Category: Uncategorized

RAYCHAEL STINE
CHUPARROSA

Opening Reception: Friday, Feb 20th, 2015, 6-8pm
Exhibition runs through March 27th, 2015.

 

In Raychael Stine’s newest body of work, Chuparrosa, paintings on canvas and paper confidently propose that no event is truly unique. By layering abstract painterly gesture and deft representation, Stine creates scenarios where perception and perspective get confused. The work in Chuparrosaarticulates the transitive relationship between form and material with an aim to create more space, and more looking. Stine defends the value of feeling in the context of contemporary art, as well as the importance of tenderness in everyday life.
Raychael Stine lives in Albuquerque and works as an Assistant Professor of Painting at the University of New Mexico. Her most recent solo exhibitions include galleries Inpost Artspace (Albuquerque, NM;) Jekyll & Hyde (Chicago, IL;) Eugene Binder (Marfa, TX;) and Marty Walker Gallery (Dallas, TX). Raychael holds a BFA from University of Texas at Dallas and an MFA from the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Simple Taste is Popular

BILL WILLIS

BRADLEY KERL

Opening Reception: Friday, Jan 8th, 2016, 6-8pm
Exhibition runs through Feb 20, 2016.

 

Art Palace presents Simple Taste is Popular, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Bill Willis and Bradley Kerl. From found imagery devoid of grandeur, Kerl and Willis present painterly explorations of subjects lovingly rendered such as still lives from vintage Italian cooking magazines, mid-century cookbooks and vintage nudie playing cards, resulting in a quotidian landscape.

Willis and Kerl each describe the first leg of their creative process as sifting, scouring, surfing, or mining for source materials that are banal, kitschy, or decidedly “uncool”;  these castoff pictures are chosen for their readiness to accept fantastic and aspirational qualities. Equal parts garish and tender, the final works are fabrications of idealized, indulgent scenarios.

Willis and Kerl both hold MFA degrees from University of Houston, maintain a fresh and steady studio practices, and work as adjunct studio professors.

 

Opening Reception: Friday, February 26, 2016, 6-8pm
Exhibition runs through April 2, 2016.

 

Art Palace presents Vessels for Leaky Condos, a solo exhibition of sculptures by Charlie Satterlee. The Vessels are rooted in the tradition of studio ceramics although their functionality is undermined by the addition of commercial building materials such as cast concrete and polyurethane foam. In Amethyst or Actavis, a fractured piece of under-fired porcelain supports a form of cast concrete, from which a neck of unglazed stoneware protrudes. While both ceramic remnants quote a utilitarian vessel, the concrete removes all practicality. The exhibition takes its name from the Leaky Condo Crisis, an ongoing disaster in which thousands of condominium buildings along the Pacific Coast have accrued billions of dollars in water damage due to inappropriate construction and design decisions. Satterlee’s work references the negligence of the Crisis while poking holes in conventional studio ceramics.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a text by Ashlyn Behrndt. Vessels for Leaky Condos will run concurrently with Satterlee’s exhibition Recent Work at the Menil Bookstore, opening Thursday, March 3, 2016.

Charlie Satterlee’s work has previously been exhibited throughout British Columbia. He received his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Vancouver, BC). Satterlee is a former editor of the art & writing journal SETUP, and a founding editor of a series of free pamphlets called The Bartleby Review. He currently lives and works in Houston, TX.

Opening Reception: February 26, 2015 | 6 – 8 PM
On view through April 2, 2016

 

For nearly a decade, Casey Williams visited Houston’s ship channel with the purpose of photographing the rich, abstract relationship between rusty oil tankers and the shimmering ocean that carries them.  Williams documented moments when the sun’s glare passed between the water and boats, each surface affected by the presence of the other. He created large scale work that often read as abstract paintings, befitting since the ships themselves had been repainted many times with bands of galvanizing varnish then paled with salt, rust, and time.

When Homeland Security prevented him from bringing his camera on board and his health kept him from traveling, Williams returned to his studio and revised old photos with slow, thoughtful strokes of luscious color. The resultant paintings are illustrations of an artist’s devotion to his practice. Making these “painted-ons” surely served as his way of getting back to the port.

Organized by his widow Jo Ann Williams and in conjunction with Fotofest Biennial 2016, Art Palace presents Back to the Port, an exhibition of Williams’ final efforts to understand the place that served as his muse for so many years.

Casey Williams (1947 – 2013) left a legacy based on his “found abstractions,” specifically his unique expression of Gulf Coast beauty. His work has been acquired by numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Modern Art (New York,) the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris,) and the The Contemporary Austin (formerly Laguna Gloria.) William’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Galveston Arts Center, New Orleans Museum of Art, Holly Johnson Gallery, Texas Gallery, Barbara Davis Gallery, and extensively throughout the United States. He earned his BFA from the University of Texas in Austin and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.

More on Williams’ signature Port of Houston series: Escaping the Galleria, by Saundra Goldman via the Texas Observer, 2000.

More on Williams’ struggle with the Homeland Security plan: Beauty and the Bureaucrats, by Lisa Grey via the Houston Chronicle, 2008.

Opening Reception: May 20, 2015 | 6 – 8:30 PM
On view through June 25, 2016

 

00 :: 00 is a moment in time, unearthed over a decade and a half after its creation. We witness a history lesson, the documentation of one’s habitat, a perspective forgotten, or perhaps one never even realized. How did we arrive in this place? Who brought us here? What were we doing then and how can the reflections of the past illuminate what’s changed and what hasn’t? It makes you wonder if everything that we move through doesn’t just add up to what it already was; a zero-sum game ever shifting in view.

Sally Glass is an artist, curator, and publisher based in Houston, Texas. She received her MFA from University of Texas at Dallas in 2014, and spent two years as an artist-in-residence at CentralTrak. Glass has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Texas, the US, and abroad, at spaces such as Barry Whistler Gallery, Power Station, Dallas Contemporary, Oliver Francis Gallery, Crane Arts in Philadelphia, Orgy Park in Brooklyn, and Berlin Glas Gallery in Berlin. She is currently the founding Editor-in-Chief of contemporary art publication semigloss. Magazine and is managing co-director of the Gimp Room in Houston, Texas.

REBECCA MARINO

THE BEST AVAILABLE EVIDENCE

Opening Reception: July 8th,  6 – 8 PM
On view July 8th through August 13th, 2016

 

The Best Available Evidence was initially inspired by a found document compiled to prove the existence and legitimacy of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Using the aforementioned subject matter, this body of work was created as a light-hearted way to play with the idea of proof and to question personal thresholds of belief. What indicates reliability? Truth? These standards are dictated by the tug-o-war of desire and cynicism. By manipulating the vulnerabilities of various mediums and, most importantly, context, new implications arise and connections are made between the mundane and the remarkable.
“In many such cases we are not unbiased observers. We have an emotional stake in the outcome–perhaps merely because the borderline belief system, if true, makes the world a more interesting place; but perhaps because there is something there that strikes more deeply into the human psyche.”
– Carl Sagan, Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

Rebecca Marino is an Austin-based visual artist whose work focuses on cosmic perspective. She has been featured in TX National, grayDUCK Gallery, and by the Humble Arts Foundation. For the past two years she has acted as co-director and curator for pump project and is co-editor and co-founder of Conflict of Interest.

Opening Reception: September 16th,  6 – 8 PM
On view through October 22nd, 2016

 

Ask any given person, and Kevin Todora’s work could be described as photography, painting, or sculpture. These are only partial answers. By presenting images in unconventional formats, Todora minimizes the certainty associated with photography while creating something more authentic: objects with exposed substrates and the tell-tale signs of digital printing processes. The resulting work falls on the trajectory of artists like Jon Baldessari, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. In the effort to sort through the visual information in this work, the viewer is practicing a criticism of images in contemporary culture. Todora will have an exhibition concurrently at Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, Texas.

Kevin Todora Lives and works in Dallas, Texas. His work has been included in recent group shows at Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, University of Texas at Dallas, and Barry Whistler Gallery. In 2013, the Dallas Contemporary produced a solo exhibition of Todora’s work. He earned his MFA from Southern Methodist University and his BFA from the University of Texas at Dallas.

NATHAN RANDALL GREEN

OVER THE SUN

Opening Reception: September 16th,  6 – 8 PM
On view through October 22nd, 2016

 

After years of building a tongue-in-cheek vocabulary based on the histories of modern abstraction, hardware store materiality, and traditional crafting techniques, Nathan Randall Green is simplifying his language in his ambitious task of reexamining the act and history of painting. Over the Sunis an exploration into the formal and structural qualities of abstract painting. In the studio, Green is influenced by a diverse set of interests, ranging from Paleolithic rock carvings to Particle Physics and Bedouin rugs to the Bauhaus. These interests are coupled with a studio practice that fluctuates between different styles and modes of working at once, simultaneously painting and building to create pictures that address their own physicality, as well as the labor they were born of.

The work in Over the Sun is fulfilling an earnestly romantic notion; Green is attracted to the universality and timelessness sought by many abstract painters over a century ago, including Kazimir Malevich. Existing as experiments in form, line, color, and texture, these paintings can function as a respite from the objective world. Over the Sun exhibits the contemporary relevance of playful energy, generosity, and the Russian Constructivist’s idea of the “primacy of pure feeling.”

Most recently, Nathan Randall Green has exhibited new work at Mulherin New York, Hus Gallery (London, UK), Disjecta (Portland, OR), and the Goss Michael Foundation (Dallas, TX.) His work has been part of exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Austin Museum of Art, Left Field SLO (CA), LVL3 (Chicago, IL) and he completed the 2012 Artist in Residency program at Central Trak (Dallas, TX). As a founding member of Okay Mountain collective, Green has exhibited at Mark Moore Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) Freight & Volume (New York, NY), Prospect 1.5 (New Orleans, LA), University of Houston’s Blaffer Museum and DeCordova Sculpture Park (Lincoln, MA). Green lives and works in New York, New York.

DEBORAH ROBERTS

COARSE COIL TWIST RE-TWIST

Opening Reception: October 28th,  6 – 8 PM
On view through December 17th, 2016

 

Deborah Roberts’ second solo exhibition at Art Palace continues to address Black women’s progression through centuries of socially-constructed limits on beauty and power. Roberts advances her mixed-media portraits of motley girls, appropriated limbs, torsos, facial features, and hair styles. Each portrait, and their sum, is a conscious remark about inclusion and dignity in contemporary culture.  Combining mature pouty lips and posture with child-like bare feet, school-girl plaid, and twisted pigtails, Roberts comments on the sexualization of pre-teen Black women: Black girls are not asked to be young. Each collaged element carries different scale, complexion, age, and personality, fusing together into a picture of otherness with unique character and agency.
For this exhibition, Roberts adds focus to text, addressing the stigma of urban-sounding names, colorism, and natural hair, divisive issues rooted in Black cultural identity. Loaded phrases, rhythmically printed and painted across the works resemble chants of protest. Roberts is locating her work within a history of raised voices, providing future cultural artifacts during this climate of civil unrest. Working in the vein of social commentary, Roberts consistently and skillfully relates the weight of beauty, perception, and honor to the greater life experience for people of color.
Deborah Roberts is a 2016-2017 Pollock-Krasner grantee. She is a recipient of the Ginsberg-Klaus Fellowship, the Presidential Point of Light, and Syracuse Graduate Fellow Award. Recent honors include exhibitions at the George Washington Carver Museum (Austin TX,) the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago IL,) and ongoing participation in the Viewing Program at the Drawing Center (New York NY.) Roberts completed the Ox-Bow Art Residency and earned her MFA from Syracuse University. Roberts lives and works in Austin, TX.

SARAH FISHER

SEEN

Opening Reception: January 13th,  6 – 8 PM
On view through March 4th, 2017

Art Palace is proud to present Seen, the first solo exhibition by Houston painter Sarah Fisher. Working in oil on canvas, Fisher continues the tradition of portraiture with her vivid likenesses of people she knows, loves, and encounters. These portraits arouse a sentimentality that is scarce in contemporary painting; Fisher’s ambition is to record the need to be authentically seen.
Often cropped tight and to the edge, the figures in Fisher’s human-scale paintings peer directly at the viewer. Fisher is not overly concerned with the physical settings, and does not hesitate to revise or omit structural elements. She instinctively situates the sitter within the frame of the canvas, organizing the pictorial space with emotional fidelity. In places, Fisher harmonizes the sitter and setting. In one work, she blends a man’s shirt collar into the color field laying beyond; in another, a woman’s yoga pant clad lap sinks into a light-devouring black velour chair.
Fisher honors the subjects in her work with skillful and exuberant observation. Her work shows respect toward the very human process of seeking comfort and self-love.
After a long career in marketing, Sarah Fisher moved to Houston where she is currently a studio fellow at the MFAH Glassell School’s BLOCK program. Her work has been featured in several local exhibitions and her previous studio practice includes studies at the Hampstead School of Art in London.