SPERANDIO TALKS SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER
Professor Sperandio introduces his public project in Berlin
 
U-Bahn, Berlin
Visual Arts Assistant Professor and Studio Program Director Christopher Sperandio will give a talk on Thursday, October 15, in Berlin.  He, and artistic collaborator and creative partner Simon Grennan, will introduce their new public art project for the Berlin U-Bahn that was commissioned by the New Society for Visual Arts (NGBK). 
 
More information on this project (in German) >> 
 
Society for Photographic Education
In November, Sperandio will speak at the annual conference hosted by the Society for Photographic Education, this year at Mountclair State University.  Sperandio will also be speaking on season two of his reality TV series ARTSTAR.
 
More information (with a trailer for season 2 of ARTSTAR) >> 

THE PROMISE OF MUSEUMS
A Series of Lectures by James Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago
The Campbell Lecture Series, October 27-29
 
2009 Campbell Lecture Series "The Promise of Museums" by James Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago

Location: The lectures will take place at Rice University in Herring Hall, room 100 on October 27, 28, 29, 2009. The lectures will begin at 6 pm.

Admission: The lectures are free of charge and no tickets will be needed for admission. Seating will begin at 5:30pm each evening.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 "The Promise of Science" considers the regard for science as a means of inquiry based on the observation and analysis of things.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 "The Promise of History" looks at history, as a means of interpretation, of making sense of meaningful relationships between things.

Thursday, October 29, 2009 "The Promise of Cosmopolitanism" explores cosmopolitanism as a framework for understanding the implications of such meanings.

Each lecture will be approximately 45 minutes in length, followed by audience questions.

James Cuno on "The Promise of Museums"

Over the course of these three lectures I will explore “The Promise of Museums.” I will locate its terms in the Enlightenment ideas that informed the founding of the British Museum, and not only because the history of public encyclopedic museums begins with that museum--the world’s first secular, public, national museum--but because those ideas still apply in our current era. Specifically, I will consider the regard for science as a means of inquiry based on the observation and analysis of things; history, as a means of interpretation, of making sense of meaningful relationships between things; and cosmopolitanism as a framework for understanding the implications of such meanings. Each of these ideas has come under considerable pressure over the past century. Confidence in science—in knowing things, discovering truths, and the belief in the idea of progress—has been challenged by discoveries in science itself and the use to which politics has put them.  Confidence in history has been challenged as little more than myth-making, a weaving of “master” or meta-narratives to justify positions of power. And cosmopolitanism as intellectually soft, not rooted in reality of modern, state-based geopolitics.

James Cuno has been President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago since September 2004. Previously he served as Professor and Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London from 2002-2004, and as Professor and Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums from 1991-2002.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, James Cuno has written and lectured widely on topics ranging from French caricature of the 18th and 19th centuries to contemporary American art, as well as on the role of art museums in contemporary American cultural policy. He is the author of Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage (Princeton University Press, May 2008).  A top flight scholar, with a remarkable reputation here and abroad, he writes extensively on the role of museums – the current state and future of American art museums.

For more information >> 

PROFESSOR BROKER FEATURED IN NEW ORLEANS GROUP EXHIBITION
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, July 3-18, 2009
 
Professor Broker's most current prints were featured in the group exhibition, Paperwork II, at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans over this past summer.  The group exhibition included national artists Red Grooms, Bruce Davenport, Jr., Stephen Irwin, Darina Karpov, Ritchie Lassiter, and Brian St. Cyr.
 
Karin Broker's statement on her work:
 
My work has visually dealt with bad boyfriends, quirky family problems, death, and that ever-marching ticking of time called aging.

I draw on large Formica panels with Conte Crayon; wire objects with rhinestones; weld forged steel into 2-D drawings; and make prints.

I just like to make things. These "things" are my personal and quiet conversations with melancholia; my mom and dad; the fifteen hundred mile separation from my family; women; men; religion; and the physical changes to our bodies.

But the final objects, I hope, revel in optimism, beauty, and the quirkiness, silliness, and seriousness of all of the above.

Pictured print: Disaster Head, Karin Broker, lithograph, engraving, stamps, 40.25x30.75 in. 
For more information on Karin Broker's work in this exhibition >> 
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery >> 

NEW STUDENT GALLERY OPENS
Matchbox Gallery, September 29, Sewall Hall 258
 
Matchbox Gallery, the new student-run gallery in Sewall Hall, cordially invites you to our inaugural opening exhibition on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 8pm in the Sculpture courtyard. The installation by Erin Rouse, To Uncle Buddy, with love, will be kicking off what I hope will be an exciting, art-filled semester of openings.

Come out and support us tomorrow night!

Logan Beck
Director, Matchbox Gallery
Sewall Hall 258

THE IMAGE ALTERED
Group exhibition features work of Rice Visual Arts alumna Rebecca Villarreal

Art League Houston, in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, is pleased to announce the opening of The Image Altered, which takes place at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase Building in Downtown Houston, and runs from September 23 through November 19, 2009 as a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. This exhibition is curated by Beth Secor, and features the work of Chuy Benitez, Jesus Galvan, Cheyenne Ramos, Y.E. Torres, and Rebecca Villarreal.

The opening reception for the exhibition is Wednesday, September 23, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Heritage Hall in the JPMorgan Chase building located at 712 Main Street in downtown Houston.

The Image Altered is the first in a series of four visual art exhibitions that focus on cultural heritage month celebrations. Celebrating Diversity Through Art is a unique collaboration of JPMorgan Chase and Art League Houston, which highlights established and emerging artists representative of diverse communities.
 
Rebecca Villarreal is an itinerant photographer and sculptor based primarily in and around Houston, Texas. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Rice University with a degree in Visual Arts, Psychology and Religious Studies. In 2004 she spent a semester studying at Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia. Since graduating, she has worked as an artist assistant to photographer Geoff Winningham and sculptor Janice Freeman, and has exhibited her own work in galleries and juried outdoor art festivals around the country. Villarreal has received numerous prizes for her photographs, including the top prize for art majors at Rice University (The Mavis C. Pittman Memorial Prize in Art) and the Best of Photography Award from the Tulsa International Mayfest. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the country.

Curated by Beth Secor and featuring the work of Chuy Benitez, Jesus Galvan, Cheyenne Ramos, Y.E. Torres,  and Rebecca Villarrea

September 23, 2009 - November 19, 2009
JP Morgan Chase Heritage Hall
Opening reception September 23, 2009 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

More on this exhibition >>
 
This program is supported in full by JPMorgan Chase Foundation.

PROFESSOR SPARAGANA IN GROUP SHOW AT CTRL GALLERY
John Sparagana, Sasha Pierce, and Katy Heinlein Open at CTRL Gallery
 
CTRL is pleased to present three exhibitions of new works by John Sparagana, Sasha Pierce and Katy Heinlein.
 
In the north gallery, Houston/Chicago based artist John Sparagana returns to CTRL with a new series entitled The Crisis Professionals.  In the south gallery, Toronto based painter Sasha Pierce makes her US gallery debut with six of her intricate, mesmerizing paintings. And in the project space, Houston artist Katy Heinlein presents two dynamic new sculptures.
 
John Sparagana lives and works in Houston and Chicago and is Professor of Painting and Drawing at Rice University, Houston. He received his MFA (1987) from Stanford University and has since exhibited extensively at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago and The Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City. His work is currently on view at The Hyde Park Art Center in the exhibition and accompanying book "Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture". Sparagana is represented by CTRL gallery, Houston.

More in this exhibition >>

CALL FOR EXHIBITION FELLOWSHIP APPLICATIONS
Mavis C. Pitman Exhibition Fellowship, Spring 2010
 
The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts majors and double-majors are encouraged to apply for the Mavis C. Pitman Exhibition Fellowship.  The deadline for proposals is October 15, 2009. The exhibition will be held spring 2010.

Each proposal must have a completed application cover sheet attached.  (Instructions are on the application cover sheet.)  Applications may be downloaded from the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts web site (arts.rice.edu).
 
The Mavis C. Pitman Endowment awards three cash fellowships each year to visual arts, studio track majors. The fellowships support the creation of an original body of work to be exhibited in the Department of Visual & Dramatic Arts gallery in the Rice Media Center during the spring semester. In addition, fellowship recipients may be eligible to receive additional funds for an exhibition reception and announcement card.

Fellowship recipients are responsible for creating an original body of work to be exhibited (open media); curating, hanging, and setting up the exhibition; creating an original graphic (representing and including all three artists) for exhibition announcements (postcards, space on the department website, and inclusion in the department calendar); preparing a ten-minute exhibition talk about the work; and coordinating the exhibition's opening reception.
 
To more information and to apply for this fellowship >> 

VISUAL & DRAMATIC ARTS HOSTS TWO SOLO EXHIBITIONS BY 
HOUSTON-BASED ARTISTS
Anna Ataeva, September 8-30, Visual & Dramatic Arts Main Gallery, Rice Media Center
Anna Ataeva, October 1-30, Visual & Dramatic Arts Project Gallery, Rice Media Center
Randall McCabe, September 8-30, Visual & Dramatic Arts Mezzaine Gallery, Rice Media Center

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts announces an exhibition of paintings by Russian artist Anna Nurmuckhamedovna Ataeva (http://www.annaataeva.com). Invited to exhibit by Assistant Professor of Art and Studio Program Director, Christopher Sperandio, Ms. Ataeva will exhibit recent works from her Human Condition series at the Rice Media Center on the campus of Rice University.

Born in Moscow, Russia in 1980, Ms. Ataeva received a Master's degree from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute Named After V.I. Surikov, the nation's top art school.  She continued her education at the Ilya Kabakov Studio. Ms. Ataeva arrived in Houston five years ago and quickly established her studio practice here. Her are in collections all over the world including London, Brussels, Moscow, Paris, as well as here in Houston.

In Ms. Ataeva's Human Condition works on display, distorted human figures writhe in atmospheric spaces.  Gruesome and oddly sexual, the sometimes headless torsos grapple with each other in compositions that are equal parts torture and orgy. Painted almost exclusively with palette knives, the thickly impastoed oil paintings have a near sculptural quality.  Ataeva was rigorously trained in plastic anatomy, and spent an average of thirty hours each week for five years studying the nude model.  Ataeva cites a number of important influences, from her Russian colleague Konstantin Sheiko, to artists such as Egon Schiele and Nicolai Fechin.

"One fascinating aspect of Anna's work," says Sperandio, "is her control over the tonal quality of the paint. Colors lie next to each other in sometimes quite surprising ways, yet the works hold together because of her manipulation of the painting's lights and shadows. The chance to see her works is a terrific opportunity for both the Rice community and the arts community in Houston."  

Works from the Human Condition will be on view in the Main Gallery at the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts in the Rice Media Center through September 30, and will move the the Media Center Project Gallery, remaining on view until October 30.  There will be a reception held at the gallery from 5 to 8PM on September 29, 2009.

On view in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts Mezzanine Gallery in the Rice Media Center are new works by Houston artist Randall McCabe.

Randall McCabe (http://www.randallmccabe.com) is a native of Philadelphia. He studied art at The University of Pennsylvania and, after four years of service in the U.S. Navy, went on to study at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington (BFA: 1983). Since 1984, he has been living and working in Houston, Texas, with his first solo show in 1995.  Since then, he has shown regularly in Houston and throughout the state of Texas.  Mr. McCabe has been a staff member of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts since 1997.

For close to twenty years, Mr. McCabe has studied and drawn inspiration from both primitive and archaic art forms and from the drawings of very small children intrigued by the possible affinity between our biological and anthropological infancies. Past work includes: Pilgrim (1993-1996), Herd (1997-1999), Coyote (2002-2004), and The Dancing Bear (2001).

The works on view at Rice include Drawings from the Equinox, represented primarily in this show by a number of ivory black watercolors, is a departure from the schematic and two-dimentional imagery characteristic of McCabe's previous work, and is the first exhibition of a new move to a formally more substantial mark making process.

McCabe's new works on paper will be on view at Visual and Dramatic Arts Mezzanine Gallery through September 30.

PROFESSOR KARIN BROKER INCLUDED IN A ROOM OF HER OWN
McClain Gallery, October 15, 2009-January 2, 2010

McClain Gallery presents A Room of Her Own, a group exhibition featuring sculptures, paintings, and works on paper by such venerable female artists as Louise Nevelson, Louise Fishman, Alice Neel, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Tara Donovan, Cecily Brown, Judy Pfaff, Chantal Joffe, Kiki Smith, Maya Lin, Tracey Emin, and Karin Broker.   There is also a selection of emerging artists: Allison Schulnik, Kelli Vance, and Katherine Bernhardt.
 
Throughout the exhibition is a dynamic presence of sculpture:  the totemic strength of a Nevelson wall piece, a Tara Donovan accumulation, a poetic vitrine from Rebecca Horn, and an LED installation from Jenny Holzer.  A clear visual dialogue emerges between the process-oriented abstraction of Louise Fishman's canvases, the figurative abstraction of a Cecily Brown monotype, and Judy Pfaffs richly-layered drawings.  Works by Alice Neel, Chantal Joffe, Kelli Vance, Inez van Lamsweerde and Katherine Bernhardt highlight the female form and unorthodox approaches to portraiture.

A Room of Her Own
Opening reception: Thursday, October 15, 6-8 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: October 15, 2009 - January 2, 2010
 
McClain Gallery
2242 Richmond Avenue
Houston, Texas 77098
713-520-9922
Email: info@mcclaingallery.com
 
Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10:00am - 5:30 pm; Saturday, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
 
Go to McClain Gallery for more information >> 

LUKES HOUSTON PHOTOGRAPHS, 1969-1974
Collection of photographic research materials on Houston, Rice, and urban scenes
Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University

The Lukes Houston Photographs collection consists of photographic research materials on Houston, TX, Rice University, and various urban scenes, architectural details, and photographic techniques. It was created by William Lukes in collaboration with Paul Hester during the years 1969 through 1974, when Lukes was an architectural student at Rice University.
 
The photos were taken by Lukes in collaboration with Paul Hester, and were used in a number of publications and papers concerning the development of Houston, inventorying and cataloguing the growth of Houston neighborhoods, and recording various architectural landmarks in the Houston area during the period. Also included are student work from the Rice Media Center, and a photographic essay of anti-war protests (Viet Nam war) in Houston and at Rice.
 
William Lukes is a residential and commercial architect and free-lance photographer in Carbondale, CO. He received his BA in Architecture and Fine Arts (Photography) in 1971 and a Master of Architecture in 1974 from the Rice University School of Architecture. Lukes has worked with artists Richard Hunt and Isamu Noguchi, and his photographs have been published in books and magazines. Lukes is a member of the American Institute of Architects and is licensed by the states of Colorado and California.

Paul Hester is an architectural photographer and lecturer in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University in Houston, TX. He received his BA in Art from Rice University in 1971 and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976. Hester has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and exhibited his work at the Menil Collection, Rice University, the University of Houston College of Architecture, and the Houston Public Library. He has also published extensively in books and magazines.
 
The collection is housed in the Woodson Research Center at Fondren Library.
 
More information >> 
Brown Fine Arts Library >> 
Woodson Research Center Special Collection & Archives >> 

SPERANDIO TALKS WITH AWARD WINNING ARTIST JEREMY DELLER IN NYC JOURNAL, THE CREATIVE TIMES

In this dialogue, Chris and Jeremy discuss the impetus for making collaborative work. Jeremy traveled across the United States this past spring, for his project with Creative Times entitled, It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq. On the trip, he engaged in unscripted dialogues with local audiences using conversation as the medium for his collaboration. In January of 2009, Chris worked with artist Simon Grennan to produce a work for Creative Time Comics: A Graphic Record of the Here and Now. Here, they explore the margin between mass and museum culture.
 
Read the full article >> 

PROFESSOR DARRA KEETON INCLUDED IN DRAWER 158 EXHIITION IN NEW YORK
Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Guaranteed Biased, Myopic, Incomplete & Journalistically Suspect
 
The work of Darra Keeton and David Headley was on exhibit at Drawer 158 in Tribeca [New York City] over the summer.

Both painters ply structure against organic development...Keeton's structure is more organic. She creates tangled grids as she turns her painting this way or that, allowing the paint to flow vertically or horizontally. Sometimes one direction prevails, and the effect is more like a waterfall, or an explosion of fireworks. These paintings are as airy as mesh, but make no mistake: they're as tough as they are beautiful.

Keeton's works on paper are tacked to the wall. In a conventional gallery I'm not usually so keen on pushpins but here, in a loft that is transformed one day a week into a gallery (with excellent lighting, I might add), the effect is intimate and immediate. A larger acrylic on canvas painting in the dining room, in the unexpected palette of lavender and yellow, is simply beautiful.
 
Read more of Joanne Mattera's article on this exhibition on her blog >> 

WANTED: DIRECTOR FOR NEW STUDENT-RUN GALLERY, FALL 2009

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts is looking for an organized, hard working major or double-major in the studio arts program to run a modest-sized student gallery space to be located on the 2nd floor of Sewall Hall. The non-paid appointment is for the fall '09 semester, with the possibility to be renewed in the position for the spring '10 semester.

Responsibilities include some light renovation and programming student exhibitions in one- or two-week intervals. Publicity and marketing are also part of the job description. A good working knowledge of the latest advances in contemporary art practices is required.

Benefits include the opportunity to run your own space with minimal oversight as to programming, as well as your own exhibition slot in the gallery schedule.  

Students interested in applying for the position should email a one-page cover letter and resume to Assistant Professor Sperandio (Sperandio@Rice.edu) no later than August 24, 2009.  
 
Students interested in either a solo exhibition, or proposing a group exhibition should also email Professor Sperandio. Only proposals in the following format will be considered: a single PDF file containing a 1-page written proposal, relevant images, and resumes of all participating artists (if the proposal is for a group show).  These applications will be forwarded to the new gallery director upon their appointment.

PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER SPERANDIO'S ART COLLABORATION PRODUCES THREE BOOKS
 
The new and final book, The Wisdom of Barrhead and Neilston, launched in Barrhead, Glasgow on June 14, 2009. Comprising 365 pieces of wisdom compiled in response to the question: What's the most important lesson life has taught you?, the book has been given away to all of the 7,500 households in Barrhead and Neilston as a gift.   The Wisdom of Barrhead and Neiston completes a suite of three books given away in Wrexham, Blackpool and Glasgow by the collaborative art team of Simon Grennan & Christopher Sperandio in April, May and June 2009. 
 

 
The second book in the series, Bloomfield Talks, launched on May 9. The book has been developed over a year by people with connections to the Bloomfield, Foxhall, Revoe and near South Shore areas of Blackpool, the famous "people's playground" in the north west of England. Four-thousand, five-hundred copies of the book have been delivered as a gift to every household in Bloomfield.  For more information, please visit www.bloomfieldtalks.org.

The first book, Wisdom of Caia Park, was eight months in preparation and was released on April 26. Wisdom of Caia Park is a collection of a year's worth of personal wisdom compiled by people in this famous area of Wrexham, North Wales. Five-thousand books have been delivered to every Caia household as a gift.
 

 

 
This book series was a result of the artistic collaboration between Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio.  Grennan and  Sperandio collaborate on art work that explores the margins between mass and museum cultures. Typical projects are made in collaboration with people from all walks of life. Christopher Sperandio lives and works in Houston, Texas, where he is assistant professor of visual art at Rice University.

For more information on this book and the current art projects of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio, please visit their website. 
 
Go to Kartoonkings.com >> 

PROFESSOR JOHN SPARAGANA INCLUDED IN SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE/RAPTURE GROUP EXHIBITION AT THE HYDE PARK ART CENTER, CHICAGO, IL

Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture, a curatorial survey by Front Forty Press offers a provocative look into the current trend of blurring the line between annihilation and bliss euphoria in contemporary art, thought, and sound on view from July 19 – September 20, 2009 at the Hyde Park Art Center. This dynamic exhibition presents diverse and engaging imagery from more than twenty-five well respected local to international contemporary artists working in a variety of mediums.
 
The opposing ideas of destruction and transcendence fuels the range of expressions featured in Signs of theApocalypse/Rapture. At once intensely individual, the cross-selection of works also express larger culturalconcerns. Ranging from the religious, scientific, sensual, and didactic, the diverse themes of the exhibition punctuate the relevance and malleability of such topics in contemporary discourse.
 
Artists participating in the exhibition include: Ricky Allman, Oksana Badrak, Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Kelly Barrie, Sebastiaan Bremer, Christopher Bucklow, Eduardo DeSoignie, Jon Elliot, Lora Fosberg, Till Gerhard, Julie Heffernan, Cody Hudson, Jennifer J.L. Jones, Ellen Kooi, Mark McGinnis, Julie Mehretu, David Opdyke, Emilio Perez, John Pranica, Jean-Pierre Roy, Ed Ruscha, Alison Ruttan, Carrie Schneider, Matthew Schreiber, Andrew Schoultz, Erika Somogyi, John Sparagana, Doug and Mike Starn, Bill Viola, Simmons & Burke, Kim Soo, Caleb Weintraub, and many more.
 
Additional programming includes live performances from select audio artists, and lectures by scholars working in a number of fields concerning the exhibition’s topics.
 
The exhibition complements a book project of the same name released by Front Forty Press and the University of Chicago in September 2008. This handsome catalogue features a comprehensive section of interviews, critical essays, and large illustrations of work by sixty artists. For more information on the larger book project, please visit www.front40press.com/sotar.php.
 
Signs of the Apocalypse/Rapture will be on view from July 19 – September 20, 2009 at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 South Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60615; 773.324.5520 and www.hydeparkart.org. Exhibitions are always free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday, 10am-8pm; Friday-Saturday, 10am-5pm; and Sunday 12pm-5pm.

More exhibition information >> 
Hyde Park Art Center >> 

PROFESSOR EMERITUS BASILIOS POULOS: THE DANCE SERIES AND OTHER FIGURES
Recent Paintings at Meredith Long & Company Gallery, June 4, 2009
Essay by Jim Edwards, artist and curator, Houston and San Francisco
 
In his book, Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth-Century Art, Leo Steinberg reminds us that the late Hellenistic figures, The Three Graces, survived into the 20th century; Braque, Gauguin, Matisse, and Picasso offered their own versions of the sequentially posed figures. Houston-based, Greek-American artist Basilios Poulos, in his exhibit The Dance Series and Other Figures, combines the tradition of the grouping of the posed female nudes, not as mythological recreations, but as a contemporary standing figures, whose bodily gestures animate pictorial space. In his compositions, Poulos uses models in different body types, and favors groupings of three or four figures, or, as in Odalisque: After Matisse, a single figure. Poulos is a master colorist, and his color is as sensual and sexy as the nudity of his models. In these recent works, pure color hues radiate warmth and visually advance or recede, depending upon their placement in or around the rendered figures. In the black and gray painting Archaic Figures, the addition of the metallic pigments, iridescent pearl and silver, illuminates the pale hued figures, as well as accents the energetic drawing that shines through.

Poulos has extended the language of painting and its interface between abstraction and figuration. His compositions crop the top of the models head, continuing the pose to below the knee. The negative spaces that exist between a bent arm, and the space between legs slightly spread are given their own solid colors, and made all the more interesting by the juxtaposition of the grouped figures and the flattened colored backgrounds that surround them. In the painting The Black Mirror, it is the mirror reflection of the posed models that Poulos paints. There is a graceful rendering of the positioning of the figures, in their classic poses and gentle overlapping of limbs. The dance pose the figures assume, continues a great tradition, first explored on ancient Greek vases. Today, Poulos continues that tradition in these vibrant paintings on canvas, and joins Henri Matisse, who in the last century, famously said, “What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity...”

Basilios Poulos is a Houston artist with studios in Houston and Greece and is Professor Emeritus of  Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University.

Meredith Long & Company Gallery
2323 San Felipe - Houston - Texas - 77019 - 713.523.6671
 
More Information >> 
Meredith Long & Company Gallery >> 

Image above: The Black Mirror (The Three Graces Series), Basilios Poulos, 2009.

PRINTMAKING: PROCESSES AND CONNOISSEURSHIP
New printmaking class examines methodology of printed works

This fall, the department will offer a new printmaking class titled, Printmaking: Processes and Connoisseurship.  The class will be team taught by Professor Karin Broker and Houston art dealer and expert, Hiram Butler of Borden-Butler Gallery in Houston.

The course will be a comprehensive printmaking class that is closely married to the methodology of how to approach printed works on paper and their connoisseurship.  Students will produce an etching, a lithograph, collages, and a linocut.  In addition, students will visit print collections in Houston and New York.

The class is limited to 10 students and will encourage students to not only produce art in four distinct processes, but also study actual works of printed art and the writings about these works. Students will be required to write and speak about what they see and what they produce.

During class field trips, students will see the private collections of Louisa Sarofim (led by Bernice Rose of the Menil Collection), the Menil Collection print collection, the Borden/Butler Gallery print collection, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston print collection.

While in New York, students will visit four to six print collections as well as travel to ULAE to visit one of the most famous print workshops in the world and the Long Island studio where Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns produced some of their most famous printed works.

The course is funded by the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts, the Office of the Dean in the School of Humanities, and the Brown Foundation.

The class will be held Tuesday and Thursdays, 9:00-12:00 noon, in Sewall Hall 201. For more information on this class, contact Professor Karin Broker at 713-348-3474 or email broker@rice.edu.

DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL & DRAMATIC ARTS SUMMER EXHIBITION
Student Billboard Art Project, 2009

For the first time, the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts is producing a summer exhibition in the Visual Arts Gallery in the Rice Media Center.   The small exhibition features four works from Professor Christopher Sperandio's student billboard project. The works, also featured in the YOU ARE HERE senior exhibition in Sewall Hall, include work by Amelia R. Hill, Sarah Wiseman, Johan Loveless, and Colby Keithan.

The billboard project was generously co-sponsored by Lamar Outdoor Advertising and featured artwork by Rice University visual arts students on full-size highway billboards throughout Brian, Texas, this past spring.

The exhibition is on view May 26 through August 28. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
 
More information about the artists >>

YOU ARE HERE: 46th Annual Student Art Exhibition, 2009
Department of Visual & Dramatic Arts

The 46th annual student art exhibition opened Wednesday, April 22, with great success.  The show titled, YOU ARE HERE, showcases the work of  senior Visual and Dramatic Arts majors in Sewall Hall, and underclassmen in the Rice Media Center.  This show is a multimedia exhibition and features work in film, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, and photography (both traditional and digital).

For the first time in the department's history, the senior show was presented as an open studio exhibition--ending a 40+ year partnership with the Rice Art Gallery.  Another first was a newsprint catalog published and distributed in the April 17th edition of The Rice Thresher.

The department's student advisory board held a "After Party" (open to all Rice students, friends, alumni, faculty, and staff) in the Sewall Hall sculpture courtyard immediately following the openings April 22. 

The senior exhibition in Sewall Hall was produced, curated, and organized by Professor Christopher Sperandio.  The underclassmen show in the Rice Media Center was curated by Professor Geoff Winningham.

The exhibition runs April 22-May 9, 2009.  Senior work can be viewed on the 4th and 5th floors of Sewall Hall.  Underclassmen work can be viewed in the Rice Media Center.  Exhibition hours are 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday-Thursday.

Please visit the following links to learn more about the exhibition: 

YOU ARE HERE: 46th Annual Student Art Exhibition, 2009 Catalog >>
Houston Business Journal >>
KBTX Television (Brian/College Station) >>
Houston Press >>
InstantNewsBellaire.com >>
Houston Chronicle >>
Rice News >>

SPERANDIO TO SPEAK AT THE MENIL COLLECTION'S ARTIST EYE SERIES
The Menil Collection presents another in its gallery talk series, The Artist's Eye. 

Throughout the year, on the first Sunday of each month, a Houston artist talks about a work in the Menil Collection that has
special meaning to him or her. The public is invited to these free, informal gallery discussions that being at 3 p.m.

On Sunday, May 3, Christopher Sperandio, Assistant Professor of Art at Rice University will speak about the cardboard works of Robert Rauschenberg.

There will be a book signing and deck party at the Menil Bookstore following the lecture.  Sperandio will sign his book "Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio." 

RICE STUDENTS TURN BILLBOARDS INTO WORKS OF ART
Big billboards, open studio make student artwork accessible
By Jessica Stark, Rice News Staff
March 26, 2009

Rice University students are making the arts accessible to Texans this spring by creating billboards featuring their original works and hosting an open studio April 22. Each of the five billboards measures 11 feet by 23 feet and will go up April 2 in locations in and around College Station.

Though there is a long tradition of artists making dramatic visual statements in the space that's usually reserved for advertising, it is rare for such an opportunity to be made available to students, said international artist and Rice professor Christopher Sperandio.
 
Lamar Outdoor Advertising donated the billboard space when Sperandio approached the company with the idea. He then secured Meredith Goldsmith, curatorial associate at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, to jury and select pieces for the student billboard project.

"The range of artwork that Rice University students are making is impressive, and my selections reflect that range," Goldsmith said. "This billboard project was a unique opportunity for the artists to stretch their subject matter and styles for a venue that audiences experience in motion. I am sure the students' images will delight and challenge their unsuspecting audience of drivers, as banal familiar landmarks are transformed into works of art."

The student billboard project exemplifies the reinvigoration of the Visual and Dramatic Arts Program at Rice, said Sperandio, assistant professor of visual and dramatic arts and head of the Studio Department.

More information >>

DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL & DRAMATIC ARTS

2009 Student Award Recipients
 
Congratulations to the 2009 student award recipients:
 
Mary Ellen Hale Lovett Traveling Fellowship
Teresa Ann Bayer
Logan Sebastian Beck
Dorea Joy Novaez
 
Mavis C. Pitman Memorial Prize in Arts
David Ashton Brown
 
Christine C. Sayres Memorial Scholarship
Sarah Marie Wiseman, Senior
 
Eleanor & Frank Freed Traveling Fellowship
Grace Yee Yan Ng
Rachel Emily Solnick
 
Jessie Matthews Memorial Award in Art
Amelia Reiff Hill
 
Kathleen Gamber Ballanfant Award in Film and Photography
Andrew Morgan Zukoski
 
Raymond John Swift Award
Marie Rose McKinnon
 
Barbara Chilton Long Memorial Award in Theatre
Matt Banks
Garrett Sanders Schumann
Natalia Gastao Salies
Alicia Hernandez
Catherine Elizabeth Bratic
Teresa Ann Bayer
 
Chairmen's Choice Award
Erin E. Rouswe

'ART'-ICULATING CANCER, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNER WORKINGS
Pitman Exhibition goes beyond traditional artistic methods
By Jessica Stark, Rice News Staff

Whatever your artistic preference, this year's Mavis C. Pitman Exhibition has something to to offer. The competitive group show, which features professional-level work from three select visual and dramatic arts majors, dabbles in media ranging from fabrick to medical supplies to photo booths and screens to colored pencils and pastels.

The artists--Emily Henderson, a Will Rice junior; David Rosales, a Martel College junior; and Sarah Wiseman, a Baker College senior--were each awarded a research stipend to bring their visions to life for this exhibition.

Read the full Rice News article >>

SPERANDIO RECEIVES LUVERHULME TRUST ARTIST RESIDENCY
ChesterChronicle.co.uk, January 15, 2009
 
CHESTER’S Grosvenor Museum has started the New Year with a bang by winning a coveted Artist in Residence award from the Leverhulme Trust.

The award will fund international art star duo Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio to work with the museum over a year to produce seven new artworks that bring together objects from the museum’s social history collection and items either discovered through the social networks of contemporary Chester or commissioned by the artists.

The artists will also present a series of four public lectures at the museum over the year.

Simon, who lives near Wrexham, and Chris, who is based in Houston, Texas, have become well known over the last 20 years for bringing the daily lives of people they meet into the museum and gallery world, in artworks ranging from a new chocolate bar to comic books and television shows.

The artists, who have worked with some of the largest museums in the UK, Europe and America, said: “The Grosvenor Museum is a key part of Chester life, past and present. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to work closely with them to produce new work that takes the city, past and present, as its subject.”

Hannah Crowdy, collections and interpretation officer at the museum, ädded: “The Grosvenor Museum is delighted with the Artist in Residence award from the Leverhulme Trust.

“The award will give local people the opportunity to look at our social history collection in a different way and also to see what artists can bring to the experience of history.

“This is a ground-breaking development and we’re really looking forward to working with Grennan & Sperandio and the public over the coming year.”

The seven new artworks will be displayed as they are made, one every six weeks or so, in the museum foyer. The artists will give four public lectures about the making of the new work in the museum Lecture Theatre, over the course of the year. 

SLEEPING BEAUTY: A ONE ARTIST DICTIONARY
John Sparagana and Mieke Bal

The dictionary. The high-gloss fashion ad. The fraught relationship between artist and critic. Sleeping Beauty ties these disparate strands of our everyday lives together, only to strip away anything we thought we knew about each of them. A collaboration by the artist John Sparagana [professor of painting and drawing in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University] and the critic Mieke Bal, this truly cutting-edge work takes the shape of a conversation between his creations--distressed magazine pages--and her words imagining anew the relationships of image to text and the art to those who write about it.

Bal contributes twenty-six essays, one for each letter of the alphabet, which borrow their organizing principle from the dictionary but reach far beyond the utilitarian purpose of reference volume. Each one enters deeply into Sparagana's art, illuminating concepts from Abstract to Zestful that inform, underlie, and lend meaning to the exquisitely ruined images he creates by crinkling glossy pictures from fashion magazines until their sheen disappears and they become soft and elastic. Unmooring the magazine page from its familiar context, Sparagana renders these beautiful rags poetic through his unique art of subtraction, which physically rubs away not only ink and material, but also transience and commercial usefulness.

Just as Sparagana's work intervenes in existing images, so, too, do Bal's explorations qualify existing concepts. But together, in this inaugural volume in the new series Project Tango: Artists and Writers Together, they have given rise to something wholly new: a prophetic one-artist dictionary that simultaneously reenvisions the untapped interactions of images with words and the potential forms of the book itself.
 
For more information on Project Tango: Artists and Writers Together (click here).

THE EMOTIVE POWER OF ART
Student artist curates 'FACE IT,' a student self-portrait exhibition
By Jessica Stark, Rice News Staff

From now until Nov. 28, people can get a look at how others view themselves at the Visual and Dramatic Arts (VADA) self-portrait exhibition "FACE IT." The exhibition features self-portraits by Rice students -- both visual arts majors and nonmajors -- in the VADA main gallery in the Rice Media Center.
 
Senior VADA major Ameila Reiff Hill and Karin Broker, professor of visual arts, curated the exhibition. It was a learning experience for Hill and an ideal way to cap her educational experience at Rice. After graduation she plans to teach art in Houston-area high schools for a year or two and then explore her options.
 
"I want to give a little back and encourage teens to get into art, especially as an emotive and creative outlet in an otherwise test-crazy and dry curriculum," Hill said.
 
Hill said the "FACE IT" exhibition is an example of the emotive power of art.
 
Read the full Rice News Article >>

ARTIST & RICE ALUM ANDY WALKER TO TALK ABOUT HIS WORK

Andy Walker, a Rice BFA alum and recent graduate of the prestigious three-year MFA program at the Art Center in Pasadena, California, will present a talk about the development of his work over the past three years and his experience in a highly competitive MFA program. This talk should be of vital interest to our majors to hear from a former VADA student who has gone on to do graduate work. The talk should also touch on that exciting time when one leaves the structure of an art program and begins the work to launch a career as a professional artist in the big world (Los Angeles in Andy's case).

November 11, 7:00 pm

VADA Film Auditorium

Rice Media Center
 
(Download Andy Walker's Talk Announcement)

VADA SLAM
 
Are your curious about what your professors are up to? Come hear your VADA faculty and staff informally and briefly discuss their work as well as what they are currently work on, thinking about, and looking at. It's a VADA SLAM!
 
Join us! October 21, 2008, 7:00 p.m., in Sewall Hall 401!
 
Speakers include:
Karin Broker, Paul Hester, Christina Keefe, David Krueger, Randall McCabe, Matt Schlief, George Smith, Kaneem Smith, John Sparagana, Christopher Sperandio, Carl Suddath, and Geoff Winingham.

RICE DEDICATES WORK BY WORLD-RENOWNED ARTIST
Glass installation by Lino Tagliapietra created for Fondren Library
By Jessica Stark, Rice News Staff

As Lino Tagliapietra's artwork hangs before him in Rice University's Fondren Library, a special pride swells in his chest and voice.
 
That idea of passage is echoed in Tagliapietra's glass sculpture installation in the library's east entrance. Nine colored blown-glass "boats" cascade from the ceiling as visitors enter the heart of the library. Funded by a gift from alumnus Albert '64 and Elizabeth Kidd, the piece is Tagliapietra's first cascading installation and the first piece he has created specifically for a university.
 
To read the full story (click here).

'KARTOON KINGS'
NEW ARTS PROFESSOR GIVES LOOK AT SUCCESS IN CONTEMPORARY ARTS
By Jessica Stark, Rice News Staff

Students and Rice community members will get an inside look at success in the world of contemporary art during a talk by Christopher Sperandio, assistant professor of studio art, at 6 p.m. Oct. 16 in the Visual and Dramatic Arts Film Auditorium.
 
During "Kartoon Kings: Animation, Television & Comics," Sperandio will show samples of his animated work and excerpts from seasons one and two of the New York based reality TV series "ARTSTAR," for which he is an executive producer.
 
"I think what people can see from my work is that I'm very committed to it -- totally, fully and enthusiastically," Sperandio said.
 
Known for his collaborative work with British artist Simon Grennan, Sperandio explores the numerous margins between mass and museum cultures in an array of media such as comic books, television, painted installation and Web sites.
 
Sperandio recently came to Rice from Carnegie Mellon University.
 
"This is a time of real growth for the Visual and Dramatic Arts Department at Rice," Sperandio said. "It will be a challenge, but by taking advantage of the proximity to the museum district and recruiting students serious about contemporary art, we will meet our goals."

MAKING MONOPRINTS: OPEN STUDIO
Department of Visual & Dramatic Arts Printmaking Studio

Professor Karin Broker has revamped the ARTS 320, Monotype I, class for fall 2008. Last spring, Professor Broker received a Brown Foundation Teaching Grant to underwrite student lab supplies and guest artists who will be visiting campus to conduct printmaking demonstrations, talks, and critiques that will be a part of the class.
 
The course will include designing and producing large-scale prints on hand-made paper. Three artists will visit the class in an open studio to demonstate their work, give campus/community-wide talks, and lead student critiques.
 
First to visit the department will be Professor Pam Longobardi from Georgia State University. She will produce large-scale prints from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. in the VADA printmaking studio in Sewall Hall October 7, 8, and 9. An artist reception for Professor Longobardi will be held October 9, 6:00 p.m.
 
On October 15, VADA Professor Emeritus Basilios Poulos will produce large-scale monoprints from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. in the printmaking studio in Sewall Hall.
 
Finally, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Patricia Bellan-Gillen will produce her large-scale prints November 11, 12, and 13, from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., with guest artist reception November 13, 6:00 p.m.
 
Each artist will give a campus/community-wide lectures and critiques where Rice students, local area high school students, and peer college students will be invited to attend. At the end of the class, students will exhibit their prints made in class along side the guest artists work.
 
All classes, demonstrations, critiques, lectures, and artist receptions will be held in the VADA Printmaking Studio, Sewall Hall 201 and are free and open to the public. Rice students may receive academic credit for the semester-long class by enrolling in ARTS 320.001, Monotype I, Tueday and Thursday, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
 
The final class exhibition, titled “Big Prints,” will be on view December 4-18 in the Visual and Dramatic Arts Main Exhibition Gallery in the Rice Media Center. An exhibition reception will be held December 4, 6:00 p.m. in the Rice Media Center.
 
For more information on the class, guest artists, and schedules, please contact the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts office at 713-348-4882.
 
Download the Longobardi announcement (click here).
Download the Poulos announcement (click here).
Download the Bellan-Gillen announcment (click here).
 
Rice News, October 1, 2008 (click here)
Rice News, October 14, 2008 (click here)

CHRISTOPHER SPERANDIO JOINS DEPARTMENT FACULTY

Christopher Sperandio has accepted the appointment of assistant professor of studio art beginning fall 2008. He replaces Professor Basilios Poulos who retired from teaching July 1, 2008, after 33 years at Rice University.

Sperandio, an artist known for his collaborative work with British artist Simon Grennan, will begin his appointment by teaching ARTS 301.001, Painting I, Monday and ednesday, 7:00-10:00 p.m. and ARTS 340.001, Color Drawing, Monday and Wednesday, 1:00-4:00 p.m.

Sperandio attended West Virginia University, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking in 1987. He pursued graduate coursework at the University of Illinois at Chicago receiving a Master of Fine Arts in painting in 1991.

Sperandio and Grennan have authored 20 comic books published in conjunction with a variety of museums, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's ICA. Their work has also been published by Fantagraphics Books and DC Comics under their own imprint KartoonKings. Typical of these is the "Invisible City" project for the Public Art Fund and "Modern Masters" produced for PS1/MoMA. Kartoon Kings: The Graphic Work of Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio , a monograph collecting images and information on their collaborative practice was published in 2007.
 
Their innovative approach to art making involves projects and painted installations that engage varied communities and address issues of demographics and distribution. Sperandio is also the creator and executive producer of ARTSTAR, the first reality television show set in the New York art world.
 
In addition to their published work, Grennan and Sperandio were commissioned to make new work for the Traffic exhibition curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, and are often exhibited with other "Relational Aesthetics" artists such as Rikrit Tiravanija and Maurizio Cattelan. Sperandio is credited as Creator and Executive Producer of ARTSTAR, an eight-part unscripted television series set in the New York art world of Deitch Projects airing on American television (Voom) in 2006. Season 2 of ARTSTAR will air in 2008.
 
For more information on Christopher Sperandio and Simon Grennan, please visit their website at http://www.kartoonkings.com.  

DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL & DRAMATIC ARTS
2008 Student Award Recipients
 
Mary Ellen Hale Lovett Traveling Fellowship
Johan-Aris Saadon Loveless
Andrew Morgan Zukoski
Andrew Douglas Sinclair
Pablo Legorreta Solares
Mausami Bhasker Patel
 
Raymond Swift Medal
Alice Wan Chai
 
Mavis C. Pitman Memorial Prize in Art
George Michael Venson
 
Christine Croneis Sayres Memorial Art Award
Myrth Ileana Killingsworth
Tamisha Shanta Anthony
 
The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation Traveling Fellowship
Lauren Sue McConnell
Jennifer Margaret Woelfel
Sarah Marie Wiseman
 
Jessie Matthews Memorial Award in Art
Whitney H. Alsup
Amelia Reiff Hill
 
Kathleen Gamber Ballanfant Award in Photography or Film Production
Jeffrey Rob Middleton
 
Neil Sandy Havens Scholarship in Theatre
Timothy James Faust
Caitlin Elizabeth Miller
Michael James Rog
 
Barbara Chilton Long Memorial Award in Theatre
George Christopher Warrington
Seth Hamilton Fly
Michelle Sharlene Conway
Katherine Michelle Mulvaney

MARY ELLEN HALE LOVETT TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP, 2008
Call for Proposals

The Department of Visual and Dramatic ARts is accepting proposals from VADA majors and double-majors for the 2008 Mary Ellen Hale Lovett Traveling Fellowship.
 
The fellowship supports student research travel and studio supplies expenses. Field of research within the visual and dramatic arts is open. Travel should be completed by the spring 2009 semester. Travel may be either domestic or international. However, the successful candidate will be responsible for making their own travel arrangements and obtaining appropriate visas and travel documentation.
 
To apply for the fellowship, please submit a detailed, succinct, one-page proposal that describes research interests, project goals, travel plans and objectives, and anticipated outcomes. A budget should be attached to the proposal.
 
Proposals up to $3,000 will be considered. Students wishing to attend summer academic programs, where transfer credit will be awarded, are also encouraged to apply.
 
Deadline for submitting proposals: Monday, April 7, 3:00 p.m.
 
Proposals should be submitted to Rachel Boyle in the VADA administrative office in the Rice Media Center. Proposals may not be submitted electronically.
 
Awards will be announced during the awards ceremony at the 2008 Annual Student Art Exhibition, Thursday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.

ELEANOR & FRANK FREED TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP, 2008
Call for Proposals

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts is accepting proposals from VADA majors and double-majors for the 2008 Eleanor and Frank Freed Traveling Fellowship.
 
The fellowship supports student research travel and studio supplies expenses. Field of research within the visual and dramatic arts is open. Travel should be completed by the spring 2009 semester. Travel may be either domestic or international. However, the successful candidate will be responsible for making their own travel arrangements and obtaining appropriate visas and travel documentation.
 
To apply for the fellowship, please submit a detailed, succinct, one-page proposal that describes research interests, project goals, travel plans and objectives, and anticipated outcomes. A budget should be attached to the proposal.
 
Proposals up to $1,800 will be considered. Students wishing to attend summer academic programs, where transfer credit will be awarded, are also encouraged to apply.
 
Deadline for submitting proposals: Monday, April 7, 3:00 p.m.
 
Proposals should be submitted to Rachel Boyle in the VADA administrative office in the Rice Media Center. Proposals may not be submitted electronically.
 
Awards will be announced during the awards ceremony at the 2008 Annual Student Art Exhibition, Thursday, April 24, 7:30 p.m.

PICTURING POZOS
Professor Winningham's students help children tell their town's story through art

For many college students, Mexico is a spring break destination, but it was a classroom beyond the hedges for eight Rice University students this fall. As part of an artistic and educational outreach project, the students taught photography basics to the children of Mineral de Pozos, a small ghost town in the heart of Mexico. The children, ages 7 to 16, were given cameras and other materials to discover, explore and capture their town through artwork.
 
The Rice students walked with the children through the town and listened to their stories. They encouraged the children to create photographs and monotypes that expressed personal feelings about the town and townspeople.
 
"Our walks were more about the rediscovery and exploration of the ordinary than simply creating art," said Ian White, Jones College senior. "I found the children's earnest desire to document the town and their lives to be both refreshing and exciting in its lack of artistic pretense."
 
As eager as they were, the children initially struggled with taking unique photographs. Many of the children would group together and all take the same shot from slightly different vantage points. White said that the Rice students spent a great deal of one-on-one time with the children to resolve that issue.
 
Another challenge was getting the children to uncover what about the town was fascinating to them.
 
"When we first started working on the project, we told the kids to photograph things that were interesting to them," said Myrth Killingsworth, Jones College senior. "We were trying to capture the parts of the town that were most important to them -- to see the town through their eyes."
 
Apparently, the Rice students were interesting: the first few rolls of film were almost exclusively portraits of them. With encouragement from their student mentors and teachers, the children turned their sights back on the town and got closer to their subjects, even the old widow who lived alone with myriad dogs.
 
"I convinced the children that they needed to talk to her," White said. "Most of them had assumed she was crazy, but once they talked to her, they learned that wasn't the case. It made me feel like we had really contributed to the well-being of the community and brought them together."
 
For the full Rice News feature article, please (click here).
For the information on the children's exhibition at the Jung Center, please (click here).

GUEST SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2007 BOOK FAIR
AT THE MUSEUM OF PRINTING HISTORY

Houstonians will be treated to a special guest lecture at this year's November Houston Book Fair at the Museum of Printing History. Photographers Paul Hester and Lisa Hardaway will join author Michael Andrews to speak about their award-winning book, Historic Texas Courthouses at the November 10th event.

The Houston Book Fair has been growing in size and popularity since its debut in 2001. This year's line-up includes 22 U.S. dealers. Selections range from rare and collectible to moderately priced used books in a wide variety of subjects including children's books, Texana, mystery books, historical documents, out of print, first editions and many more. The Museum Gift Shop, the Museum of Printing History Book Arts Guild and other local artists will be offering hand-made crafts for gift-giving options.

Courthouse author Andrews has long been a supporter of historical preservation, during his term as a U.S. congressman from Texas and later as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. His text richly describes the artisans, materials and methods of the fine craftsmen who worked throughout Texas in the late 19th and early 20th century to create elaborate courthouse structures throughout the state.

More than 400 photos illustrate his text. Esteemed architectural photographers Paul Hester and Lisa Hardaway will be on hand to describe their experiences in illustrating the book. Both are Rice University graduates and have worked on many architectural photography projects.

Historic Texas Courthouses was voted best Texas Book of 2006 by "Texas Reads". The experiences and achievements of these three should provide a delightful treat to Book Fair attendees.

The museum is located at 1324 W. Clay, one block west of Montrose and a half mile south of Allen Parkway. Its massive collection is open to the public daily (closed Sundays) and includes a working model of the Gutenberg press, plus items tracing the history of the printed word. For more information, phone 713-522-4652 or visit the website, www.printingmuseum.org.

This program has been funded in part by grants from The City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PAINTING & DRAWING SEARCH
Department of Visual & Dramatic Arts
Rice University

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University is seeking candidates and candidate nominations for a full-time, tenure-track assistant professor of studio art (emphasis in painting and drawing).
 
The position is responsible for teaching four undergraduate painting, drawing, design, or criticism courses each academic year (two fall and two spring); engaging and maintaining an active and aggressive program of research and creative scholarship; participating in student advising and mentoring; and serving on department and university committees.
 
Candidates should have the Master of Fine Arts degree with emphasis in painting and drawing,; significant record of exhibition on the national level; strong organization, communication, and collaborative skills; and at least three years teaching experience on the post-secondary level. Experience in additional artistic mediums (i.e., digital media, design, printmaking, sculpture, etc.), and the ability to enhance the diversity and dynamics of the department will be considered assets.
 
Rice University is an upper-level, liberal arts research university offering study in film production, theatre, and the studio arts (printmaking, painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography). Rice University has approximately 4,800 graduate, undergraduate, and professional students with approximately 650 full- and part-time faculty. Rice is located in Houston, Texas, a culturally diverse metropolitan city with a strong visual and performing arts community. The department enjoys a diverse and talented group student majors along with progressive academic offerings and collaborations with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Menil Collection, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and many alternative art spaces and galleries.
 
Deadline for applications is November 30, 2007. Appointment to begin July 1, 2008.
 
To apply for this position, please send a letter summarizing your interest and qualifications along with a current curriculum vitae, academic transcripts for undergraduate and graduate degrees, three letters of reference, up to 50 samples of personal and student work (CD or DVD format), and brief statements on teaching and research philosophies. A self-addressed, postage-paid envelope will be required for all materials to be returned to candidates.
 
Send application materials to:
Professor Karin Broker, Chair
Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts
Rice University
MS-549
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, Texas 77251-1892
 
Rice University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, women and minorities are encouraged to apply.

HOUSTON WILDERNESS: A COLLABORATION
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

Paul Hester's work will be included in the

Houston Wilderness: A Collaboration

exhibtion at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston September 22-January 6, 2008 at the Caroline Weiss Law building.

A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOUSTON WILDERNESS
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Geoff Winningham will be part of the panel discussion, A Conversation about Houston Wilderness, along with Clinton T. Willour, guest curator of the exhibition Houston Wilderness: A Collaboration, environmental attorney Jim Blackburn, and philanthropist Nancy Powell Moore.

September 22, 4:00 p.m., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet.

PROFESSOR SMITH'S WORK FEATURED AT THE STATION MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Houston, Texas

Professor George Smith's one-man show, along with two other exhibitions that explore African inspiration, is on view at The Station Museum of Contemporary Art, September 16, 2007. The Station Museum of Contemporary Art, 1502 Alabama, 713-529-6900.
 
More information (click here ).

HESTER'S WORK FEATURED DURING FOTOFEST AT THE VINE STREET STUDIOS
Houston, Texas

VADA Instructor Paul Hester's work will be included in the exhibition Visions from FotoFest Inter-Biennial Exhibits & Events at FotoFest 2007 at the Vine Street Studios, 1113 Vine Street, opening September 6th.
 
More information (click here ).

News Reel: Summer 2007
 
Summer Window 5: New Installation by Mike Stilkey. Friday, June 1 - Wednesday, August 1
Artwork will Draw Community Together on C