Arts patrons seeking to beat the heat this summer should look no further than the University of Houston’s Blaffer Art Museum.
On June 1, UH’s internationally renowned museum opens two new exhibitions – Candice Breitz: The Woods and Francesca DiMattio: Housewares – during a special brunch reception from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Woods will be on view through Sept. 6. Housewares runs through Aug. 30.
In The Woods, South African artist Breitz delivers a trilogy of video installations exploring child performers in the entertainment industry, as well as the performance of childhood. The installations are arranged in three sections – “The Audition,” “The Rehearsal” and “The Interview.” The Woods documents the entertainment industries in Los Angeles (Hollywood), Mumbai (Bollywood) and Lagos (Nollywood) and captures adolescent actors on and off camera. Videos also feature adult actors who achieved fame through child roles. Breitz will discuss this exhibition at 7 p.m., June 3 in Freed Auditorium
DiMattio’s “Housewares” presents paintings and sculpture depicting familiar objects within unfamiliar contexts. Realities are altered as furniture, architecture, household items and random objects collide within the artist’s paintings. Meanwhile, her sculptures incorporate the traditional and the radical as vases, pots, chairs and other home items are repositioned in ways that challenge notions of the decorative and femininity. The museum will host a Brown Bag Gallery Talk on this exhibition at noon, June 18.
The Woods was co-commissioned by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. The presentation at Blaffer Art Museum is made possible, in part, by the Cecil Amelia Blaffer von Furstenberg Endowment for Exhibitions and Programs and the Houston Endowment Inc. with additional support from major exhibition fund sponsors Leslie and Brad Bucher, William J. Hill and Jane Dale Owen. Additional support comes from the Anchorage Foundation, the city of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Jo and Jim Furr Exhibition Endowment at Blaffer Art Museum, and the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation.
Housewares is made possible through the support of First Take patrons Jereann Chaney, Cullen Geiselman, Heidi and David Gerger, Pablo and Maria Henning, Cecily Horton, Ann Jackson, Kathrine G. McGovern/McGovern Foundation, Marc Melcher, the Nightingale Code Foundation, Jim Prell, Vitol Inc., and Lea Weingarten. Additional support comes from the Cecil Amelia Blaffer von Furstenberg Endowment for Exhibitions and Program, the Houston Endowment Inc., the city of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Jo and Jim Furr Exhibition Endowment at Blaffer Art Museum, and The George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation.
Blaffer Art Museum is free and open to the public. It is located at Entrance 16 (off Cullen Boulevard) in UH’s Fine Arts Building. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Thursday.
The museum opened to the public in 1973. Named for Houston arts patron and collector, Sarah Campbell Blaffer, the museum quickly earned notoriety as a space for innovative, cutting-edge exhibitions. In addition to hosting artists’ works, the museum commissions work and organizes exhibitions that tour nationally. In 2012, the museum underwent an expansion that included the addition of a lounge, new second level spaces (studio, media gallery), a front entrance, new signage and redesigned staircase. To learn about Blaffer Art Museum, visit its website.