By Mills-McCoin Photo courtesy of Bob Biggerstaff The number of years Bob Biggerstaff has been a stand-up comedian is irrelevant.  What matters is that he’s funny and, BY GOD, if he wants to excuse himself in the middle of an interview to take a shit because maybe ordering coffee and a chili frito pie at 59 Diner was a bad idea, then Bob Biggerstaff is going to do that very damn thing. Which he did. And it was hilarious. Bob Biggerstaff has been hilarious since before he got a job as the doorman at the old gristmill on West Gray ... Read More »

By Meghan Hendley Photos of Cecelia drawing by Andy McWilliams Photos of artwork courtesy of the artist During a time when our city should have been experiencing the typical heat and humidity of spring, I was grateful for an unexpected cold front and the day it allowed me to spend with Cecelia Johnson.  Cecelia and I have been friends without knowing it for years, running in the same circles and sharing a love for the Houston arts community. Bubbling with joyful banter, wide-eyed and passionate, Cecelia embraced our day together by soaking in the beauty of a clear blue sky ... Read More »

By Michael Pennywark Photo courtesy of the Menil Collection Arshile Gorky L’amour du fusil neuf  (Love of the New Gun), 1944 The Menil Collection, Houston © 2013 The Arshile Gorky Foundation / The Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Hickey-Robertson, Houston How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two. One to hold the giraffe and another to fill the wheelbarrow with brightly-colored power tools. OK, so surrealist humor might not be my forte but given the state of the world these days, we could all use a momentary distraction. What could be more fitting than ... Read More »

By Michael Pennywark Image courtesy of Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts Photo by David A. Brown So, spring is here and like almost everyone else you feel you should enjoy the handful of pleasant days before the sauna-like heat of Houston’s summer sends us scrambling back inside. Once you manage to get past the excitement of being able to sit outside while sipping your favorite frosty beverage, you might start to wonder what other things you can see and do outside in the middle of April. Of course, you could experience the great American tradition of drinking $8 ... Read More »

By Meghan Hendley Image courtesy of Micah Simmons Born in Pensacola, Florida, Micah Simmons found art to be an outlet combining form and feeling as a calling in his life. Studying with painters David Swaim and Patrick Palmer, Micah’s work continuously transformed through the use of the human form and color, cuing the imagination to shape a varied opinion of what was on the canvas. There isn’t much in the way of written descriptions of the artist’s work but the dearth of formal information allows the viewer to create a story with their own mind. The use of the mind ... Read More »

  April 5, April 19, and April 20, East End Gallery will host the 8th Annual Frida Festival celebrating the life and art of Magdalena Carmen Frieda y Calderon, better known as Frieda Kahlo. Kahlo was born in Mexico City in 1907. As a young woman, Kahlo aspired to become a doctor; however, after being severely injured in a bus accident and thereby confined to a body cast for three months, she developed an interest in painting. Once doctors removed the body cast Kahlo started her career as a painter by doing self portraits.  After being released from the hospital, ... Read More »

Next Friday, April 5, the Patriots and Peace: Arab Americans in Service to Our Country will close at the University of Houston. Funded by the Arab American National Museum (the only museum in the country committed to preserving Arab American history), Patriots and Peace honors more than a century of Arab American service by focusing on three areas of service: the US Armed Forces, diplomatic service, and the Peace Corps. Exhibiting photographs, military awards, and personal stories of sacrifice and dedication, Patriots and Peace offers general audiences an opportunity to expand, not only their understanding of Arab American national service, but also their knowledge of Arab culture ... Read More »

Beginning March 22 and extending to June 30, the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston will display the work of two important female artists of the 20th century in Parallel Practices: Joan Jonas and Gina Pane. Showing selected works from the artists’ entire careers, the exhibition is held in a single space with professional commentary accompanying each collection. Similarities and differences between Jonas and Pane are thus accentuated so the viewer may understand how these artists’ careers stand apart and intersect. Along with experimenting in mediums that, at the time, were undeveloped, the two inventors helped spur movements within the art community ... Read More »

D.M. Allison Art is currently exhibiting Brad Moody’s Welcome to Cotton Country, March 9-16. Dark  and uncomfortable, Brad’s Welcome to Cotton Wood includes themes of ignorance and racism. In this exhibition and others, the artist isolates scenes of a larger story and presents them in the contexts of his paintings. By providing only instances in the narratives, the painter invites the spectator to invent what takes place outside the frame. Brad and the viewer thus become equal partners in constructing the stories: The artist freezes an event in a larger story which the viewer uses to build the preceding conditions that caused the character(s)’ situation. ... Read More »

Internationally recognized FotoFest brings an elegant presentation of photography By Meghan Hendley ‘What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.’ –John Berger The invention of photography is now one of the staples in our daily lives. Instagram takes the ordinary to a sense of extraordinary, filters and all. With the saturation of, well, every saturation, our vision is constantly taking in a piece of someone’s life with a snapshot of a scene. Looking beyond the screen of the cell phone, one can wander down hallways in order to gain an appreciation of ... Read More »