A R T   L E T T E R

The Timely Magazine of Art

Letter: Hawkins and Galaska at West End Gallery

Dear Louise: Writing a scathing, mean spirited review (in AL#27) under a
pseudonym is gutless and chickenshit. Are you afraid that I won't like you
any more if you say those things under your real name? Relax, Louise, I
know who you are and I never liked you very much anyway. How much time
did you spend actually looking at my work? I suspect that you gave it little
more than a cursory glance; and yes, Louise, with two small children, a
demanding teaching job, and a big house to keep, I am half asleep. What's
your excuse?- Mary Hawkins

Letter: Hawkins and Galaska at West End Gallery

To Louise Cranston: I am all for being anonymous and I am all for art
criticism, but the combination of the two is like hitting and running. Please
expose yourself, Louise.- Kathleen Packlick



Olmec World at the MFAH	6/9

The polished jade jaguar masks glisten like droplets of water on jungle
leaves. Gazing past their impassive faces into the translucent depths of the
stone it is easy to believe that they incorporate something from a spiritual
realm which transcends normal experience. -B.D.



Annette Wilzig at New Gallery	5/18

Wilzig consistently forces disparate objects into visually coherent, if not
deep packages. Her meticulous command of assemblage must be commended
in a genre rife with lazy hackwork. Occasionally Wilzig produces something
funny, like the Holy Shit book, or the Nice Guy  but the jokes are one-liners,
distanced and anesthetized by the sense of the antique which deprives
artworks made of found objects of their bite.-B.D.



Marcus Adams at Lawndale	5/25

Amorphous pseudopods like bloated mud dwelling fish or bad thoughts
extrude from the head of the eyeless clown. Their melancholic chorus of
shapeless, hollow mouths reiterate the clown's groaning expression. Their
tiny, ill-placed eyes see for him. Thin gray paint, awkward modeling and
grotesque gigantism give the piece a school parade float silliness which
somewhat mitigates the heavyhanded imagery. The tentacle nearest the
front is best; a hint of a nose anthropomorphizes it enough for empathy.
Dim lights make it seem like something which grew in the basement during
vacation and now has to be cleaned out. -B.D.



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