VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston presents Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein, on view October 1, 2011 - January 8, 2012. Opening reception: September 30, 7-9PM. Curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Senior Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is pleased to present the first comprehensive survey of work by New York-based painter Donald Moffett. Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein will provide viewers with insight into the breadth of the artist's practice over the past twenty years. As a painter, Moffett extends the traditional two-dimensional frame by creating highly textured relief works in oil paint or sometimes turning monochrome surfaces into intricate illuminations by incorporating video projections. The subject matter of his paintings-from politics and history to landscape and nature-are poetic, provocative, and even at times humorous. Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein presents nine important bodies of work created over the last two decades, including painting, works on paper, photography, sound works, and Moffett's light-loop paintings (paintings that incorporate video projections onto their surfaces).

An astute and thoughtful painter, Moffett knows the power of the artist to critique the world at large. A founding member of Gran Fury, the artistic arm of the AIDS activist group ACT UP, Moffett has remained engaged with issues surrounding the presence of gays in historical and contemporary culture. And he is fearless in addressing issues that still resonate today, such as the rights of openly gay men and women to serve in the military (Gays in the Military, 1990-91).

The series Gays in the Military (1990-91) draws upon the artist's formal training and keen interest in graphic design. Appropriating found prints from American Civil War military books, Moffett re-introduces the still relevant issue with humorous double-entendres and tongue-in-cheek wit. The series is juxtaposed in this exhibition with the suite of drawings Mr. Gay in the U.S.A. (2001).

In 2001, the artist attended the murder trial of Ronald Edward Gay, who was later convicted of murder. Angered that his surname, Gay, had become synonymous with homosexuality, Gay walked into the Backstreet Cafe (a known gay bar) in Roanoke, Virginia on September 22, 2000 and pulled a 9-milimeter gun from his coat killing Danny Lee Overstreet and wounding six others. While drawing has not figured largely into Moffett's work, through simple lines Moffett not only chronicles the trial, but visually renders the narrative of a hate crime and the judicial process - the interior of a courtroom, the profile of an accused killer, the faces of his victims, the jurors' box, among others - creating a series of haunting images.

Moffett's work, however, is not dominated by frameworks of politics and power, though these issues remain vital foundations in his ongoing advocacy towards civil rights. This exhibition explores the artist's later preoccupation with the expansion of the language of painting through the use of non-traditional materials such as video projection on paintings, reflecting his long-standing investigation of light and its relationship with flat, static surfaces.

With works including the two series What Barbara Jordan Wore (2000-2002) and D.C. (2002-2004), as well as the sound work Impeach (2002), Moffett takes on the polemics of power. Inspired by the Watergate hearings and the eloquent speeches of Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, an African-American woman and the first to hold rank on the House Judiciary Committee, Moffett reframed the hearings, projecting images of Jordan onto the canvas. Through the integration of the moving image upon the canvas, the audience bears witness to the brilliant nuances of the congresswoman's political astuteness.

The use of the light loop initiated by this series reappears in three subsequent bodies of work, including D.C. (2002-2004). In this series, Moffett takes a formalist look into the architectural icons of political power and everyday life amidst the talismans of patriotism, history, and corruption. His only sound work, the installation Impeach (2002), includes audio of John Lewis, House Representative and Democrat from Georgia. Using the timbre of his voice during an impassioned speech defending President Clinton during his impeachment hearings, Moffett's work builds into a crescendo that engulfs the viewer.

Also featured in this exhibition are the artist's signature abstract paintings that bear the simple title Lot (1995-present). These paintings-often created as highly textured, monochromatic or, more recently, crafted canvases complete with zippers and embroidered elements-not only challenge the definition of painting as two-dimensional forms, but also reinforce Moffett's rendering of light . Featured Lot paintings are drawn from a number of series created over the artist's career, including Hippie Shit (2005), Fleisch (2007), Gutted (2007-2008), and Comfort Holes (2009-2010).

In addition to the aforementioned works, on view is work from the exhibition's title series The Extravagant Vein (2003) and Paintings from a Hole (2004), which incorporate the moving image onto canvas; as well as works on paper, Nom de Guerre (1991); and the photographic work Blue (NY) (1997).

Widely respected in the national and international arts community, Moffett remains relatively under-recognized to the general public. Although he has exhibited in some of the most prestigious venues throughout the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and the Centro Galego De Arte Contemporánea in Spain, the impact of his extraordinary body of work has been largely uninvestigated as a whole until now. Donald Moffett: The Extravagant Vein provides a unique opportunity to not only celebrate the prolific career of this artist over the past two decades but also his influence on the field of contemporary art. While this exhibition provides perspective on several important topics of our contemporary lives, it is, too, a meditation on the larger, universal issues of love, loss, alienation, and death.

The exhibition will travel to The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (February 18-June 3, 2012), and The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA (June 23-September 9, 2012).

Pictured:  Donald Moffett, Lot 051408 (X), 2008. Acrylic, polyvinyl acetate with rayon, and steel zipper on linen, wood stretcher. 54 x 44 inches. Private collection, New York.