Archive for April 2011

The Spring 2011 issue of Cite (85) was mailed and is at the Brazos Bookstore, CAMH, MFAH, Issues, Domy, River Oaks Bookstore, and other stores. Below is a letter by Julia Mandell and Susan Rogers about this special issue, followed by the Table of Contents.
  • Jenny Zhan
  • Apr. 27, 2011
  • 1:37 PM

Cite 85: Game On

This issue of Cite features articles on a broad range of topics. In all the pieces, the unpredictable development patterns of Houston play a role. The lack of planning and zoning here, or the “ad hoc” form of zoning as John Mixon describes it in his contribution, leads to innumerable challenges for individuals, communities, and designers. The vagaries of Houston’s growth at times feels like a game, fun and entertaining, grueling and shameless, rewarding some and relegating others to deprivation. Guest editors; Julia Mandell and Susan Rogers sought to highlight proactive responses and efforts to take a stand.

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Photo by Steven Thomson

  • Steven Thomson
  • Apr. 1, 2011
  • 5:17 PM

Pop-Up Houston

It was 7:30 p.m. on a brisk Saturday evening in February, and Esther Gutstein rushed to mount the final pieces for the opening of her gallery, the Brayer Room. The first guests had already arrived: a mix of camera-clad young artists and their friends, along with a bevy of older art collectors. The crowd populated the gallery’s one-story, historic 6,000-square-foot building at 214 Fairview Street, seeking a glimpse of the city’s emerging artists, or at the very least, a view on one of Houston’s newest gallery spaces.

Only days later, not a trace of the Brayer Room would remain. That’s because Gutstein mounts a gallery pro tem, arguably the first local incarnation of the international phenomenon of “pop-up” art spaces. In the wake of a global recession, a glut of unoccupied real estate has been reinvigorated as alternative art spaces in the vein of the Brayer Room. While this pattern can be traced to the art nexuses of London, New York, and Chicago, the Brayer Room is a distinctly Houston endeavor.

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