Where does art come from? Most artworks spring from an artist’s deeply personal responses to a world that is largely impersonal. Life is always a learning experience, but artists are often motivated to make art by a feeling that there is something they need to resolve, whether it’s unique to themselves or part of some broader issue.
I love artists who let their styles evolve over time. And 58-year-old Lubbock, Texas, artist James Drake, whose knockout exhibit “City of Tells” is now on display at Arthur Roger Gallery, certainly has.
Distinguished artist Jim Richard has invited us into his rooms but does not allow us to enter. What can almost be described as a life-long obsession, his work, which will hang at the Abercrombie Gallery through Oct. 20, deals with organic and man-made structures and pokes fun at what Richard describes as “the good life.”
Leave it to W. Steve Rucker to transform a still and sterile gallery into a tank teeming with colorful fish and jumbo pencils, so very reminiscent of the playful non-team of Disney and Oldenburg, respectively. No doubt Rucker is thinking about many things in his environmental Think Tank in the Arthur Roger Gallery Project space housed in the glitzy Renaissance Hotel down on Tchoupitoulas.
To Houston artist Al Souza, art is a puzzle. Literally. Souza creates extraordinary collages with pieces of jigsaw puzzles salvaged from thrift stores and garage sales.
When David Halliday wanders through a grocery store or farmer’s market, he’s just like any other gourmet shopper on the lookout for a crisp bunch of arugula or a pristine fillet of salmon.
In a similar way Willie Birch has helped introduce the world to the style and culture of the inner city streets. Birch transformed its often anonymous messages into a visual language of individual commentary and expression acceptable to the art gallery world.
All right, so this is not the title of either of the solo October exhibits at Arthur Roger’s two, separate exhibition spaces. Rather, Jesus Moroles” is entitled “Broken Earth” at the Arthur Roger Gallery Project location, and James Drake’s is “City of Tells” at Arthur Roger Gallery on Julia.
John Waters loves the art world. His delinquent, satirical vision has inspired generations of artists and outsiders. Next month, the New Museum of Contemporary Art presents “John Waters: Change of Life,” Feb. 7-April. 15, 2004, an exhibition of 80 photographs and other works.
From the start, Steve Rucker pushed the limits of ceramics. His first show featured unglazed clay and willow sticks; later he torched large-scale wood and clay sculptures – “site specific burns” – on levees around New Orleans.