VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Project Row Houses (PRH) announces its opening reception for Round 29 THUNDERBOLT SPECIAL: The Great Electric Show and Dance – Commemorating Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins.

In conjunction with THUNDERBOLT SPECIAL, emerging artist El Franco Lee II will be displaying Survival of the Fittest.

THUNDERBOLT SPECIAL and Survival of the Fittest will be on display from October 11, 2008 to March 1, 2009.

Artist Terry Adkins partners with Project Row Houses as curator and participating artist for Round 29: THUNDERBOLT SPECIAL. Joining Adkins in this Round are artists James Andrew Brown, Sherman Fleming, Charles Gaines and George Smith.

Adkins states, “We are all educators, black males and seasoned artists. I chose this group because Hopkins was a black male and a seasoned musician. This group can most appropriately address the life, work and accomplishments of Lightnin’ Hopkins in a variety of ways.”

Each artist will create an original installation in one or more of the artist project houses.

A second focus of the Round is to address the unfortunate truth that although Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins was one of the most prolific and highly acclaimed blues musicians in the world, having recorded 120 albums during his lifetime, there is not a single monument or plaque in his adopted city of Houston, denoting his achievements and contributions to the cultural climate of the city or to his worldwide fame.

This group of artists will begin a public campaign to remedy this oversight by creating individual proposals for permanent public memorials to be erected at various sites in Houston. These proposals will be placed in Project Row Houses archives and made available to the city for future projects.

About THUNDERBOLT SPECIAL artists
• Terry Adkins is Professor of Fine Arts at The University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Adkins is an installation artist and musician who lives and works in Brooklyn and Philadelphia.

• James Andrew Brown is an Associate Professor at The William Paterson University of New Jersey. Mr. Brown stated, “I began as a painter, but my work has undergone a steady expansion into large-scale installations I call, visual experiences, which draws from life. Drawing has been a means of exploring visual communication, and it has been a great part of my creative experience.”

• Sherman Fleming is a visual and performance artist who has exhibited for 26 years across the U.S. as well as The Netherlands and Japan. Mr. Fleming is Program Coordinator for ArtWorks! Mural Art Program’s anti-truancy project in Philadelphia.

• Charles Gaines has focused on the postmodern and metonymy to make art that combines drawn or photographic images with text. His art addresses the irreconcilable opposition, in classical theory, between the conditions of feelings and the conditions of culture which negate each other in the same experience.

• George Smith received his B.F.A. in sculpture from The San Francisco Arts Institute and received and M.F.A. from Hunter College in New York City. Mr. Smith’s sculptures and drawings are inspired by a continuous interest in polygonal and fractal geometry combined with geometric forms witnessed in traditional African sculpture and architecture.

About Survival of the Fittest artist
• El Franco Lee II is the recipient of the 2008 Artadia Awards and the 2008 Lawndale internship program. El Franco’s solo exhibition will feature graphic paintings and drawings that depict social and urban issues.