Opening Reception - Friday, January 13, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Artist talk at 6:30 p.m.
Exhibition on view January 13 – February 24, 2012
Main Gallery
Art League Houston presents eState Sale, a video installation by Hillerbrand+Magsamen amid a mass of used consumer products filling the gallery space. All Houston residents and businesses are invited to participate in the artwork by donating used items, attending a discussion with the artists, and then joining the live auction that is both performance and actual auction benefiting the Star of Hope. The exhibition opens with a free public reception between 6:00 - 9:00 pm on Friday, January 13, 2012 and runs through February 24, 2012 in the main Art League Gallery.
Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen, a Houston-based collaborative husband and wife team, have created a new multi-channel video installation. Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s experimental video projects explore their relationship, family and everyday activities reflecting the contradictions of suburban family life. They use their own family and home for the characters and set to playfully and poetically explore perceptions of the contemporary American family's emotions, interactions, consumerism and media.
For the Art League the artists have produced video portraits of their family. Each member of their family: Father, Mother, Daughter and Son have a video where they are engaging individually in an action. These actions are given an unexpected twist of surrealism such as the daughter getting sucked up by stuffed animals, the son smashing a stack of plates, the mother walling herself into her closet with bricks and feathers and the father standing idle with a garden hose while the barbeque grill ignites.
Surrounding the nearly floor-to-ceiling video projections will be piles of stuff from their home and from the homes of visitors to the gallery who are invited to bring items that will be auctioned off at the end of the exhibition. The artists explore these ideas of excess, emotional and physical connections to material goods and family dynamics.
Their video, Accumulation, will also be playing in the reception area. In this video their daughter dangles in a dark void and then they pile up tons of stuff from their garage: lawn mower, toys, tools, Christmas lights, and more into a mountain that they climb up as a means to get to another space. Similar to the auction on February 18, an auctioneer rambles away and the viewer is left to decide if the couple is buying or selling their material; physical and emotional accumulation.
Schedule of Events
Donation Collection and Filling the Gallery: January 9 - February 10
Exhibition Opens: January 13, 6 PM with Artists’ Talk at 6:30 PM
Artist Conversation with the Public, February 4, 1 PM
Auction Preview: February 13-17
Performance and Live Auction of Donations : February 18, 11 AM
Exhibition Closes and Delivery of Check to Star of Hope: February 24, 5 PM.
Hillerbrand+Magsamen
Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s live and work in Houston, Texas, where Mary Magsamen is the curator for the mirco-cinema Aurora Picture Show and Stephan Hillerbrand teaches in the University of Houston Photo/Digital Media Program. Hillerbrand+Magsamen are represented by Linda Darke Gallery, Houston, TX.
Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s work has been included in film festivals, galleries and museums internationally including Ann Arbor Film Festival (2009 & 2006), Boston Underground Film Festival (2010 & 2009), Stuttgarter Filmwinter (2008), Center for Photography at Woodstock (2005), Light Factory Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film (2008), Butler Institute of American Art (2005), Houston Center for Photography (2008 & 2007) and Dallas Contemporary (2007). They have been awarded residencies with Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX (2010), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York (2003) and Experimental Television Center, Owego, NY (2004 & 2005) as well grants from Austin Film Society’s Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund (2010), Ohio Arts Council (2005), Houston Arts Alliance (2009) and a Carol Crow Fellowship from the Houston Center for Photography (2008).
Star of Hope Mission
Star of Hope is a Christ-centered community dedicated to meeting the needs of homeless men, women and their children. Positive life changes are encouraged through structured programs which focus on spiritual growth, education, employment, life management and recovery from substance abuse. More information at http://www.sohmission.org
Gallery Hours
Weekdays, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Closed on Sunday. Gallery Exhibitions are always FREE
Location
1953 Montrose Blvd between West Gray and Westheimer. Next to Texas Art Supply.
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, the Art League Houston was created to promote the public appreciation of and interest in the visual arts. During the past 62 years, the Art League has provided over 760 exhibitions to the Houston community, showcased the work of nearly 22,200 artists, and instructed over 35,000 students through the Art League School and Outreach Program.
Art League Houston is supported by its members and the following: Art Colony Association Inc, Axiom, The Brown Foundation, Inc., CenterPoint Energy, City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, ExxonMobil Foundation, Felvis Foundation, The Eleanor & Frank Freed Foundation, Houston Endowment, Inc., Krewe of Olympus-Texas, Inc., Lone Star Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, John P. McGovern Foundation, Mrs. Kathrine McGovern, New Leaf Publishing, Oshman Foundation, Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Southwest Precision Printers, Target, Texas Commission on the Arts, Susan Vaughan Foundation, The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Wortham Foundation, Inc.
