We swear the city of Houston is not paying us any kickback money for continually talking about the art going on in that city, but dangit, we've seen a lot of interesting action there lately. Most recently we've noted that Austin artist Deborah Roberts is showing her most recent mixed-media work at O'Kane Gallery (at the University of Houston-Downtown) in a show titled Reconstruction, Reacting, Rethinking.
Using a variety of printmaking techniques and other mark making strategies, Deborah addresses the evolution of a contemporary "culturally manufactured image" of African Americans through the manipulation and appropriation of stereotyped imagery. We note that she takes a unique cut at the whole pop expressionism phenomenon by leaning more heavily on the "expressionism" than on the "pop."
Deborah told us that her own evolution as an artist has taken her from a more traditional narrative style to something edgier and more unsettling, and turned a significant corner in this transformation when she began to study the work of Robert Colescott several years ago. Deborah just won the Austin Critics Table's 2006 award for "Best Female Artist." The show runs from 12 October through 28 November.
