Art League Houston presents
Joseph Havel
2010 Texas Artist of the Year
Cockroach Poems
On view September 2 – October 15, 2010
Opening Reception Thursday, September 2, 2010, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Art League Houston, Main Gallery
Art League Houston
1953 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, Texas 77006
For Immediate Release: For more information contact:
Sarah Schellenberg, 713.523.9530 or sarah@artleaguehouston.org
Photos and complete biographies available on request
Houston, TX (August 7, 2010) Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of Cockroach Poems, an exhibition of sculpture by 2010 Texas Artist of the Year Joseph Havel. September 2 through October 15, 2010. The opening reception for Cockroach Poems is Thursday, September 2, 2010, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m, with an opening talk by the artist at 6:30 p.m.
An exhibition catalogue, with essay by art historian and critic, Mary Leclére accompanies the exhibit. This catalogue was made possible through a generous grant from the Susan Vaughan Foundation. Design services were donated courtesy of Axiom.
Lauded by critics and audience alike, Los Angeles Times art critic David Pagel says, “The beauty of Havel’s art resides in the effectiveness with which it disentangles wonder from transcendence, simultaneously reuniting mystery and the ordinary world as it rescues fascination from other worldly transport.” Referring to Havel’s 2006 ten year retrospective, A Decade of Sculpture: at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Michael Odom of Artforum declared in his review, “the combination of style and subject were almost perfect.”
Among the works in Cockroach Poems are a group of collage “poems” which Havel created using text cut from the book The Dream Songs by poet John Berryman. After Havel reorganized the text to form a kind of associative, personalized poem/drawing, the resulting collages were inadvertently further edited by cockroaches, who ate glue and bits of text, randomly altering the work. Rather than giving the project up as a loss, the artist addressed the act of nature by selecting the poems which worked best as finished works, and discarding those that didn’t. The layering of actions, histories, and narratives inherent in the Cockroach Poems reflects the conceptual ground of his other work in the show, of which deceptively simple forms and gestures lead to a multiplicity of references.
About the Artist
Joseph Havel has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe, including solo museum exhibitions at the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead U.K., the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Palais de Tokyo, the Center for Contemporary Art in Kiev, the Huntington Beach Art Center, California, the Bard Center for Contemporary Arts, New York, and the Dallas Contemporary. Havel has also had recent solo exhibitions at Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery in Houston, Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie in Paris, Dunn and Brown Contemporary in Dallas, and William Shearburn Gallery in St. Louis. In 2000, he was included in the prestigious Whitney Biennial of American Art. His work is also in numerous public collections including the Whitney Museum, the Modern Museum of Fort Worth, the Contemporary Arts Museum in Honolulu, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Belgium, the Ministry of Culture in Paris and Houston’s Menil Collection and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In addition to his profession as a sculptor, Joseph Havel is the Director of the Glassell School of Art, where he has directed the Core Program since 1991.
About Texas Artist of the Year
In 1983, Art League Houston created the Texas Artist of the Year award as a dynamic annual project documenting Texas art history. ALH was the first organization in the state to develop the award. To date, twenty-seven artists have been honored. Past recipients include Keith Carter (2009), Melissa Miller (2008), The Art Guys (2005), Luis Jimenez (1998), Lucas Johnson (1996), Karin Broker (1994), Bert L. Long, Jr. (1990), Jesús Moroles (1989), Dr. John Biggers (1988), and Dorothy Hood (1984), among others. Art League Houston’s 2010 Texas Artist of the Year is Joseph Havel.
In 1989 Art League Houston expanded the award to include patrons with its Texas Patron of the Year Award for extraordinary individuals whose efforts have helped advance the work of Texas artists. Past patron honorees include Karol Kreymer and Robert Card, M.D. (2009), Anne and James Harithas (2008), Gus Kopriva (2007), Clint Willour (2006), and Sue Rowan Pittman (1989). ALH 2010 honorees are Leslie and Brad Bucher.
Joseph Havel, along with Leslie and Brad Bucher will be celebrated at the annual Art League Houston Gala, White Shirts and Chiffon, which will be held in their honor on November 5, 2010 at the Omni Houston Hotel.
ABOUT ART LEAGUE HOUSTON
Art League Houston is one of Houston's longest operating non-profit visual arts organizations and was the first alternative art space in Texas. Founded in 1948 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1953, Art League Houston (ALH) was created to promote the public appreciation of and interest in the visual arts. During the past 62 years, ALH has provided over 785 exhibitions to the Houston community, showcased the work of nearly 12,000 artists, and instructed over 36,000 students through the Art League School and outreach programs.
OUR MISSION
The mission of Art League Houston is to cultivate awareness, appreciation, and accessibility of contemporary visual art within the community for its cultural enrichment.
SUPPORT
Art League Houston is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Art League Houston acknowledges the following private foundations, public funders, and corporations for their support this season: Art Colony Association, Inc., Axiom, CenterPoint Energy, Inc., ExxonMobil Foundation, Felvis Foundation, Ray C. Fish Foundation, Houston Endowment, Inc., Krewe of Olympus-Texas, Inc., Lone Star Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Association, John P. McGovern Foundation, Mrs. Katherine McGovern, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Oshman Foundation, Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Target, Susan Vaughan Foundation, The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Wortham Foundation, Inc.
Art League Houston also wishes to thank its many generous individual donors for their support.
