CAARRRDEEE LARDVENA

Cody Ledvina


"I do not believe in art; I believe in artists."
Marcel Duchamp



The above video showcases perhaps one of the most enigmatic and obtuse young artists living in Houston. Cody Ledvina is probably more well known for being one half of The Joanna, the best under the radar gallery in Houston. This space is extremely vital for emerging artists in the city. For over 3 years now they have played an integral role in showcasing up and coming artists alongside more established and respected artists.



But Cody Ledvina is much more than a curator and co-director of a gallery. He is an artist through and through. He is a chameleon able to adapt to any material while creating images, objects and videos that are as interesting as they are strange. In his world aliens, M & M characters, babies, Danny Devito, Whoopi Goldberg and Judge Judy are just as vital to our intellectual climate as is Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard or Arthur C. Danto. His worldview is all inclusive and often centers on the comedic aspect of existence. There is an inherent playfulness to his work that often confuses the viewer into thinking Cody is simply having a laugh at their expense.



The art world takes itself very, very seriously. As it becomes further streamlined with the academic world, the work that is celebrated is often cold and heady. Art that is churned out of this system often has little patience for humor. Cody's work stands in opposition to the stiff and over calculated aspects of contemporary art. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, is Post Structuralism more relevant than cute kitten videos on YouTube?



The terms "high brow" and "low brow" often come up in the discussion of contemporary art. From Greenberg on there is a tendency to distinguish real art (high brow) from the quaint imitator (low brow.) But as art history chugs along it seems almost irrelevant to distinguish between the two. As our definitions of art expand there seems little point in debating what is "really" art. Can art be fun? Yes. Should art be fun? Yes. Does Cody Ledvina make art that is fun? Most definitely.



I must admit that the meaning of Cody Ledvina's work often escapes me. This fact makes his work infinitely more interesting. Meaning does not need to to exist for art to flourish. Actually, it makes the work stronger, allowing more vital interpretations to form beyond the cage of academic, safe art. When looking at his work I do not want an artist statement to guide through the maze of absurdities before me. It is always engaging enough on the surface to demand deeper digging. The task at hand is never to solve the riddle of meaning (or meaninglessness for that matter.) Rather, it is to glean that there is something happily and unashamedly complex and ineffable happening before your eyes; and that maybe is the point. Like Socrates said: "Wisdom lies in knowing that you do not know."


Looking at Cody's work is always a fun filled occasion. There you will find an artist continually digging through the cultural zeitgeist of silliness and finding profundity in the least likely spaces. Next to Maury Povich and crappy YouTube videos you will see Clement Greenberg and Willem de Kooning standing by Bruce Nauman and Paul McCarthy. And if you look further to the right, deeper beyond the timeline, there is Cody Ledvina dancing with his doll Brandon further into the oblivion of laughter.



find cody at these places:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/codyledvina/
http://www.youtube.com/user/codyledvina
http://thejoanna.org/

ONE MUST BE ABSOLUTELY MODERN

Cody Ledvina, "Decisions"
Margarita Cabrera, "Food Processor"
Dumptruck, "Survey I"
Lily Cox Richard, "Rapt 3"
Brian English, "All Gold Teeth Silver Tongues"
Brian English, "All This Effort to Look Effortless"
Maria Guzman, "Do I Need to Repeat Myself"
Rene Cruz, "sleeping village"
Lisa Marie Godfrey, "Rock Bundle"
Lisa Marie Godfrey, "Corsage"
Lisa Marie Godfrey, "Life Book"
Elaine Bradford, "Procyon Besheret Cross Section"

Nick Meriwether, "Reaper Humping Pizza"
This piece started with a simple idea: the five most common themes in painting are food, nature, death, love and sex. Nick Meriwether combined all of these themes into this motorized sculpture. The result is a hauntingly and ridiculous piece of art.
Anne J. Regan, "Eternal Communicator #2"
This piece is of a series exploring sacred geometry, especially the place of nature and music in the complex unity of the Cosmos.
Anne J. Regan, "When U Were Mine"
Anne J. Regan, "The Oddysey"

Ryan Geiger and Jeffrey Wheeler: Recent Work and Collaborations



Ryan Geiger:







Jeffrey Wheeler
















Ryan Geiger and Jeffrey Wheeler Collaboration:

Ryan Geiger and Jeffrey Wheeler

Ryan Geiger and Jeff Wheeler : Collaborations and New Work
Opening Saturday May 16, 6 - 8pm

Since moving from Houston to Colorado twelve years ago, Kate Petley has explored the searing white light of the high elevation Rocky Mountains and how it influences our perception of the landscape. Using a complicated method of film and collage with resin on acrylic panels she created juicy, flat screens that played with light reflecting and casting images of images of images, somewhat like a house of mirrors.

However, Petley found that people were more interested in her technique than in exploring the meaning of the work. In a significant departure in method from previous work, Petley is now creating images on opaque panel surfaces. But there is little departure from practice. Petley is still exploring light, landscape, reflection only this time she’s added a human element. Graffiti.

These new panels are not paintings and Petley is not a painter. They are collage-based constructions and she continues to use film as a primary medium of expression. In much the way that collage artists like Robert Rauschenberg began using prints of magazine images, Petley is using photographs of graffiti from around the world in isolated fragments and sources. The fragmentation of these sources speaks to how we read the visually oriented world. The graffiti is stripped of its original meaning and negative associations.

There is a consciousness to the appropriation beyond color, outline, graphic quality, and dynamic composition. Petley cuts, traces, and scales up the isolated elements and in this work the viewer is aware of each decision that goes into the work as each move is made visible. Each layer is evidenced.

For Petley, there is a present and ongoing interest in creating art that has the potential to elevate a mundane and physical existence into something more erudite. The objects are not about graffiti and the graffiti itself is subtly referenced in the art. There is a deeper intention to this work, an exploration of abstraction that is neither decorative nor referential; neither expressionistic referencing landscape or figure.

Petley’s art has always bounced off the landscape, but never been directly about the landscape. Less than a year ago, she left the small mountain town where she lived and worked and is now based near Denver. Her new work evidences imagery rebounding from man-made graffiti in an urban landscape, reverberating organic shapes and titles that reference the land. The imagery is strong in color and design like decorative art, but deeper in purpose and meaning.

For me, this is Petley’s strongest work to date and I look forward to seeing where this new exploration takes her. She’s no longer fighting the landscape elements in her art and she’s making her process evident while still playing with light and layers and reflections.

“I use my environment as a way of getting you into the rabbit hole. It’s not a direct influence, but I incorporate the subtleties of it,” Petley once said to me.

The work in “Overhead” is less subtle. The graffiti provides access to the rabbit hole and viewers are finally getting a real glimpse of the Petley wonderland.