XL ARTS

This year's 'New American Talent' takes a very topical turn

Emerging artists consider the larger world issues, not just themselves.

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS CRITIC
Sunday, July 06, 2008

It's summer, and that means we have the next iteration of "New American Talent," the annual juried exhibit featuring the work of emerging artists from across the country. Arthouse has presented "New American Talent" for 23 years now, since long before the talent competition became the super-popular form of pop culture entertainment — not to mention reputation-maker — that it is.

"Project Artist," anyone?

No, "New American Talent" is much better than that. And this year's version is sharper than ever. The works are selected by Nato Thompson, a curator at Creative Time, the New York-based nonprofit that commissions innovative public art projects. Kudos to him for sorting through more than 1,000 entries to select 43 artists whom he identifies as "curious" and able to present "lush mysteries in a world that often seems altogether too transparent." (Sixteen of the artists are from Texas, with seven from Austin.)

And perhaps the most refreshing aspect of these artists' curiosity is their sense of timeliness and topicality. Call it the curse of graduate art school, but emerging artists can end up so addled by their own self-involvement that they can't produce anything that's not too, well, self-involved. But much of what's on exhibit in "New American Talent" percolates with contemporary issues: climate change, the war in Iraq and its far-reaching consequences, technology's intrusion into everyday life.

Something like Margot Herster's "Kuwaiti Detainees in Guantánamo Bay" is advocacy as much as it is art. Through her connection with attorneys representing the detainees at the Cuba naval base, Herster has collected more than 2,000 images the attorneys gathered from their clients' families. As a way to establish their clients' trust, the attorneys traveled to the Middle East and photographed detainees' family members and homes and carried personal messages back to Guantánamo. Among other photos that Herster has arrayed on the wall at Arthouse are images of a Muslim family joyfully playing with a new baby — a baby whose father is detained at Guantánamo and has presumably never seen his child. It's a considerably more thought-provoking view of the detainees than the one presented by U.S. officials.

Goran Maric approaches the same topic from a different tack. His expressively rendered quartet of etchings depicts horrifying scenes of prisoner torture. Less immediately direct, but no less loaded with conviction, are Chad Erpelding's elegant "Topography" black-and-white digital prints. With frenzied lines that resemble a map gone haywire, Erpelding creates an artistic representation of the powerful global networks that seem to govern our world: the World Trade Organization, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Not everything in "New American Talent" is quite so explicit with its message. A miniature moss-covered mountaintop crowned with a tiny solar panel, Alec Appl's "Mt. Solar" charms with its dollhouse scale. Yet with an ordinary desk lamp playing the role of the sun and feeding the solar panel, the irony to Appl's piece is loud and clear.

Going way beyond ironic and touching on the absurd is Emily Puthoff's "S.I.R.E.N. Surrender Modulis." Through a performance video and other documentation, Puthoff contemplates the strange coincidence that apparently has Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il all reportedly devoted fans of Whitney Houston, and in particular Houston's recording of "I Will Always Love You." "Could it be that this song is the axis upon which even the fiercest hearts will turn?" Puthoff writes on a diagram of her project.

Who knows? Perhaps the answer to world peace is Whitney Houston.

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

'New American Talent: The Twenty-Third Exhibition

When:11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 17.

Where:Arthouse, 700 Congress Ave.

Cost: Free

Information:www.arthousetexas.org, 453-5312