1.26.23 | Fall & Winter Highlights

Congratulations to J.R. Roykovich on their exhibition Travel in Light Years on display in the GAR Gallery August 27th – November 12th, 2022.

Part of the exhibition included public programming – an evening of Galveston Ghost stories.

Thank you to everyone who came out to share a spooky story around the fire! Here is GP retelling the terrifying tale of the haunted research ship!

On October 20th GAR was happy to host the Ascend Art Market in our front courtyard.

It was a fun night, with music and food! Here is Raudiver (Galveston, TX) playing an experimental set in the back courtyard.

The Galveston festival season kicked off with Oktoberfest. Pictured here is a giant stine, Glasstire writer William Sarradet, and GAR’s new artists in residence, Lili Chin and Samira Yamin. Proust!

We survived yet another Lone Star Biker Rally. Pictured here: possibly the prettiest bike at Biker Rally…?

Rounding off the winter festivities with Dickens on the Strand, here is artist in residence, Lili Chin, posing with the AMAZING Edgar Allen Poe who’s performances are not to be missed!

A big thank you to Eric Heist and Benjamin Tischer for coming to Galveston in November to introduce our current exhibition, Candy Factory by Eric Heist and BREYER P-ORRIDGE.

Install shot of Candy Factory on a lovely winter day.

Programming for the exhibition included performances by Future Blondes (Houston, TX). Pictured here is Domokos during the first, ambient set.

Thank you to Future Blondes for a great night!

And now! It’s time for…. CREATURE FEATURE!

Valentine’s Day preview with these Sweet Creatures, our resident GAR kitties, The Ghost and The Darkness.

Not to be outshone, Our third resident kitty, Pumaman: Cat of Legend.

If you walk the winter beach, you may find a fossil crab! A good authority tells us it’s at least several million years old.

Last, but not least, on January 22nd, 2023, we were lucky enough to have Karima Walker (Tucson, AZ) and Little Mazarn (Austin, TX) perform in our back courtyard.

It was a beautiful, magical night of music.

8.31.22 | Cuckoo in the Courtyard

This past years artists in residence — Manuel Rodríguez, Jean Shon and Andrew Wilson — finished off the year strong with an amazing exhibition in the GAR gallery. We sure are going to miss these three!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the artist talks. It was an awesome night!

A much needed DTO happy hour!

Late Night Jenga Fun.

The whole GAR gang at the beach house!

Manny barbecuing in Middle Earth?

Gratuitous Galveston beach sunrise.

What’s going on in the GARden? Early summer we had oodles and doodles of little tomatoes.

Banana flower with bananas.

Only flowering by moonlight, this dragonfruit flower…

And dragonfruit!

Now at the end of August we’ve got tons of delicious muscadine grapes. All you can eat!

Creature Feature starts with the cat creatures! Here’s The Ghost looking sweet.

Pumaman, looking philosophical. No good photos of The Darkness this time. We’ll make sure to have some next time!

Rescued this sweet little eel on the beach.

And finally! This very observant young cuckoo in the courtyard!

That does it! We’re done with summer, bring on the fall!

4.28.22 | SpringSprungSprang

The boat planter in full bloom.

The bounty from the GARden has made for some gorgeous lunches.

Thank you to GAR Year 2 alum Zahar Vaks for putting together a great group show for the gallery! 3 going through 9 to get to 27 will be on view until Saturday May 7th!

Even though the weather threw us a curve ball, this was still such a special night with performances by Post-Trance Tea Ceremony (Houston, TX) and W. CREEVES (Marfa, TX).

Just your friendly neighborhood Gas Friend.

Residency Shenanigans: All The Dogs.

And a very serious game of pool at Market Street Station.

Andrew, lining up the shot!

Andrew Graham from Swarming Branch made our April Artwalk a night to remember! Thank you, Andrew!

Ending the night with a Happy Birthday fire for past resident, Katrina Moorehead.

Kicking off our Creature Feature with this Mermaid’s Purse. They wash up on shore quite a bit in early spring. They are actually the egg sacks from sharks and rays.

Well hello handsome.

Aren’t you a tall drink of water?

Cool hair, bro.

A Summer Tanager waiting patiently by the bee hive. Tanager’s love to eat bees!

Spotted these prehistoric beauties at High Island. Roughly 6 feet long.

Thanks for visiting GAR, Veronica Roberts, and joining us for a fun day of birding at High Island!

The stop at Stingaree’s on the way back to Galveston was well worth it!

MSA, is that you??

The GAR cats, being cute. Aw!

Aww!

Awww!!

Awwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who came out to help make our spring so special! We can’t wait to see you this summer!

1.19.22 | If there’s one thing I always have, it’s a creature (Fall/Winter ketchup blog).

After a noticeable absence, and due to customer demand, the GARblog returns with a beach-found baby Ankylosaurus.

Pumaman relaxing.

Manny manning the grill.

Oktoberfest in Galveston. Prost!

Thanks to Jabari, we’ve been getting some serious games of chess in.

Shoutout to Dawolu Jabari’s show Lessons from Above: Constellation Quilts.

Kitty love.

Big Hairy Spider.

Andrew admiring the patches at the Biker Rally.

If you turn 30, Jean will make you a Punch Cake.

First you punch it. Then you eat it!

Take a short drive to Brazos Bend and hitch a ride on an alligator.

Susie calls the Desert Oracle from the ghost phone.

Sweet potato crop was very bountiful.

Now that we are back on our blog game, we’ll try to update every season.

12.19.19 |Hanging in the Holidays

GAR’s Fall programming got off to a great start with Colin Hunt’s show “Keeping Things Whole”. Thank you, Colin, for bringing us some sweet egg tempera paintings.

Here’s Colin doing a technical demo on preparing egg tempera. He is the master of the yolk.

We survived the annual fall rains, courtesy of Imelda.

Thank you to this years new residents, Anne Buckwalter, Beth Cooper, and Liz Glaessner (pictured) for introducing their work to the community.

Passion flower – native to outer space and the GARden.

Thank you to Da Camera for bringing us The Music of Mieczysław Weinberg (piano quintet in F Minor, Op. 18) with pianist Sarah Rothenberg and Da Camera’s Young Artists. It was a powerful and emotionally charged performance.

And here are Potted Kitties.

This year’s Oktoberfest featured some beautiful weather, warm strudel, a shit ton of beer, and introducing Kraut Balls!

If you’re on the island this holiday season be sure to come by and see the beautiful show by Albany TX artist Patrick Kelly, “The Divided Self”.

Racing sail boats in the Gulf. 

Big thank you to Sue de Beer for giving a visiting artist lecture and screening her werewolf film “The White Wolf”.

Deluxe GAR lunch.

Dragon fruit climbing.

Damn, it was good!

Current resident, Anne Buckwalter, has been keeping us all well fed with her amazing baked goods. Thanks, Anne!

Thank you to Velveteen Echo and Astragal for coming down to Galveston and playing a great courtyard show!

He’s baaaaaack! Barry once again graces this years GARchangel. Happy Holidays, friends! See you in 2020!

 

 

 

6.26.19 |Now is a good time

When you come to GAR, can you find the mirror ball in the bamboo?

Or Phil in the back garden?

Or the ladybug larvae hunting aphids on the arugula?

And then transforming into a ladybug?

One of our favorite spring events in Galveston is when the cemetery on Broadway erupts in these bright yellow flowers.

Also, this dude! Playing with his snake on the beach.

Cucumber seedlings.

We had a great spring and early summer in the GARden. The cucumbers were particularly bountiful and delicious.

Be sure to swing by the gallery while you’re visiting Galveston this summer to check out the current Artists in Residence show. On view through July 20th!

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening, it was a great night! Special thank you to chef Benjy Mason for his amazing Tomato Sandwiches and cocktails inspired by the artists. Also a huge shoutout to David Feil and his Slightly Larger Band for the music!

We’re always making art around these parts. Stay cool this summer, friends!

3.16.19 | Festival of the Beautiful III

The Third Annual Festival of the Beautiful!

Thank you to Benjy Mason for making heaping helpings of gumbo stew! If you’re going to do a Festival of the Beautiful, you need nutrients! It was truly the best gumbo we’ve ever had.

He’s also the Master of the Pour.

This year we added a new song element to our festivities. Thank you to David Feil for helping us transcribe the poems of William Blake as sung by Allen Ginsberg, and lead us all in song!

Parading through downtown Galveston! This was our biggest parade yet!

Burning the Ark with the help of Bill Davenport, to set this year on the right path.

A big thank you to CHALK and Studded Left from Houston for finishing off our night!

A very Happy Mardi Gras from the Galveston Artist Residency! See you next year!

In other news… why is Barry so green?? It must be time for our CREATURE FEATURE!

For some strange reason there were several fresh water turtles found stranded on the beach this winter.

This makes no sense, as they don’t do well in salt water! 

They are all Red Eared Sliders and there were four of them in total found over a 10 day period.

Fortunately we were able to relocate them to this little fresh water turtle paradise. Turtle Karma.

This frog lives on the studio window when it’s warm.

The bees are in the calamondin with their big yellow pollen pants.

Here’s a Dan in the wild… checking the surf report.

The Darkness is blissing out on the spring sunshine.

And if you want to see more creatures, swing by the gallery to check out Arden Surdam’s exhibition NAUSEA, complete with this beautiful green Nannochlropsis algae.

Finally, a big thank you to Jana Horn for playing a great set in our back courtyard! Happy Spring everyone!

 

 

 

 

12.11.18 |Falling into the Holidays

It’s been a beautiful fall in Galveston!

Despite some torrential downpours! Our new artists in residence had a rainy start to their year – here is current resident Derick Whitson looking fashionable, slogging his way to the studios.

Thank you to Leslie Moody Castro for being our first curator in residence. Here she is doing research for her exhibition with Cristobal Gracia.

Thank you to Cristobal Gracia for traveling from Mexico City this August and making a fantastic show in our gallery space.

Thank you to Dash Beardsley for being a willing performer and keeping the ghosts away! 

The one thing we’ve always wanted to do here at GAR is catch a wild swarm of bees. Credit goes to Dan Schmahl for spotting this swarm in our live oak tree in the back courtyard.

Leaping into action, Sallie and Eric prepare to capture the swarm!

Success! At the risk of making this look much easier than it actually was — the queen and her swarm were captured and put in this plastic bin.

Then we were able to transfer them to our warre hive, where they are now busy gathering pollen and stocking up for the winter.

The annual biker rally can be loud and annoying, but if you throw yourself into the heart of it there’s always a moment where it becomes radiantly beautiful.

Thank you to Moon Racer (Durham, NC) and Advance Base (Chicago, IL) for coming to Galveston and playing such a great show! It was a really special night.  

And now it’s time for our regular segment: CREATURE FEATURE!! Starting off with Snakes On the Beach!

Here is an evil caterpillar, with its poops. This is an Asp Caterpillar, which will sting the ever loving shit out of you. For real. 

Baby Toad!

Sunbathing Christmas beetle! And that concludes this episode of… CREATURE FEATURE!

Thank you to Robert Ruello for assisting in the pre-opening-ritualized-smoke-bomb-courtyard-drawing. 

And for making these incredible paintings for the gallery! If you’re in the area, be sure to stop in and see Robert’s show, “The Moving Evening,” which will be on view until February 2019.

Thank you to Eric Taylor and Susan Lindfors Taylor for coming and putting on an epic show for us. It’s always an honor for us when they come to GAR.

And before the night was over, Eric even traded hats with this dude!

The return of the GARchangel!

Topped with the sweetest little angel we could find — straight from Vegas! 

And no blog post would be complete without some photos of the GAR kitties! Here are The Ghost and The Darkness, in a photo that we feel perfectly captures their personality and relationship. And we couldn’t pick one photo of Pumaman — he’s so dang cute — so here are ALL the Pumaman photos!

I mean… Come ON!

And finally, thank you to Jessica Ninci for these spot on figurines of our three handsome kitty dudes. You nailed them!

We hope you all have a Happy Holiday, and we’ll see you in 2019!

 

 

 

 

 

7.24.18 |Summer Blast

We’re in the heart of summer right now, but wanted to look back on the last few months.  Back in May we were honored to host a screening of David Fenster’s film “Opuntia” about Cabeza de Vaca, prickly pear cactus, and personal journeys.

To mark the occasion we served Prickly Pear cocktails – containing mezcal, prickly pear juice, ginger liquor, and lime! Smoky and sweet and potently delicious. Yum.

Congratulations to current GAR residents, Justin and Kristina, for making an amazing exhibition! The opening was a lot of fun, and many thanks to El Lago and Blushing for providing some awesome music in the back courtyard.

The night ended in flames.

Heading out to West Texas, for our annual Marfa trip. Turn left at nipple mountain.

Sallie and Lucy exploring the rocks at the Chihuahuan Desert nature center. The  best part about West Texas is the hiking, and the creatures. Which brings us to another installment of: CREATURE FEATURE!

Here is a Spade Footed Toad balancing a dog hair on its nose! Spotted in Marfa, TX.

For some nightmare fodder, here is a Giant Centipede, and yes, it is longer than your finger (I don’t care how long your fingers are).

Fluttering Friends! From top to bottom: A Sphinx Moth feeding on flowers in Marfa, An Arizona Sister butterfly in the mountains near Fort Davis, TX, and finally a Black Witch moth that was waiting for us upon our return to Galveston.

In response to the minimalist art in Marfa, we noticed that the bunnies have taken it upon themselves to be the upholders of representational art, like this self-portrait we found etched into the side of a building at the Chinati Foundation.

And introducing our newest GAR furry friend – the wonderful, ever charming, Mister Smithers!

At the second artwalk for the residents show we had to pull out the giant bubbles – its a GAR summer tradition. And this bubble master just had a birthday! Happy birthday Marji! 

And if you came to the second artwalk hopefully you got your hands on these limited edition GAR t-shirts featuring 2016-2017 resident, Pat Palermo’s drawing of Pumaman on his magical, bee-making guitar!

And no blog post would be complete without some plant-life, like this exuberant Passion flower, strutting its stuff in the GAR front courtyard. Stay cool this summer, friends!

 

Fantastic Spring!

It’s been a beautiful spring. We had a lot of fun beachcombing with Mark Dion while he was in Galveston working on an upcoming project.

Here are some of the beach treasures he found.

While visiting the bird rookery at High Island there was this strange moment when an alligator ambushed a Roseate Spoonbill, pulling it under the water. The other spoonbills turned and stared intently at the spot of their comrades disappearance for what seemed like a very long time. 

The GAR soundtrack for this spring was perfectly captured in an evening show featuring Advance Base, Friendship, and Karima Walker. Thank you Michael Stuart Allison for taking such good care of the sound and lights!

A big Thank You to our current resident artists, Justin Roykovich and Kristina Estell, for taking time out of their studio work to share with students from HSPVA and Clear Springs High School!

It was an honor to host the students from the Iconoclast Poetry program for one of their live poetry reading events. Torrina Harris is doing such great work!

We always love having Da Camera put on one of their special performances in the GAR gallery. This visit the Da Camera Young Artists — featuring Jacob Schafer (violin), Giancarlo Latta (violin), Sergein Yap (viola), and Annamarie Reader (cello) — performed Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131 (1826) as part of the Beethoven For All Concerts.

The poet and writer Jeremy Sigler has also been in town doing studio visits and while here created this lovely book along with mathematical assistance from David Feil.

If you haven’t seen Adam Putnam’s show in the GAR Gallery make sure you stop by soon! The last day to catch it is May 12th.

The migratory birds have been passing through all month! The second picture is a sweet but exhausted hummingbird resting in our Jasmine. The last picture is of several Tanagers picking off the GAR bees as they come and go from the hive. Fortunately the Tanagers have moved on, leaving our bees in peace.