(Houston, TX, August 11, 2016) - DiverseWorks is pleased to announce the exhibition, Pablo Helguera: The Fable Is to Be Retold, on view in the gallery at the MATCH, 3400 Main Street, September 17 - November 19, 2016. There will be an opening reception withthe artist on Saturday, September 17, from 7 - 9 pm. Also on Saturday, September 17, at 6 pm in the Matchbox 1 theater, DiverseWorks presents The Fable of the Ancient Children and Other Stories: A Performance Recital with Pablo Helguera. This event is free, but tickets are required and may be reserved online at www.matchouston.org.
Conceptual artist Pablo Helguera combines performance, visual art, community outreach, and political activism to examine the social and cultural function of teaching and memory systems. For his exhibition at DiverseWorks, Helguera uses fables to examine forms of visual and linguistic communication (or miscommunication) and understanding - particularly between children and adults and the empowered vs. the marginalized. New installation and video work, as well as conceptual sculpture and a series of collages titled,
Arlington Heights, are included in his first solo exhibition in Houston.
The exhibition is accompanied by a live, three-part performance recital,
The Fable of The Ancient Children and Other Stories. Featuring Helguera together with Houston-area musicians and dancers, this performance is inspired by childhood fables and fairytales. The recital features adaptations of the story of "The Mock Turtle" from Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1885), "The Swan" from Camille Saint-Saëns's
Carnival of the Animals (1886), and Scott Joplin's
Solace (Mexican Serenade) (1909). Performing artists include Harrison Guy (dance), Tomas Jonsson (piano), Candace Rattliff (dance), Yvonne Smith (viola), Warren Sylvester (piano), and Nicholas Wong (cello).
Tickets at
www.matchouston.org.
DiverseWorks would like to thank the following organizations for their assistance in making this project possible: theAfrican American Library at the Gregory School, Dance Source Houston, the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts, the Houston Young Artists' Concert, MATCH, Mercury, Bruce Robinson Design, and White Rabbit Design Studio.
ABOUT THE ARTISTPablo Helguera (b. 1971, Mexico City, Mexico) is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator with an interest in socially engaged art and performance. Helguera's work focuses on a variety of topics including history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory, and the absurd, and is presented in unexpected and innovative formats. Helguera has exhibited and performed at the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; RCA London;
8th Havana Biennial; PERFORMA 05, New York City; MoMA P.S.1; and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; and is a recipient of the Guggenheim and Franklin Furnace Fellowships and the Creative Capital and Art Matters grants. He is currently the Director of Adult and Academic Programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Helguera is represented by Kent Fine Art, New York and Galeria Enrique Guerrero, Mexico City.
http://pablohelguera.net/
PERFORMANCE AND OPENING RECEPTIONSaturday, September 17, 2016PERFORMANCE: 6 PM, MATCHBOX 1The Fable of the Ancient Children and Other Stories: A Performance Recital with Pablo Helguera
Free admission, limited seating. Tickets required and available at
www.matchouston.orgRECEPTION: 7 - 9 PM, GALLERY
Join the artist and the DiverseWorks Board of Directors, Artist Advisory Board, and staff at the opening reception of the exhibition
Pablo Helguera: The Fable Is to Be Retold in the DiverseWorks gallery at the MATCH.
ADDITIONAL FALL 2016 PERFORMANCES AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS(unless otherwise noted, all performances and programs are free)Wednesday, September 21, 6 pmCURATOR'S TOUR: THE FABLE IS TO BE RETOLDWith Xandra Eden, DiverseWorks Executive Director & Chief CuratorSeptember 29 - October 2, 2016TINY ART SALONTexas Contemporary, George R. Brown Convention Center
DiverseWorks presents
Tiny Art Salon, a continuous series of talks and live performances by Houston-area artists at the 2016 Texas Contemporary art fair.
Tiny Art Salon proposes an alternative to the standard art fair booth by providing a platform for artists to present short talks, host conversations, and perform unique works over the course of the four-day fair. Visit
http://txcontemporary.com/ for more information and passes to the fair.
Wednesday, October 5, 5:30-6:30 pmRECEPTION FOR DIVERSEWORKS ARCHIVESElizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion, M.D. Anderson Library, University of Houston
Join DiverseWorks at the University of Houston's M.D. Anderson Library for a reception in recognition of the donation of DiverseWorks Records to UH Libraries' Special Collections. A selection of materials from the collection will be on display. The collection, which contains a wealth of information spanning DiverseWorks' history starting in 1982, is currently beingcatalogued and is available for research by students, faculty, and the public.
Saturday, October 29, 4-6pmHALLOW-ZINE MAKING WORKSHOPpresented by Zine Fest Houston, DiverseWorks Gallery
Join artists Maria-Elisa Heg, Anastasia Kirages, and Sarah Welch for a Halloween-themed zine making workshop at DiverseWorks. This workshop will focus on DIY publishing techniques, the use of collage in zines, and other hands-on exercises. Optional materials to bring to the workshop include any personal writing and/or collage images. Refreshments and basic supplies such as paper, pens, scissors, glue sticks etc. will be provided. Sponsored by Topo Chico and St. Arnold Brewing Company.
Space is limited. Reserve your place via email: info@diverseworks.org.
Friday, November 4 & Saturday, November 5, 2016, 8 pm12 MINUTES MAX!Matchbox 2, Free, Tickets required and available at www.matchouston.org12 Minutes Max! and the DiverseWorks Artist Advisory Board sock it to you with two evenings of new and experimental performances, none of which last longer than the titular 12 minutes. The results are fast-paced, high-energy events featuring performance art, dance, experimental sound, comedy, spoken word and much, much more. Each evening features a different line-up of performers.
Friday, November 11 & Saturday, November 12, 2016, 8 pm MEG WOLFE: NEW FAITHFUL DISCOMatchbox 2, $15 General Admission / Free for DW and Dance Source Houston MembersTickets at www.matchouston.org
In Meg Wolfe's new work
New Faithful Disco, a trio of dancers-taisha paggett, Marbles Jumbo Radio, and Wolfe-perform a queer-love power-performance wrought with awkwardness and contradictions. Propelled by nature sounds and disco rhythms, bodies are the conduit: the site of intersections where dances are generated, transferred, translated and recycled in an attempt to remix revolution.
Disco opens up time, triggers fading histories and provides a backdrop that frames who we are, now.
Wednesday, November 30, 6:30 pmDIVERSE DISCOURSE LECTURE: DOMINIC WILLSDONLeanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Practice, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
At SFMOMA, Dominic Willsdon directs a curatorial department of pedagogical and cultural programming that comprises school initiatives, public dialogue, performance, and film.Willsdon was Pedagogical Cloud Curator of the
9th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2013) and is a co-curator of the
9th Liverpool Biennial, UK (2016). He is a former co-editor of the
Journal of Visual Culture, and co-edited
The Life and Death of Images: Ethics and Aesthetics (Cornell, 2008),
Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa (YBCA, 2016),
Visual Activism (Sage, 2016), and
Public Servants: Art and the Crisis of the Common Good (MIT, 2016). In 2010, he was the inaugural Kress Research Fellow in Museum Education at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. From 2000 to 2005, he was Curator of Public Events at Tate Modern where he organized discursive, film, and music programs.