Summer Sucks!

Summer Sucks!

Materials: Digital Image
Project: Professional Work
Year: 2006
Size: Unknown

This is a little promo I made for the Summer Sucks III: Fast and Hot art show. Photograph by Betsy Askew.

Here's some info about the show:


David Ubias, Frances Trotter, YAR, Derek Shumate, David Chien, Elaine Bradford, Sasha Dela, Jenny Schlief, TubeZomZom, Nick Meriwether, Atton Paul


Saturday, July 29th 7:30- 11pm (when it’s cooler)
Commerce Street Artists’ Warehouse
2315 Commerce Street (cross the tracks)
Houston, TX 77002


Summer Sucks is the third installment of Aimee Jones’ celebration of the hellacious summers in Houston through reckless abandon and contemporary art. The exhibition will present four installations by Elaine Bradford, David Chien, David Ubias in collaboration with Frances Trotter, and Derek Shumate with street artist YAR representing new talent and broadened expectations for Houston. Summer Sucks also features Sasha Dela, Rodney Elliot, Nick Meriwether, Jenny Schlief, The Turkeys, and TubeZomZom.


Elaine Bradford is determined to make this summer hotter than two rats in a wool sock- her innovative knit and crochet work covering environmental spaces, trees, and animal heads comforts and softens usually; but even their sight in one hundred degree weather can cause heat stroke. Elaine’s work in last year’s “Big Show” at the Lawndale really stole attention from lackluster award winners with it’s bold lyricism and surreality. Self-effacing melting popsicles and soggy sugary snacks sliding off spraypainted doors prelude the collaboration of David Ubias and Frances Trotter; these two artists working together for the first time are modest in person, ostentatious in artwork.

Derek Shumate is an enigma of an artist- devoting much of his time to design and working behing the scenes with the collective Lollipauperz; here he is a catalyst for street artist YAR, known citywide as a street representative of the changing face of grafitti today, bridging the gap between gallery and felonious act. David Chien rounds out the main gallery with his monsterous 2D work. Coming off a well-received exhibit of large installation at Art League Houston- Chien even designed a video game- look for ever bigger and better things from this ambitious artist.

Look forward to performances by performance-artist musicians TubeZomZom out of Austin and into the hot seat, ruckus-starters The Turkeys featuring members of Satin Hooks and artist Will Boone, and bar-brawler Rodney Elliot on guitar. Jenny Schlief will be there, tongue firmy in cheek, with one of her hilarious sickly-sweet social performances. Sasha Dela takes film on in a new work modeling the hellish humid solitude of a summer drive in the East Texas countryside, the land responsible for spawning Bottle Rocket, Urban Cowboy, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Help Commerce Street this summer with the purchase of a limited edition collection of great serial work by CSAW residents and their artist friends. Gift baskets feature work donated by the ever-generous Teresa O’Connor, Vicki Fowler, I Love You, Baby, Nick Meriwether, Sean Carroll, Daniel Garson, Daniel Adame, Lollipauperz, Rodney Elliot, Andrea Chin, Hancock Brothers, Laura Lark, Matt Lucas (NY), Miguel Cortez (CHI), Edra Soto, (CHI), FAILURE, Derit Biho, Frances Trotter, Lisa Godfrey, and Gael Stewart. Available July 29th, please contact Frances Trotter at 713-498-2576 for more information.


CSAW has been at the fore of emerging art in Houston for over 12 years. Look for us this fall with great visiting artists Barna Kantor and Douglas Ballas, and as a cornerstone of this year’s 14th annual Artcrawl. Summer Sucks is curated by Sean Carroll and Frances Trotter and will hopefully be carried kicking and screaming into the future by someone else.