The Big Show 2015

July 10, 2015 – August 8, 2015 John M. O'Quinn, Cecily E. Horton, and Gracie R. Cavnar Galleries

About

The Big Show is Lawndale Art Center’s annual open-call, juried exhibition. It has been an important venue through which emerging and under-represented Houston area artists gain exposure since the show’s conception in 1984. The Big Show was formerly the East End Show, sponsored by the East End Progress Association, at Lawndale’s original location.

Each year Lawndale Art Center invites a guest juror to select from work submitted by artists living within 100 miles of Houston. Artists are invited to submit up to three works of art, not previously shown in Houston, for a chance to be included in the exhibition and a shot at $3,000 in cash awards.

The Big Show 2015 award winners selected by guest juror, George Scheer, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC, were announced at the opening reception on July 10, 2015. In lieu of awarding a limited number of cash awards to select artists, the $3000 in awards will be divided equally among the 62 participating artists. Scheer also awarded five special distinction awards to artists:

Allyson Huntsman
Amy Richards
Herbert Shapiro
Charles L. Thomas
Justin Zachary

For this year’s exhibition, a total of 76 works by 62 artists were selected from 972 works submitted by 355 artists. Artists selected for the exhibition include:

Fariba Abedin, Shawn Artis, Karen Brasier, Qindeel Butt, Erick Calderon, Lindy Chambers, Peter Chok, Lim Chung, Felipe Contreras, Bryan Cope, Terry Crump, Sonya Cuellar, Heather Den Uijl, Laura Veles Drey, Shannon Duckworth, Adrienne Duncan, Trey Duvall, Sherman Finch, Vincent Fink, Steve Ross Fisher, Mary Forbes, John Forse, Rachel Gardner, J.G. Harkins, Cynical Consumerism: JP Hartman, Michael Horvath, John Hovig, Allyson Huntsman, Ross Irwin, Amir Kasem, Linda Simien Kelly, Mary Carol Kenney, Hogan Kimbrell, Iva Kinnaird, Lauren Lohman, Leslie Magdaleno, Cobra McVey, Kelly Moran, Pen Morrison, Viridiana Navarro, Lee Alice (Hillman) Pablo, Robert Peña Jr., Samantha Persons, Janet Reynolds, Amy Richards, Nataliya Scheib, Wade Schmitz, Herbert Shapiro, Tivakorn Sirinopawongsakorn, Royce Ann Sline, Graciela Socorro, Phaedra Jean Taylor, Eric Thayer, Charles L. Thomas, Brian James Thompson, Jennifer G. Thompson, Jaclyn Touchstone, Sandy Tramel, Elise Weber, Mary Wemple, Justin Zachary and Brandon Zech.

Juror

George Scheer is the co-founder and Director of Elsewhere, a living museum and artist residency set in a former thrift store in Greensboro, NC. George is a writer, scholar, and artist who fosters creative communities at the intersection of aesthetics and social change. Other projects include Kulturpark, a public investigation of an abandoned amusement park in East Berlin, and South Elm Projects, a curated series of place-based public art commissions for downtown Greensboro. George holds an MA in Critical Theory and Visual Culture from Duke University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Political Communications. Currently, George is pursuing a PhD in Communication and Performance Studies, writing about the cultural economy of art and urbanism.

About Elsewhere:
Elsewhere, a living museum and artist residency set within a former thrift store, is working to build a more collaborative culture in Greensboro and around the globe. From 1939 to 1997 former proprietress Sylvia Gray amassed a vast inventory in her downtown Greensboro store. After she passed the store remained, filled to the brink and without plan or purpose. In 2003, Sylvia’s grandson and a group of artists moved into the old store, declared, ‘nothing for sale’ and began inviting artists from across the globe to make new works with and within the living museum. Today, Elsewhere’s residency invites 50+ artists a year to create new works and 10,000+ visitors a year explore the museum. CoLab educational programs support creative critical thinking in public schools and creative leadership for LGBTQ identifying youth. Our public works bring an authentic, grassroots sophistication to cultural and economic transformation in Greensboro’s downtown, and model practices at the intersection of art and urban growth.

www.goelsewhere.org

The Big Slide Show

Wednesday & Thursday, July 29 & 30, 2015
6 PM

Join Lawndale and Houston’s talented Big Show artists for short, informal presentations about their work. Presentations start at 6 PM each night at Lawndale Art Center. Come early as seating is limited.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Fariba Abedin
Shawn Artis
Karen Braiser
Erick Calderon
Peter Chok
Laura Drey
Trey Duvall
Vincent Fink
John Forse
J.G. Harkins
Iva Kinnaird
Samantha Persons
Eric Thayer
Jaclyn Touchstone
Bradon Zech

Thursday, July 30, 2015
Bryan Cope
Adrienne Duncan
Steve Ross Fisher
Mary Forbes
Michael Horvath
John Hovig
Allyson Huntsman
Linda Simien Kelly
Leslie Magdaleno
Cobra McVey
Pen Morrison
Nataliya Scheib
Royce Ann Sline
Graciela Socorro
Jennifer Thompson

Volunteer

BIG thanks to our volunteers! We couldn’t have made it happen without help from the following awesome individuals:

Kelly Froelich, Jaime Fruge, Sidney Garrett, Balmoris Gomez, Tara Hadnot, Barry Harnamji, Veronika Hernandez, Nancy Johnson, Kerry Jordan, Erin Miller, Katelyn Newman, Ellen Phillips, Amber Phillips, Christine Ramsey, Graciela Socorro, John Stillings, Hilda Vasquez, Tina Villarreal, Edith Villasenor, Rachel Vines, Taylor Waldt, Linsey Whitehead and Emily Xiong.

About

Juror

The Big Slide Show

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Volunteer