Open MFA at the Box
Supported Suspended
Over the past year, I’ve observed the growth of the Open MFA collective. The artistic identity of Open MFA is a little vague—they mostly seem to be together because being together energizes them artistically. They don’t seem to have a collective artistic identity, like the Surrealists or Futurists. On their website , they write:
Open MFA is an artist collective that provides community, dialogue, and cross-disciplinary collaboration for artists based in the Houston area. The artist-run organization is shaped by everyone who takes part—participation is free and open to artists of any discipline.
Open MFA provides accessibility to arts education by creating space for community and collaboration amongst artists on the periphery of Houston’s art scene. Inspired by desirable elements of a traditional MFA program, we create opportunities for artists to share knowledge and skills, explore new ideas within their individual practice, and gain intellectual and social exchanges between each other and the broader public. We invite artists, who may otherwise take on student debt to pursue an MFA program, to challenge their work and have meaningful conversations with a community of artists. We are a resource for artists to continue their education—whether they already have a University degree, intend to pursue one in the future, or want to pursue an alternative route.
It is interesting that they see themselves on the periphery of Houston’s art scene; it feels a little defensive. My opinion is that they should be more confident and assertive. Not out of any false sense of bravado, but because they’ve clearly earned a place closer to the center of the Houston art scene.
But one problem is that an Open MFA exhibit is a cacaphony of conflicting voices. Such is the case in their current exhibit, Supported Suspended at Box 13. There are 28 named pieces by 15 artists, some of which are collaborative. Imagine the visual noise.
If there is any approach that seems popular within the Open MFA group, I would say is fabric works, including a specialty in knitting.
All the pieces above involve fabric or threads in their creation. Autumn McIlraith’s Tension Surface is a homemade loom, made apparently from recycled lawn furniture, employing “PLARN” —plastic yard made from old HEB grocery store bags. It is the kind of technology that one might expect people to revive in a post-apocalyptic society. (This has been on my mind since seeing Sarah Welch’s Galveston exhibit, Murky Mirror.)
But some pieces in the show are very different, like Cynthia Giron’s fluorescent paintings, with their simple, Carroll Dunham-ish compositions.
Or Jennifer Choi’s Hans Arp-esque ceramic pieces.
Choi had one abstract ceramic flower that was designed for viewer interaction.
The pieces fit together around the central hole in each element.
The artist whose work with Open MFA that has impressed me the most since I first saw it last May is Jen Bootwala. In their group exhibit at Flatland Gallery and in the works she had in last year’s Big Show at Lawndale, Bootwala’s work was mostly knit installation. There is some of that here, as with Values, pictured above. But in her piece In Media Res, We Mend, Bootwala takes a different approach. The work consists of three parts. In the center is hanging an old sweater on a hanger—my impression is that it is the kind of sweater that an old woman might have worn. The nostalgic element is also present in the two monochrome photos (both printed on fabric) displayed on either side of the sweater. The photos appear quite old, and both have small checked section embroidered into them.
Without knowing the story behind it, my guess is that it has to do with family history and memory. I’ve been very impressed with Bootwala’s work that I’ve seen over the past year: this feels like a step forward for an artist who should not be “on the periphery of Houston’s art scene.”
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Robert, I think cacophony comes with the territory and should be indicative of a wide range of styles, attitudes, and media. Right now MFA degrees are problematic for several reasons, two of which are expense and practical utility. I guess some dealers and other cognoscienti are impressed by a Yale MFA, but these days I'm not sure degrees mean much. Almost everybody with an MFA works a day job to support his or her art practice, and I think if a person has the fire inside to make art a degree won't matter. What matters is community and mutual support, and these people are doing that. I think it's commendable. Thanks for the article.