Andrew Porter

It’s Wednesday, Nov. 19th. Don’t miss a chance to listen to short stories by Andrew Porter at the Twig Bookshop this afternoon @ 5 pm. Porter’s book The Theory of Light & Matter won the lucrative Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. The Twig Bookshop is located at 5005 Broadway Ave. in San Antonio, Texas.

Shiri Mordechay photographed by Jeffrey Sturges for New Yorker

The gallery talk at Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin this weekend offered visitors a chance to listen to New York based artist, Shiri Mordechay. Shiris’ multimedia, multi-dimensional works on paper are absolutely enthralling and demand plenty of time for you to truly catch every irreverent detail. Mordechay plays with scale, drawing 4 feet tall horses and making them follow a line that ends in tiny, quarter inch collaged photographs of horses. During the gallery talk, Mordechay was reserved, obtuse and oftentimes just at a loss for words in regards to the sexual overtones and possible epic narrative underlying all her work. In this instance, Mordechay makes sense in that the works are so saturated, she shouldn’t have to say too much about their mysterious origins. Arthouse Director Sue Graze asked thoughtful, provocative questions for both Shiri Mordechay and video/sculptor Lauren Kelly and created a true dialog between the artists and the viewers.

Lauren Kelly’s video of Edenic, verdant utopias headed for destruction and doom offered viewers a close up view of a faux French garden. Flocked toy animals sit silently while a French narrator reads a poem a bit incongruent with the white subtitles. Lauren seemed slightly nervous, but thoroughly explained her continuous curiosity for all things utopic as they exist in the shadows of real events such as Hurricane Ike. Along the way, she manages to evoke some giggles with stop motion animation that makes a rabbit flick its felt tongue over and over for a few seconds. Truly absurdist, delightful work that I highly recommend if you’re rolling around Austin. The entire show, “Rapture & Rupture”, was curated by Elizabeth Dunbar and will be on view through January 11th. {Congratulations to Elizabeth on her new baby, just born on the very bright morning of our Gallery Talk! }

Anne Ferrer

If you’re in Texas, I highly recommend taking a leisurely drive to Austin,Texas tomorrow for a show at Ruby’s BBQ. A Scandinavian experimental Jazz set by a group called The Thing promises to be a true spectacle. How can you go wrong with a bass playing friend named Ingebrigt Haaker Flaten? In other news, how about all the news that’s too good to be true? Hat Tip to Chris Cogburn for tomorrow’s news today. And speaking of the news, here’s a great photography blog with candid images of our President Elect, Barack Obama.

I’m awaiting an interview with Parisian artist Anne Ferrer, whose work is currently on exhibit in an amazing solo show at Cactus Bra Space. Her hot pink watercolor drawings are incredibly fantastic and somewhat vulgar. Tonight, there is another Artist Lecturing on Art event at the McNay with local mover and shaker, Kimberly Aubuchon. Get there around 6 o’clock if you like red wine. And don’t forget, if you like NPR’s variety show, “Whaddya Know?” then you should buy tickets to be a part of the live studio audience on Saturday, Nov. 22nd at Laurie Auditorium. They ask funny questions like “What are the mating habits of squirrels?”

I have a dress just like this!!