VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents the exhibition Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft.  Opening reception: Friday, May 14, 7-10pm. Artists/Scholars Talk: Saturday, May 15, 2pm. On view May 15-July 25, 2010.

Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft features twenty artists who innovatively expand the traditions of art and craft through the incorporation of performance. The exhibition features a series of on- and offsite performance events, including crochet nights at the Museum in which visitors are invited to crochet works from an installation created by Sheila Pepe, a performance of Anne Wilsonʼs Wind-Up: Walking the Warp, and a series of public events around the city in which Gabriel Craig creates small articles of jewelry for those he encounters.

A complete schedule of dates and locations will be available on the Museumʼs website.

Participating artists include: B Team, Conrad Bakker, Nick Cave, Cat Chow, Gabriel Craig, Lauri Faggioni, Theaster Gates, Cynthia Giachetti, T. Ryan Gothrup, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Lauren Kalman, Christy Matson, James Melchert, Yuka Otani, Sheila Pepe, Michael Rea, Anne Wilson, Saya Woolfalk, and Bohyun Yoon.

Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft is organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. The publication includes contributions by Cassel Oliver, as well as guest contributors, Namita Wiggers, curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft Portland, Oregon, and Glenn Adamson, Head of Graduate Studies, Research Department, Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The catalogue will also include an exhibition checklist, color reproductions of featured works, and artistsʼ biographies and a general bibliography. The publication is designed by Don Quaintance of Public Address Design and distributed by Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P.).

Pictured:  Nick Cave, Sound Suits, 2009. Mixed media. 90 x 43 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, NY.