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Galveston Arts Center October 10th ArtWalk. Chuy
Benitez: Summer in the City and Mark Schatz: Earth Below
us
Galveston, Texas,
—Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present two
exhibitions in conjunction with the October 10th ArtWalk.
Chuy Benitez: Summer in the City and Mark Schatz: Earth
Below us will remain on view through November 22, 2009,
and are free and open to the public. Curator Clint
Willour will lead a gallery talk with the artists at
6:15 pm.
Chuy Benitez: Summer in the City features
digitally-composed color panoramic photographs taken in
New York City in 2009 and Houston in 2008. Documenting
ethnic community groups, Benitez photographed
“Danzantes” (traditional Aztec fire dancers) in Central
Park and a Hare Krishna parade in lower Manhattan.
Benitez - Hare Krishnas
Using digital imaging
technology, Benitez “stitches” together multiple
photographs to create a single horizontal image. “‘New’
techniques of photography have kept ethnic communities
in the US undocumented within the national culture
simply because the members within the community cannot
often afford the equipment necessary to create these
advanced images…,” Benitez writes. “Images made within
ethnic communities are often looked down upon as being
‘behind the times’ or as naïve images.” It is through
his photos that Benitez, using ultra-modern artistic
practices, is able to visually represent communities
that may otherwise be overlooked or otherwise thought of
as unsophisticated.
In 2008, Benitez photographed the after effects of
Hurricane Ike on Houston’s Hispanic community,
documenting the distribution of supplies and bottled
water and clean-up and repair efforts. These works were
recently included in the publication, Houston. It’s
Worth It. IKE. Benitez is an internationally exhibited
and collected Chicano photographer who currently lives
and works in Houston, but is originally from El Paso. He
received a BA in photography from the University of
Notre Dame in 2005, and an MFA in photography/digital
media from the University of Houston in 2008. His work
is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, the Gilberto Cardenas Collection of
Latino Art, and Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin.
Sculptor Mark Schatz turns the world upside down in his
site-specific sculptural installation addressing the
potential effects of global warming. Using materials
accumulated or discarded in domestic environments
(cardboard, scrap wood and Styrofoam), and
scale-modeling methods used by hobbyists, Schatz
fabricates worlds that are both obsessively meticulous
and improvisational. “Inspired in part by the
devastating impact of economic or natural disasters, as
well as the reinvention and rediscovery that can follow
in their wake,” writes Schatz “it is not always clear
whether these unstable landscapes are growing, slipping
into gradual decay, or both.”
Schatz - MapDrawn
A native of Michigan, Schatz received a BFA in sculpture
in 1998 from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,
and an MFA in from The University of Texas at Austin in
2005. He currently lives in Houston and teaches at The
Glassell School of Art at The Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, and San Jacinto College. His work has most
recently been featured in exhibitions at Lawndale Art
Center in Houston, and College of the Mainland, Texas
City.
Galveston Arts Center is currently operating “in exile”
from our second temporary downtown gallery space—the
site of the former Maceo’s Spice and Import Company
located on the corner of Market and 25th Streets. The
administrative offices are also at this location. The
gallery and selections from GAC’s museum shop, ArtWorks,
are open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am
to 5 pm. A flyer listing all ArtWalk participants with
times and locations can be downloaded at
www.galvestonartscenter.org.
Support and Sponsorship
Funding for GAC’s exhibition programs is provided by The
Brown Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc., Harris and
Eliza Kempner Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts,
Texas Commission on the Arts, the City of Galveston
through the Hotel/Motel Tax Fund, and the generous
support of the community, volunteers and an active
membership. GAC’s Art for All Education Program is
supported in part by the Permanent Endowment Fund of
Moody Memorial First United Methodist Church, The
Smothers Foundation, Brown Foundation, Inc., Fondren
Foundation, Alice Taylor Gray Foundation, Harris and
Eliza Kempner Fund, Target Stores, and Texas Commission
on the Arts.
Location and Hours
Galveston Arts Center is located on the corner of Strand
and 22nd (Kempner) Street in historic downtown
Galveston. The building is currently closed until
further notice for repairs to damage from Hurricane Ike.
We anticipate re-opening in 2010. For more information,
call 409.763.2403 or visit www.galvestonartscenter.org.
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