Core Program At Houston Museum

Part One of the exhibition was on view this summer and focused on the international aspect of the program. Part Two opens at the Audrey Jones Beck Building, and concentrates on artists who developed work in direct response to the Texas environment or who have made issues of identity and personal experience central to their work, with over two dozen paintings, photographs, and sculptures on view. The second part will run through January 11, 2009.

Over the years, ten Core artists have been featured in the Whitney Biennial Exhibitions, two have received MacArthur fellowships, and several have been selected to show their work at prestigious international biennials, including Venice, Istanbul, and Lyon. Additionally, the Core Program’s critical studies residents have gained similar recognition, assuming senior editing positions at prominent national art publications and publishing independently as well. While in Houston, Core residents not only define their artistic ambitions, but also bolster the local arts scene by teaching, engaging in community projects, and interacting with other artists. Many have made Houston their permanent home, further reinforcing and expanding the city’s population of working artists and writers.

"The works gathered in this exhibition offer an exuberant panorama of today’s landscape," states Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of contemporary art and special projects and organizer of this exhibition. "Core artists contribute immensely to the local arts scene, but it is a two-way exchange. Sometimes we see Houston as a defining force in these artists? work; in other instances we find these artists looking to personal experience and the larger environmental forces that shape our lives."

"The backdrop of Houston as a new, unformed, constantly shifting, and at times irreverent city is crucial to understanding why the artists and critics in each generation of Core feel free to reinvent the program and themselves," said Glassell School of Art director Joseph Havel. "This freedom from restraint in the context of a community of exceptional fellows has formed a key moment for many in the development of their current practice."

Featured artists include Mequitta Ahuja (American), Charles Cohen (American), Betsy Coulter (Canadian), Santiago Cucullu (Argentinean), Jonathan Durham (American), Angela Fraleigh (American), Dana Frankfort (American), Emily Joyce (American), Nicholas Kersulis (American), Charles Mary Kubricht (American), Annette Lawrence (American), Jose Lerma (American, born Spain), Cindy Loehr (American), Giles Lyon (American), Stephanie Martz (American), Philip Maysles (American), Michael Jones McKean (American), Julie Mehretu (American), Karyn Olivier (American, born Trinidad and Tobago), Aaron Parazette (American), Dean Ruck (American), Roberto Ruello (American), Fraser Stables (Scottish), and Sigrid Sandstrom (Swedish).

Highlights on view will include Dean Ruck and Dan Havel’s Trespass 4416 (2007), a sculpture created from discarded wood, wire, and other materials left at a demolition site in Houston and later displayed for four weeks at the lot where the house once stood; a re-creation of Karyn Olivier’s original, site-specific Eeeeeeeeeeee! Graaaaack! Grack! (2002), an installation of clay grackle birds placed on the cornice of the Glassell School of Art, where the birds seemingly peer down at visitors; and Houston native Charles Mary Kubricht’s Clouds, inspired by the skies of West Texas. -- www.mfah.org