Qindeel Butt
2017-18 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Graduate Student Scholarship Recipient
School of Art

Qindeel is a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Painting at the University of Houston School of Art. Many of her works are composed through photographic means and then painted in oils from these sources. Her work is both biographical and universal as she explores human emotions and the peculiarities that entail a modern human existence. Recently, her painting titled Under Flowers was shown at Fort Works Art as part of their 40 Under 40 exhibition showcasing young, emerging talent. Qindeel also received her BFA in Painting from the University of Houston.

Javier Sánchez Martínez
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Curatorial Fellow
Blaffer Art Museum

Javier is a writer and curator based in Houston, TX. Since April 2015, he has been the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Curatorial Fellow at Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. In 2014, he graduated from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts (2005) and in Philosophy (2009) from the University of Granada in Spain. Javier has curated exhibitions and related public programs in Spain and the US, and his writings have been published in numerous exhibition catalogs and art publications. Most recently, he worked on solo exhibitions by Chicano artist Gabriel Martinez and Spanish sculptor Sergio Prego, currently on view at Blaffer Art Museum.

Alton DuLaney
2017-18 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Graduate Student Scholarship Recipient
School of Art

Alton is a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Interdisciplinary Practices at the University of Houston School of Art. Known as one of the country’s most famous gift wrappers, Alton has been featured in numerous media platforms including HGTV, The Rachael Ray Show, People Magazine, and Family Circle. As an artist, his exploration includes symbols of winning, competition, conviction, victory, luxury, and vanity, as well as the artist’s ability to label something otherwise ordinary, as ART. Alton received his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas.

Justin Lucero
2017-18 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Post-Graduate Fellow
School of Theatre & Dance

Justin trained in London at the University of Essex’s East 15 Acting School earning an MFA in Theatre Directing with Distinction. He has worked extensively with the University of Texas at El Paso as an Artist-in-Residence and Guest Director. He is the recipient of a Fair Directing Assistantship with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an SDCF Directing Observership at South Coast Repertory (LA), and a Directing Fellowship with Asolo Repertory Theatre (Florida). He is also co-founding Artistic Director of Las Cruces-based Scaffolding Theatre Company. Learn more about Justin here!

Since 2005, the Mitchell Center has offered scholarships for graduate students in the Schools of Art, Music, Theatre & Dance, and the Creative Writing Program, as well as a Curatorial Fellowship in the Blaffer Art Museum. We also have a new program hosting post graduate teaching residencies in our member departments. Enjoy profiles of these dynamic members of the UH community in our new series of “Get to know our fellows and students.”

Thank you Glasstire for the shout-out!

Join us on September 19, 2017 at 7pm for a special opportunity to see activists, artists, and pranksters The Yes Men! This is a free event, but reservations are required.

Join Houston Shakespeare Festival for free productions of the “master storyteller” William Shakespeare’s intoxicating comedy “Twelfth Night,” and historical tragedy “Richard III” at Miller Outdoor Theatre! Produced by University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance, the two plays will rotate from July 29-August 6. Bring your friends, family, and a picnic blanket!

“What I’ve realized is that setting up the piece is good, I enjoy painting, but all my pieces at some time will be left here, and the only thing that stays inside is this kind of human experience, meeting people.” - eL Seed

“CounterCurrent has always been true to its title, presenting art and projects that do not run easy with the current, but instead provoke and perhaps even challenge people’s perceptions.” - CultureMap

“With audio and visual installations, dance performances, theatrical productions, and performance lectures by artists from across the world, CounterCurrent has truly set itself apart from the city’s arts festivals.” - Free Press Houston

Join the University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance on Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 7:00 pm for a free performance of Nathan the Wise.

Jerusalem, 1192. The Third Crusade is over. An uneasy stalemate masquerading as peace exists between the Muslim forces of Saladin and the Christian Crusaders. Caught in the middle of this conflict are the Jews, particularly Nathan. He is a merchant with wisdom, wit and wealth, but is he shrewd enough to guide all sides to a new world where reason rules?

“The University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, which excels at creating unusual performance events, has announced the lineup for its third annual festival of experimental art. CounterCurrent 16 will offer 11 provocative events April 12-17 at various venues, with festival headquarters at the MATCH, 3400 Main. All the performances are free, although some have limited seating, so require reservations.” - The Houston Chronicle

Jonah Bokaer has cultivated a new form of choreography with a structure that relies on visual art and design. His aim is to transform notions of how the public views and understands dance. Bokaer has been active as a choreographer since 2002. He has created over 55 works in a wide range of mediums, such as film, opera, applications, and installation, in a variety of venues, ranging from stages, to museums and galleries. He works internationally, exhibiting and touring worldwide.

Bokaer has created works within museum spaces that live between choreography, visual art, and moving images. This approach to art making has been acknowledged by museums such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, PS1 MoMA, The New Museum, The Museum of Arts & Design, MASS MoCA, Miami MOCA, MAC Marseille, IVAM Valencia, Palazzo Delle Arti Napoli, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, SCAD Museum of Art, Ludwig Museum of Budapest, MUDAM Luxembourg, along with many others.
A few of Bokaer’s frequent collaborators are Daniel Arsham (2007-Present), Anne Carson, Richard Chai, Merce Cunningham, Anthony McCall, Abbott Miller, Tino Sehgal, Robert Wilson (2007-Present), along with other leading innovators in mediums such as performance, visual art, literature, and design.

Recent awards include the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Choreography (USA 2015), the Prix Nouveau Talent Chorégraphie (Paris 2011), the Jerome Robbins Special Prize Fellowship in Choreography from the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy, 2011), and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (2014, 2013, 2012, 2011)

Learn more about United States Artsits here.

Students, faculty and staff practice in preparation for the Nov. 21 performance of “The Symphonic Body UCLA” in Royce Hall. They were chosen to perform in the piece because they were identified by others as inspirational individuals. Watch the video by John Vande Wege below.

In Ann Carlson’s world, gesture — even the most mundane movement — is synonymous with dance. For almost a year, Carlson has been at UCLA observing and “collecting” the gestures of more than 100 students and employees at work across the campus. This is part of her process towards creating “The Symphonic Body UCLA,” a performance built entirely from these gestures.

Read more about this innovative performance project culminating Saturday, November 21, in two performances in Royce Hall, at UCLA here.

Francesco Vezzoli and David Hallberg, Fortuna Desperata 2015, A Performa Commission; photo by Francesco Vezzoli, courtesy of L’Uomo Vogue, Conde Nast Italia.

Performa 15 opens this Sunday, November 1st, with a special performance titled Fortuna Desperata presented by Francesco Vezzoli and David Halberg at New York City historical landmark St. Bart’s Church. Looking back to the origins of ballet in the royal courts of the Renaissance, Vezzoli and Hallberg undertake an archaeology of movement in this revolutionary performance that brings the past into dialogue with the present.

Animating New York with a diverse series of ground-breaking performances taking place at cultural landmarks and locations including Times Square, The Museum of Modern Art, Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, and Pioneer Works, among many others, Performa 15 sparks new ways of looking at the city.

Join us for three exciting weeks of live art, talks and seminars, artists’ classes and experiments, and an array of invigorating events all around town and at our biennial headquarters, the Performa Hub (47 Walker Street, open everyday from noon to 8pm), designed by the winner of our first ever architectural Hub Competition, Christoph a. Kumpusch and his office Forward slash (/) ARCHITEKTUR.

November 4 - Opening Night + Launch Party
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston, 3400 Main St, Houston, Texas 77002
Part of the Joe’s Pub Series

7:00 Pre-show reception - MATCH Gallery
8:00 performance by Bridget Everett - MATCH Box 3
9:00 Lott Entertainment Presents Launch Party - MATCH Gallery

It’s our first show in our first season and the start of the first ever Joe’s Pub Series outside of New York, and we invite you to attend!

Come celebrate the kickoff of Lott Entertainment Presents and the Joe’s Pub Series in Houston at MATCH with New York’s hottest cabaret performers, Bridget Everett. Named the “most exciting performer in New York City” by The Village Voice, Bridget is a mainstay at Joe’s Pub at the Public in New York where she performs regularly to sold out audiences.

Hot off the heels of her new Comedy Central special Gynecological Wonder, her guest appearance in the Oddball Comedy Tour with Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer and a jaw-dropping appearance in this summer’s blockbuster Trainwreck, New York’s downtown darling will hit the Houston stage and armed with a bottle (or two) of chardonnay as well as the songs and stories that have been captivating sold-out audiences at Joe’s Pub.

The show runs November 4-7, but we would love to celebrate with you at our opening night + launch party on November 4. Tickets are $100 for individuals or $500 for a table of four which includes a bottle of bubbly.

- Tickets to Opening Night on November 4 (includes entry to the pre-show reception and the Launch Party after the show with complimentary food and drinks): http://www.lottentertainmentpresents.com/#!special-events/ielhp
- $50 Tickets to the November 5-7 performances: http://www.lottentertainmentpresents.com/#!Bridget-Everett/pkr3j/55e080e50cf28ffc7eeabe1e

Lott Entertainment Presents Board of Directors
Malcolm Hackney - Stuart Folb - Mark Sullivan - Pamela Ulmer - Janet Phelps

Bridget Everett is suitable for ages 18 and up. Seating is cabaret style at tables of four and general admission. If you purchase 3 or fewer tickets, be prepared to get cozy with a stranger!

Join The Center for Creative Work, The Creative Writing Program, and Students for Justice in Palestine at University of Houston for a reading and conversation with Philip Metres.

Philip Metres’ writing, collected in several books, has appeared widely, including in Best American Poetry, and has garnered two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, two Arab American Book Awards, the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, the PEN/Heim Translation Grant, the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Akron Poetry Prize, the Anne Halley Prize, the Creative Workforce Fellowship, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the inaugural George W. Hunt, S.J. Award for Excellence in Journalism, Literature & the Arts.

Listen to an audio version of some of Phil’s poems (the Abu Ghraib arias) here: http://philipmetres.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/abughraibarias-2-audio-2013.mp3

ONE WEEK LEFT TO APPLY!

Application closes Wednesday, October 15 @5pm CST

Artadia is accepting applications for the 2015 Houston Artadia Awards from all visual artists who have lived and worked throughout Harris County, TX for two years or more.

A preliminary panel will evaluate all online submissions and select 10 finalists in late October. A second panel of curators will visit Houston in November to conduct studio visits with each finalist and select Awardees to receive unrestricted Artadia Awards between $5,000 and $20,000. The 2015 Houston Awardees will be announced in late November.

The Houston Artadia Awards are:
- Open to artists and collaboratives at any stage in their career
- Free of application fees and project outline requirements
- A chance to have your work seen by a panel of prominent curators
- Image-based
- Merit-based
- Unrestricted

For access to the application and eligibility requirements, visit artadia.submittable.com

Prize in Translation

Deadline Extended To September 21st

Dear Translators!

We are excited to announce that the deadline for the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation has been extended to September 21st. You now have three more weeks to edit, submit, and send your questions our way. To those of you who have already submitted, please know that makes us pleased as punch.

We can’t wait to read your translations, to see which prose piece our judge Ammiel Alcalay chooses, cut the winner a check for $1,000 and to print the winning entry next spring, in issue 28.2.