Fluent~Collaborative: ...might be good

Issue #133 - Let your freak flag fly

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -5

Here’s what rocks about Austin: the turnover. You think I’m joking? I’m not. As Art Palace prepares for a move to Houston, heed its director’s warning. In an exit interview with Kate Watson on Glasstire, Arturo Palacios spoke these pearls of wisdom about our city, For artists, this place is a great incubator, a place to be ambitious and take big risks. For someone like me, Austin is still a place where an Art Palace... can be born, nurtured and can grow without the pressure of a top-heavy gallery system. The potential is great here. I’m with Palacios. The constant turnover in Austin creates a lot of space for people with ideas and energy to experiment and grow. Art Palace has been good to us, and we’ll miss it. Palacios’s energy and hard work, and the caliber of his exhibitions has been unmatched. Now, Palacios’s move to Houston is right for him and his artists.…

Issue #132 - Stumbling through the Imaginary Brush

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -5

At a moment when contemporary art practices may feel almost paralyzingly diverse, standards about how to look at art, and how to evaluate it, seem equally diffuse. For a critic (or viewer) navigating this heterogeneous landscape, the act of looking is sometimes plagued by the range of possible ways of looking. For such a viewer, an exhibition like the recent Works on Paper: Jo Baer, James Bishop and Suzan Frecon at Lawrence Markey can be refreshing because the work offers a clear framework for looking—a formal one. Because of our history with it, it’s almost as if this type of work comes with an instruction manual: look at it in person; look at color, line, shape, dimensionality, texture. When Wendy Atwell describes this show as “a contemplative, peaceful break” in this issue, this is what I think of—the peace of mind that arises out of knowing how to look.We “know” how to look…

Issue #131 - Lingering Woozy Feeling

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -5

And I am sunburnt. On Tuesday I spent four long, sticky hours in UT Austin’s football stadium as a volunteer for artist Pablo Vargas Lugo’s Eclipses for Austin, the next WorkSpace project at the Blanton. About one hundred and fifty of us—less than half the number of volunteers the Blanton had hoped to recruit—staged four eclipses that day. Vargas Lugo had hoped to film all 10 solar eclipses that will occur here over the next 340 years. But with enough volunteers to create only half of the sun in any one sitting, he had to scale back at the eleventh hour. Left with the physical reminder of my sunburn, I keep wondering: apart from an unpleasant itchiness and a lingering woozy feeling, what are we to take away from this event?Vargas Lugo’s plan was ambitious: Three hundred and fifty art-lovers converge on the mecca of Longhorn football and dramatize the next three hundred and forty…

Issue #130 - Angry Me/Calm Me

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -5

Today, Fluent~Collaborative is hosting a Satellite Summit for this year's National Summit on Arts Journalism. This year, the summit is focusing on new models in cultural coverage on the web. What new possibilities for format, content and coverage does the internet present? And, importantly, what creative business models are out there for funding these projects?These are huge questions. They are the practical side of the conceptual question, what is arts journalism today? In a matter of four hours, we can only scratch the surface. I'll report back next week on our discussion.Enjoy this issue, and if you're looking for a quick roundup of what's on the walls of Austin's galleries right now, check out this week's ...might be good recommends.Claire Ruud…

Issue #129 - Earning Your Keep

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -5

After my latest visit to Artpace San Antonio, I’m thinking about artist residencies. Austin has long clamored for a residency program. But if we had our way, what kind of program would we build? Where are the most interesting models? What are the weaknesses of those models, and how would we address them? I figure the authorities on residency programs are actually the artists who do them, so I called some up. In response, Riiko Sakkinen writes a letter on residencies and hypermobility, and Sterling Allen, Harrell Fletcher and Vijai Patchineelam, offer some of their thoughts, too.Also in this issue, Subtext Projects, a young curatorial collective based in Dallas, offers a fresh…

Issue #128 - Sycophantic Social Circles

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -5

Lori Waxman, the 60 WRD/MIN Art Critic, spent three days in Austin at the beginning of the summer, and her performance at Arthouse sparked a series of conversations about art criticism among …might be good’s writers. Waxman spent three days sitting at a desk in the window of Arthouse writing 200 word reviews. She reviewed the work of any artist lucky enough to get an appointment with her, and she wrote each review in 20 minutes flat.One premise of the 60 WRD/MIN Art Critic project is that it puts “the review” up for review. So it seems fitting that artists should review Waxman’s work. Back in July, artist Eric Zimmerman offered a mixed review of the performance on Cablegram. In this issue of …might be good, a few more artists—artists whose work Waxman reviewed at Arthouse—weigh in on the…

Issue #127 - Fall Preview

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -5

This issue of …might be good is our guide to exhibitions opening in Texas and beyond this fall. So make yourself a gin and tonic (or an Orange Julius, if that’s how you roll), and take a look. If you’re a visual learner, just click on the “view gallery” icon and scroll through the images. I’ve been drooling over a few of these babies (and the prospect of cooler months) for the past couple of weeks.Our next issue of …might be good hits the proverbial stands in three weeks on August 28. Look forward to a feature on the 60 Wrd/Min Art Critic’s recent visit to Austin, reviews of Polymict at Okay Mountain and Lonely are the Brave at Bluestar and an interview with Eduardo Xavier García, the curator of this year’s

Issue #126 - An Unholy Experiment

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -5

First things first: ever since Merce Cunningham passed away last weekend, I've been thinking about him. In particular, I keep flashing back to an installation I saw last summer at Dia:Beacon,Tacita Dean's Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS (in three movements) to John Cage’s composition 4'33" with Trevor Carlson, New York City, 28 April 2007 (six performances; six films). For this issue, I've written a brief reflection about Cunningham and Merce Cunningham performs STILLNESS.This short, mid-summer issue also contains two features about the Blanton. With new director Ned Rifkin, the institution has entered a period of reassessment. In an interview with Rifkin, I ask about his first impressions of the Austin, his priorities at the museum and his love of guitars. Meanwhile, Dan…

Issue #125 - Spiritual Turmoil is the Subject

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -5

Ever since the June 1 New Yorker arrived in my mailbox, I’ve been thinking about health care and the economic cultures of cities. Required reading in the White House, Atul Gawande’s “The Cost Conundrum” makes a provocative case for the vast differences in health care costs across the country. Gawande suggests that a few key figures in a community can set a tone that may take root within the community and then intensify with time. Thus one or two hospital directors might instigate a profit-driven culture in one city, while an alliance of private practice doctors might trigger a patient-driven culture in another. The rule of thumb Gawande uses here is common sense, and seems applicable to local art scenes—one or two big players can deeply affect the character of the communities in which we live.Gawande uses sociologist Woody Powell’s anchor-tenant theory of economic development…

Issue #124 - If the Exhibition Were a Cocktail

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -5

It's hot out, and time for trashy summer reading. I picked up the Twilight books a couple weeks ago and couldn't put them down. As many have pointed out, they're unbelievably sexist (as my girlfriend put it, "They're vampires; they can do anything, and heterosexual monogamy is their big dream?!") but it turns out they're also a cultural touchstone. Since I started reading them, quite a few artists and curators (all female, mid-twenties to thirties) have admitted to reading the books with relish, too. While it may lack the epic intensity of werewolf versus vampire, I hope you find some tasty treats of your own in this week's ...might be good.Claire Ruud is Editor of ...might be good and Associate Coordinator of testsite.

Issue #123 - Tween Regrets

Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 -5

Summer time, and ...might be good will grace your inboxes every three weeks from here on out, through those hot sticky months of June, July and August. In this issue, Kate Watson recommends a few shows in Houston, and Dan Boehl and I review two shows to see in Austin: Practice, Practice, Practice at Lora Reynolds and Nathan Green at Art Palace. In the Project Room at Art Palace, also check out Kara Hearn's funny yet tender videos, which got a nice little review at The New Orleans Museum of Art on artforum.com this month. Best part of the installation in Austin, though, is Hearn's letter to Steve…

Issue #122 - Twenty Dollar Babies

Fri, 8 May 2009 00:00:00 -5

Ned Rifkin, who resigned from his position as Under Secretary for Art at the Smithsonian Institution last spring, has been appointed director of The Jack S. Blanton Museum at The University of Texas at Austin, where he will also hold the positions of professor of art and art history and special advisor to UT president William Powers. Rifkin succeeds Jesse Otto Hite, who retired last year after 15 years as director of the museum.The Blanton must be looking for good connections, good money and stability.Rifkin is scholarly. In 1977, he received a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Michigan, where he wrote his dissertation on the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, and then taught for three years at The University of Texas at Arlington. Since then, he’s produced a distinguished list of publications, including Agnes Martin: The Nineties and Beyond (2002) and Sean Scully: Twenty Years , 1976-1995 (2001). A scholarly choice makes sense…

Issue #121 - What's Yr Take on Cassavetes

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -5

In the face of adversity, Austin artists and art institutions—from the most DIY to the most established—are rallying. We’re envisioning coalitions, alternative economies and creative synergies that might transform the worst of time into the best of times.These tough times call for even tougher conversations. (As if the financial crisis isn’t already hard enough to stomach.) Like Obama’s administration, we have to look for programs that aren’t working and radically re-envision them. Rather than replicate the same old models, Austin’s art institutions need to pool their resources, each one focusing on what it could potentially do best. At testsite,…

Issue #120 - Post-medium Attitude

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -5

When I say Birth of the Cool, do you think modish mid-century art and design or sleek large-scale portraits of African-American sitters by Barkley L. Hendricks? Two exhibitions by the same title coincided this year: Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury (at The Blanton through May 17) and Barkley Hendricks: Birth of the Cool (closed March 15 at the Studio Museum and traveling). This incident reinforced my misgivings about the art and design exhibition at the Blanton. Racial politics and nostalgia are at issue here, and no one wants to go there.At the Blanton, Miles Davis’s tunes drift through the space, amping up the “coolness factor” of the hard edged paintings and chic furniture decorating the gallery. The work of Anglo-American painters and designers…

Issue #119 - The Dirty Cheap Made This City

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -5

Austin’s got its fair share of round-up exhibitions these days: Arthouse’s annual New American Talent, AMOA’s triennial New Art in Austin and the Texas Biennial. Do we really need them all? I’m beginning to wonder whether we could pool our resources and develop one single biennial (or triennial) instead—something both broader and deeper than any one of us could orchestrate alone. We need a coalition—a temporary alliance—that works across our various organizational structures and purposes. Together, we could support a larger, city-wide exhibition of public art and solo shows at a variety of venues, from Arthouse to Big Medium to testsite.Coalition isn’t easy. To build an event like this, TXB and AMOA might have to give up their regional parameters.…

Issue #118 - What's so sexy about a cat fight?

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -5

Recently, LA Times critic Leah Ollman mentioned to an audience at The University of Texas that critics publishing on the internet trade the relative silence of a print audience for the relative inanity of web audience posting off-the-cuff comments. Nonetheless, this issue of …might be good introduces a comments feature. You can now (finally, we know, it’s been a long time coming) post your thoughts and responses at the bottom of any article.Boston’s Big Red & Shiny beat us to this a while ago. In their most recent issue they address the tone of the comments posted to their articles, and Steve Aishman notes the differences between an argument and a fight. We welcome arguments.Take advantage of our new comments section to join the conversation about the Texas Biennial in this issue:…

Issue # 117 - comic book literati and professorly UT-types

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -5

“The Texas art world.” In anticipation of the 2009 Texas Biennial, opening in Austin next weekend, we’ve been hearing this phrase bantered about. But what does it mean?Maybe the Texas Biennial actually brings a Texas art world into being. Outside of the Biennial’s boundaries, this world may not exist, or may exist quite differently. The production of the Texas Biennial, understood in this way, is a generative (rather than reflective) act that allows the curator and his team to conceptualize, and to a certain extent actualize, a Texas art community.In a very different format, the East Austin Studio Tour also gives us an opportunity to come together and examine the “big picture” of what is happening in our local art spaces and studios. Once a year, Austinites who never come to openings flood the east side and often walk away with a massively new perspective on the creative energy in our fair city. DIYers meet designers; comic book literati and professorly…

Issue #116 - Take that, Cathy Horyn

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -5

Dan Reclining and, for that matter, Heyd Fontenot’s entire show at Art Palace right now, reeks of Lone Star Style. In that infamous article printed in the pages of the August 2006 New York Times Style Magazine, the Austin art scene saw itself reflected at a moment of burgeoning potential. That summer, Okay Mountain and Art Palace were just taking off and everything seemed to be gelling for the first time. Then along came fashion critic Cathy Horyn looking for the “real deal”—an antidote to the shallowness and media frenzy of the New York fashion world. The only catch: in her quest for authenticity, she transformed Arturo and Ali, Art Palace, Austin and Texas into one magnificently cool scene, one idealized image of itself.And what a beautiful image it was. As…

Issue #115 - The Art of Entitlement

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -5

Yesterday, Leah Ollman (of Art in America and the LA Times) and Phong Bui (of The Brooklyn Rail and P.S.1) offered a few gems of wisdom about art criticism to those who attended the first in a series of three Viewpoint 2009 lectures at UT Austin. Four of the most memorable moments from these lectures follow. You might say the first two are about "critical taste," and the second two about "critical discourse"...Bui: "What are you painting?"Audience member: "Whatever I feel."Bui: "That sounds so spoiled."Ollman: [clicks to a slide of an Elizabeth Peyton portrait] I don't like art of entitlement.Bui: There's a Vietnamese proverb, "when you argue with a smart person, you can't win, but when you argue with a stupid person, you can't stop."Ollman:…

Issue #114 - Restraining Order

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -5

Hello readers, are you reading this? We're pleased to note that you've made it to the 18th word. Words 19 through 43 are even more rewarding: in them we reveal that we've just devoted three whole days to thinking about what you want.We feel fresh and revived after a productive staff retreat, and you are bored, sitting in your office selecting VVork links to send to your friends. Stop skimming Artforum's diary for candid photos of Matthew Day Jackson and consider this: what do you want?We know It's Complicated but we want to get a little closer to you. Click "send comments to our editors" and drop us a line. In the very near future, we'll be rolling out a comments section, too, for your discursive pleasure.(For your reading pleasure, try Lane Relyea’s review of Olafur Eliasson: take your time at the Dallas Museum of…

Issue #113 - Best of Austin 2008

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -5

As you wrap up the old year and bring in the new, …might be good sends a retrospective look at the past twelve months in and around Austin. In no particular order, our Best of Austin 2008 come to you hand-picked by our editors and new staff writers—Dan Boehl, Rachel Cook, Katie Geha, Lauren Hamer, Alvaro Ibarra, Laura Lindenberger Wellen, Mary Katherine Matalon, Allison Myers, Lee Webster & Eric Zimmerman.Happy Holidays!Best New SpaceDomy BooksHaving opened their Austin site in May 2008, Houston-based Domy Books has already proven itself to be Austin's go-to place for the most exciting books on art, design and culture. From the black-light prints back in June to Lane Heraclitus' drawings of blues-men currently up in the gallery, they've also given Austinites yet another reason to look toward César Chavez for fun and interesting shows. AMBest…

Issue #112 - Art Fair Turpitude

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -5

This week, I’m feeling extremely sanguine about visual arts writing in Austin in the coming year. A few nights ago, a group of ten Austin-based writers gathered at Fluent~Collaborative to talk about regional arts criticism. Not only eager to converse about the subject, but also ready to act, these ten will officially become …might be good staff writers on January 1, working to increase the quality and scope of arts coverage in and around Austin. Simply put, it’s a big deal to have such a solid group of writers committed to covering Austin’s visual arts scene next year. (Look forward to our new staff writers’ “Best of Austin 2008” picks, forthcoming during the holidays.)In addition to having a closer-knit, larger writing team at …might be good, we want to hear what you, our readers, think about …might be good. Your comments will help us to shape the future of the magazine. We would really like to hear from you via this online…

Issue #111 - All My Insecurities

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -5

While you recover from yesterday’s festivities, enjoy an abbreviated issue of …might be good from our editors. Last weekend, the East Austin Studio Tour (E.A.S.T.) took over 78702 and beyond, with a whopping 151 studios and galleries participating. E.A.S.T. brings out all my insecurities as an Austin arts writer. The pressure is on to “discover” hot artists, to be perfectly up-to-date and to assess the cultural moment with perspicacity and intuition. But, as it turns out, my first big “discovery”—the photographer Barry Stone—is decidedly behind the curve. You might remember Stone from The Fifth of July, his two person show with Anna Krachey at Okay Mountain last summer. There, the installation did a disservice to both artists, whose unique and compelling voices got somewhat muddled in the pairing. This time around in Stone’s studio, the work cohered into an evocative monologue.Stone had a wide variety of work—mostly photography—up…

Issue #110 - Do It Yourself

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -5

Recent interest in the punk scene comes to a head this weekend in Austin: Ian Mackaye (of Minor Threat, Fugazi and The Evens) speaks tonight at St. Edwards; Matt Stokes films tonight’s punk concert at The Broken Neck (Inepsy, Lebenden Toten, Unit 21 and Vaska) into the early hours of tomorrow morning—footage he will use in his upcoming exhibition at Arthouse; Temporary Services presents the culmination of months of conversations with Austin punkers (such as the Big Boys and The Dicks) at Domy on Saturday night and testsite on Sunday afternoon. An obsession with punk isn’t limited to Austin either. Last year, Susan Dynner’s Punk’s Not Dead (2007) made the film festival circuit and later this month, Christie’s is holding its first ever auction of punk memorabilia. The question is: why punk now?Perhaps punk music and the punk ethos are responses to economic crises engendered by trickledown models. Reaganism, for instance, infused the poles of wealth and poverty…

Issue #109 - Bring Your Umbrella

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -5

This issue of …might be good marks the approach of the United States presidential election. Many of our features address this election and some of the issues surrounding them: our economy (Dan Boehl on the Okay Mountain mural at capitalist venture company Austin Ventures and Lee Webster on Knifeandfork’s The Wrench and labor), the environment (Arnaud Gerspacher on Andy Coolquitt), race (Audrey Chan on Barack Obama and Adrian Piper), activism (Cody Trepte on MTAA’s Our Political Work, myself on The Activist…

Issue #108 - Texas is Haunted

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -5

A fascinating group of features in this issue cluster loosely around the concept of “damaged romanticism,” as Blaffer Gallery puts it in the title of its current exhibition. In her review of Damaged Romanticism at the Blaffer, Allison Myers suggests that the concept revolves around a “mix of emotionality and disillusionment—a mix that bridges the gap between the romantic and the realistic.” After reading Allison’s review, I began to see much of the other work discussed in this issue in light of this marriage of brokenness and beauty.Kate Watson’s piece on The Marfa Sessions at the Ballroom—and on Marfa more broadly—captured, for me, a subtle disquiet lurking behind the romantic art world destination and expressed through the static and distortion she encountered in so many of…

Issue #107 - The Right Kind of Nostalgia

Fri, 3 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -5

The University of Texas at Austin has been a lively source of activity in the visual art community over the past couple of weeks. Tongues are wagging about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s loan of 28 sculptures to the University through the Landmarks program, the opening of two significant exhibitions—Reimagining Space and The New York Graphic Workshop—at the Blanton and the first of this year’s Lectures on Art in the Black Diaspora. …might be good will dedicate many of our virtual pages to these events over the next month: the Met sculptures will enjoy Eric Zimmerman’s attention in our next issue and reviews of Reimagining Space and The New York Graphic Workshop will appear in early November. However, the most recent lecture in the series, Lectures on Art in the Black Diaspora, steals the spotlight today.In the first of three lectures in the series occurring this fall, Kobena Mercer spoke under the title, “What Difference…

Issue #106 - Forensic-like Activity

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -5

The current exhibition at the Austin Museum of Art and a recent conversation with Linda Pace Foundation Director, Rick Moore, got me thinking: perhaps art professionals and serious collectors should hold a larger proportion of the influential positions on the boards of some Austin and San Antonio art institutions. We cover both AMOA and the Pace Foundation in this issue in the form of a review of Where Are We Going? at AMOA and an interview with Pace Foundation Director Rick Moore.The Austin Museum of Art’s Where Are We Going? is one half—the contemporary half—of a two-part exhibition, Modern Art. Modern Lives: Then + Now. Curated by Director and Chief Curator Dana Friis-Hansen, the exhibition draws from the museum’s own holdings and Austin-based private collections…

Issue #105 - Missing a Frame

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -5

At risk of beating a dead horse, I agree with Austin’s bloggers: the state of art criticism in Austin still leaves much to be desired. Inadequate dialogue is an age old problem for young art communities. I find it amusing that in 1952, Harold Rosenberg was similarly bemoaning the state of criticism surrounding the American Ab-Exes (as we know them today):So far, the silence of American literature on the new painting all but amounts to a scandal.(Harold Rosenberg, “American Action Painters,” Art News, December 1952)Not only a lack of smart criticism, but also an inchoate community and an underdeveloped infrastructure contribute to the frustration we’ve been hearing on Austin’s blogs recently. I have a couple of thoughts about steps we can take to develop the community of artists and critics we’ve already begun to build.First, we have to make sure we’re…

Issue #104 - Trimming the Fat

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -5

This issue has become, somewhat informally, an issue largely dedicated to arts institutions. Two interviews offer a director's point of view on two recently established Texas art institutions, The Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas and The Landmarks Public Art Program at UT Austin. A review by Rachel Cook urges Austin's graduate students to break the mold with their annual summer show at the Creative Research Laboratory and a letter to the editor from Eric Zimmerman calls for increased participation in public dialogue on the arts in Austin. Further afield, Lillian Davies's review considers the curatorial…

Issue #103 - Alleged Rupture

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -5

A number of new art venues have sprouted up around Austin over the last six months. Most notably, Domy Books, of Houston fame, opened a branch in Austin this spring. The bookstore not only carries an eclectic mix of art books, comics and periodicals, but also showcases work by a variety of artists (see …might be good recommends to find out what’s coming up at Domy). On a recent visit, I saw catalogues from lora reynolds gallery on the shelves, as well as books that seemed to respond to Texas art happenings, such as Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates recently at Arthouse and Kara Walker’s retrospective currently at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. In addition, I noticed quite a selection of books on environmental concerns and sustainable living. And finally, if you’re interested in street art, skateboards or anime, it’s my impression…

Issue # 102 - We Live Uneasily with Prettiness

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -5

In the words of artist Cliff Hengst, a number of small galleries “burned briefly, yet brightly” in San Francisco’s Mission District during the 1990s. One of these galleries, Kiki, run by the late Rick Jacobsen, is receiving attention this summer in the form of a retrospective exhibition, Kiki: The Proof is in the Pudding, at Ratio 3 in San Francisco. Last week, Mary Katherine and I talked to Cliff, Scott Hewicker and Larry Rinder about the significance of Kiki within the San Francisco art scene. Although the gallery was open for only eighteen months beginning in the summer of 1993, it fostered a vibrant community of young artists and presented work by such artists as Nayland Blake, Kota Ezawa, Catherine Opie and Yoko Ono. Both Cliff and Scott showed work at Kiki and, during our conversation last week, Larry mentioned that Kiki…

Issue # 101 - Freefall in Perpetuity

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -5

During a short visit to Houston last week, I stopped by CAMH to see curator Toby Kamps’s exhibition, The Old, Weird America, and then popped over to DiverseWorks to visit artist Stephen Vitiello’s installation, Four Color Sound. I was hoping a visit to The Old, Weird America would provide insight into Kamps’s conceptual framework for the exhibition—an exploration of American folk aesthetics and American history in contemporary art. As Scott Webel points out in his review in this issue, the premise of the exhibition depends upon an artificial separation between “contemporary” and “folk.” What criteria, I wanted to know, does Kamps use to distinguish between “contemporary artists exploring folk” and “contemporary folk artists.” Disappointingly, after visiting the exhibition, I've come to the conclusion that Kamps has somewhat complacently accepted…

Issue # 100 - Universally Longer Sentences

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -5

This, our 100th issue, celebrates ...might be good's 5-year anniversary, almost to the day. On May 28, 2003, Fluent~Collaborative sent out the first edition of …might be good: a short listing of current art events in Austin—“choice cuts,” as the editors called them. Since then, the publication has grown in scope, and now offers interviews with influential art personalities, short reviews of exhibitions and presentations of new work by artists throughout Texas and beyond. In this issue, we mark our birthday with a series of features converging around the theme of contemporary art writing.First off, …might be good talks to Richard Shiff, who holds the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at The University of Texas at Austin, about distinctions between Shiff’s writing and scholarly work that…

Issue # 99 - Unrealistically Optimistic

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -5

This issue opens with an interview with Jessie Otto Hite, who recently retired after 15 years as the Director of the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art. In the interview, she talks with ...might be good about, among other topics, the future of the Blanton and the large number of museum director job openings in institutions across the country at present. In light of our recent conversation with former Blanton Curator Gabriel Perez-Barriero in these pages, I found Hite’s comments on the Blanton’s position vis-a-vis Latin American art particularly interesting.In addition to a review of University of Texas at Austin Professor Troy Brauntuch’s recent show at his New York gallery, this issue features six brief…

Issue # 98 - The Historian and The Astronomer

Fri, 2 May 2008 00:00:00 -5

When I was invited to guest edit this issue of … might be good I had just wrapped up a conversation with Michelle White, wherein we talked at length about what we have termed "intellectual whimsy. " It may be suicide to even mention the term "intellectual" —an idea that is in less than reputable regard as of late. But I believe in its roots as a humble activity, driven by curiosity and open-mindedness. Ideally this issue reflects these qualities, and the wonderful things that come from it. Many thanks to …might be good for this opportunity, and to all of the participants for their time and contributions."The historian and the astronomer" — this phrase has followed me around for a number of years, and while I can’t recall its origins the phrase has a magnetism that hasn’t let me put it aside. These two vocations share many connections in my mind,…

Issue # 97 - A General (and Unanswerable) Question

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -5

This issue opens with the second installment of a series of conversations with art critics spearheaded by our Associate Director, Caitlin Haskell. This installment, an interview with New York-based critic and art historian Katy Siegel, complements Caitlin's interview with Barry Schawbsky in Issue #95. In both conversations, Caitlin raises important questions about the role of the art critic and the state of art writing today. In addition, Caitlin recently had a chance to see How Artists Draw, organized by newly appointed Chief Curator of the Menil Collection Drawing Institute and Study Center, Bernice Rose. Caitlin’s review of the show considers the expansive vision of “drawing” that Rose presents through…

Issue #96 - Accoutrements of Bourgeois U.S. Comfort

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -5

The buzz of lively conversation filled the air at Fluent~Collaborative this week. A fortnight ago, we picked up Sunday’s New York Times Magazine off our coffee tables and discovered "After Frida," a feature about Mari Carmen Ramirez, Curator of Latin American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The article revived the specter of a longstanding rift between Mari Carmen and the Blanton Museum of Art. It was no news to us that Mari Carmen doesn’t speak to Gabriel Perez-Barreiro, the Blanton’s Curator of Latin American Art. But the Times made it appear as if the dispute between these curators were more personal than philosophical, quoting Mari Carmen: “He [Gabriel] had to build a position against me to establish his own position, so he has been speaking against the specificity of Latin American art.” However, personal rivalries aside, Mari Carmen’s…

Issue #95 - Lip Service to Subjectivity

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -5

At Art Palace, where Eric Zimmerman’s solo show Atlas is installed this month, a graphite rendering of Vladimir Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International—a monument never built—hangs in the entryway. For me, Eric’s drawing of the Monument captured the self-aware and alternately optimistic and melancholy idealism of his project. In the Atlas series, Eric places himself among myriad utopian architectural movements, begging the formidable question: To what end have utopian artistic movements attempted to restructure space and express an understanding of the world through this restructuring? In this issue,Eric and Michelle White, Assistant Curator at The…

Issue #94 - Systems, Pathos, Self-Reference

Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -5

Austin Museum of Art’s triennial 20 to Watch: New Art in Austin opened three weeks ago, showcasing a new crop of Austin-based artists. In my review of New Art in Austin in this issue, I critique the triennial’s arbitrary geographical parameters and the exhibition’s injudicious installation. While I appreciate the gesture that New Art in Austin makes to support Austin’s emerging artists, I would like AMOA to reconsider—and strengthen—its commitment to these artists. An interview with AMOA Executive Director Dana Friis-Hansen, though not specifically focused on New Art in Austin, provides an alternative view of AMOA’s role in Austin's art community. When …might be good’s editorial staff read my review…

Issue #93 - Sense of Timing

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -5

After reading Andrea Guinta’s review of Jorge Macchi: The Anatomy of Melancholy, I returned to the Blanton to see the show for a third time. Macchi has said that the city of Buenos Aires is his muse; his use of the city—through maps, newspaper clippings and snapshots—make this statement literal. However, as Guinta conveys, the delicacy of Macchi's work, his sense of timing and his engagement with music—both written and performed—make his treatment of the city and the themes he finds there particularly bewitching. Another highlight of the past two weeks was a visit to Ivan Lozano’s Fantasy Vision Meditation (In Color), a multimedia video installation at MASS Gallery, which is reviewed…

Issue #92 - Launch Pad

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -5

We at Fluent~Collaborative are delighted to re-launch … might be good, our contemporary arts e-publication based in Austin, Texas. As you’ll notice … might be good has a new look and feel; we’re deliberately offering shorter, more concise issues and pithier features for your reading pleasure.Five years ago, in 2003, Fluent~Collaborative recognized a need in Austin for communication among the film, music, performing and visual art scenes and between the university and arts organizations in Austin. In response, we created … might be good as an arts listing service to foster interaction and dialogue between these communities. Over the years, the publication grew to incorporate critical reviews, interviews and artists’ work and eventually our scope expanded to include coverage of art events farther afield than Texas.As … might be good takes off again in 2008 with…