Paul Ramirez Jonas

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Austin American-Statesman
Friday, February 1, 2008

You have just two more days to catch the beguiling little exhibit by Paul Ramirez Jonas at the Blanton Museum of Art.

"Avra Kehdabra: You create as you speak" is the latest WorkSpace exhibit, a Blanton series that explores new developments in contemporary art by featuring commissioned projects by emerging and mid-career artists.

Honduran-born New York-based Ramirez Jonas is fascinated with language and its meaning -- or lack of meaning. Really, is language more important, more relevant, more meaningful when it's written down or when uttered by the individual, he seems to ask?

Ramirez Jonas assembles a very particular gathering of quotes to make his point. The lyrics to famed folk song "This Land is Your Land." The "my fellow Americans" phrase heard in presidential speeches. A courtroom oath. This is symbolic language, heavy with patriotic import and nationalistic meaning.

And with a nod to the clay tablets of the Sumerians -- one of the first ancient cultures to develop an intricate written language -- Ramirez Jonas crafts his own clay tablets inscribed with his selected quotes.

Ramirez Jonas stages his tablets with various objects -- some electronic, some fashioned of clay -- giving visitors the chance to engage in their own experiments. A lectern with a live microphone plays hosts to clay tablets reading "Do you solemnly swear that you will consider all the evidence in this case, follow the instructions given to you, deliberate fairly and impartially and reach a fair verdict? So help you God." Go ahead -- read that out loud and see how it sounds in your own voice. And just how does saying that symbolic language make you feel?

Then there's an ordinary photocopier stacked with clay tablets inscribed with survey questions on religious faith. Surrounding the copier are stacks of smeary paper copies of the same survey. Pick one up. Fill out it and answer questions like, 'Which of the following items best describes your belief in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Believe in. Not sure. Don't believe in. Unsure.'

With a wry and sly sense of humor and a bit of interactive of performance, Ramirez Jonas creates an intriguing platform on which to consider enormous considerations.

Ramirwz Jonas' show is by far the tightest and most completely realized of the Workspace exhibits that have been presented since the Blanton debuted the series with the opening of its new building April 2006. Kudos to Blanton curatot Usuala Davila-Villa for spearheading Ramirez Jonas' smart and rewarding show.

("Avra Kehdabra: You create as you speak" continues through Sunday, Feb. 3 at the Blanton Museum of Art.)

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Fritz Haeg considers lawns and gardens in new exhibit

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Austin American-Statesman
Saturday, February 02, 2008

No, "Attack on the Front Lawn" doesn't look like an exhibit you might typically find in a contemporary arts venue such as Arthouse. But then it might be a bit of stretch to call "Attack," which runs through March 16, an exhibit.

That's because Los Angeles-based artist and architect Fritz Haeg has set up what is essentially a community resource center on sustainable gardening, a small greenhouse and a funky gathering space.

A large-screened, geodesic-domed tent occupies Arthouse's main gallery. The tent serves as the base site for "How to Eat Austin," a weekly series of free Saturday workshops related to sustainable food production, from compost and garden design to cooking and marketing a harvest. Several of the gallery walls are covered with corkboard onto which informational materials on sustainable gardening and food production are tacked. Inside the tent are mats and pillows, beckoning you to crawl in and lounge and read.

Metal shelves line the floor-to-ceiling gallery windows that face busy, traffic-filled Congress Avenue and are filled with trays of seedling pots. Once the seedlings -- all vegetables and herbs -- get established, they'll be transferred to Sierra Ridge, a South Austin affordable-living apartment complex managed by the nonprofit organization Foundation Communities, where in mid-March Haeg will transform a patch of public lawn into a community garden.

The South Austin garden will be the fifth in Haeg's "Edible Estates" project, where he has replaced domestic front lawns -- the chemical-fed, water-hungry, climate-defying green patches that have come to symbolize, as Haeg sees it, conformity and excess -- with edible landscapes appropriate to local culture and climate. The first "edible estate" was planted in the front yard of a house in Salina, Kan., the geographic center of the United States. Since then, Haeg has planted gardens in Southern California, New Jersey and in a public park in London. Large color photographs of the first four edible estates -- all of which are still functioning gardens -- fill the walls of one gallery at Arthouse.

"I knew I wanted to do a project [ ... ] that could be equally important to everyone no matter what their experience," Haeg said, taking a break from planting seeds last week before the exhibit opened. "Usually a contemporary art institution is pretty isolated from anything outside itself. I don't want to be a part of that. I think the goal of the artist is to communicate to everyone."

Attention to food and the land it is grown on is what Haeg is hoping to communicate through his exhibit, workshops and projects. Collaboration is everything. Unlike most solo exhibitions that occupy contemporary arts venues, Haeg's is not a creative experiment that focuses solely on himself or his point of view or his monumental art objects. Haeg's work is about actions, not stuff.

"I hadn't been to Austin before I started working on this project," he said. "So I have to rely on those who know this place and this climate and growing patterns better than I do." The Sustainable Food Center, Travis County Master Gardeners and Geo Growers are just a few of the local organizations Haeg and Arthouse have collaborated with on developing workshops. A free brochure outlining how to make your own edible garden -- printed on recycled paper, of course -- is available for exhibit visitors. Anyone who would like to add a picture of their own garden of edibles to a giant map of Austin that's been painted on an Arthouse gallery wall is invited to do so.

And after Haeg plants the South Austin vegetable garden from March 14-16, it will belong solely to the Sierra Ridge residents for them to care for and harvest for food.

"I want to be using my skills as an architect to do things that are more about life than objects or buildings," Haeg said. "Really, anyone can (plant an edible garden) and have a monumental impact."

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Collection depicts biblical moments with colorful twists
Works at Blanton mix indigenous Latin American themes with European ideals

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Austin American-Statesman
Sunday, February 03, 2008

A parrot perches on a branch above the Virgin Mary. Tropical flora and fauna surround the Holy Family as they return from Egypt.

Welcome to the biblical world as depicted by South American colonial artists -- a world in which European styles collided with indigenous traditions and iconography to create a style of painting all its own. And until mid-March, the Blanton Museum of Art offers the rare chance for immersion in an artistic universe not often seen in North America.

"The Virgin, Saints and Angels" features 55 richly colored, highly detailed paintings created during two centuries -- from 1600 to 1825, between the initial time of European conquest and when Latin American countries declared their independence -- in the Viceroyalty of Peru, a vast region that encompasses the modern-day countries of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay as well as part of Chile and Argentina. The paintings come from the collection of Marilynn and Carl Thoma, owners of Van Duzer Vineyards in Oregon. The current exhibit -- making its last stop at the Blanton after more than a year traveling to venues in the United States and Canada -- was organized by the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, where the Thomas are both alumni.

At first glance, the paintings in "The Virgin, Saints and Angels" look similar to sacred paintings created in Europe at the same time. There are the dramatic scenes of saints and angels, proselytizing images meant to instruct in the ways of Catholic dogma and idealized devotional renderings of individual saints.

But what was created in South America had more than a few subtle differences from the art produced in Europe.

Importantly, the church in the Americas was not controlled directly by the Vatican but from Spain, with individual missionary orders also receiving direction from Germany and Flanders. Although the earliest Catholic religious paintings and sculptures were imported from Europe, missionaries soon established schools to teach Andean artists -- already skilled in their own creative traditions, particularly weaving, metalworking and ceramics -- the ways of European artmaking. Artists from different parts of Europe -- and with often divergent artistic styles -- were dispatched to the Americas to create art or train others. And paintings were also produced in large workshops with various artists contributing specialized -- and often stylistically different -- skills to each art work rather than an individual master authoring each painting. Hence many of the works in the current exhibit are attributed to "unidentified artist" or "unidentified workshop." Many of the paintings in the Thoma Collection have the original richly carved frames South American artisans created.

The iconography often reflected the South American -- not European -- landscape. In the sprawling 18th-century "The Return from Egypt," the Holy Family walks through a tropical garden. Parrots and tropical birds flutter throughout many paintings in the collection. Some depictions of the Virgin Mary resemble a voluminous mountain -- such as in "Our Lady of Pomatoa," a painting attributed to an 18th-century artist workshop in the Lake Titicaca region -- and mountains were holy creations for many pre-Columbian cultures.

Art production was vigorous in colonial South America. The missionaries, quite specifically, needed the art. Artistic objects were necessary educational tools for their quest to convert indigenous people to Christianity. Innumerable paintings were produced and found homes in not just churches, but government spaces and private homes.

Still, for all that was created during viceregal times, until very recently, few exhibits have been organized to explore the era's rich and unique artistic production. And few gatherings of viceregal South American art ever travel outside South America.

"The Virgin, Saints and Angels" opens the door to a little seen but vast chapter of art history.

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A convergence of new
Ballet Austin and Austin Museum of Art make way for emerging arts.

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Austin American-Statesman
Thursday, February 14, 2008

New art will explode on Congress Avenue this weekend.

At the Austin Museum of Art, 20 emerging local artists -- culled from a pool of more than 250 -- will get their museum debut when "New Art in Austin: 20 To Watch," the museum's triennial competitive showcase exhibit, opens Saturday.

A block away at the Paramount Theatre, three young choreographers -- selected from a competitive group of national applications -- will see their fresh creations come alive through professional dancers thanks to Ballet Austin and its "New American Talent/Dance," the biennial competition that awards $19,000 in prizes -- $15,000 from a panel of judges and $4,000 in audience choice awards.

Yes, indie-spirited Austin has long prided itself on its support of live music with mega events such as South by Southwest, spotlighting new talent for all the world to share and celebrate. And the long arm of SXSW -- along with myriad other festivals -- has shored up Austin's reputation as a place where film and media arts can thrive, too.

But this weekend, in a serendipitous moment of programming, two of Austin's major arts organizations will shine their spotlights on emerging fine arts talents. Perhaps even more significantly, it's not the first time those spotlights have shined in Austin. And they don't necessarily shine in other Texas cities.

This is Austin Museum of Art's third triennial "New Art in Austin." And no other museum in Texas devotes time on its schedule to regularly present a juried show of local talent with the same professional attention -- a full-color catalog has been published, and "New Art" will travel to four other institutions around the state through 2009 -- that major exhibits receive.

Ditto with dance. Ballet Austin takes a second turn with its "New American Talent/Dance" biennial competition. No major professional dance company in Texas devotes a slot within its prime concert series -- as well as a considerable amount of financial support in prize money, commission stipends and the full use of its professional dancers -- to up-and-coming choreographers.

AMOA and Ballet Austin aren't entirely alone in showcasing new arts in Austin. Ballet Austin took inspiration from Arthouse's annual "New American Talent," the exhibit of national talent that the Austin arts nonprofit has produced for more than 20 years. And Arthouse hands out a whopping $30,000 with its competitive, headline-making Texas Prize every other year. On a much smaller scale, Mexic-Arte Museum's "Young Latino Artists" exhibit has given a venue to young Texas talent for 12 years, and Women & Their Work has always featured regional artists.

Of course what might be unique -- or nonexistent -- in other cities, doesn't immediately read that way here.

"We take the recognition of local talent here for granted at times, but it doesn't happen in every city," says Eva Buttacavoli, AMOA's director of education and exhibits, who spearheaded this iteration of "New Art in Austin." "It says something about the culture of Austin and how progressive, how open, how curious we are."

Buttacavoli finds similarities with the "eat local" or "buy local" sentiments so popular in a proud Austin. "We hold up a mirror to ourselves, concentrate on resources close to home, look at what's around us first," she says, adding that whatever self-interest might characterize Austin can be turned into positive action. "But if our charge (at the museum) is to help people find a connection to art, then what better way to do that than to show you how artists in your own city are responding to what's around them -- and what's around you, too."

To a certain extent, Austin is flat: It's still relatively medium-sized for a fast-growing U.S. city (1.3 million in the greater Austin metropolitan area). Add to that Austin's long-standing egalitarian attitude, distrust of hierarchy, intrepid youthfulness and sense of independence and the barriers between artists and major institutions typically found elsewhere don't remain impenetrable.

"Here, it's a given that your local (artistic) community is going to be right there and within reach," says Buttacavoli.

Still, while Austin's self-smittenness might explain plenty, the art world has seen a spurt of interest in sussing out new talent with a slew of biennial and triennial exhibits around the globe featuring young artists -- and attracting crowds and creating buzz. But although the now-notorious Whitney Biennial in New York might have originated in an established museum, for the most part such periodic showings of the young and the talented largely remain the provenance of newer arts organizations. That "New Art in Austin" is the creation of the city's long-standing civic art museum is unusual.

National observers of the dance scene find similarities to what's happening in the visual arts and note that competitions such as Ballet Austin's "New American Talent/Dance" are a much-needed part of the art form's evolution.

"There's a groundswell of this kind of (competition) in the dance world," says Virginia Johnson, editor of Pointe Magazine and one of the judges for this weekend's competition. "There's a lot of curiosity in the dance world about what's coming next and a feeling that we've got to nurture the next generation of choreographers."

Likewise, Cookie Ruiz, executive director of Ballet Austin and chairwoman of Dance USA, notes the creative need for nurturing new dancemakers. "Professional dance in America is a small industry -- 70 percent of professional dance companies in the country have annual budgets of under $500,000." With a budget of $5 million, Ballet Austin, Ruiz says, sees "New American Talent" as paramount to the organization's commitment to "fostering new work and the careers of the artists who bring it to life. We're just lucky that Austin is a city that understands that while masterpieces are important to the overall landscape of art, each of those pieces was contemporary at the time of its creation."

And with a nod to Austin's spirited independent voice, Ballet Austin will once again invite the audience to vote by cell phone for their favorite with the winning choreographer getting a $1,000 audience award each night.

We do after all, feel the right to opinionate here.

'Artists' Boot Camp'

What:Panel talks by emerging curators, writers and local art professionals provide artists with resources, ideas and strategies. Sign-up 15 minutes before talks start.

Where:Austin Museum of Art,
823 Congress Ave.
When: Saturday
Noon: What do museums, nonprofits, alternative space, commercial gallery directors/curators want?
1 p.m.: Advice on selecting works for a submission, making digital images, writing your résumé and artist's statement
2 p.m.: Some thoughts on what critics want -- and what you want them to get.
3 p.m.: How to find resources for residencies, graduate schools and other programs.

Artists featured in 'New Art in Austin: 20 to Watch'
Yoon Cho
Meggie Chou
Ali Fitzgerald
Alyson Fox
Buster Graybill
Jen Hirt and Scott Webel (Museum of Natural and Artificial Ephemerata)
Jules Buck Jones
Baseera Khan
Andrew Long
Kurt Mueller
Jill Pangallo
Scott Proctor
Matthew Rodriguez
Shawn Smith
Xochi Solis
Sarah Sudhoff
Raymond Uhlir
Stephanie Wagner
Rebecca Ward
Eric Zimmerman
When:Opens Saturday through May 11. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, (Thursdays until 8 p.m.), noon to 5 p.m. Sundays
Where: Austin Museum of Art, 823 Congress Ave.
Tickets:$1-$5 (First Saturday of the month pay-what-you-wish)
Information:495-9224, www.amoa.org

'New American Talent/Dance'
2008 choreographers
Sidra Bell, New York
Viktor Kabaniaev, San Francisco
Amy Seiwert, San Francisco
When:8 p.m. today-Saturday,
3 p.m. Sunday
Where:Paramount Theatre,
713 Congress Ave.
Tickets: $15-$59
Information: (866) 443-8849, www.balletaustin.org

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Three questions with Catherine Lee
A return to her home state, finds artist productive and peaceful

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
Austin American-Statesman
Thursday, February 21, 2008

Artist Catherine Lee has spent the majority of her career in New York City, where her ceramic sculpture has garnered much critical praise. Recently, the Pampa native moved to Wimberley full time. In addition to an exhibit of new work at D Berman Gallery, Lee's work can be seen at the Blanton Museum of Art, which recently acquired a massive wall sculpture of hers that has been installed permanently in the Blanton atrium.

American-Statesman: What brought you back to Texas?

Catherine Lee: I lived mostly in New York City since I graduated from university in 1974, so after about 20 years in the big city I had finally had enough, even though I have enjoyed some successes there. It wasn't a vacation that I needed, so much as a way to be elsewhere while continuing to work. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that what I needed was a place where I knew how everything worked, where I wouldn't need to start over again as an outsider. ... I knew Austin as a center of liberal thinking in a conservative milieu and so I thought I might look here. I rented a house in Hyde Park in 1994 and a few months later, I found a spot on the Blanco River, built a studio, got myself a good dog and I've been here ever since. Only now, I have three good dogs. What surprised me was that I was so happy here, that the art flowed from me in a way that wasn't remotely possible in the city, and that I spent less and less time back east until, finally, this year I moved every last thing down here.

After 30 years of art-making in Manhattan, how have you found your practice changing since you moved back?

I love the horizontal nature of Texas, that you can see far and wide, that you can watch a storm approach virtually all day long. I think the very minimal nature of my work comes from that severe West Texas landscape where I grew up and much less from the contemporary art scene. I love silence and not having to lock all the doors. I love the way pickup truck drivers will signal hello to each other. And the way deer will stroll right through the little towns. The way the heat turns white in summer. The way coyotes sound in the night. I love the blistering blue and that radiant crimson of March's wildflowers. I do especially love swimming in a cool and utterly clear river. It's not my practice of art that has changed by being back so much as it is my inner self that has grown somehow calmer and maybe wiser. I know that I make much more art here than I ever did in New York.

Your 'Raku Amends' just went on permanent display at the Blanton Museum of Art in the main foyer.

This particular work ... is a fairly large multiple-unit grid-based work, and although I think of it as sculpture, it hangs on the wall like a painting. It's comprised of 85 units hung in five rows, all blacks and whites and reds. I like the idea of raku being able to make amends -- that it can somehow compensate for its humble, earthen material self by being complex and ambitious in spirit. Each unit of the work is handmade, fired, glazed, then raku reduction fired, amended often and may be fired again and again. This work speaks especially to the notion that some things may well be the same and yet different -- but each will be, must be, quite miraculously different, in subtle and yet profound ways.

'Catherine Lee: Exchange' continues 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Saturday at D Berman Gallery, 1707 Guadalupe St. 'Raku Amends' is on permanent display at the Blanton Museum of Art. www.blantonmuseum.org.

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