Art Update Houston: October 12, 2019
Art Colony Association Announces Featured Artwork for 2019 Bayou City Art Festival Downtown
Art Colony Association, Inc. (ACA) featured artwork for Bayou City Art Festival Downtown 2019 – titled “The High Road” is by this year’s featured artist Clifton Henri. Bayou City Art Festival Downtown is Saturday and Sunday, October 12-13, 2019, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and benefits local nonprofits.
The featured artwork is a photograph that consists of two overlay images photographed by Henri in 2018 while in Accra, Ghana. The boy standing tall on top of the tire has made an adjustment in his perspective while seeing a different point of view. The yellow wall with depth and texture represents the environment, which Henri believes affects the individual’s upbringing. For the title, Henri was inspired by Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high” quote.
Henri is an award-winning photographer and visual artist from Chicago. His work is rooted in identity, under-representation and self-declaration. Henri visually illustrates and narrates the African diaspora using personal experiences and feelings as fuel for his portraits. Henri’s photography has taken him on a path of defining moments. His journey has helped him define his place in the world and find a stance on how he wants to be seen. Henri’s photographs are based on personal and shared experiences of humanity.
Houston’s largest art festival will transform the streets of Downtown into artistic avenues bursting with colors and culture and will showcase the work of 300 artists from around the world, representing 19 different disciplines. As one of the top art festivals in the country, the weekend event will provide patrons with the opportunity to personally meet artists, view original works, and purchase world-class art, prints, jewelry, sculptures and more.
Bayou City Art Festival Downtown will feature live music throughout the festival along with entertainment, beverage stations, food trucks and much more for patrons to enjoy. In the Children’s Creative Zone, the festival’s nonprofit partners will host hands-on art activities for all ages.
Online tickets are now available at www.artcolonyassociation.org. Tickets online are $12 for adults and $5 for children 6 – 12; children five and under are free. Also available online are two-day passes for $20 and family passes (two adults, two children tickets) for $30. Adult tickets at the gate are $15 cash; $16 credit card.
About Bayou City Art Festival:
Now in its 48th year since the founding of the Westheimer Art Festival, now known as Bayou City Art Festival, the Art Colony Association, Inc. has raised more than $3.6 million for local nonprofit programs from the proceeds of its festivals. The festivals are funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, corporate sponsorships, private contributions, in-kind support, and volunteer assistance.
VINCENT FALSETTA
Sensing the Pulse
Anya Tish Gallery
Through October 19, 2019 Final week of Vincent Falsetta for his long-awaited solo exhibition with the gallery. In Sensing the Pulse the artist continues his investigation of abstract gesture, process, and expression through layers of textured striations of color and underlying movement. Falsetta forms paintings that are equally object and illusion, deliberately planned and spontaneously improvised. The paintings reveal themselves as he creates them – at times, surprising or confounding his expectations. They can be described as objects that evoke the natural world while acknowledging the technology that measures or records it. His paintings, distinctly abstract, tend to suggest waves of sound, light or seismic activity. He elegantly weaves color into each piece using idiosyncratic techniques, applying paint and making the work feel painterly and at the same time meticulously rendered. Falsetta is interested in the actual physical properties of the paint, the plasticity of the medium and painting as an object. He brushes on, blends, and drags thick oil paint in wet-on-wet technique using various hand pressures, rhythms and speeds.
Vincent Falsetta is a Texas-based artist who was born in Philadelphia, PA. He earned an MFA in Painting/ Drawing from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia and Rome, Italy in 1974. Falsetta is now a Professor Emeritus of the University of North Texas, where he taught since 1977. Since 1972 Falsetta’s work has been featured in over 50 solo and 350 curated or juried group exhibitions, including: The Texas Biennial 2013, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, San Antonio; Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania. He is the recipient of several grants including an NEA Fellowship Award in 1996, and his work is included in many public and private collections, such as the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, El Paso Museum of Art, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and Galleria Cavallino, Venice, Italy.
Anya Tish Gallery
4411 Montrose
Houston, TX 77006
713.524.2299
www.anyatishgallery.com
AUTUMN LEAVES EXHIBITION
Thornwood Gallery
Open to the public to see their New Fall Collection by more than 60 local & international artists. Also, enjoy a fantastic selection of wine and our selected classical playlist.
Featured artists include Antonio Torres, Jeff Koehn and Alexander Sheversky is newly represented by Thornwood.
Antonio Torres
Born in 1968 in Alicante, Spain. In his words:
“My evolution as a painter has led me to achieve a recurring theme in my career: painting ballet.”
This is the subject in which I have dedicated myself these last few years. Direct contact with professional dancers from different countries has allowed me to observe and paint top performers in the industry, including dancers such as Yulia Tikka (Russia), Bianca Fota (Romania), Vesela Vassileva (Bulgaria), Sadaise Arencia (Cuba), Esteban Berlanga (Spain), Cristina Terentiev (Moldova), Bridgett Zehr (Canada), Victoria Ananyan (Monte Carlo), Nini Samadashvili (Georgia), Elena Evseeva (Russia), and Kristina Tabarovskaya (Russia).
While my art depicts dancers from all over the world, it is worth mentioning three series with different models that particularly inspire me.
The first one is Blue Dream. Here my model is Laurretta Summerscales from London, the wonderful main dancer of the English National Ballet. She shows graceful, talented movement on stages around the world. This inspires me to express the beauty of ballet with different techniques in my works.
The second one is Blue Rainbow. It is a collection, full of realistic details, that sometimes presents unrealistic scenes, all of it thanks to my Russian model Natalia Gubanova, main dancer of the Moscow Ballet. She is a subtle and talented dancer who inspires me to develop surreal motifs.
The third one is Contrasts inspired by the Spanish dancer Mar Ronda. Her elegance inspires me to paint scenes that allow the viewer to glimpse into private moments right before she takes the stage.
Some of Torres Exhibitions include:
Hotel Nou Romá (Dénia)-Alicante) 2016
Mc Gregor’s Gallery. Glasgow (Escocia) 2015
Galeria La casa del Pintor : Gandía (Valencia) 2015/16
Galería Art Gallery : Moraira (Alicante) 2015
Galería Paspartú (Barcelona) 2013
Galería Aragón 232 (Barcelona) 2013
Galería Gleis 2 : Uster(Suiza) 2012
Sala “El sueño de Baco” (Madrid) 2012
Jeff Koehn
Koehn is one of the hottest young artists in the United States today. Born in a small Wisconsin town, his first-grade teacher was prescient when she told him: “You will be a famous artist some day.” Jeff received his formal art education from the Art Institute of Colorado, where he graduated with honors in December 1995. While at the Art Institute, he received extensive training in pastel, oil and acrylic painting from world-renowned artists Doug Dawson, Lynn Kircher, and Don Long. In 1995 he was awarded First Place in the national Creative “Geanie” Student Competition. Jeff’s style has evolved from an early emphasis on photo-realism with the use of pastels in portraits. His earlier illustrative work has appeared in numerous publications. As he shifted to oil and acrylics, he has become absorbed with the excitement of color and texture, refining his paintings with dry brush techniques that lend both complexity and subtlety to his distinctive style. His influences come from Vermeer’s use of light spilling across his paintings, and also from John Singer Sergeant’s lush portraits.
Alexander Sheversky
Born in 1961, Sheversky grew up in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, helping his father draw on walls, literally. His father was an artist who created many murals in their home and accepted commissions from Soviet officials, which lined their hallway with canvases. From the time he was 12-years-old until he was 16-years-old, Sheversky helped his father complete these paintings.
At 16, he accepted a machinist position in his hometown but didn’t care for the work. He convinced his father that he wanted to be an artist and eventually studied at I.E. Repin Academy of Art. After graduation, he worked for a large department store with other artists who specialized in creating paintings and displays for the store.
In 1986, Alexander began exhibiting his paintings in Chisinau and critical acceptance and recognition followed. Russian officials selected him to exhibit in the competitive environment in Moscow. His success led him to manage a studio for artists who accepted government commissions. He now lives in Vancouver Canada.
Sheversky’s artistic style reflects his admiration for Rembrandt and Vermeer. His masterful chiaroscuro effects produce realism in his paintings that can be compared to past European masters. He carefully creates still lifes with a geometrical sense of order and then paints light in a three-dimensional form to produce dramatic effects in his works. The light and shadow effects seen in his re-creation of draped material or closely nestled wine bottles showcase his painting skill and the influence of modern-day classicism.
Lighting and strong colors are reasons why Sheversky chooses to paint with acrylic instead of oil. He explains, “Acrylic dries faster; therefore, I can apply more paint and create stronger colors. With oil, the artist must paint from dark to light. With acrylic, I can paint from light to dark and create more brightness in the painting.” A dry brushstroke over the entire painting creates visual smoothness across the canvas.
During the course of 2010 Alexander was offered a series of outstanding opportunities to exhibit his art in two national museums: the National Arts Museum in Kishinev, Moldova (July, 2010) and the Odessa State Museum of Fine Arts in Odessa, Ukraine (Aug, 2010), each of which were curated by experts in their fields and shown to discerning audiences. His work has already been captured in a retrospective book “Alexander Sheversky. Contemporary Realism”, published in 2007.
Thornwood Gallery
2643 Colquitt
Houston, TX 77098
713.528.4278
www.thornwoodgallery.com
ANN JOHNSON
Acknowledge
Hooks-Epstein Gallery
Hooks-Epstein Galleries is proud to present a solo exhibition for Houston-based artist, Ann Johnson. Acknowledge, an exhibition of printmaking and mixed media.
In her latest exhibition, Acknowledge, Ann Johnson explores the truths and consequences of slavery. She incorporates a futuristic approach to the subject by printing images on raw cotton, gauze, and tree leaves, as well as integrating an array of found objects and contemporary images.
Through the intricacy and multifaceted nature of her pieces, Ann Johnson acknowledges the pain and ills of slavery, as well as the survival and existence of its ancestors. Johnson presents a body of work that speaks at a greater depth and questions humanity—work that explores hard truths and breathes conversation.
Ann Johnson received her undergraduate degree in Home Economics at Prairie View A&M University (TX), where she currently teaches. She has earned an M.A. in Humanities from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and an M.F.A. with a concentration in printmaking from The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Johnson has been in various solo and group exhibitions. In 2017, at Art League Houston, she organized a group show, How Do I Say Her Name, featuring work by nine women artists of color. The exhibition spawned She Matters, another group show organized by Ann Johnson in 2019 at Texas A&M. Johnson is currently part of a two-person exhibition, HARVEST, on view at the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM and by appointment.
Hooks-Epstein Gallery
2631 Colquitt
Houston, TX 77098
713.522.0718
www.hooksepsteingalleries.com