A R T L E T T E R
The Timely Magazine of Art
#21 | <!>previous/ next>!> Artletter index | January 15, 1996 |
Get your ARTLETTER Anthology 1995! Catch up on what you missed or archive for posterity. Send 5 postage stamps for Issues 1-19 today! Stephen Mueller at Texas Gallery 1/20 A Clarification: My review Mueller's show in ARTLETTER 20 was intended to be positive. I like pessimistic and resigned art. I like the negation of the sublime. I am a nerdy Star Trek fan turned abstract artist. Pessimistic, resigned, ambivalent, nerdy and tacky are descriptions of strengths in Mueller's work; had I not liked it, I would have used words like bad, boring, dull, or trite.- B.D. Annette Lawrence at the Art League sculpture court 2/23 Juice-Justice-Court-Circus. Loaded words hint at vague meanings. The juice got justice? The court is a circus? One can read these meanings into this work, but they are not carried through in visual form. The dark and light rocks are arranged like a formal garden or a rug. Why? The center circle of arrows suggests a basketball court or recycling. Why? It doesn't add up. -B.D. Nayland Blake Hare Attitudes at the CAM 2/25 While I'm for bunny art as much as the next guy, this show seems like a half-hearted blend of current art trends. The best part of the show is where he establishes his credentials ("I've been into bunnies for years") with two photos, one of a young Nayland holding a rabbit, another of his parents holding a baby Nayland with a stuffed bunny in the foreground. The actual artworks are less satisfying. His cast chocolate heads resemble Janine Antonis made less filling through reduced content. His negative bunny video seems like a Mike Kelley without all the conceptual density. It's contemporary art Lite, but at least it looks contemporary, which is more than can be said for the oil paint carnage of the Derek Boshier show upstairs.- Mark Allen Delfina Vannucci at 801 Tulane St. (By appt. 863-0148) 2/19 My frustration is spelled out in tiny rub-on letters on playing cards and words embroidered on fine crochet. Letters from my psychiatrist, test scores, and a page from an unfinished teen sex novel offer a glimpse into the dark corners of my personal life. Makes me squirm. -Delfina Address letters to: Bill Davenport, 801 Tulane St., Houston TX 77007 Mail subscriptions $15/year. Look for Artletter 22 on February 1.