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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2007 > November
November 2007
Blanton Latin American curator to leave
He’s done amazing work since he landed here at the Blanton Museum of Art in 2002. But now, Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, Blanton curator of Latin American art, is moving on.
Blanton Museum director Jessie Otto Hite announced today the Perez-Barreiro will take his leave effective March 31, 2008. He heads to New York where he will take on the position as the director of the Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, a large and acclaimed collection of art from Latin America compiled by Venezuelan collector Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
Interestingly, the Blanton, Phelps de Cisneros and the Coleccion have collaborated for many years, most recently on a five-semester graduate seminar that culminated in the exhibit last spring, “The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection.” The exhibit is currently at New York University’s Grey Gallery garnering rave reviews.
In an official statement issued by the Blanton Perez-Barreiro says:”The past five years at the Blanton have been invaluable and memorable. I am grateful to the museum and to the University of Texas for their support, and look forward to continuing the long-term collaboration between UT and the CPPC from my new position. The field of Latin American art is developing at breakneck speed, and I’m sure the Blanton will continue to be a leader in the academic and public understanding of art from Latin America.”
Since arriving in Austin from his previous post with the Americas Society, the Spanish-born British-educated Perez-Barreiro has done plenty to shake up the Blanton’s already excellent collection of Latin American art — and not just by overseeing the acquisition of more than 200 new works of art, a considerable effort given that the Blanton has no acquisitions endowment and curators must raise funds to purchase art. Principally Perez-Barreiro conceived — along with co-curator Annette DiMeo Carlozzi — of “America/Americas,” the innovative permanent installation that integrated the museum’s modern and contemporary Latin American and American collections for the first time. Thanks to “America/Americas” Blanton visitors can now consider the modern and contemporary art of the Americas as a whole, not something fractured by international boundaries.
Blanton director Hite — who herself will step down from her post this spring and retire after more than 30 years with UT— said: “Thanks to his breadth of knowledge, his impeccable scholarship, his teaching gifts, and the esteem in which he’s held by the international academic and artistic communities, the Blanton and the University of Texas have consolidated their leadership in the field of Latin American art. While we are deeply sorry to see him go, we look forward to many years of continued and fruitful collaboration with him and our other longtime friends at the CPPC.”
The Blanton will begin an international search for a new curator of Latin American art in the coming weeks.
Gabriel Perez-Barreiro stands among “The Invisible Jump,” a mobile by artist Argentine artist Daniel Joglar, one several exhibits Perez-Barreiro organized during his five-years at the Blanton Museum.
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Just say no to Second Fiddle Syndrome
Just say no to Second Fiddle Syndrome says Aurelien Petillot. The Paris native (um, that would be Paris, FRANCE, not Paris, Texas) and happy Austinite is on a mission to “Keep Austin Viola.”
Hence he’s started Viola by Choice.
The goal of the group? To debunk and transcend the stuffiness and formality that frequently surrounds classical music and surrounds the often over-looked viola itself, says Petillot.
And why not? The viola is a lovely instrument: warm, intimate, capable of a great range of expression. But in the usual classical music hierarchy, the viola plays second fiddle to the violin and rarely gets the spotlight. That’s why Petillot and company are intent on giving the viola its due.
Viola By Choice also intends to keep its repertoire fresh and modern with plenty of attention given to living — and local — composers.
Saturday at 8 p.m., at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd (3201 Windsor Road), Viola By Choice will present “Quixotic Quincunx,” with works for viola and string quartet by Brahms, Haydn, Turina and Paulus, among others. Pianist superior Michelle Schumann makes a special appearance as does bass-baritone Gil Zilkha.
And then at some point in the program, Austin all-around composing talent — and general good-time guy — Peter Stopschinski will borrow Petillot’s viola to play “Funky Vla,” a work Stopschinski penned for a viola with guitar pick and string quartet.
Rock on!
Aurelien Petillot. Photo by John Langford.
Artists, talking
Already bored with holiday-themed, well, everything?
There’s two interesting chances to clear the mental palette and listen to some artists talk about their work.
Thursday at 6:30 p.m., Matheus Rocha Pitta, artist-in-residence at the Blanton Museum of Art and at UT’s Brazil Center of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, will be on hand for an informal conversation about the process and progress of “Drive-Thru”, a video shot by Rocha Pitta during his recent monthlong residency in Austin.
Rocha Pitta’s talk will take place at the Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, inside Flatbed World Headquarters.
Born in 1980 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, Rocha Pitta is fascinated by the displacements and discontinuities of contemporary life — commodities, landscape or personal transactions. For “Drive-Thru” — the final video will be screened in March 2008 — Rocha Pitta explored Austin, mapping it, collecting found objects and otherwise trying to creatively describe it as he found it.
Still of “Drive-Thru.” Photo by Chris Hubbert.
On Saturday at 6 p.m., Seattle artist Roy McMakin will talk about his new exhibit at Lora Reynolds Gallery, “A Breadbox and a Mug, Each Depicted in Sculpture and Photography.”
McMakin, who owns and operates Domestic Furniture, digitally photographed every inch of both a mug and a breadbox and overlaid the images to create a true-to-scale composite while simultaneously erasing three-point perspective. Cool.
“A Set of Photographs of a Souvenir Mug from Mike’s Restaurant in Fairhaven, MA.” Roy McMakin
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Buses, buses who’s got the buses?
Seems a clarification is needed.
Yesterday’s post about Pierre Henri Matisse (who was born Rene LeRoy) and who claims he is the grandson of famed artist Henri Matisse will just stop by to collaborate for a bit with Austin artist Ian Cion on the Cap Metro/Dell Children’s Hospital project on Saturday — a project Cion has been working on for months. Matisse is not an original collaborator of the project as was indicted in material previously received.
Cion writes that it’s “a project that I created for the hospital and have been working on and will work on until April at which time the buses will launch. I am working with the children weekly making art which I am digitally photographing, re-mastering and collaging into larger works which are an integration of the children’s 2D and 3D work with photographs of the natural and architectural world.”
The official Matisse estate, by the way, disputes Pierre Henri Matisse’s claim to the Matisse legacy. The Florida-based Pierre Henri changed his name in 1996.
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Will the real Matisse…
It’s a name game when it comes to collecting and marketing art. It’s really about WHO you buy, not WHAT you buy.
So it’s with fanfare that the Russell Collection is playing host this week to Pierre Henri Matisse, who is billed as the grandson of iconic modernist artist Henri Matisse.
In addition to several private functions at the Russell Collection in tandem with an exhibit and sale of lithographs by Chagall, Matisse, Miro and Picasso, Pierre Henri Matisse will visit Dell Children’s Hospital of Central Texas, where young patients will be working on a project to wrap a pair of Capital Metro buses with their art. He also will do an art workshop called “Do You See What I See” with the children. And he will kick off the December issue of Brilliant Magazine, which commissioned him to create art for the cover.
Pierre Henri Matisse markets his work — which not surprisingly mimics the brilliantly colored cut-out paper work of the original Matisse — through his Web site, “The Pierre H. Matisse Museum.”
But there’s an interesting back story to this Florida-based artist that was detailed in a story last year by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
For starters, the man in town this week wasn’t born with the Matisse name. Rene Pierre LeRoy changed his name in 1996 when he was 68 years old to reflect what he claims is his rightful place in the Matisse family legacy as one of five grandchildren of the famous artist.
The Matisse family begs to differ, however.
Georges Matisse, manager of the Matisse estate — which controls Henri Matisse’s intellectual property — disputes LeRoy/Matisse’s claims, telling the News-Journal: “We have the archives of Henri Matisse, legal documents related to the estate of Jean Matisse, and the memories of Matisse’s five grandchildren, which include what their parents told them. Within all this, there is absolutely nothing to support the claim that Pierre LeRoy is the son of Jean Matisse,” who was the older son of Henri.
Pierre Henri Matisse disagreed, telling the News-Journal he wasn’t acknowledged by the family because he was conceived illegitimately when his mother had an affair with Jean Matisse.
The News-Journal investigation wasn’t the first time Pierre Henri Matisse’s claim to fame has been challenged by the press. The Nashville Tennessean raised similar questions in 2001.
Review: ‘Jonathan Marshall: The Book of Lenny’
What do beacons, a bear, and a bicycle boat have in common? They all are part of Jonathan Marshall’s post-apocalyptic tale and one-person exhibition at Art Palace entitled, “The Book of Lenny.”
Marshall’s visual presentation of a narrative is multi-tiered and somewhat cumbersome to navigate, but is worth the effort. Because Marshall’s images are meant to function like text, one could begin to map their route by “reading” the works on paper.
These images are clues. There are crisply executed wrecked houses, transmitters, satellites and constellations. They are set within atmospheres that reveal less than they conceal; outer space, oceans or absolute emptiness. A large ink and gouache work depicting a roaring bear crowning a mountaintop seems to illustrate a pivotal story point. The colorful cotton flag on the gallery floor may be a relic from the bear’s crusade. Then consider the “Bicycle Boat,” an obviously hand-made form of transportation. Who traveled on it? Will it help us in our journey?
In another room a sculpture of the large brown bear (made mostly of dyed mop clippings) stands in the corner. At last, in a video, we encounter our hero, Lenny. Lenny is described as a “man in black” as well as a DIY (do-it-yourself) cowboy-banker. He commands the bicycle boat. His story cleverly overlaps with the bear’s.
A metaphor for the artist, Lenny puts the puzzle together. He is the mythic hero that helps us makes sense of things. He fits his media, video, which serves to establish a clearer, more linear storyline. Through Lenny’s story, Marshall offers a compelling exploration of myth and its relevance today.
(‘Jonathan Marshall: The Book of Lenny’ continues 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and by appointment. Art Palace, 2109 E. Cesar Chavez, free, (512) 496-0687, www.artpalacegallery.com .)
There will be an artist talk Tuesday, November 20 at 8 p.m.
“The Book of Lenny,” video still.
“The Bear Takes the Flag to Lenny,” ink and gouache on paper.
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Weekend Review: ‘The Miser’
“The Miser,” now onstage from Different Stages, is exactly the type of performance the titular hoarder would love — nothing extravagant and nothing spent that could be saved. It’s just about adequate.
“The Miser” is Moliere’s tale of Harpagon, a penny-pinching usurer smitten with a young girl already pursued by his son. While the two men undercut each other for Marianne, Harpagon’s daughter plots to marry one of the servants, secretly a member of Naples’ nobility, instead of the rich man her father desires.
The play explodes with energy at the beginning when Melissa Vogt-Patterson as Harpagon’s daughter and Anthony Cortino as her lover tumble on stage, half-clothed in the midst of an interrupted tête-à -tête, but the production’s energy immediately sags.
Hampered by David Chambers’ translation — in what only a dusty academic could call a “modernization” of language — the cast almost never regains that sense of fancy and carelessness or over-the-top emotion from the first scene.
While Andrew Cowen as the underhanded servant La Fleche is grotesquely conniving, Norman Blumensaadt as Harpagon is strangely quiet in their Abbott-and-Costello-esque confrontations. He’s more apathetic than apoplectic.
That serves him well for some offhanded one-liners, but overall the play, a farcical comedy of manners, can’t rise to either satirical brutality or comedic hilarity.
Instead of glittering like gold, it’s more of a workman’s bronze.
(“The Miser” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2:00 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 2 at The City Theatre, 3823 Airport Blvd. Suite D. $15-$30. 474-8497.)
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Weekend review: Tapestry Dance Company
“Footprints,” Tapestry Dance Company’s latest offering, had the crowd on its feet and cheering Sunday at the finale of the hourlong program, the last of four weekend shows at St. Stephen’s Episcopoal School’s Helm Fine Arts Center.
But the show had an uneven ride to that rousing ending. Conceived of by Tapestry executive director Acia Gray and dancer Tasha Lawson, “Footprints” used Tapestry’s eight rhythm dancers along with special guest, Indian classical dancer Anu Naimpally, in eight different numbers that blended tap, modern and Indian dance.
Tapestry has covered this territory before with much success. In 2003, the company staged ‘Espirit’ a wildly successful program that has multiple Austin world dance groups collaborating with Tapestry tappers at the Paramount Theatre in a veritable United Nations of dance.
“Footprints” didn’t quite have that dazzle. Perhaps that’s because for all the creative goodwill intended, sometimes different dance styles just don’t mix seamlessly. That was the case in the first number. Moments of slowly tapped out rhythm seemed brash and noisy against Naimpally’s graceful intricate gestures and syncopated moves.
The momentum and focus took a few more numbers to congeal with dancers — this time barefoot — executing some very routine and simplistic modern dance that was little more than pinwheeling arms and kicking legs and no underpinnings of any emotional or creative arc.
Tapestry excels at explosive, rhythm tap and when the trio of Jason Janas, Tony Merriweather and Matt Shields hit the stage you didn’t want them to stop. The three seemed a juggernaut of flying feet and athletic power.
Naimpally acted as a segue between individual dance numbers, walking onto and then off stage with stylized moves, but otherwise she seemed more afterthought then integrated part of the program.
By the finale, with the music kicked up-tempo — by stellar world music group Atash - and all the Tapestry tappers tapping and Naimpally at center stage, we had lift off. Too bad at came to at the end of the ride.
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Tripping through EAST
Legions of art fans fanned out through the **East Austin Studio Tour Saturday. The best way to get jump on this now popular weekend event? Start early. EAST continues through 5 p.m. today, Nov. 18.
One of the more intriguing projects on the tour this year is Sol-Art, a gathering of installations and projects on a 5-acre former tree orchard. Soon to be the site of Sol, a sustainable net zero energy housing development, the site featured about 17 artists using either shipping containers or various structures on the property as locations and inspirations for temporary works of art.
Objects found on the five-acre site receive reverential display in a storage container installation by George Morrow and Alex Morton.
Getting there first thing Saturday as the tour opened meant having to share the inventive, spirited project with only a few other souls.
Austin Green Art built a super-tall woodsman out of wood to watch over the Sol-Art site.
Ann Tucker stuffed the windows of an abandoned house on the Sol-Art site with bell jars filled with different kinds of tea which has been soaking up in the sun’s rays.
Elsewhere on the EAST tour, at MASS Gallery, Amanda Schoppel’s “Grow’ sculpture of rye grass and natural sponges (the grass is seeded at the beginning of the exhibition and watered daily.) rocks its five weeks of green growth along with Jarrod Beck’s free-form installation of industrial materials (background).
At Big Medium, the soon-to-be non-profit regeneration of Bolm Studios, Joseph Phillips’ bizarre miniature parcels of idealized vacation property — conveniently packaged in portable lots! — intrigue and charm. Phillips, along with artists Shea Little and Jana Swec, is one of the founders of EAST.
The best way to cruise EAST? By bicycle. The Austin Yellow Bike Project released 100 of their free, yellow community-use bikes on the streets to help make EAST a bike happy event. Whee!
Michael Smith chosen for Whitney Biennial
Artist and University of Texas art professor Michael Smith has been chosen for inclusion in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s signature survey of contemporary American art.
Smith is currently rocking it out at the Blanton Museum of Art with “Mike’s World: Michael Smith & Joshua White (And Other Collaborators,” the mind-boggling sensory-overloading multimedia darn-wonderful-time exhibit aka “theme park” celebration of the life and adventures of Mike, Smith’s alter ego.
Check out the rest of the selected Whitney Biennial artists here
(“Go For It, Mike,” video still, Michael Smith and Mark Fischer, 1984.)
Several years ago when hosting the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards, the late great Gov. Ann Richards quipped that flying through the DFW airport qualified you as enough of a Texan to get you into the Film Hall of Fame. In that spirit of extending bragging rights way past any reasonable boundary, here’s other Whitney Biennial 2008 artists who have an Austin connection.
Carol Bove, Jedediah Caesar and Seth Price have all been featured in Blanton exhibitions. Rachel Harrison has work in the Blanton’s permanent collection.
William Cordova and Corey McCorkle have exhibited at Arthouse and Fritz Haeg will be featured there in January.
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Mountain Making 101
To celebrate the indie spirit behind the East Austin Studio Tour, one of Austin’s most original indie galleries — Okay Mountain — is putting on an exhibit opening this weekend that features the work of the nine partners of the artist-run gallery. In addition to being open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during tour hours, there’s a party Saturday night from 7 to 10 p.m. Stop by and get your mountain on.
“An Introduction to Mountain Making” features the work of mountaineer/artists Sterling Allen, Tim Brown, Peat Duggins, Justin Goldwater, Nathan Green, Ryan Hennessee, Josh Rios, Michael Sieben and Corkey Sinks. The exhibit continues through Dec. 16.
“Being an artist-run space is something that sets Okay Mountain apart from many other spaces in Austin and elsewhere,” the mountaineers say. “We run our gallery like any other commercial gallery, but are very pleased to say we are 100 percent artist-run.”
Also premiering this weekend is Volume 1 of Okay Mountain’s collaborative drawings from the past year. Guest curators Travis Millard and Mel Kadel chose 100 drawings out of, well, hundreds. Each book comes with a one-of-a-kind limited dust jacket featuring an original drawing.
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White Buffalo Project
Lots going on this weekend in tandem with the East Austin Studio Tour.
Among other events is White Buffalo Project, Saturday from 6-10 p.m, at Quattro Gallery.
The collaborative exhibit features work by students from the Austin Girls School and 19 Central Texas artists including Tom Besson, Jennifer Bright, Carmen Canann, Dalana Castrell, Jan Garven, Chris Holloway, Robert Hurst, Megan Jaster, Brian Joseph, Beryl Kerwick, Terrence Moline, David Ohlerking, Angel Quesada, Bill Stidham, Rama Tiru and Eliza Thomas. Each artist has donated original pieces of art inspired by the recent births of white buffaloes in North America and the significance of these occurrences.
Native American legends link the birth of a white buffalo — an animal considered sacred by many tribes — to peace, unity and balance.
The exhibition continues through Dec. 8.
Quattro Gallery. Hours: Wednesday-Saturday noon to 6 pm; or by appointment. 12971 Pond Springs Road (inside the Roger Beasley Audi Dealership)
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New opera done right in Houston
Houston Grand Opera seems to have done everything right with “The Refuge,” a new opera by Texas native Christopher Theofanidis - a 90-minute celebratory paean to the city where more than one out of five residents are not from the U.S.
With immigration a hot-button issue everywhere, HGO boldly decided to tackle it operatically with a project that involved Houston’s many immigrant communities in an effort to tell their stories. Brilliant. And the critics seemed to have loved it.
The 39-year-old Theofanidis, by the way, has been tapped by the Austin Symphony Orchestra to pen a new orchestral work for next fall’s season opener at the Long Center. We expect fabulous things from that project.
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Review: Audio Inversions
Audio Inversions rewarded the crowd that followed the new music presenters to Laguna Gloria Monday night — a change from the group’s usual downtown venue — by delivering a tight, pretty and polished program. Sure, the acoustics of the historic villa weren’t ideal. But the beguiling setting allowed the group to do what it does best: Present the work of living composers in an accessible, friendly manner to make an absolutely engaging evening.
Karmen Suter — AI’s artistic director — set the tone for the evening with Ian Clarke’s engaging, and slightly whacky, flute solo, ‘The Great Train Race.’ Sure, we knew a flute can mimic plenty of train noises, but who knew it took so much sheer virousity to do so.
P. Kellach Waddle’s ‘The Grave Concerns’ was a delightful series of vigorous vignettes for flute and bass (not your typical duet pairing of instruments), while ‘Rhapsodic Variations on a Theme of Wieniawski’ was Waddle’s smart answer to the problem of a lack of solo bass pieces: Write your own and show off the range of the instrument.
David T. Little’s ‘Descanso (waiting)’ proved the artistic standout of the evening. The New Jersey-based Little, who made the trip to Austin to introduce his piece, was inspired by the tradition of marking the sites where someone has died with a cross or other memorial. An emotional-filled sonic poem for a small ensemble, ‘Descanso’ reverberated with haunting layers. The playful ring of ordinary wind chimes floated in and out of melancholic yet slightly dissonant melodies that rose and fell, intensifying then pulling back. ‘Descanso (waiting)’ was the perfect musical portrait of the swirl of contradictory emotions that surge when anticipating the loss of a loved one.
Guest artists violinist Stephanie Teply and cellist Benjamin Westney impressed with Russian composers Sophia Gubaidulina’s haunting sonata, ‘Freue Dich.’ And the duo did a superb job with ‘There Shore Serenity’ by James D. Norman, one of AI’s two composers-in-residences. ‘There’ started out an inward-turning series of overlapping melodic arches that deftly built to more dramatic sweeps. (Norman wrote the piece specifically for Teply and Westney.)
Audio Inversion’s formula for a tight 90-minute program of new music is like the best kind of artistic buffet: Plenty of surprise, delight and variety with none of the unnecessary filling. And that treat-filled after-show reception the group presents to just because they want to thank their audience? That’s first class!
Missing Arthouse Texas Prize belt buckle?
Seems that Katrina Moorhead, winner of the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize, lost the giant belt buckle that came with the $30,000 no-strings-attached award.
According to a listing on Craig’s List, Moorhead and her companion misplaced the large silver oval buckle somewhere on their post-party travails through downtown Austin after the Nov. 2 Arthouse gala BBQ and awards ceremony at Stubb’s.
Oops! Good thing Moorhead didn’t let the $30,000 check slip from her hands.
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Weekend Review: Austin Chamber Music Center
Maybe it’s Michelle Schumann’s casual yet dynamic flair. Maybe it’s the taughtness Tosca String Quartet has acquired from playing together across such a wide range of musical styles (They’ve backed up David Byrne, recorded several CDs of tango music and individually have played with the Austin Symphony Orchestra and Austin Lyric Opera.)
Whatever.
The combination of Schumann, pianist and artistic director of Austin Chamber Music Center, and Tosca String Quartet Saturday night was irresistible, smart and utterly captivating.
Since taking the helm of the Chamber Music Center last season, Schumann’s done a brilliant job at creating — and marketing — attractive programs, livening up the usual classical music fare. Saturday’s program — ‘Hot Enough for Ya’?’ — relished in sensual, romantic offerings.
Tosca cellist Sara Nelson’s clarity of tone sparkled on Rachmaninov’s ‘Vocalise for Cello and Piano’. And Faure’s masterful and multi-colored ‘Piano Quartet in C minor,’ featuring Nelson, Schumann along with violinist Leigh Mahoney and violist Ames Asbell, drew spontaneous whoops from the audience at the end it was so succintly presented.
But with Piazzolla’s ‘Four for Tango,’ Tosca really proved their singular talents. Piazzolla’s idiomatic composition combines traditional tango melodies with plenty of modern rhythmic inventiveness. Strange instrumental effects — including long, slow notes and rapid, short piccato strikes — combine with moments of harmonic dissonance and also melancholic passages. ‘Four’ is ultimately an emotional roller-coaster ride of musical styles and effects. And Tosca pulled it off with aplomb, taking us to the outer reaches and back with grace and style.
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Weekend review: ‘Elephant’s Graveyard’
“Elephant’s Graveyard,” a new play by Michener Fellow George Brant, has fertile ground to dig: the only known lynching of an elephant.
As the chorus of the play often repeats: “It was September. There was a small town. There was a circus. There was a railroad. There was a man with red hair. And there was an elephant.” That’s the bare bones of the story, which, for the most part, is told through a series of monologues — how a circus elephant ran rampant and was hung from a railroad crane. The action is never shown or played out.
There’s still spectacle a plenty, with admirable clowning by Ben Schave and a towering, awe-inspiring set by Szu-Feng Chen. But it’s all subdued when compared to what’s not on stage.
That lets director Laura Kepley focus on each individual’s performance. Some, like Matrex Kilgore as a town outsider narrating most of the event, rise to the occasion. Some get lost in preaching the heavy-handed metaphors of the elephant as a test of masculinity and the railroad as the killer of the circus’ free spirit.
The play is moving and still strikes meaning, but with the exciting material, it’d be nice to see less direct pedantry and more exploration through the story. That’s the real elephant in the room.
(“Elephant’s Graveyard” continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday and 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Oscar G. Brockett Theatre, 300 E. 23rd St. $10-$16. 477-6060, www.utpac.org)
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Weekend review: ‘Ring Round the Moon’ at St. Edward’s University
“Ring Round the Moon” is an odd little play. Chronicling a ball at a luxurious French mansion, the play, and it seems the director, can’t decide what sort of story to tell.
Frederic, nephew to the chateau’s owner, is smitten with a girl who in turn loves Frederic’s identical, more-coldly-pragmatic-than-evil twin Hugo. To save his brother from a loveless marriage, Hugo invites a poor ballet dancer to the ball to lure Frederic away.
The contrived farce sets up two initial acts that should breeze through like a classic film, suited to the natural charisma of the Hepburns and Grants of the world. Too often the current actors come off as broad parodies of the archetypal actors that served those roles well. But by the third act, when the action picks up and identities are mistaken, the cast does a fine job of carrying the comedy. Jacob Trussell as the twins stands out in particular, bouncing back and forth without losing a step.
The final two acts present the real conundrum, shifting to a state of meta-theatrical absurdity. And Ev Lunning Jr., as a tired capitalist, and Kate Eminger, as the outspoken ballerina, shine in an extended scene of gleeful anarchism.
There are enjoyable, disparate moments, but the cast and direction can’t quite make them mesh.
(“Ring Round the Moon” continues at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Mary Moody Northern Theatre. 3001 S. Congress Ave. $10-$15. 448-8483.)
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Tuesday happenings
Tonight at 7 p.m., Crime Prevention Institute hosts its Annual Art Auction and Benefit Concert at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Road. Musicians Sara Hickman and David Rice entertain while a silent art auction featuring works from prison inmates and local community artists tempts. The tickets are an affordable $25 and all proceeds go to CPI’s programs that provides pre- and post-release services to individuals re-entering the community from prison or jail.
Also at 7 p.m. tonight, UT’s off-campus gallery, Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., stop by and meet the artists feature in “Few, Some, Several, Many, and More,” an exhibition featuring work by UT students, faculty, alumni and staff that embraces the idea of multiples. The exhibit closes this Saturday.
Detail of “Dolly and her 24 Selves” by Jill Bedgood.
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Open call for Texas Medal of Arts nominations
The Texas Cultural Trust, announced Monday an open call for nominations for the biennial Texas Medal of Arts Awards, celebrating the Lone Star State’s legendary artists, entertainers and art patrons.
Past medal winners include pianist Van Cliburn, actor Tommy Lee Jones, singer-songwriters Willie Nelson and Charley Pride, Broadway star Tommy Tune, Lyle Lovett, newscaster Walter Cronkite, jazz great Ornette Coleman and philanthropists Joe and Teresa Long and Bill and Diana Hobby.
On April 6-7, 2009 ,in Austin, the Texas Cultural Trust will host the fifth biennial Texas Medal of Arts Awards in Austin. Nominations will be accepted in the following categories: Lifetime Achievement; Music; Literary Arts; Visual Arts; Theatre; Media/Multi-Media; Film; Arts Education; Dance; Craft; Architecture; Foundation Arts Patron; Individual Arts Patron; Corporate Arts Patron/
Nomination forms and criteria can be found at www.txculturaltrust.org/tmaa. Nominations must be postmarked no later than Jan. 15, 2008.
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Reynolds’ ‘The Odyssey’ a wonderful trip
Everything was right about the Austin Children’s Choir premiere Sunday afternoon of Graham Reynolds’ ‘The Odyssey’ at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church.
And who would have thought that a children’s choir would make one of the more meaningful musical gestures in this year’s arts season. And it was a sold-out affair. And it’s not as if a children’s choir isn’t enough of an adventure!
But thanks to the support of one creative, bold-thinking patron — Sara Jarvis Jones — Austin composer and musical tour de force Graham Reynolds was commissioned to unleash his vigorous imagination on creating a bold work for the 150-member chorus.
Artistic director Kathleen Turner gets kudos for enthusiastically embracing the project and bravely taking on the two-year challenge of teaching the challenging new piece to her charges.
With a spirited and modern yet condensed translation of Homer’s epic poem by Beverley Bardsley, ‘The Odyssey’ proved a delightful, moving journey. Reynolds didn’t hold back his penchant for penning engaging melodies, giving the 35-minute piece plenty of signature moments that recurred in slight variation. Reynolds’ score smartly used the layers of volume and tone of a children’s choir to build tension and emotion at various moments. And he also embraced the children’s natural inclination to rock out, adding several rollicking passages.
With a simple narration introducing each of 15 short scenes, and baritone David H. Jones singing the part of Odysseus, the piece had a dramatic trajectory that was easy to follow (especially for children) but hardly dumbed-down.
Congratulations to all involved for proving that Austin’s self-proclaimed moniker ‘Live Music Capital of the World’ has a little more depth to it. Austin’s classical music ensembles should embrace the talent in their own backyards. It’s a good thing that the Austin Children’s Choir is one to lead the way.
Review: What opera company was that?
Huh?
It’s hard to believe that the opera company that presented the musically competent but creatively monotone “Simply the Best: Opera’s Greatest Hits” concert Saturday night at the Riverbend Centre was the same opera company that had the artistic courage earlier this year to present the U.S. premiere of Philip Glass’ dark musical version of novelist J.M. Coetzee’s tough political allegory, “Waiting for the Barbarians.”
“Waiting for the Barbarians” was brave new opera for the smart, forward-thinking city that Austin is. “Simply” was simply the most unexciting solution to filling the first of Austin Lyric Opera’s three concert season.
Yes, all of the major performing arts organizations are in a pinch this fall with the Bass Concert Hall closed for renovations and the Long Center for the Performing Arts not open until March 2008. But one would hope that challenging times should make for creative responses, not an imagination-less concert of out-of-context arias.
Musically, “Simply” was simply fine. Since Richard Buckley has taken the ALO baton, he’s consistently extracted a finessed sound from the ALO orchestra and chorus. And Saturday night proved no exception even given the Riverbend Centre’s far-less-from-ideal acoustics.
If there was one shining moment to an otherwise artistically lackluster concert, it was the chance to sample rising young talents who made their Austin debut. Mezzo Jennifer Holloway impressed with her clarity of tone. So did tenor Stephen Costello who, along with baritone Stephen Powell, gave the beautiful Bizet duet, “Au fond du Temple Saint,” a rich freshness. Let’s hope voices like these return for full performances.
“Simply” was planned long before Kevin Patterson took over the helm this summer from Buckley as ALO’s new general director. Patterson hasn’t had the chance to show Austin what kind of creatively relevant programming he can bring to the table. Let’s hope it’s considerable. Austin — and Austin Lyric Opera — deserves it.
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Katrina Moorhead wins Texas Prize
Houston mixed-media artist Katrina Moorhead is the winner of the $30,000 Texas Prize, the biennial award presented the Austin arts organization, Arthouse. Notable art critic Dave Hickey presented the award Friday night at a gala at Stubb’s. Moorhead was one of five Texas artists selected as finalists for the no-strings-attached prize, one of the largest in the state. Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Justin Boyd, Margarita Cabrera and Bill Davenport were also named finalists from a pool of 136 nominated artists.
Moorhead, who was born in Ireland in 1971, makes complex installations or site-specific work from typically common materials. Her installations “RedGreenBluePeony” and “Rising Attachments” are currently on view at Arthouse through Nov. 11, along the work of the other finalists.
(“RedGreenBluePeony” and “Rising Attachments” )
A panel of five judges made their selection based on the new work in the exhibit and the artist’s overall body of work.
Chaired by Arthouse’s executive director, Sue Graze, the jury included Dallas-based art historian and critic Frances Colpitt; artist Eileen Maxson, the 2005 Arthouse Texas Prize recipient; Debra Singer, executive director of The Kitchen in New York; curator Franklin Sirmans of the Menil Collection in Houston; and Elizabeth Dunbar, curator of Arthouse.
The five finalists were selected from a pool of 136 Texas-based artists who were in turn nominated by a group of arts professionals. The five finalists were commissioned to create new work specifically for the Texas Prize exhibition at Arthouse.
The Texas Prize was started by the nonprofit Arthouse in 2005, and it’s funded by a small group of philanthropists. This year’s group includes Austinities Johnna and Stephen Jones, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Chris Mattsson and John McHale, Mary and Chris Ozburn, Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee, Julie and John Thornton, and Mary and Howard Yancy.
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A grand ‘Odyssey’
It’s a synergy that can’t be beat. A homegrown Austin arts organization — Austin Children’s Choir — finds a forward-thinking philanthropist — Sara Jarvis Jones — to commission a new work from an Austin composer, Graham Reynolds. Austin writer Beverly Bardsley penned the libretto based on Homer’s epic poem.
‘The Odyssey’ premieres Sunday at 4 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8124 Mesa Drive.
Sponsoring the creation of new works while utilizing local talents: That’s the kind of performing arts patronage Austin’s classical music scene desperately needs more of. Congrats to all involved.
You can read more background about the project here.
Last Friday night, as an accompaniment to Luke Savisky’s “Film Actions VI” presented at Wooldridge Park, more than 300 listened to an ethereal score he wrote for the Tosca String Quartet. Reynolds wrote soulful melodies that gradually built in emotional tension and then wove them around the even more ethereal drone music by Stars of the Lid. It was magic.
Graham Reynolds rehearsing with the Austin Children’s Choir. Photo by Bret Gerbe for the American-Statesman.
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Texas Prize winner to be announced here Friday
Can’t make it to the $300 per person Texas Prize gala Friday night where the winner of the $35,000 award given by Arthouse will be announced?
Check about 9 p.m. Friday, and we’ll let you know which of the five finalists — Texas artists Dawolu Jabari Andersonu, Justin Boyd, Margarita Cabrerra, Bill Davenport and Katrina Moorhead — won the biennial no-strings-attached jackpot. In 2005, Eileen Maxson took home the prize.
To catch up with who the five finalists are and vote in our online poll, click here.
At Friday’s “Texas flash, Texas trash”-themed party at Stubb’s (normally a BBQ and live music joint), art critic Dave Hickey — who’s carved a niche for himself as a insingular opinionator — is the art world celebrity/insider who will announce the Texas Prize winner.
On Nov. 11, the last day of the Texas Prize exhibit now at Arthouse, stop by the Congress Avenue arts organization at 3 p.m. for your chance to take a whack at Davenport’s “Stealth Bomber Pinata.” The 24-foot creation — rumored to be filled with dollar bills, or maybe not — is the Houston artist’s comment on the whole nature of art prizes and awards. “Part of ‘Stealth Fighter Pinata’ is a critique of the prize process: big, showy, but completely without lasting worth,” he told us recently.
Oh, and the pinata-smashing party? That’s free.
“Stealth Fighter Pinata,” by Bill Davenport.
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