Going West
Arthouse
January 24 - March 7, 2004

While perhaps exploring an all too common theme, Going West does present a unique and intriguing look at the iconography of the West. The video by Mungo Thompson is a real winner: a slideshow of stills taken from the old Roadrunner cartoons in which most of the action is edited out leaving only the lonely desert landscape. The abstraction that comes from these images works well to convey some sort of existentialists probe of the American dream. Sculpture works by Teresa O'Connor and Katrina Moorhead also really shine. Kudos to Erin Keeverfor bringing to Austin an original program with several artists we know and love (Chris Sauter and Bill Davenport) and introducing other fresh faces. Wherever you live in relation to Arthouse, Go West to see this show.

testsite 04.1 - Anjali Gupta and Jason Singleton
testsite
January 18 - February 22, 2004

Testsite has, once again, succeeded in creating another compelling collaboration. Writer Anjali Gupta posts internal dialogue within artist Jason Singleton's "Essential Volumes," which seem to lie between the superficial display of one's literary knowledge and the containment of an expanse of personal moments. Singleton exhibits an act of compulsive self-reflexivity, in which one must decipher the presentation and the core. This is definitely one of Austin's most genuine and solid art installations.

Matthew Ritchie: Proposition Player, Brown Foundation Gallery
December 13, 2003 - March 14, 2004
Perspectives 140: Anne Wilson: Fragmented Territories
January 16-April 4, 2004
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Who's on top?

It's Interesting to see how CAM has positioned their upstairs / downstairs exhibition program this spring: Ritchie's overpowering male bravado matched with Wilson's obsessive needle and threadwork (read: man plays the power game, woman is more understated and demure - and in the basement). One wonders if Wilson was positioned as the 'politically correct 'proposition player' in this curatorial game. Nevertheless, both shows are worth visiting and spending long periods of time with, you'll certainly come away with favorites. Matthew Ritchie remains an extremely adventurous and delicate painter both on large canvases and small works on vellum -if you can get to them through the amass of actual and virtual game constructions that only serve to literalize his wild imagination (to the enth degree). Don't miss Wilson's first foray into video and sound projection, a hilarious piece documenting the pathetic life of a tangled mess of string.

Viewpoint 2004: Tom Eccles and Chrissie Iles
Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin
Lecture: Thursday, February 5, 2004, 4pm; Seminar: Friday, February 6, 2-4pm

The Department of Art and Art History is proud to present its 13th consecutive Viewpoint Lecture Series. Viewpoint is a sequence of concentrated visits to campus by leading curators, critics, and scholars who are involved in the diverse and multifaceted contemporary art world. Chrissie lies and Tom Eccles, this year's Invitees, will present various programs consisting of public lectures, seminars, and studio critiques. Chrissie lies has been Curator of Film and Video at the Whitney Museum of American Art since 1997 and is one of the curators of the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Tom Eccles has been the Director of The Public Art Fund in New York City since 1996. He has organized engaging and innovative contemporary art exhibitions for many of New York City's diverse and prestigious public spaces including Rockefeller Center, Battery Park City, Park Avenue, and Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park. Admission to the lectures and seminars is free and open to the public.

Conversation between Richard Shiff and Chuck Close
The Metropolitan Museum, New York
January 30, 2004, 6:00 p.m., Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Austin's own Richard Shiff will engage in a public conversation with the artist Chuck Close at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in conjunction with the show of Close's prints now up at the Museum. (The exhibition was organized and first exhibited by Terri Sultan of the Blaffer Gallery in Houston.) Shiff most recent essay on Chuck Close is published in the accompanying catalogue. Richard Shiff holds the Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art and directs the Center for the Study of Modernism at the University of Texas at Austin.

AMOA - Downtown Seeks Exhibitions and Education Assistant

The Austin Museum of Art - Downtown seeks an enthusiastic, detail-oriented professional to provide clerical and administrative assistance to the Exhibitions and Education Department. S/he will report to the Director of Exhibitions and Education, and work with the department as a team-player to undertake the Museum's short and long-range program goals. For more details, please contact HR at hr@amoa.org and
|fax/e-mail resume to 512.469.9159 or the above e-mail by February 27th.