The Houston Alternative Art chronology was originally compiled by Caroline Huber and The Art Guys for the exhibition catalogue No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston , which was published by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) to accompany the group show of the same name. The exhibition was on view at CAMH, located at 5216 Montrose Blvd., in Houston, TX, May 9-October 4, 2009. Co-curated by Toby Kamps and Meredith Goldsmith, No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston featured projects by twenty-one Houston artists using the city as inspiration, material, and site. This chronology documents Houston’s alternative art scene.
Before 1970
1930
Houston Artists’ Gallery
Grace Spaulding Johns and a group of dedicated women opened the city’s first artist-run gallery, the Houston Artists’ Gallery, in the basement of the Beaconsfield Hotel on Main Street. The organization sponsored exhibitions, auctions, and lectures.
1949
Contemporary Arts Association*
Houston artists and architects seeking a venue for displaying contemporary art and design founded the volunteer-operated Contemporary Arts Association, initially presenting exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts and in 1949 erecting an A-frame museum building on Dallas Street in downtown Houston. The organization gradually gained professional status and curator Jermayne MacAgy was hired as its first full-time director in 1955.
- The building housing the Contemporary Arts Association (CAA) was from its inception often referred to as the Contemporary Arts Museum (CAM) and the latter name was used almost exclusively from the 1970s to 1990s. In 2002 the institution’s name was officially changed to the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH).
1956
The Orange Show
Postman Jeff McKissack began to single-handedly design and build ‘’The Orange Show’’, a brightly colored, carnival-like environment dedicated to the orange and to the virtues of good health and right living. He used concrete, stucco, and found objects—mosaic tiles, wrought iron fencing, wagon wheels, mannequins, and tractor seats—to transform two plots on Munger Street in the East End into a vividly painted architectural maze of walkways, balconies, exhibits, and performance stages. McKissack thought it would be an attraction “bigger than the Astrodome that 90% of the people in the United States will want to see.” But when The Orange Show finally opened to the public in 1979, the hordes of visitors he anticipated did not come. McKissack died shortly thereafter. The facility is now preserved by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art and is the site of numerous events and performances.
1963
Jim Love and Roy Fridge Studio
Artists Jim Love and Roy Fridge shared a studio in a two-story derelict storefront on Truxillo Street near West Alabama. It became a meeting place and notorious party site for artists such as Donald Barthelme, Jack Boynton, David McManaway, and Charles T. Williams, along with numerous Houston art patrons and international visitors such as Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle.
1968
The Beer Can House
John Milkovisch, a retired railroad upholsterer, began to transform an ordinary bungalow in Houston’s West End into a kinetic, shimmering environment. Working for twenty years, he covered the entire yard and drive with intricate patterns of concrete studded with marbles, salvaged industrial washers, and stones; decorated the house and trees with garlands made from beer can tops, rims, and pull tabs; and clad the house with thousands of flattened beer cans (he consumed all the beer, with help from his wife, Mary), ensuring that he would never have to paint the house again. “They say every man should leave something to be remembered by,” he said. “At least I accomplished that goal.” The site is now a revered local monument maintained by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art.
1969
Daucus Carota
http://www.herschelberry.com, Michael Hollis, and Kelly Kirkonnel started Daucus Carota (Latin for “wild carrot”) while they were in high school. The group had a shifting membership that included http://www.andyfeehan.com, Nicky Galmiche, Chris Lesikar, Jim Martin, and Julian Schnabel. Members of Daucus Carota used images and sculptures of carrots in their work, often leaving bunches of real carrots in their wake. They sculpted an oversized painted carrot, which they placed around town, including in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, in a gesture designed to belittle the art establishment.
Ant Farm
In 1968 in San Francisco, Chip Lord and Doug Michels founded the architecture and art collective Ant Farm, which later included Douglas Hurr, Hudson Marquez, and Curtis Schreier. In 1969 while Lord and Michels were teaching at the University of Houston College of Architecture, Ant Farm staged a series of free-form architectural performances in the Houston area. Subsequently they worked throughout the United States, but realized some of their important projects in Houston, including Time Capsule 1972–1984 (1972); a monumental sculpture on Kirby Drive for the Hard Rock Café with an actual 1962 Thunderbird hardtop convertible towering aloft, STP (Save the Planets) (1985); and their award-winning project The House of the Century (1971–73), a futurist spaceship-like dwelling for Marilyn Oshman Lubetkin located near Angleton, Texas, south of Houston.
1970s
1972
Goodyear Blimp over CAM
During the opening of Exhibition 10, curated by Sebastian J. Adler at the Conemporary Arts Museum, artist and experimental filmmaker Michael Snow created an elaborate piece on the advertising light grid of the Goodyear Blimp, which flew over the museum.
Hyde Park Miniature Museum
D. D. Smalley, grandfather of artist and musician Frank Davis, was inspired by his grandson’s birth in 1941 and began production of what was eventually called the Hyde Park Miniature Museum. On display in the oversized attic of a house on Hyde Park Street was a range of artifacts, including 250,000 postage stamps wrapped in bundles of 100, dinosaur excrement and bones, Indian skulls, tools, handmade models, over 1,000 clocks, the U.S. Constitution in Braille, wax recordings, a three-toed horse hoof, short wave radio paraphernalia, bee tracking glasses, dressed fleas, and many other curiosities and miscellany, all carefully arranged and catalogued.
B. E. & J. Holding Firm
Bob Camblin, Earl Staley, and Joe Tate, all university studio art teachers, used the chance operation of the I Ching to name their collaboration the “B. E. & J. Holding Firm.” In the backyard of their shared Montrose-area studio on Garrott Street, they built a large sculptural tower with a payphone on the third floor. It became a meeting place for many artists in the community, including Al Smith, David Folkman, Jack Boynton, and Mark Battista, a former architecture student from Rice University. Their collaboration resulted in three exhibitions at the University of St. Thomas.
1973
Re:Vision
In fall 1973 Ian Glennie, interim director of the Contemporary Arts Museum, organized an exhibition called Re:Vision, which included performances, concerts, films, and artworks. One of the projects was a site-based sound portrait of Houston by Robert Whitman, a New York artist known for his theater and technology works. Whitman assembled volunteers and assigned each participant a specific location on a map of Houston and a time to call in. When they reached Whitman, they talked about where they were and what they saw. Using a sound mixing board, Whitman then arranged recordings of the calls into a concertlike sound piece that was broadcast live on Pacifica radio.
1974
West End* Metal Houses
On Roy Street, a few blocks away from the Beer Can House and mirroring the vernacular metal warehouses scattered throughout the neighborhood, architects Eugene Aubry, Ian Glennie, and Hossein Oskouie designed the first residence using an industrial metal exterior. This residential type has since proliferated in the area (sometimes referred to as “Tin Town”) and throughout the city. Glennie and Fredericka Hunter of Texas Gallery were the original inhabitants of the loftlike space, and they presented the first Houston performances of composer Philip Glass and pioneer performance artist Joan Jonas in their home.
- The area informally known as the West End is bounded by Washington Avenue on the north, Memorial on the south, and Durham and Westcott to the east and west, incorporating more formal subdivisions such as Rice Military and Magnolia Grove.
1975
The Menil Collection Campus
Facilitated by the lack of zoning in Houston, John and Dominique de Ménil discreetly began acquiring thirty acres of property adjacent to the University of St. Thomas, at first intended for potential university expansion. They later decided to build their museum there and to maintain the residential properties against the incursio
LGI Development: Acreage Developments, Affordable Home Communities ...
Since our first acreage homesite development in Magnolia, Texas more than 10 years ago, we have been creating communities that offer families the space, tranquility and quality of ...
LGI Development: Acreage Developments, Affordable Home Communities ...
Since our first acreage homesite community in Magnolia, Texas in 1995, LGI Development has grown from a respected local land developer into a nationally recognized corporation ...
Riverchase Estates – Gated Acreage Community Near Charlotte NC
home | the setting | the amenities | the developer | photo gallery | site plan | contact us Since our first acreage homesite community in Magnolia, Texas in 1995, LGI Development has grown ...
Magnolia Texas Real Estate TX Realty Homes for Sale Houses Land ...
If you are looking for a single family home, horse property or a home for sale with acreage in Magnolia Tx my Automated Real Estate Search can find it for you.
The Developer - Benders Landing Estates - an LGI Land Acreage Homesite ...
Since our first acreage homesite community in Magnolia, Texas in 1995, LGI Development has grown from a respected local land developer into a nationally recognized corporation.
Magnolia Texas Real Estate Community Profile on Yahoo! Video
Magnolia Texas is situated in the gently rolling hills of Montgomery County and features beautiful, upscale acreage communities. People are locating to Magnolia due to its beauty ...
Magnolia Texas MLS: Homes on Acreage
$2,850,000: 28322 MEADOW FALLS: Subdivision: High Meadow Ranch: City: MAGNOLIA: Style: Traditional: Zip Code: 77355: Bedrooms: 5 Bedrooms: Stories: 2 Story: Baths: 5 Full & 4 Half ...
Rocio Rincon, REALTOR® - Sugar Land, TX 77479 with Houston Realty
You can find great local Magnolia, Texas real estate information on Localism.com Rocio Rincon is a proud member of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a free online community to ...
Magnolia Texas Real Estate Community Profile - Video
Magnolia Texas is situated in the gently rolling hills of Montgomery County and features beautiful, upscale acreage communities. People are locating to Magnolia due to its beauty ...
Magnolia Texas MLS: Area Acreage
$12,500,000: 0 Hardin Store: Subdivision: None: City: Magnolia: Style: Ranch: Zip Code: 77354: Est. Acreage: 440 : Build Sqft: 5,200 / Seller : Key Map® PAGE 248Q