All Programs Listed Below from 2012

Created for both art loving locals and our visiting out-of-towners, we have produced a non-stop, bodacious, and action-packed week of glamorous events. Ranging from uber- exclusive private home tours and coveted museum receptions, to the dazzling and unforgettable Tootsies evening of art and fashion, get ready to rock as the city of Houston comes together to celebrate itself as an art center. Beginning on Monday, Sept. 10 and running through Sunday, Sept 16, you can sign up for an extraordinary schedule of momentous parties, and several soon to be announced mind-blowing events.

Monday, September 10th:

6-8 PM – Blaffer Blow Out with Houston Young People for the Arts (HYPA)

Wednesday, September 12th:

7:30 PM – What Lies Between: Contemporary Asian American Art, Politics,
and the Social Value of Collecting SOLD OUT

Location: Asia Society Texas Center, Edward Rudge Allen III Education Center, 1370 Southmore Boulevard

Moderated by Kimberly Davenport, Director & Curator, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston. With a distinguished history of individual and institutional collecting, coupled with profound shifts in demography and a robust economy, Houston is poised to become a vital hub for contemporary Asian American art. What does this portend for “traditional” relationships between collectors and artists? Against the backdrop of Asia Society Texas Center’s inaugural exhibition, Contemporary Asian Art: Texas Connections, join native Houstonians, artist Mel Chin and collector Jereann Chaney for a lively discussion exploring artistic practice, the social value of collecting, and the ties that bind.

Panelists: Mel Chin, artist (Burnsville, North Carolina), & Jereann Chaney, collector (Houston, Texas)

Thursday, September 13th:

6-9 PM – VIP Opening Preview Party

Location: Reliant Center

VIP ticket holders, 6-7:30 PM
Preferred ticket holders, 7:30-9 PM

Benefiting The Core Program of the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Friday, September 14th:

Events below are free admission to all fair attendees in the theater.

12 PM – From Vision to Reality: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Location: HFAF theater.
Presented by Don Bacigalupi, Director, The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Don Bacigalupi will introduce us to The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which opened with great anticipation in November of 2011 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Crystal Bridges’ Moshe Safdie designed building unites art and landscape. Its collection offers a superb overview of American art including American masterworks as well as surprising, lesser-known gems from the colonial era to contemporary work.

1 PM – Curatorial talk MFAH Core Factor

With Brad Bucher and Victoria Lightman.

Join the curators as they discuss the importance of the Core program and its influence in the contemporary art world. Talk will be held in the MFAH Core Factor exhibition space on the fair floor. Learn more.

2 PM – Art As Investment

Location: HFAF theater.
Moderated by Fran Kaufman. An exploration of the economic and emotional investment in an artwork, and how we balance them.

Panelists: Brad Bucher, Private Collector; Tabitha Doby, Partner and Director of Appraisals, MKG Art Management; Barbara Gamson, Private Collector, Houston; Edward Boyer, Jessica Phifer, Christie’s.

4 PM – Art Business & Value

Moderated by Janet H. Moore, Lecturer, Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University. What is art worth? How do experts figure out the value of a particular piece of art, and how should you? Join us for a lively discussion of the “art and science” of art evaluation.

Panelists: Ian Peck, CEO & Founder, Art Capital Group; James Weston, Associate Professor of Finance, Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University, Katja Zigerlig, VP, Art, Wine & Jewelry, Private Client Group, Chartis Insurance & Gabriela Palmieri, Senior Vice President, Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s, New York.

Sponsored by the Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University.

Saturday, September 15th:

Events below are free admission to all fair attendees in the theater.

12 PM – Trading Ideas: The Curator and the Art Market

Location: HFAF theater.

Discussion with Claudia Schmuckli, Director & Chief Curator, Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston; Michelle White, Curator, the Menil Collection; Janet Phelps, Independent Curator & Advisor, Houston.

A discussion of issues of curatorial practice in the context of the ever increasing number and importance of art fairs for the appreciation of contemporary art. The discussion will address opportunities and challenges in the context of both collecting and non-collecting institutions while also high-lighting the role of independent curators and curatorial programming within the art fair setting.

1:15 PM – Artist as Designer: Artware Editions

Location: HFAF theater.

Presented by Rebecca Kong, co-founder of Artware Editions which is a leading gallery in this niche. She will present a brief history, examples of collaborations, and an understanding of design’s place in the art market. Kong will give a visual presentation of how contemporary artists confront functionality in their work.

2 PM – Defining Reality: Art and the Discussion of it Online

Moderated by Michael Petry, Director of MOCA London.

In an age where the visual and the real are in a state of slippage, where the margin is the mainstream, how can we find new language to speak about what we see online? Are the works depicted online as real as when we actually see them, when in reality they exist for many more (potentially millions) people as virtual images than as encounters with the work in the flesh? What is it people are responding to when an artist’s work is digitized, and how does that differ from digital art? These and many other questions about online art will be raised by the panel discussion.

Panelists: Kelly Klaasmeyer, Editor of Glasstire; Tyler Rudick, Staff Writer, CultureMap. Massa Lemu, Artist & Critical Studies Fellow at the Core Program, Glassel School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 2010-2012.

3 PM – A Conversation with Cheech Marin

Primarily known as an actor, director and performer (half of the comedy team Cheech and Chong) Marin has developed the finest private collection of Chicano art in the country. He states, “Chicano art is American art. My goal is to bring Chicano to the forefront of the art world.” His traveling exhibition, broke attendance records during its groundbreaking 15 city tour during 2007-2011. He has authored three books on the topic. At HFAF, he curates the Thomas Paul Gallery booth to introduce the next generation of gifted Chicano artists, all of whom are from Texas.

4 PM – Art & the City: Building a Public Collection

Moderated by Matthew Lennon, Director of Civic Art and Design, Houston Arts Alliance.

Panelists: Karen Farber, Director of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, Houston, & Libbie Masterson, Artist.

Sunday, September 16th:

Events below are free admission to all fair attendees in the theater.

12 PM – The Mainstream and Other: Collecting Photography

Location: HFAF theater.

Moderated by Wendy Watriss, Artistic Director & Co-Founder of Fotofest International. The panel on Collecting Photography will look at the history of photography collecting, the state of the fine art photography market today, who is collecting photography, and how gallerists decide on who they represent and why.

Panelists: Anne Tucker, Gus & Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, MFAH; Maria Ines Sicardi, Sicardi Gallery; John MacMohan, photography collector and venture capitalist, NYC; Paul Kopeikin, Kopeikin Gallery.

2 PM – Houston Film Society showing

Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2012: Visiting Artists Preview Program.

Location: HFAF theater.

Come preview a tantalizing selection of short films by several of the media artists whose work will be featured in the upcoming Houston Cinema Arts Festival, scheduled for November 7-11. The artists bridge the worlds of visual, performing, and media art, and reflect the multi-arts focus of the festival. Featured in this program will be Phantom Canyon by Stacey Steers, an animator and visual artist based in Boulder, Colorado, and Bridges Go Round by Shirley Clarke, choreographer, avant-garde filmmaker, and pioneering American independent feature director. Concluding the program will be Richart, a tour through the mind of obsessive collagist and front yard artist Richard Tracy by Vanessa Renwick, a film/video/installation artist based in Portland, Oregon.

4 PM – A Conversation with Trenton Doyle Hancock, HFAF Artist of the Year and Alison de Lima Greene,
Curator, Contemporary Art and Special Projects, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Come enjoy a very special discussion between HFAF Artist of the Year, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Houston’s own Alison de Lima Greene, as they explore Trenton’s themes and thought process in his compelling work. Learn more.

Check out these other happenings Around Town.

Please note: All times and events subject to change.