Justin Yu, Chris Shepherd, Robert Del Grande and Hugo Ortega
Carrie Wirsing and Jeanette Jenkins
Artwork by May, Magallon and Carter
Each work in this group show is a collaboration between three different artists, created using the rules of the surrealist parlor game, Exquisite Corpse, or “cadavre exquis” for you Francophiles, in which a player draws on a portion of a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal what they’ve drawn, and then passes it along to the next player to do the same. When unfolded, the juxtaposed images can be startling, even bizarre, thanks to the synchronistic nature of the process, and the twisted humor of the artists. (The show’s title sets the vibe for this summertime (hot) exquisite corpse (bod) exhibit.)
To pull this off, Basket Books and Art co-owner Edwin Smalling, a practicing artist with an MFA from Yale, and a purveyor of and advocate for physical media (i.e. books), chose to do it the hard way. After selecting a total of 120 participants, about a third of whom are based in Houston, Smalling initiated a long-distance form of “exquisite corpse” using the venerable, but not always reliable, United States Postal Service.
The artists received a “kit” containing three envelopes each, with a strip of blank paper, postage, and instructions to adhere to the rules of the game and mail their artwork to another artist, and finally back to Smalling. By eschewing the cloud and file-sharing platforms, Smalling hoped to inspire a broader, more inclusive spirit among the artists, and create “a map of the geographic and artistic network that the drawings have traversed on their way back to Basket Books and Art.”
Given the fact that USPS moves in mysterious ways, works for Hot Bod are, at the time of this writing, still arriving in the mail.
Among the Houston artists in Hot Bod are photographer and visual artist Jermani May paired with Darius Carter, a.k.a. OGPopzIG; and Areli Navarro Magallón, Communications Coordinator for Art Is Bond. Carter has been especially busy this summer. His artwork was included in Boston Center for the Arts’ 27th Drawing Show Yušká: Uncoil and the Brooklyn Art Cave’s third annual art exhibition Where We From, and he regularly drops short, fast-cut, hip-hop soundtracked video montages on Instagram highlighting current gallery and museum shows in Houston and beyond.
May, Magallon and Carter
'Exquisite Corpse' artwork (photo by Chris Becker)
May, Carter, and Magallón’s contribution to Hot Bod is an explosive, psychedelic mini-mural, with the trio posed alongside Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas’ poodle, the namesake and mascot of Basket Books and Art, looking cool and composed beneath a burning sky and bulbous cloudscape teeming with syncretic icons. Other standout artists to search for in the exhibit include Joseph Havel, Terry Suprean, Rabéa Ballin, Jeremy DePrez, Corey Sherrard, and Dana Frankfort.
Works from Hot Bod are available to purchase; 50 percent of each sale will be donated to support the Women’s Storybook Project of Texas, a non-profit program that helps incarcerated mothers stay connected to their children by recording stories and messages of love. Hot Bod is on view until Sept. 1, and a reception is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 17, from 4-6 pm.
Meta4 members (photo by Alinda Mac)
Established in 2007 by Shannon Buggs and Sixto Wagan, and later adopted in 2012 by Writers in the Schools, the Meta4 Houston Youth Writing Fellowship nurtures poets aged 13-19, helping them develop their writerly skills and a fearless style of “performance poetry” designed to wow audiences in large venues. (The 1970s-era poetry collective The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, and Nikki Giovanni set the precedent for this style of poetry, which is both highly musical and intensely political in its delivery and content.)
Each year, the fellowship welcomes a new team of poets from across Houston to represent as Meta4 Houston and travel across the country to compete against other talented teams in poetry “slams.” Last year, Meta4 won the national championship in the prestigious Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival. It was the first-time first-place win for the team and, amazingly, on July 20, 2024, Meta4 won first place at the Brave New Voices slam for the second consecutive year.
This year’s Meta4 poets — Bela Kalra, Amaya Newsome, Cristina Perez-Ruiz, Mya Skelton, and returning fellows Samiyah Green and Adriana Winkelmayer — spent months preparing for the competition, guided by Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus, Emmanuel “Outspoken” Bean, and co-coach and Meta4 alumni, Alinda "Adam" Mac. Onstage at the historic Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., the members of Meta4 delivered poems addressing such hot-button topics as Texas climate change, gun violence, and fast fashion.
In a statement, WITS executive director Giuseppe Taurino expressed his joy at Meta4’s victory: “These powerful young artists have been hard at work honing their craft for months and are deserving of this great win. Their dedication to exploring, investigating, and genuinely interacting with the world around them is inspiring.”
On Sept. 28, at the WITS house located near the Menil Collection, leaders in the arts, current Meta4 members and alumni, and program supporters will gather to celebrate the second first-place Brave New Voices win, as the MetaForward campaign prepares the program for the 2025 team.
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