salma Hayek portraits at Blue Star 3. San Antonio Museum of Art 4. Carla Herrera-Prats and Ursula Dávila Villa at Testsite 5. Mark Flood’s personal musings
Stellar, sparkling gems of 2006 1. Alan Licht and Tatuzi Akiyama at Salon Mijangos 2. Eduardo Navarro’s clever Argentinean drawings at Art Palace 3. Droppin’ Drawers at Okay Mountain 4. Slapstick at Lora Reynolds Gallery 5. Caitlin Haskell and Jules Buck Jones at Testsite 6. Mimi Kato at Joan Grona Gallery 7. The Bungalow Projects during Contemporary Art Month: San Antonio 8. Over & Over: Passion for Process at Austin Museum of Art 9. Paul Chan singing ‘I’m a Creep’ at a karoake bar at 3 a.m. 10. Leona Scull-Hons’ indefatigable optimism for contemporary art in Texas
-From the Desk of Bunnyphonic