VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) and the Houston Museum of African American Culture are pleased to bring internationally renowned musician and performance artist Pamela Z to Houston for a performance of her own compositions in conjunction with the exhibition Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us. Saturday, December 4, 2010. 7pm, free admission. *Special location: Houston Museum of African American Culture, 4807 Caroline St.

Pamela Z is a San Francisco-based composer/performer and media artist who works primarily with voice, live electronic processing, sampling technology, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she creates solo works combining experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, digital processing, and MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures. In addition to her solo work, she has composed and recorded scores for dance, theater, film, and new music chamber ensembles.

Her large-scale multi-media works have been presented at venues, including Theater Artaud and ODC in San Francisco, and The Kitchen in New York. Her media works have been presented in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Diözesanmuseum, Cologne; and the Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois. Her multi-media opera Wunderkabinet, co-composed with Matthew Brubeck and inspired by The Museum of Jurassic Technology, has been presented at The LAB Gallery, San Francisco; REDCAT, Los Angeles; and Open Ears Festival, Toronto. Pamela Z has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Pamela Z is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Creative Capital Fund, the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts, The MAP Fund, the ASCAP Music Award, an Ars Electronica honorable mention, and the NEA and Japan/US Friendship Commission Fellowship. She holds a music degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. For more information visit www.pamelaz.com.

ABOUT BENJAMIN PATTERSON: BORN IN THE STATE OF FLUX/US
Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us is a retrospective of the artist's career, which now spans nearly fifty years. The exhibition includes both early and recent work by the artist that range from annotated scores and books to painting and sculpture. Video documentation from performances and audio files of Patterson's music will also be featured. As a founding member of Fluxus, a loose and international collective of artists who infused avant-garde practices of the day with humor and anarchic energy, Patterson helped revolutionize the artistic landscape at the advent of the 1960s and usher in an era of new and experimental music. Now in his seventies, Patterson is being discovered by a new generation of artists. Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us marks the artist's first major exhibition, bringing together a multitude of works never before seen in the United States. The exhibition is curated by CAMH Senior Curator Valerie Cassel Oliver and is on view through January 23, 2011.

EXHIBITION SUPPORT
Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us is supported by generous grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
Support for shipping was generously provided by Christo/CVJ Corporation, Jean Dupuy, Letty Lou Eisenhauer, Henry Flynt, Geoffrey Hendricks, Jon Hendricks, Yoko Ono Lennon, Phoebe Neville and Philip Corner, The Oldenburg van Bruggen Foundation, Jeffery Perkins, Lila and Gilbert Silverman, Miyuki Sugaya and Toshiyuki Nemoto, Jean Toche and Yoshimasa Wada.

The exhibitions in the Brown Foundation Gallery have been made possible by the patrons, benefactors and donors to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's Major Exhibition Fund: Major Patron--Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Fayez Sarofim, Michael Zilkha; Patrons--Louise D. Jamail, Mr. and Mrs. I. H. Kempner III, Ms. Louisa Stude Sarofim, Leigh and Reggie Smith; Benefactors--City Kitchen Catering, George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Jackson Hicks / Jackson and Company, Marley Lott, Poppi Massey, Beverly and Howard Robinson, Andrew Schirrmeister, Susan Vaughan Foundation, Inc., Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Wilson; Donors--A Fare Extraordinaire, Anonymous, Baker Botts, L.L.P, Bergner and Johnson Design, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Jereann Chaney, Susie and Sanford Criner, Elizabeth Howard Crowell, Ruth Dreessen and Thomas Van Laan, Marita and J.B. Fairbanks, Jo and Jim Furr, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Mr. and Mrs. William Goldberg / Bernstein Global Wealth Management, King & Spalding L.L.P., KPMG, LLP, Judy and Scott Nyquist, David I. Saperstein, Scurlock Foundation, Karen and Harry Susman, and Martha Claire Tompkins.

EDUCATION SUPPORT
The Museum receives support for its education programs from: Anonymous, Baker Botts L.L.P., Baker Hughes Foundation, Ruth Dreessen and Thomas Van Laan, Louise D. Jamail, John P. McGovern Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. I.H. Kempner III, Kinder Morgan Foundation, Andrew R. McFarland, M.D. Anderson Foundation, Marian and Speros Martel Foundation Endowment, Mrs. Louisa Stude Sarofim, and 20K Group, LLC.

Teen Council is supported by Mrs. Louisa Stude Sarofim and Baker Hughes Foundation.

GENERAL SUPPORT
The Museum's operations and programs are made possible through the generosity of the Museum's trustees, patrons, members and donors. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston receives partial operating support from the Houston Endowment, Inc., the City of Houston through the Houston Museum District Association, National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and The Wortham Foundation, Inc.

Continental Airlines is the official airline of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

CAMH MISSION
The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is an idea and a place shaped by the present moment. The Museum exemplifies the dynamic relationship between contemporary art and contemporary society through its exhibitions, public and educational programs, and publications. The CAMH provides the physical and intellectual framework essential to the presentation, interpretation, and advancement of contemporary art; it is a vibrant forum for artists and all audiences, and for critical, scholarly, and public discourse.

ALWAYS FRESH, ALWAYS FREE

GENERAL INFORMATION
The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is located at 5216 Montrose Boulevard, at the corner of Montrose and Bissonnet, in the heart of Houston's Museum District. Hours are Wednesday 11am-7pm, Thursday 11am-9pm, Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm. Admission is always free. For more information, visit www.camh.org  or call 713 284 8250.

Photo credit: Donald Swearingen. donaldswearingen@23arts.net.