FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULIE BLACKMON
Life Will Never Be The Same
March 15, 2008 – April 20, 2008,
Opening Reception:
SATURDAY, March 15, 6-8pm
MKG Art Management
2825 Colquitt, Houston, TX 77098
713.526.4146
MKG Art Management, LLC, a Houston-based art-advising and appraising firm, presents in conjunction with FotoFest 2008 a new show by Julie Blackmon titled, Life Will Never Be The Same. The exhibit will open to the public with a reception on Saturday, March 15, from 6-8 p.m. and will continue through April 20, 2008. Regular exhibition hours are Monday through Friday, from 9-5 p.m.
Life Will Never Be The Same is Blackmon’s first solo exhibition in Texas.
She describes her extraordinary, or perhaps, ordinary, scenarios with the Dutch proverb, “A Jan Steen Household,” which originated in the 17th century and is used today to refer to a home in disarray, full of rowdy children and boisterous family gatherings.
The paintings of Steen, along with those of other Dutch and Flemish genre painters, helped inspire this body of work. Blackmon is the oldest of nine children and is now the mother of three. She relates to Steen’s personal narratives of family life which were depicted nearly 400 years ago. The conflation of art and life is an area Blackmon has explored in photographing the everyday life of her family and the lives of her sisters and their families at home. These images are both fictional and auto-biographical, and they reflect not only our lives today, but they also move beyond the documentary to explore the fantastic elements of our everyday lives, both imagined and real.
Julie Blackmon’s work has been collected by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; the Toledo Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; the Portland Art Museum; C/O Berlin, Germany; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. In 2006 she received 1st place awards from the Santa Fe Center for Photography Project Commission and Photospiva, and was the 2006 Critical Mass Book Award winner. Julie lives in Springfield, Missouri and this is our first exhibit with the artist.
Underwritten by MKG Art Management, LLC, and in conjunction with FotoFest 2008. MKG Art Management, LLC, offers expert advice to private, corporate, and institutional clients. Client services include art acquisition and divestment, accredited art appraisals, art collection management, art leases, curatorial services, art education programs, and publication management and editing.