Mixed and Mastered: Turntable Kitsch
February 5 – May 8, 2016
Artist Hall
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
4848 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002Opening Reception
Friday, February 5, 5:30 – 8:00 PM
The evening will also feature the openings of At Your Service and Found Subjects: Works by Sondra Sherman, as well as open studios by HCCC’s current resident artists.Hours & Admission
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM, and Sunday, 12 – 5 PM.
(Summer Hours: Closed Sundays, July 5th – Labor Day.)
Admission is free.
(HOUSTON, TX) December 28, 2015 — This spring, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) presents Mixed and Mastered: Turntable Kitsch, an exhibition featuring the works of mixed-media artist and ceramic restorer, Debra Broz, and fiber artist, Nick DeFord. Turntable Kitsch explores the alteration and customization of the sentimental trinkets in our everyday lives. By mixing, sampling, and adding layers, the artists rework found tchotchkes. Like mastering a record to produce a polished sound, Broz and DeFord fine-tune their kitsch mementos for an exciting final effect.
Debra Broz began falling in love with small, unusual things while growing up in rural central Missouri. In her practice, she breaks apart second-hand porcelain animal figurines, combining the pieces to create ceramic oddities. Broz uses her ceramics-restoration techniques to dismantle, dissect, and recompose the found kitsch figurines as a means of investigating the effect of altered objects, especially those that were once valued and later discarded. Her seamless surgeries create works that humorously reflect irregularities in society and nature. Broz offers considerations about the power of kitsch and sentimentality by redirecting emotion from the object to the subject, creating a fantasy of emotion and the reassurance it provides the viewer. Her modifications disrupt that fantasy, and instead ask viewers to question the world around them.
Naming, categorizing, and mapping are common methods of understanding not only personal location, but also personal identity. Fiber artist Nick DeFord’s work questions the efficacy of that process, as well as the delicacy of the known world. With the use of traditional embroidery and stitching techniques, DeFord explores the visual culture of cartography, occult imagery, and geographical souvenirs. By disrupting these established visual systems, DeFord reveals a thin boundary between the known and the unknown. As his embroidery needle pierces the surface of these familiar paper materials, he begins to physically alter the original understanding of the object. DeFord’s transformed game boards and maps deconstruct the objects’ initial interpretation of space and time and demonstrate the flexibility of an object’s meaning.
About the Artists
Debra Broz received her BFA from Maryville University, St. Louis, in 2003. She then moved to Austin, Texas, where she worked as a mixed-media artist, ceramics restorer, and visual-arts nonprofit director for eight years. In late 2013, she moved to Los Angeles, where she continues her artistic and restoration practices, and is an arts adviser and advocate.
Nick DeFord is an artist, art educator, and arts administrator. DeFord got his MFA in fibers from Arizona State University in 2008 and his BFA in drawing from the University of Tennessee in 2004. He has taught at both universities and is currently Program Director at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Mixed and Mastered: Turntable Kitsch was curated by Hayley McSwain. McSwain began interning for the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in the fall of 2014 and is currently the Programs Assistant. A Houston native, she received her BFA in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin in 2012, and spent several months travelling and working in Europe following commencement. McSwain previously worked as the Design Fellow for Project Row Houses and as the Visual Arts Assistant at Art League Houston.
About Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a nonprofit visual arts center dedicated to advancing education about the process, product and history of craft. HCCC provides exhibition, retail and studio spaces to support the work of local and national artists and serves as a resource for artists, educators and the community at large.
This year, HCCC is celebrating its quinceañera—15 years of educating people of all ages about the beauty and value of contemporary craft. The years since 2001 have seen the organization grow exponentially, with its Artist Residency Program now nationally regarded and its presentation of original exhibitions outstanding. HANDS-ON HOUSTON, a free, monthly, family craft activity has exploded from averaging 50 visitors to over 350 in the past four years. The Asher Gallery has some of the most unique gifts and home décor in Houston, and the Craft Garden offers visitors a chance to learn about plants used in craft making. HCCC has fully grown into its mission and offers visitors many great opportunities to enjoy and learn about craft.
Located in the Museum District at 4848 Main Street, HCCC is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM, and Sunday, 12 – 5 PM. Summer Hours: Closed Sundays, July 5th – Labor Day. Holidays: Closed Easter, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Also closed January 12 – 15, 2016, for repairs. Admission is free. Free parking is available directly behind the facility, off Rosedale and Travis Street. HCCC is three blocks south of Wheeler Ave. MetroRail station on Main Street.
HCCC is funded in part by grants from The Brown Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Texas Commission on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Kinder Foundation; the Morgan Foundation; Windgate Charitable Foundation; and the Wortham Foundation. HCCC is a member of the Houston Museum District and the Midtown Arts District. For more information, call 713-529-4848 or visit www.crafthouston.org. Find HCCC on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @CraftHouston.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jenny Lynn Weitz (jweitz@crafthouston.org)
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
713.529.4848 x 308
###
