There was only one other person in the exhibition space with me, but she was otherwise occupied. Talking in hushed tones on her phone, she scribbled away in her date book. Technically, we were in the lobby of an office building, so her behavior wasn’t out of order. Have public lobbies become the only private spaces skyscrapers have to offer? Judging by the amount of people I saw pacing behind the temporary gallery walls, I would have to say yes.
“Welcome to Historic Braddock,” a black-and-white photograph greets visitors near the title wall to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston exhibition, LaToya Ruby Frazier: WITNESS. The gelatin silver print presents a straightforward, close-up view of the friendly advertisement printed on what appears to be the temporary wooden fencing one might see surrounding a construction site or abandoned property. The bold lettering stands out against a black background, and hovers over the white silhouette of a skyline – Braddock’s, one would assume.
Another day, another identity for The Contemporary Austin. That’s the new moniker for the recently reunited AMOA-Arthouse, whose parent organizations, before splitting and undergoing various name changes throughout their complicated histories, once constituted the Texas Fine Arts Association.
Houston artist Robert Pruitt and FotoFest International founders Wendy Watriss and Frederick Baldwin will be honored with an Artist of the Year award and a lifetime achievement award, respectively, at the third annual Houston Fine Art Fair, which will be held Sept. 18-22 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.