Photo by Meredith Deliso

One of Project Row Houses' art homes suffered damage during a recent storm thanks to a fallen tree.

In the current round of art projects at Project Row Houses, artist Rahul Mitra has filled his art house with colorful cardboard boxes and black-and-white wall drawings. But that gaping hole in the floor is anything but intentional.

During last Friday's storm, strong winds and rain caused a tree in front of 2515 Holman Street to uproot, bursting through the bottom front of the house and pulling up the floorboards inside in the process. The fallen tree also brought down part of the street's power line.

More »

Flickr/Galveston.com

What treasure have you found here?

Bill Davenport wants to know, what's the best thing you've ever found on the beach?

The Houston artist is teaming up with the Galveston Artist Residency to put on a show featuring items discovered on Galveston's beaches, and they need you to contribute your best finds. That means shells, of course, as well as seaweed, driftwood, fishing tackle and other objects not so easily identifiable.

"I've been collecting amazing things off beaches for years, but it occurred to me that so has everyone else," said Davenport, who counts among his best finds a $10 bill he spotted floating in the surf near the 39th Street jetty several years back. "A truly astonishing show of beach finds was already done -- all that remained was to gather it in one place."

More »

When Twitter's companion video app Vine launched last month, the initial draw of the social media tool was how it can "turn us into artists" (even some of the porn variety).

Just how Instagram turned us all into photographers, Vine has the potential to turn us all into stop motion animators and filmmakers through its six-second video-making tools. No surprise, it was nicknamed "Instagram for video" upon its launch.

While that much is true, I was less interested in making art and more interested in sharing art that I've seen. Vine is, in some ways, no less different than making a video and uploading it to YouTube, or sharing photos of art and installations to a Pinterest board. But the key is how incredibly easy and simplistic it is to use. After taking just a few seconds of video, you can immediately share it to your Twitter, Facebook and Vine friends. It sure beats uploading and editing a video from your camera or phone any day, even if you're limited to only six seconds of footage at a time.

While gallery hopping this weekend, I was inspired to experiment with Vine, and Lawndale Art Center provided some inspired pieces.

More »

MFAH Houston

Torah Crown, mid-19th century, parcel gilt-silver, Collection of the Comunita Ebraica de Venezia (The Jewish Community of Venice)

As Germany's Nazi soldiers invaded countries throughout Europe during their height of their powers, they would - like armies throughout the centuries - also plunder. So it was not uncommon for families or institutions to frantically try to hide items of financial or sentimental value, in the hopes that they could be reclaimed one day.

Now, thanks to the foresight and clever deception of two elderly Jewish worshippers as the Nazis invaded Italy in 1943, a trove of ornate silver and bronze objects from the 17th through 20th centuries will be on view in the exhibit Lost Treasure of the Jewish Ghetto of Venice/ Restored by Venetian Heritage Inc. Hidden away for more than 60 years, the items were discovered by accident.

Among the primarily liturgical works are silver Torah crowns, lamps, plates used during ceremonial functions, Torah cases, finials, and other pieces of incredible craftsmanship and beauty, restored by a company called Venetian Heritage.

More »

Photo courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. © 2013 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Horse, Sketch for Guernica, Paris, May 2, 1937, oil on canvas

Throughout his lengthy career, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) experimented with wildly divergent styles, techniques, subject matter, and mediums. But over the decades, he would continually return to creating works in the most simple - and often striking - hues of black and white.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will showcase nearly 100 of Picasso's paintings, sculptures, and drawings on paper in the upcoming exhibit Picasso in Black and White. The works - which cover the years 1904 through 1970 - come to Houston after the exhibit's premiere at the Guggenheim in New York, largely through the efforts and friendship of MFAH Director Gary Tinterow and the exhibit's curator, Carmen Giménez.

"I've known Carmen since 1984, and we've discussed this project many times over the last decade," Tinterow - who was appointed MFAH director last year - says. "I immediately asked if we could be the second and only other venue for the exhibit, and now we have it. It is a pathbreaking and breathtaking show."

More »

Photo by Lillie Monstrum

Artists Carrie Schneider (left) and Alex Tu will be walking around Houston in these suits as they complete Michael Galbreth's 1987 art project "The Human Tour."

It was one of the most exciting events of 1987. But in the intervening 25 years, it's been all but forgotten. Until now.

This Sunday, Houston artists Carrie Schneider and Alex Tu will embark on "The Human Tour: An Anthropomorphic Route Through The City of Houston," a 40-some-odd-mile route around Houston that takes on the form of a human body.

More »

Photo by Everett Taasevigen

The Art Guys and their "spouse," which no longer lives at the Menil.

More details are emerging in The Art Guys Marry a Plant-Menil Collection separation.

Last week, Houston art provocateurs The Art Guys announced via a press release sent to Glasstire that the Menil had removed its controversial piece from its collection. However, that is not true, according to the Menil.

We spoke with Menil spokesman Vance Muse this week and he said that the piece, which has been criticized for being anti-gay marriage and homophobic since its inception three years ago, has not been removed from the collection, but just moved off its premises.

"It's not unheard of or even that unusual for a work of art from a museum's permanent collection to be on long-term loan," said Muse.

(Removing a piece from a collection, or deaccessioning it, on the other hand, is a rare process that is usually done to acquire more funds. The Menil has deaccessioned works in the past, most recently last year when it auctioned off one of its Max Ernst sculptures to acquire a different one.)

More »

Photo by Everett Taasevigen

The Art Guys with their "spouse."

Update: The Menil Collection has clarified that The Art Guys Marry a Plant has not been removed from its collection, just moved from its property.

And "The Art Guys Marry a Plant" saga continues.

Less than two years after the Menil Collection acquired a controversial piece by the Houston duo that some critics say is anti-gay marriage and homophobic comes news that the tree and its commemorative plaque will be removed from its collection property.

Glasstire broke the news Friday night by posting just this statement from the Art Guys:

The Menil Collection has decided to remove "The Art Guys Marry A Plant" from their collection. Tentative plans are to remove the tree and plaque and return them to us soon, perhaps sometime next week, although the specifics have not yet been determined.
We offer this news to you without further comment. We have nothing further to say right now.

Thank you.

Michael Galbreth
Jack Massing

More »

Courtesy of the artist

"Pork Skins" by Emily Peacock, one of the artists being shown during the Pan Art Fair.

Houston's big art fairs aren't the only games in town anymore.

When the Texas Contemporary Art Fair takes over the George R. Brown Convention Center this month, fewer than five weeks after the Houston Fine Art Fair was at Reliant Park, a counter-art fair will be setting up a stone's throw away at the Embassy Suites in downtown.

Dubbed the Pan Art Fair, it's being organized by Robert Boyd, the man behind the Houston Press award-winning arts blog The Great God Pan is Dead and, in a great bit of mischief befitting another Greek deity, it runs the same time as the Texas Contemporary, from October 18-21, and, from its perch at the Embassy Suites, is just two blocks away from the convention center.

Courtesy of the blogger

Robert Boyd

Boyd announced the fair on his blog last week, writing, "Ever since Houston got not one but two mainstream art fairs, I have thought we needed some counterprogramming. The Pan Art Fair will be a real art fair, with artwork for sale to any collector with brave eyes. And I hope it will be seen as an alternative to the big boys in town."

As part of his counterprogramming, Boyd is more modest than the big fairs. He will be exhibiting two Houston artists -- Lane Hagood and Emily Peacock -- and two Houston galleries -- Montrose's Front Gallery, run by artist Sharon Engelstein (she intends to bring Virginia Fleck, Hilary Harnischfeger, Biff Bolen, Monica Vidal and Kim Dingle) and Cardoza Fine Arts, a Downtown gallery run by artist Pablo Cardoza, who as of now is still finalizing his selections. Boyd has also called on other artists to follow suit and rent a room at the Embassy as a cheaper alternative to one of the Texas Contemporary's booths.

We caught up with the rogue art fair organizer this week and asked him what to expect from the Pan Art Fair:

More »

Lauren Randolph's LTD print, ready for your living room.

Calling all Houston artists.

A new website is selling art in flash sales, a la Groupon deals and designer clothes, and it's on the lookout for artists to promote.

"We want to help independent artists get exposure and bring art in affordable ways to the masses," said LTD co-founder Adrian Salamunovic, who launched the new art venture earlier last week.

This isn't Salamunovic's first foray into the art market. Before LTD, he and co-founder Nazim Ahmed formed CanvasPop, which lets people print custom, high-quality canvases of their photographs (namely, Instagram shots). And before that, they founded the sci-fi DNA 11, which creates portraits using people's DNA.

LTD is a chance to promote artists themselves, from up-and-comers to established photographers on the Instagram scene. It reminds us of the local effort from UNIT, which sells limited editions of prints at affordable prices. Salamunovic is calling his site the Fab.com of the art world and the first flash website for art of its kind.

More »