Interact with Houston Artists at the CAMH's "No Zoning"

It's arguable that the culture of no zoning in Houston has anything to do with it, but Houston artists have worked and exhibited outside traditional museum and gallery settings for decades. No Zoning, now on view at the CAMH, documents the alternative art scene in Houston and the ideas, structures and projects that have emerged from our unique urban landscape.

Installations by Houston artists Sharon Engelstein, Bill Davenport and Nestor Topchy explore alternative art spaces, subverting the traditional gallery and museum structure. Englestein's Gallery One Three Seven, a portable 1.37 square foot art space, allows artists to show work "on their own terms". Davenport's installation Bill's Junk is a satellite of his Heights area store front of the same name. A sign ripped out of a spiral notebook attached to the entrance of the installation verifies that "Yes, everything is really for sale". Inside we found a collection of handmade objects and yard sale paintings that Davenport had titled and priced. Bill's Junk exemplifies the tongue-in-cheek themes in Davenport's work (his own RISD diploma was for sale to the tune of $32,000) that question value in the art market. Davenport will be present on Saturdays and Thursday evenings to take payment for objects in the shop, and we were lucky enough to chat with Davenport during our visit. We learned that the basket of signed sea shells were originally $1.00 each but appreciated to $2.00, and that the cornballs were created from leftover materials from an exhibit at his gallery. The most ambitious project is Organ, Nestor Topchy's plan for a self-sustaining art village made of shipping containers. Plans describe a perimeter of affordable studio and living spaces with a central "Hive" surrounded by gardens, and will include amenities like child care and a farmer's market.

Other installations explore the ideas of permanence, destruction and time. Co-founders of Workshop Houston Benjy Mason and Zach Moser are collaborating on the public art piece Yacht Shop. Every Saturday during the exhibit the community is invited to help build a small sailboat, which will ultimately be destroyed. The purpose is to emphasize that the point of the project is the process, not the end result. Occupying the center of the gallery is Give and Take, the ovaloid core of an abandoned Heights bungalow installed by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck, the creators of Inversion. In Give and Take the viewer becomes aware of the passage of time on the structure through the disintegrating beams and crumbling wallpaper still clinging to the inside walls. The lives of old inhabitants are evoked by a tattered robe hanging on a hook and the remnants of a wall-mounted pencil sharpener, which humanizes the demolition of the structure.

No Zoning is a historic exposition of the alternative art movement in Houston, and includes installations by Jim Pirtle (founder of notsuoH), Rick Lowe (Project Row Houses) and Mary Ellen Carroll (Prototype 180). Photographs of fringe and offbeat events by Ben Tecumseh DeSoto and George Hixon provide additional documentation of the artists and places central to alternative art in the city. Houstonist recommends heading to the CAMH on either a Thursday evening or a Saturday so that you can take part in the many interactive events associated with No Zoning.

No Zoning
May 9-October 4, 2009
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
5216 Montrose Blvd.

Photo credit: Bryan Peters