Only a few times (a week) does Houstonist gets so excited about an event that we forget about this summer's deluge for a few moments. Weather was the last thing on our minds when our mother told us we found out about this event. More like, "weather" or not we should just go camp out now and wait for the opening. (Please don't let our contrived puns keep you from reading.)
Perspectives 157: Xaviera Simmons, the first Texas exhibition for this Brooklyn-based photo, video and installation artist, will fill the walls of the Zilkha Gallery with the artist’s collection of vintage album covers from recordings by significant black musicians ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to Anthony Braxton and Alice Coltrane.
The exhibition marks the debut of Simmons’s installation, Electric Relaxation: Digital Good Time (How to Break Your Own Heart), which also doubles as a performance space.
The exhibition will also feature jazz film and video footage, felt-covered sitting booths, and a DJ platform with speakers. Simmons will perform a DJ set at the opening (July 19th | 6:30pm), and the room will serve as a listening station and performance space throughout the exhibition’s run. The interactive sound installation creates a space that is constantly changing in response to its audience.
"Xaviera Simmons desires to create a living archive, an ode to black music and performance that serves to celebrate the very music that has inspired it,” said CAMH curator and exhibition organizer Valerie Cassel Oliver.
“The installation is a unique marriage between music and visual arts, tied together in this case by an appreciation and love for African American music. Like the histories of black music and art, this installation is ever evolving.”
Soular Sessions
In conjunction with the exhibition, several of Houston’s top DJs will perform in the Zilkha Gallery on four Thursday nights as part of Soular Sessions, a series co-curated by the artist and DJ Sun, presented in partnership with the Houston Press and KPFT 90.1 FM.
>>Thursday, July 19, 7pm-9pm Xaviera Simmons and DJ Sun
>>Thursday, August 9, 7pm-9pm DJ Witnes
>>Thursday, August 16, 7pm-9pm DJ Pooks and Josh Zulu
>>Thursday, August 23, 7pm-9pm The Are and Zeus
For more about this exhibit and the artist follow the jump.
About The Artist
Xaviera Simmons lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y, and completed the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. Her work has been seen in solo exhibitions at The Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum; the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Queens, N.Y.; Art in General, New York; and Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conn. It has also been included in exhibitions at venues including The Studio Museum in Harlem; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; and Saatchi and Saatchi New York. Her residences and fellowships include Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey; The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; The Center for Photography at Woodstock; Art in General, New York; and The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York.
Other Events In Conjunction with this Exhibit
>>Thursday, July 19 | 6:30 p.m.
Perspectives Talk with Xaviera Simmons, exhibiting artist
>>Thursday, August 2 | 6:30 p.m.
Perspectives Talk with Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of the exhibition and Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
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Exhibit Dates | July 20-September 16, 2007
Regular Gallery Hours: Tues-Wed 10am-5pm | Thurs 10am-9pm | Fri-Sat 10am-5pm |Sun 12noon-5pm
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston | 5216 Montrose
www.camh.org
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