Future Exhibitions
Artwork by Joey Blazek – Oct. 27 through Jan. 22, 2012
Cafe Arts presents a selection of paintings by local artist and designer Joey Blazek on view in the museum's cafe from Thursday, October 27 through Sunday, January 22. Following Life's Circle, Chasing My Coastal Tail highlights the artist's intimate connection to the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast region and presents imagery reflecting the flora and fauna of this region. Blazek was born in Beaumont in 1954 and has remained in the area most of his life. In 1976, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Lamar University
in graphic design, spending many extra hours of life drawing, painting and watercolor under the tutelage of Jerry Newman. Blazek comments, “In recent years I have come full-circle, back to my first love of painting. After a career in designing, directing and shooting images for print, I have taken that skill, instinct and energy and directed it back to the canvas undefined painting images of a locale that I know and love.”
Meredith Jack: Back in Black – January 21 through April 8, 2012
Meredith Jack: Back in Black, organized by AMSET, will include this Houston-based artist’s recent work and will be installed in the Steinhagen Gallery. In addition to the indoor work, two large sculptures will be installed outside on the grounds in the front of the museum as part of a long-term loan. The exhibition’s title reflects the theme of the exhibition which is all non-referential, black sculpture created in a variety of metals including bronze, steel and aluminum. Recently retired, Jack was a Lamar University professor of art who taught primarily sculpture classes since 1977. He is widely respected in our area as a sculptor, molten metal caster, fine art instructor and mentor. Jack was born in Kansas City, Kansas in 1943 and grew up in the small, rural community of Tonganoxie, Kansas. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and printmaking from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1972 and his Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the Tyler School of Art/Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has exhibited widely and his work is in many important art collections.
This Rejection of the Conqueror: Works by Robert Pruitt – January 21 through April 8, 2012
This Rejection of the Conqueror, organized by AMSET, will feature the large-scale figurative drawings, sculpture, and video of the Houston-based, African American artist Robert Pruitt. Pruitt is an accomplished draftsman whose subject matter addresses timely political and cultural identity issues often with an element
of subtle humor. Inspiration from comic book superheroes (his first foray into art), hip-hop and urban street
culture from his predominately African American Third Ward of Houston neighborhood all play into his
artwork. His rereading of 20th century art, especially the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp, in light of
African American history and experience, offers a commentary on the ongoing struggles of black Americans. Robert Pruitt was born in Houston, Texas in 1975. He received his BFA from Texas Southern University in 2000 and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. Pruitt currently lives in Houston and
teaches art at Texas Southern University.
Taylor Randolph Perry: Stenciling Out The Time – January 26 through March 25, 2012
Beginning January 26 through March 25, 2012, Café Arts presents Taylor Randolph Perry: Stenciling
Out the Time. Perry is a Houston-based artist who uses the medium of cut stencils and various paint
mediums on sheets of aluminum, slabs of concrete and colored tissue paper. The artist was in attendance at AMSET’s recent summer family day called Recycled/Reinvented where he worked with children creating
cut plastic bottle flowers. Perry attended the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
on a painting scholarship and now works at the Children’s Museum also in that city.
Taylor is a computer draftsman by trade and draws his artistic inspiration from the woodcutting and printing of the Germans, Japanese and Latin Americans, as well as from classical art and the masters such as O’Keeffe, Matisse, Goya, and Rivera. Taylor states, “Stencil is a form of spray art and part of graffiti art in general. It also seems that stencil is more able to catch something like the emotional eye of the beholder than most of the other street art is.” In the summers of 2006 and 2007, Taylor visited San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Drawn to the religious retablos, a city filled with cathedrals and beautiful native gardens, he began to perfect his painting on metal techniques. Most recently, trips to Galveston Beach provided inspiration to paint on concrete.
Contemporary American Marine Art: 15th Annual Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists – April 20 through June 17, 2012
This traveling exhibition organized by The American Society of Marine Artists will be hosted by eight
museums across the country. ASMA formed in 1978 and 2012 marks the society’s 15th National
Exhibition. Every few years, the society holds national exhibitions of its members’ works. This juried exhibition will consist of over 100 works in a variety of media by national and international contemporary marine artists that celebrate the rich heritage of marine painting in art.
Collection in Reflection: 10 Years of Acquisitions – June 30 through September 2, 2012
Each summer, AMSET organizes an exhibition focusing specifically on the research and interpretation of the permanent collection. Subjects explored in previous years have ranged from photorealist paintings and prints to folk art sculpture. In 2012, AMSET will feature an exhibition that examines the museum’s acquisitions for the past 10 years. Collection in Reflection will explore the museum’s collecting focus and assess both individually and collectively the featured works. As AMSET has grown into maturity, so has the focus of its collecting. The areas of concentration have evolved to include modern and contemporary American art with a focus on the Texas region, including painting, prints, photography, sculpture, as well as contemporary folk art and a core collection of earlier 19th and 20th century works that can provide
context in which to view later work.
Artwork by Annie Orchard in Cafe Arts – June 7 through August 19, 2012
Artwork by Jane Peterman in Cafe Arts – August 23 through November 4, 2012
Married – September 22, 2012 through January 6, 2013