Thursday through Sunday

Watch this: Sculptor Jane Miller turns back time in live project at TexasContemporary Art Fair

For this year's Texas Contemporary, Artist Jane Miller will mount ClockShop, aninstallation dedicated to fixing, adapting and selling timepieces.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Artist Jane Miller
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Clocks of all sorts will be available . . . and all items will be priced below$100.
Photo by Tyler Rudick
A set of clocks made of wax
Photo by Tyler Rudick
Miller will be selling an array of limited-edition prints featuring — youguessed it — clocks.
Photo by Tyler Rudick

Following up its popular booth of $5 Steve Keene paintings at last year's Texas Contemporary Art Fair, the Rice Gallery is hosting a live project by artist Jane Miller for the 2012 show, which starts it four-day run Thursday evening at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

CultureMap stopped by Rice for a quick Tuesday morning chat with Miller, as she prepped for ClockShop — an installation designed to resemble a small store cluttered with artworks made from wristwatches, wall clocks and other timepiece-related materials. All items will retail below $100, she guaranteed.

"Clocks are really becoming extinct, in a way," she said. "I mean, who uses a watch anymore? . . . The clock has become an icon of another age, like the ax or, eventually, the book."

"I've always thought of myself on some level as a Mrs. Fix-it," the Connecticut-based artist explained. "I like messing around with things, taking things apart and putting them together again. So for this show, I chose to focus on clocks and this idea of trying to either fix them or reassemble them in an artistic fashion."

A museum associate in the coins and medals department at the Yale University Art Gallery, Miller has long drawn the notions of collecting, cataloging and compiling into her art.

"At the art fair, I'm going to play the role of an horologist . . . Although, I'm guessing not a terribly good one, considering I only started over the summer."

The artist have created a number of limited-run prints for the show and plans to cover the booth in clock-themed wallpaper she herself designed. Around her will sit timepieces of all sorts — Art Deco, Victorian, folksy, broken, slow, modern, gently-used.

"Clocks are really becoming extinct, in a way," she said. "I mean, who uses a watch anymore? I've noticed it's become a fashion statement recently, but I'm not sure how often people look at them. The clock has become an icon of another age, like the ax or, eventually, the book. I think this installation taps into that idea."

Sponsored by the Rice University Art Gallery, Jane Miller's ClockShop will be located in booth 913 at the Texas Contemporary Art Fair, which opens Thursday night and runs through Sunday. Click here for hours, tickets and programming.

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It's a wrap!

Strong sales, stellar reviews: Texas Contemporary plans to go national as itlooks to next year's art fair

Work by artist Gregory Scott at Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Agnes Denes, Pyramids of Conscience, 2005, crude oil, water from the HoustonShip Channel, Houston tap water, mirror, 51x51x56", courtesy of Ballroom Marfa.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Robb Putnam, Rat #4 and Rat #5, 2012, fabric, plastic, leather, thread and mixedmedia, 8 by 10 by 5 inches, courtesy of Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Monir Farmanfarmaian, Octagon, 2011, mirror and reverse glass painting onplaster and wood, 44 by 44 by 4.5 inches, courtesy of Haines Gallery, SanFrancisco.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Joan Mitchell, Untitled, c. 1960, oil on canvas, 31.5 by 23.5 inches, courtesyof Lennon Weinberg Gallery, New York.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Work by Houston artist Rachel Hecker at Texas Gallery, Houston.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Eric Daigh, My scissors aren't meant for this [detail], pushpins on board, 50 by35 inches, courtesy of Pentimenti, Philadelphia.
Photo by Julie Knutson
Travis Sommerville, Installation, courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery, SanFransisco.
Photo by Julie Knutson

After a rockin' opening night party and overwhelmingly positive reviews from gallerists and collectors alike, the second annual Texas Contemporary show certainly made its mark on the city's fall art scene.

To get a sense of how this year's event compared to the 2011 inaugural effort, CultureMap caught up with Jeffery Wainhause of artMRKT, the production company behind the recent Houston fair as well as major shows in San Francisco, the Hamptons and Miami.

"Judging from what we've heard from gallery owners, we really hit it out of the park this time," said fair organizer Jeffery Wainhause. "People were extremely enthusiastic and sales appeared strong."

"With more than 10,000 visitors, it looks like we had a slightly larger crowd than the first show," he reported during a phone interview from Brooklyn, where artMRKT has been based since it was founded in early 2011.

"In the last two years, though, we've learned that attendance numbers are not the most important factor. They're a great sign, but we usually gauge the overall success of a fair by the happiness of our constituents. Judging from what we've heard from gallery owners, we really hit it out of the park this time. People were extremely enthusiastic and sales appeared strong."

Wainhause said his team concentrated on the overall feel of the show, searching for ways to maintain a flexible and friendly open space capable of handling regular bursts of heavy traffic. Co-organizer Max Fishko, meanwhile, focused on vetting the fair's 65 galleries.

"Max did a wonderful job juxtaposing galleries that show newer and older examples of contemporary art. When the level and quality of the artwork is so high, the fair is easy after that."

Having a better sense of the city's collectors and art institutions was paramount to the success of this year's show, explained Wainhause.

"Houston's collector base is broad and very sophisticated. Gallerists across the nation are starting to take note of the city."

"Houston's collector base is broad and very sophisticated," he said. "Gallerists across the nation are starting to take note of the city, because dealers are able to bring some of their more challenging work here."

To avoid scheduling the fair during the Dallas Museum of Art's annual TWO x TWO art auction, artMRKT will stage Texas Contemporary a weekend earlier in 2013 to better reach its north Texas audience.

"We're not looking to get bigger next year, but we are hoping to make the show even stronger. We're also going to expand our national marketing campaign for Texas Contemporary. It's time to let the rest of the country know about what we're doing in Houston."

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