December 10, 2016 - January 21, 2017

A group show, sponsored by Sculpture Month Houston, featuring Susan Budge, Larry Graeber, Abby Sherrill, Anthony Suber, Ben Woitena and Jo Zider.

Essay by Volker Eisele

This exhibition is a continuation of the celebration of sculpture throughout the Sculpture Month Houston (SMH) project that ended November 19, 2016. Showcasing the diversity of sculpture in Houston was an important goal of the many exhibits in connection with SMH.

As part of the event program for SMH, an experimental performance called “Music and Sculpture” was presented at the MATCH. The renowned Romantic era song cycle “Winterreise” by Franz Schubert was juxtaposed with sculptures by five sculptors representing a favorite Romantic theme: the forest as a magical natural landscape. The current exhibition “Space Garden” is echoing this theme and highlights sculptors who are engaged in various forms of space exploration.

The DADA inflected sculptures of Larry Graeber are juxtaposed with the more volumetric works by Jo Zider and reflect the idea of a “Space Garden” that lets one ambulate around and contemplate the natural world as a transcendent artifice.

Susan Budge’s polished ceramic pieces were part of the “Music and Sculpture” setting and reflect on its fairy tale aspect, including one eyed trolls, murderous giants and Rapunzel.

Ben Woitena’s small-scale sculptures are great examples of this master sculptor’s modernist approach to sculptures, one that helped pioneer contemporary sculptures in Houston.

Abby Sherrill’s installation is the second interpretation of this specific installation of hers at our gallery. Her work straddles the line between drawing and sculpture. Her “Spoon collection” consists of vaguely familiar household objects, but the artist weaves a tapestry following her own intuition and her own intricate pattern selection.

Anthony Suber depicts scenes from the contemporary African American experience and creates powerful visual icons of this experience. Drawn on recycled particleboard these images tell their story via subtle and fine line drawings accentuated by precise geometric patterns. The artist also indulges in the depiction of mechanical devices such as conduits, cogwheels or drive shafts reminiscent of Picabia’s Surrealist mechanics.