Center for Contemporary Art

The traveling exhibition, TPS 16: The National Competition, Juried by Michelle Dunn Marsh (Aperture) makes a second stop in the tour! On view Dec 1- Jan 31 at the Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene, TX. Other artists on view include Rachel Dunville, Lydia Panas among others.

Road to Nac

Commuting from Austin to Nacogdoches on a weekly basis provides long stretches of road and time alone. To break up the four-hour drive I stop at the half way point between 79 and 7 in a small town called Marquez. The corner store which also serves as a small diner is next to the bait shop and liquor store. Most times when I stop in not much is happening. I typically spend 15-30 minutes in town looking for images. I plan to periodically share some of my photos from this adventure.

Loss

I just found out today my friend, fellow artist and Parsons graduate Eliza Sudol passed away in Austin, Texas. She recently graduated from Parsons in September with an MFA in photography. She was attending the University of Texas at Austin pursuing another degree. I have little information at this time. I have no words for the loss her family and loved ones are feeling. She truly was a light that burnt out way too soon.

CENSORED

This past Wednesday, my photos titled Clean 1 and Clean 2 were draped with black cloth while on view at the Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas. The prints are on display as part of the Stephen F. Austin faculty show which closes this week. A high school arts teacher who previewed the show before bringing her students in asked that the two semi-nude images be covered prior to their arrival.

Upon entering the gallery, the art director was asked to discuss why the images were covered. His reply...."This is censorship."

Normally I would have caused a fuss about the situation however, last year, a fifth-grade arts teacher lost her job after taking her art students on a principal and parent approved filed trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. "Parents raised concerns over the field trip after their children reported seeing a nude sculpture at the art museum."

Who could blame this teacher for wanting to keep her job but what is really going on here? What changed that made parents and teachers so nervous to show their students nude ART. Not pornography, not violent sex scenes, not blood or gore. I think most students see more damaging images on television, in the movies and in their video games. I'm not saying this should or shouldn't been allowed but how can you put art shown in a gallery setting in to the same category and censor it more than you would censor images coming in to your own home?

I suppose its too much to ask for a student or parent to see something that makes them the slightest bit uncomfortable–asks them to look at an image of a semi-nude woman and see her as more than a naked figure. Unfortunately, these students missed out on the context of the images, my story and the reason for the nudity in the first place. So did their teacher.

2007 ArtHouse Texas Prize Awarded

Arthouse Texas is proud to announce that Katrina Moorhead has been awarded the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize. Presented by independent art critic and curator Dave Hickey at the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize Party on the evening of November 2, the $30,000 juried prize is one of the largest regional arts awards in the United States. The first-ever prize in Texas created to acknowledge the accomplishments of an emerging or under-recognized Texas-based artist, the Arthouse Texas Prize distinguishes Moorhead as an exceptional and innovative talent and recognizes her contribution to the energetic and growing Texas art scene.

Katrina Moorhead, who was born in Northern Ireland, has resided in Houston for more than ten years. Her practice centers on exploring the contrast between human and natural creation, often revealing new and beautiful relationships through otherwise mundane objects. In 2005 she participated in the Northern Ireland Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale, and her work was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston. For the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize Exhibition she has meticulously handcrafted boxes of spent fireworks and strings of unexploded fireworks using paper mâché, archival paper, and silver leaf. Each firework's potential explosion refers to the forms of dragons, flowers, and the like, and the strings serve to symbolize a chain of events in the three different romantic courtships.

According to the jury, "The 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize finalists all created new work that demonstrates a level of maturity, individual ambition, and execution. Because the five artists' works were strong, our selection becomes one of subjective response. Katrina Moorhead, the prize recipient, brings together in her work ideas and concepts related to her recent experience in Iceland. Her installation at Arthouse expresses her exceptional ability to create objects resonant with individual and universal meaning. The clarity and complexity of the artist's vision as well as her distinctly personal touch, evident in the handcrafted quality of her objects, are among the qualities that informed our decision to award Moorhead the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize."