May 12 - June 17, 2023, Exhibitions

May 12 – June 17, 2023, Exhibitions

Opening Reception: Friday, May12 from 6:30PM to 9:30PM

BOX 13 ArtSpace is pleased to present four exhibitions opening May 12, 2023, 6:30PM – 9:30PM

The Front BOX gallery will feature artists from Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, an artist-run studio and exhibition space based in San Antonio. The exhibition will be curated by Rosa Ana Orlando and is the second part of and exchange between Clamp Light Studios & Gallery and Box 13 ArtSpace. Then in our Back BOX Ed Barr’s exhibition entitled “CONDO” where the myriad of archetypes coexisting in time and place; the viewer is made aware of the paradox of existence. Moving on to the Window BOX artist Meredith Cawley show is a site-specific installation based on the attached drawing and has appropriated imagery from Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait titled The Life of a Hunter. “A Tight Fix” from 1961 from the Amon Cater Collection. Finally, the Upstairs BOX exhibition “Someone’s Home” by artist KyungJin Jeong is a series drawing on their previous artwork projects, “In a Small Room” and “My First House in the USA.”  This work focuses on two social phenomena: (1) poor living conditions in modern metropolitan areas and (2) dazzling advertising designed to attract potential tenants.

These exhibitions continue through June 17, 2023. An Opening Reception will be held on Friday, May 12, 2023, 6:30 – 9:30 at BOX 13 ArtSpace, 6700 Harrisburg, Houston, TX 77011.

A special thank you to Houston Arts Alliance @houstonartsalliance the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs @houstonMOCA, The Brown Foundation & all who have helped to support our programming.

SA to HOU | HOU to SA | Clamp Light Studios & Gallery artist curated by: Rosa Ana Orlando

Front BOX

SA to HOU | HOU to SA is a two-city art exhibition exchange between Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, an artist-run studio and exhibition space based in San Antonio and Box 13 Artspace, an artist-run studio and exhibition space in Houston. While close to 200 miles separate the two artist groups, the common goal is to support their fellow artists and share their community’s creative output.  The exhibitions will be curated by curators Bianca Alvarez (San Antonio) and Rosa Ana Orlando (Houston)

This upcoming show at Box 13 ArtSpace is the second iteration of this exchange and will run from May 12 – June 17, 2023.

Artists include Raul Rene Gonzalez, Sarah Fox, Cassie Gnehm, Mary Margaret Johnson, Sara Coley Martinez,, Dongyi Wu, David Sirebrenik

Clamp Light Studios & Gallery was established in 2009 and has been committed to supporting local contemporary artists in South Texas. Clamp Light functions as both a studio space for resident artists and a gallery space for monthly exhibitions. Resident artists work in a variety of media including drawing, collage, installation, sculpture, painting, photography, performance, and new media. The space is currently managed and directed by Raul Rene Gonzalez.

Website: www.clamplightstudios.com

Instagram: @clamplight

CONDO | Ed Barr

Back BOX

Some windows of Condo depict luxury, achievement and modernity while others model the mundane, archaic and natural world.  A myriad of archetypes coexisting in time and place;  the viewer is made aware of the paradox of existence.

What does it mean to be successful and unhappy at the same time? In our effort to climb the ladder of success we continually naw away at the spiritual tethers that once brought understanding to a seemingly callous and meaningless world. We dismiss a natural and simpler life for a perfectly insulated and often sterile landscape.

Striving for perfection, status and material possessions can sometimes lead to an unexamined life, resulting in pain and loneliness. When I look up at these condo towers I sometimes wonder if the inhabitants are looking down with a sense of satisfaction or a feeling of existential dread.

What does is mean to be successful in our modern environment?  What does it mean to lay your head down at night and be so far from the ground?   Does your prestige grow with each successive floor you climb?  Will you wake up one day to discover that your happiness is inversely related to the distance between your condo and Mother earth?

Ed Barr was born and raised in Texas.  He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a mechanical engineering degree.  After graduation he began a career in investment banking.  Although challenging, it lacked a creative aspect so he began investing in real estate and eventually moved into real estate development.  Remodeling properties and building homes from the ground up did allow him a creative outlet but eventually he realized that his desires could only be accommodated by making pure art. After having spent some of his adult life in the non-art world he eventually succumbed to his inclinations and desires and began pursuing a career in fine art. He now lives in Dallas, Texas and devotes all his time to being an artist.

Website: edbarr.us

Instagram: @Artedbarr

In Conversation with Tait’s “In a Tight Fix | Meredith Cawley

Window BOX

For the past 3 years I have been examining ways in which historic cultural opinions represent, shape, and affect the bear. From the research I have gathered was born a speculative narrative in which there is an alternative conclusion to extinction.

Last year, I contacted the Amon Carter Museum of American Art with a research request on items in the collection involving bears. After this visit, I narrowed in on a print by Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait titled The Life of a Hunter. “A Tight Fix” from 1961. I found this image compelling due both its beauty and snap shot of violence. I felt compelled to eliminate the scenery and reduce the action down to its basic components and place these figures and items in my alternate timeline.

From Tait’s “ A Tight Fix” I drew the attacking bear, the hunter in the foreground, and the smaller hunter in the background, and included all items that referenced hunting in Illustrator. Using a fusion laser, I printed these items in wood as free standing figures and installed them in Box 13’s Widowbox that serves the same purpose as a shadow box to frame the action.

This work sets the scene for the bears improbable rescue.

Meredith Cawley is a multimedia artist based in Texas. She currently teaches at the University of North Texas. Her 10 years as an outreach educator at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History inspire, inform, and drive her practice. Her current line of inquiry focuses on how cultural opinions represent, shape, and affect the bear.​

Website: www.meredithcawley.com

Instagram @meredithcawley

Someone’s Home | KyungJin Jeong

Upstairs BOX

“Someone’s Home” is a series drawing on my previous artwork projects, “In a Small Room” and “My First House in the USA.” Through film, photography, records, and installation, I focused on two social phenomena: (1) poor living conditions in modern metropolitan areas such as Seoul and London and (2) dazzling advertising designed to attract potential tenants. I explored the gap between housing advertising and reality. The work is also based on my distressing memory of a nightmarish house in Pittsburgh. To find a home in the United States, I depended on online advertising and contracted a house from South Korea without visiting the property. The place was totally different from what was shown and described in the advertisement, the most severe problem being the walls and ceilings that were deteriorating because of water ingress. There was heavy rain most days in Pittsburgh, and I had to regularly empty the bucket catching the filthy drops of water that leaked from the ceiling. The distressing experience inspired me to create “Someone’s Home.” To show the authentic condition of the house, I have intentionally used only unfiltered images.

Kyungjin Jeong is a multidisciplinary artist and designer living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. Her experiences living in such cities as Seoul, London, and Pittsburgh have led to her awareness of current housing issues. She is interested in the hardships people face in daily life. Her main area of interest is housing, especially the gap between advertising and reality.

KyungJin earned a master’s degree with a distinction in Information Experience Design from the Royal College of Art and dual bachelor’s degrees in Media Interaction Design and Convergence Design from Ewha Womans University. Her project “In a Small Room” received Honorary Mention in Digital Humanity Award at Prix Art Electronica in 2021. It was also nominated for the S+T+ARTS Prize in 2021. Her film was sponsored by the European ARTificial Lab. In 2021, she was selected as a panelist and a design expert for a workshop on Digital Deals by Art Electronica and Japan Tobacco.

Website: www.creativejeong.com

Instagram: @kyung.jin.jeong