Capirotada (Of a Personal Nature) @ grayDUCK Gallery

Capirotada is a delicious Mexican bread pudding concocted from a wide variety of nuts and fruits with syrup-soaked bread. In a similar vein, the Los Outsiders’ curated exhibition, CAPIROTADA: Of a Personal Nature, collects a varied group of artists that we originally shared with each other for consideration, having no specific curatorial objective in mind. Instead, we began with an interest in highlighting exciting artists some of us had not had a chance to work with before.

However, during our virtual studio visits, the syrupy bread–in the form of serendipitous connections between the artists’ work and practices–congealed into genuine dialogues about self-reflection, meditation, and communing with nature through art. The artists of CAPIROTADA bridge the ideas of the individual in search of solace in a natural world, and our place in the bowl of pudding.

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En Bola at De Stijl Gallery

19145706_10154933259524830_9137181208664603690_n.jpgMuch appreciation to everyone for coming out last night and huge Thank You again to Christina Coleman, Dameon Lester and Marja Spearman with de stijl for your consummate professionalism while hosting us to create “En Bola” allowing us the opportunity to work with three amazing artists (Lisette Chávez Mauro C. Martinez and Jean Sebastien.) Build bridges. Burn walls. – MAG

“de stijl | PODIUM FOR ART is pleased to present “En Bola”, an exhibit featuring Austin collective Los Outsiders working in tandem with a trio of Texas artists.

Using the occasion of this exhibition as an example of the Los Outsiders’ ethos of opportunity-making, “En Bola” pairs each of the Los Outsiders members — Michael Anthony Garciá, Roberto Jackson Harrington and Hector Hernandez — with a different artist.

Garciá, Harrington and Hernandez each invited an artist from outside Austin to collaborate on an art-making venture for “En Bola.”

Garciá will create with Lisette Chavez; Harrington with Jean-Sebastien Boncy and Hernandez with Mauro Martinez.

“We each picked artists whose work we liked and wanted to see more of and artists who haven’t exhibited in Austin before,” said Garciá.

The collaborative art-making of “En Bola” will yield mixed-media installations, manipulated photography and altered paintings.

“En Bola” is a Spanish phrase meaning “a gathered group.”

Explains Garciá: “This exhibit is about creating bridges. All three of us Los Outsiders are Latinos from Texas border towns and so bridges were a part of our lives, connecting us to our culture and family in Mexico. This exhibit is also about the importance of connecting with each other and creating alliances across distances and cultural boundaries to be able to survive in our country’s current political climate.”

Now critically lauded, Los Outsiders began in 2006 as an effort by artists Garciá, Hernandez and then-member Jaime Salvador Castillo to create opportunities in Austin for artists like themselves who were marginalized by culture, race, economics and the city’s circumscribed cultural eco-system.

While each member is an artist with an individual creative practice, together Los Outsiders primarily act as a curatorial collective, organizing exhibits and happenings.

Los Outsiders have curated exhibits and performance events at Houston’s Box 13; the Antigua Aduana in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; and in Austin at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican-American Cultural Center and with the Fusebox Festival. Collectively, Los Outsiders made a public art project for the city of Austin’s “Drawing Lines” initiative.

Twice Los Outsiders received the Austin Critics’ Table Award for Best Group Show Curation; in 2012 for the “Heir Today Gone Tomorrow” and in 2015 for “Gently Fried.”

With sculpture and public installations made of found-objects (mostly clothing), Michael Anthony Garciá probes trenchant issues of personal and community identity. San Antonio printmaker Lisette Chavez combines prints and print-based installations fusing religious art, medical ephemera and botanical iconography.

The assembled sculpture of mass-produced objects and manipulated digital photographs of Roberto Jackson Harrington are sly subversions of traditional norms. Haitian-born, Houston-based photographer Jean-Sebastien Boncy captures quotidian, over-looked scenes of urban Houston for his open-source archive.

Hector Hernandez’s complexly staged photographs involving the human figure are simultaneously studies in form and provocative micro-stories. In large paintings, Laredo artist Mauro Martinez confronts the singular yet bifurcated geographical and social landscape of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with an essay by art critic Jeanne Claire van Ryzin.”

Sew Wasted!

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Thanks again to Fusebox Festival, the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) and all the artists involved in bringing our performance event, Sew Wasted, to glorious life!

High res images by photographer Chris Patunas coming soon.
Video by David Bellesen coming soon.
Preshow soundtrack by Not Now Underground can be found here.
Performance/ runway soundtrack composed by Dr. Russell Reed can be found here.

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“In the great performance art traditions of Dada and Bauhaus, Los Outsiders once again stir the creative pot with the full-artistic-community-encompassing performance event, “Sew Wasted.” Much like Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus sought to bring together all artistic mediums under one umbrella, Los Outsiders continue their efforts to stitch together the artistic population of Austin with “Sew Wasted.” Whereas the preposterousness of Dada performance was intended as a reaction to the incomprehensible nature of the First World War, “Sew Wasted” aims to act as a mirror to the absurd issues of our modern world and all its complexities.

Five teams of creatives (visual artists, actors, and dancers/choreographers) will collaborate on faux- fashion-as-wearable-art to create performance art presentations backed by the music of a local composer, that will pound our runway in over-the-top revelry. Each team will combine their creative forces and expertise to produce two sculptural/performance fashion looks to stimulate your mind and trip your senses while off-the- wall songs and sounds compliment the runway experience that’s not to be missed! Sit front row center, bring a fan, a camera flash and a fashionista attitude! Experience the Austin arts like never before as you take a large swig of absurdity and get “Sew Wasted.”

Featuring: Jaelah Kuehmichel & Jason Phelps, Jacques Colimon & Lauren Klotzman, Andrea Ariel & April Garcia, Jay Byrd & Adrian Aguilera, Lacey Richter & Akirash, video artist Fresh Fuckerman, and composer Dr. Russell Reed, preshow sounds by Not Now Underground.”

Do you Live in District One? Want to help with our / person / place / thing / project?

We are reaching out to connect to individuals in our district who might like to be a part of our project.

One of our goals is to amplify the voices of the people in District One and shine a light on the great community we have here! We’d love to have you participate or point us in the right direction to connect to our community, so we can make this something District One can be proud of!

Please take a moment to read an abbreviated description about us below and what we would like to do. Then, let us know when you might be able to meet with us to start a conversation. A more detailed description of our Drawing Lines project is attached.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Los Outsiders Drawing Lines Infor Sheet

/ person / place / thing / : Drawing Lines Project taking off!

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We have begun the first phase of our Drawing Lines project: / person / place / thing / in Austin’s City Council’s District One! We did the first leg of our district tour via public-transportation and had a blast!

Wanna see what Los Outsiders did today? Check out our Instagram and track the first stage of our /place/ tour through District One via public transportation for our /person/place/thing/  Drawing Lines project!

www.instagram.com/los_outsiders

Stay tuned for the second leg soon.

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Eye on the Prize!

Thanks to the 17 amazing artists, generous Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Fusebox Festival, and all the Austin arts community who helped us fund this exhibitions via ‪#‎DYPO‬, and ‪#‎ATXLoteria‬, we have been honored with the Austin Critics Table Award for Group Gallery Exhibition! LITERALLY could not have done this without you ALL!

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/arts/2015-06-03/everything-is-exemplary/

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