Sunday, November 22, 2015

Welcome to EXU


EXU was inspired by tabloid newspapers. I wanted it filled with images that have the force of classic crime scene photos as well as narrative art (prose and comics). The oversized format is designed to give the art maximum visual impact. This is why we publish one image per page with minimal text. The artists are mostly from Houston. They come out of the galleries, the street art scene, the comics world, and the magazine field.

Kelly Alison






Kelly Alison was born 1957, and in the late 70’s and early 80’s at the University of Houston she was one of the students involved with the original Lawndale Art Annex, (Houston’s first alternative space). In 1985, Alison was the youngest artist in Fresh Paint: The Houston School (MFAH and PS1). Alison is the Executive Director of the Lone Star Explosion, Houston’s International Performance Art Biennale. 

Kelly Alison has two pieces of art in EXU, including Trouble in Bugtown (above).

Seth Alverson

 


Seth Alverson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Houston, in 2002 and his Master of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2010. His work has been exhibited in Houston, Austin and New York. 

Seth Alverson has two pieces  in EXU, including this one: Landscape With a Ruined Foot.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Debra Barrera

 
Debra Barrera was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and currently lives and works in Houston, Texas. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Houston. Her work has recently been included in a solo exhibitionat the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Sig Byrd





Sig Byrd (1909-1987) was a newspaper columnist for the old Houston Press and the Houston Chronicle. His column for the Press was called “The Stroller.” Some of these columns were collected in the book Sig Byrd’s Houston (1955), which is, alas, long out of print.

The drawing of Byrd above is by EXU editor Robert Boyd.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

JooYoung Choi





JooYoung Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to Concord, New Hampshire in 1983 by way of adoption. While completing her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she returned to South Korea and reunited with her birth-family. Since receiving her MFA from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Choi's artwork has been exhibited in Seattle, Chicago and Houston.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Jamal Cyrus and Walter Stanciell



Jamal Cyrus was born in Houston in 1973, where he currently resides. He earned his BFA from the University of Houston, participated in the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and received his MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. His has shown his work and performance in New York and Houston, including at Project Row Houses. 

Walter Stanciell is a native Houstonian and Third Wardite. He attended the Commercial Arts Vocational Program at Yates high school, and works as a professional sign painter.

Bill Daniel

 


Bill Daniel is an artist, photographer, filmmaker, currently based in Texas. For 30 years he has been a participant/producer in a number of underground scenes, from the early 80s Texas punk scene, the 90s San Francisco Mission School/Critical Mass/experimental film community, and in a continuous culture of touring artists.

Nicky Davis

 


Nicky Davis is a visual artist living and working in Houston, Texas across a diverse range of mediums, including: fine art, street murals, and merchandise. His work has been included in gallery exhibitions in Italy, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston and his murals have been featured by Red Bull and Seagram’s Gin, and at Art Basel. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Houston.

Nathaniel Donnett

 


Nathaniel Donnett is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Houston, Texas and studied at Texas Southern University. Donnett is the founder of the website blog NotThat But This. He is currently the recipient of the 2015 Idea Fund /Andy Warhol Foundation Grant. He’s exhibited New York, Connecticut, Milwaukee, Lima, Peru and at The Contemporary Arts Museum and Project Row Houses in Houston.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Inés Estrada

 


Inés Estrada is an illustrator and cartoonist from Mexico City currently living in Texas. Her comics have been published by Vice, Breakdown Press, The Believer and Kuš! and she also self-publishes them under her imprint Gatosaurio.

Pete Gershon


Pete Gershon, above center, is the Program Coordinator for the Core Residency Program, the author of Painting the Town Orange:: The Stories behind Houston's Visionary Art Environments (History Press, 2014), and the founding publisher of Signal to Noise: the journal or improvised and experimental music.

(Pete Gershon with Jack Massing, left, and Earl Staley, right.)

Scott Gilbert



 Scott A. Gilbert studied art at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of South Florida and the University of Houston (Lawndale studios). From 1989 to 2002, he produced the weekly comic strip "True ArtistTales", some of which were in It's All True! The Best of True Artist Tales.

Matthew Guest

 
Matthew Guest, an interdisciplinary artist, lives and works in Texas. He received a BFA in Printmaking from Texas Christian University and a MFA in Painting from the University of South Florida.  He teaches art in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. His books, objects, paintings, prints, and drawings have been exhibited and published nationally and internationally.

The Amazing Hancock Brothers

 


The Amazing Hancock Brothers were educated at Baylor University and are based in Texas. look to shock as much as inform. Brothers Charles and John are also performance artists who have performed in New York and in Texas. John once said, “I guess you could call it low-brow art. We’re a lot less sophisticated than you think.”

Trenton Doyle-Hancock




 
Houston-based Trenton Doyle Hancock got his BFA from Texas A&M University-Commerce and his MFA from Tyler. His work has been exhibited in many places, including a recent retrospective at the CAMH andthe Studio Museum of Harlem. He co-created a ballet, Cult of Color: Call to Color, for the Austin Ballet.

Hillerbrand+Magsamen




Hillerbrand+Magsamen are a collaborative husband and wife visual artist team comprised of Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen. Hillerbrand+Magsamen have presented their videos in international film and media festivals and their photographs and installations have been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums. They live in Houston, Texas with their two children, Madeleine and Emmett.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Brett Hollis

 


Brett Hollis was born out of the Philadelphia Punk and Skateboard scene. This subculture was a catalyst to his irreverent and experimental works in comics, art, music and film.   His paintings have been exhibited in Austin, Houston and Los Angeles. Brett also has had his work shown at the Los Angeles International Film festival as well as Holly shorts Film festival. He currently resides in Houston where he recently released a book of short comics and art.

Perry House

 


Born in Orange Texas in 1943, Perry House graduated from the California College of Arts, Oakland, CA in 1970, and has been living and working in Houston for the last 30 years.

John Hovig

 


John Hovig draws upon his high-tech background to depict scenes of technological dystopia. Hovig was born in 1968, in upstate New York. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Computer Science. He became a full-time artist in 2011, after serving over a decade as the CTO and chief software architect of a small internet-based software company.

Galina Kurlat

 
Galina Kurlat was born in Moscow in 1981 and emigrated to the United States in 1989. She received her Bachelor of Media Arts Degree from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute in 2005, she currently lives and works in Houston, TX. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in number of public and private collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 

Dean Liscum

 


Dean Liscum is a Houston-based art and fiction writer. He has written extensively on the Houston performance art scene for the Great God Pan Is Dead. (Dean Liscum is on the left, next to Harbeer Singh Lagataar. Photo by Robert Boyd)

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

John Nova Lomax

 


Texas Monthly senior editor John Nova Lomax is also the author of a guidebook to Houston dive bars (Houston's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Bayou City) and a co-author of a compilation of notorious Houston crimes, Murder and Mayhem in Houston:: Historic Bayou City Crime . Lomax has been a full-time journalist in the Bayou City since 2001. His work has appeared in the Houston Press, Houston Chronicle, Spin, the New York Times, the Village Voice, LA Weekly and other publications. (Photo by Joseph Lomax.)

Monday, November 9, 2015

Ike Morgan




Ike E. Morgan started painting as a resident of the Austin State Hospital, where his work was discovered by Jim Pirtle. From that time, Morgan’s work has been widely exhibited and collected. Morgan’s gallery is the Webb Gallery in Waxahatchee. Morgan lives in Austin. 

The picture above is one of three by Ike Morgan in EXU, including the cover. 

Emily Peacock

 


Emily Peacock studied photography at Sam Houston State University and got an MFA at the University of Houston. Her work has been exhibited all over Texas, as well as in Austria, Kentucky, Colorado and New York.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Jim Pirtle

 


Jim Pirtle was born in Houston, TX in 1960. He went to Baylor University in Waco, TX and after college he moved to Austin, TX and got a job as an orderly at the Austin State Hospital. He learned art from his peers, including Nestor Topchy and Mark Flood. He creates paintings, video, nonfiction prose and performance. He owns and runs a social sculpture/bar & performance space called Notsuoh in downtown Houston. 

(Photo by Robert Boyd)