January 29th – February 28th, 2016

“Payday Lenders” – Mark Flood , Paul Kremer, Alika Herreshoff, Chris Cascio, Lane Hagood, Melinda Laszczynski, John Champion, Darcy Rosenberger, Dylan Roberts, Edgar Meza, Katie Mulholland, James Burns, Chris Henry, Emily Peacock, Brandon Araujo, Bret Shirley, Michael Abramowitz, and Dual

Cardoza Fine Art 805A Willam 77002

January 29th – February 28th

Opening January 29th 7pm – 10pm

To commemorate a move to new gallery space, Cardoza Fine Art presents a survey of artists that have previously worked in the gallery and a glimpse at 2016’s programming.

Group shows are nothing new and arguably nothing to get excited about. If you’re at all interested in art you can usually recognize a couple of artist names off the press release whose work you like enough to keep you interested during an opening but maybe not into next week. The selection of artists being presented together for this show is something of an anomaly. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing some of these artists while we were in school together, others I’ve admired from afar, and a few are new acquaintances. I spent a couple of years away from Houston and when I came back I had to reconnect with the few friends of mine who were still here. One of the places that we ended up at that wasn’t on my radar before I left was Cardoza. In what seems like a relatively short amount of time, a loose but promising cast of characters has gathered here. While some of these artists have shown elsewhere, it’s their actions here that I find notable. Maybe it has something to do with this city and the gallery’s location, far from where we’re accustomed going to see art that allows for a hefty level of risk taking. Bringing together artists with very different backgrounds and ways of working and seeing what they share with and learn from each other is a part of it too. You notice it in the gradual scaling up of paintings, the use of unconventional materials and the implementation of immediate modes of production. This show is an excellent example of what Houston artists are doing right now. 

-Edgar Meza