11/08/13 11:15am

The Art Guys say their van will be doing about 60 mph around the 38-mile-circumference of the 610 Loop this weekend, which means that in 12 hours of continuous driving, they should make something shy of 19 times around the Inner Loop — minus pit stops for gassing up and, uh, watering down. Then they’ll turn around and unwind for an additional 12 hours in the opposite direction. What are these guys driving at? Feel free to call the artists themselves while they’re on the road, using the number emblazoned on the side of the van (832-712-6207) if you’ve got questions about the project; they plan to start their 24-hour freeway adventure at 5 p.m. this Saturday from the North Shepherd entrance ramp.

Who’s footing the bill for such loopiness?

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10/23/13 12:00pm

BARS WITHIN A BAR AT LOWBROW IN MONTROSE Eater Houston reports that Lowbrow, the restaurant and bar from Free Press Houston founder Omar Afra, will open tomorrow night here at the corner of W. Main and Mandell in Montrose. This photo shows the mural that’s replacing the former Sophia sign. Inside, there will be even more art: The place will have wallpaper that sports drawings of the Astrodome, Houston Oilers logo, and Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk sculpture at the nearby Menil Collection. And it appears that there will also be a channel of rather meta reality programming for you to watch: “[A] projection screen . . . will play scenes from other local bars.” [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Eater Houston

10/04/13 11:10am

It’s been 20 years since artist Rick Lowe and friends bought up that row of shotgun shacks on the 2500 block of Holman St. and transformed them — and much of the neighboring Third Ward blocks — into a lively community of art installations and performances, duplexes for low- to moderate-income residents, and architectural experimentation. The latest round of installations kicks off this Saturday.

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09/19/13 11:00am

In February, the Art Guys went for distance, walking the marathon that is W. Little York Rd.; tomorrow, they’ll be going for danger. The 9th of their “12 Events” requires Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth to maintain pedestrian safety techniques and situational awareness as they cross the street, all day, at Westheimer and Hillcroft/Voss, what they’re claiming is the “busiest intersection in Houston.”

Here’s the deal: They’ll start their day off walking clockwise, and, presumably to avoid the monotony, switch things up and go counterclockwise the rest of the afternoon. It’s unclear whether they’ll be taking advantage of the various muscle supplements and joint remedies at the nearby Vitamin Shoppe in the Westhill Village Shopping Center there on the southwest corner.

Photo of Art Guys on W. Little York Rd.: Everett Taasevigen

09/13/13 11:00am

HIGHLY VISIBLE BILLBOARD REMINDS HOUSTON DRIVERS OF THE INVISIBILITY OF HOMELESSNESS You can’t miss it: Just south of Downtown, this pristine billboard went up recently above the northbound feeder of I-45. Its lonesome assertion, “Even the pigeons don’t see me,” is attributed to the “voice of the homeless.” What gives? Glasstire’s Paula Newton explains: “[I]t’s meant to raise awareness about homelessness. The billboard is a project by artist Jessica Crute in conjunction with a group show at Deborah Colton Gallery called Collective Identity. Crute [is] president and founder of a young non-profit organization Voice of the Homeless.” [Glasstire] Photo: Glasstire

09/03/13 11:00am

THE LAST REMAINING PIECE OF THE PRUDENTIAL TOWER It made it: The 1952 Peter Hurd mural, formerly of the wall of the demolished Kenneth Franzheim-designed Prudential Tower in the Med Center, has completed its 2-year stop-and-go journey from 1100 Holcome Blvd., to a storage space in Midland, to the brand-new Artesia Public Library in northern southeastern New Mexico. The largest ever to be transported, the 16-ft.-by-46-ft. mural, titled “The Future Belongs To Those Who Prepare For It,” underwent a successful 20-hour installation last week, reports Swamplot commenter Artesia_NM Resident. And Albuquerque’s KOB Eyewitness News reports that the big unveiling of the big thing is planned for November 9. [KOB; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

08/21/13 10:05am

A 3-block stretch of the median along Navigation Blvd. was outfitted yesterday with some functional swag — bike racks, bus stops, solar panels and LED string lights, shade screens, benches — designed to perk up the East End streetscape into a shaded little walkable market dubbed The Esplanade. The stretch in question spans N. St. Charles and Delano, running alongside the Original Ninfa’s and the recently opened El Tiempo Cantina.

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08/19/13 11:45am

The Art Guys are in there somewhere: On Friday the mischievous duo executed Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, the latest of their yearlong series of 12, umm, performances. Cocooning themselves in these 6-ft. sections of privacy fencing, Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth proceeded to spend 2 hours publicly scuttling about the reflecting pool and Hermann Square in front of the Joseph Finger-designed City Hall.

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08/13/13 10:15am

On Friday the volunteer-painted strips of donated scrap wood were weaved through the previously installed steel frame, completing Patrick Renner’s “Funnel Tunnel.” Funded in part by $10,000 from the Houston Arts Alliance, the 6,700-pound, 180-ft. long — umm, thing, wriggles through the live oaks on the Montrose Blvd. median between Bomar and Willard, right in front of Inversion and Art League Houston. The Houston Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer reports: “The wood came from a turn-of-the-century cotton gin that was being dismantled near Interstate 10 East just inside the 610 Loop.”

A few more pics of the thing:

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07/26/13 3:00pm

It’s taken a bit longer than Patrick Renner initially expected — he told Glasstire back in January that the “Funnel Tunnel” would be installed in February — but at least the sinuous steel frame that will be covered in repainted salvaged lumber was set up today in Hyde Park. You can see the giant tomato cage on Montrose Blvd., right in front of Inversion and the Art League of Houston.

Photos: Allyn West

07/11/13 12:15pm

A pair of Houston artists have really spruced up what’s left of the interior of this former beauty parlor on Dowling St. in the Third Ward. Funded in part by the Houston Arts Alliance, reports Glasstire, Robert Hodge and Phillip Pyle II bought secondhand furniture, wallpaper, knick-knacks, framed photographs of JFK, MLK, Jr., and JC (Jesus Christ, that is) and a rug for this crumbling shell of a building at Dowling and Stuart near the Project Row Houses, turning it into an temporary installation they’re calling “Beauty Box.”

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07/02/13 10:15am

Where’s Mini? A reader sends this photo of the burned rubber sticking to the stucco wall of design and furniture store Internum at 3303 Kirby Dr., where the 350-lb. promotional fiberglass shell of a Mini Cooper had been not-quite-parallel parked since December. And parked illegally — at first, anyway, garnering a red tag on December 27 from city inspectors to go with that red holiday garland wrapped around the Upper Kirby street lamps.

Photos: Lisa Garvin (Mini); Creative Accidents (wall)

06/20/13 2:00pm

The Mirabeau B. condos apartments in Hyde Park take a lot from the city: The sales center, for example, comprised a pair of recycled shipping containers that were powered by the sun. And now atop the building at 2410 Waugh a photovoltaic canopy is hoarding juice for each of the 14 units; cisterns are stealing rainwater that’s then used on the landscaping and rooftop greenery. Even the development’s moniker has been plagiarized. And so it makes a lot of sense that one of the building’s interior features is inspired by something just as local: a transformer box and a snarl of wires. Houston artist Randy Twaddle, for whom power lines have become something of a muse, installed 65 of these gypsum cement tiles in a 7 ft. by 25 ft. wall at the building’s entrance inside its parking garage. Each 40-pound tile, fabricated by Dallas firm Topocast at a lab at UT Arlington, features a 3D reproduction of one of the particularly twisted scenes that Twaddle can’t seem to help noticing.

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06/19/13 4:00pm

BUFFALO BAYOU PUMP-N-SPRITZ ON THE FRITZ Open Channel Flow — that 60-ft. public showerhead behind the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark — cost $154,000 to build. Apparently, that sum didn’t include any rainy-day money for maintenance: Pump all you’d like, reports Hair Balls’ Brittanie Shey, but nothing’s coming out. To find out why, Shey says she contacted the artist, Matthew Geller, city council member Ed Gonzalez, and members of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Houston Parks, and no one had an answer. Eventually, Gonzalez’s chief of staff was able to pass the buck: “He told me that the artwork falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Works and Engineering department, and that the department had fielded a request in March to repair the sculpture. That repair had apparently not been made. ‘We’ve asked for that to be investigated,’ he said.” [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot] Photos: Metalab

06/10/13 2:30pm

You’ve probably seen one of these Salvador Dali-meets-Dr. Seuss installations poking out somewhere around town: Most made out of sticks, tree trunks, bamboo shoots, and gobs of paint, they’re the work of Lee Littlefield, who died of complications from lung cancer at his Houston home yesterday. This “pop-up,” as the sculptures came to be known, can be seen on the north side of westbound I-10. It’s just across all those lanes from a periscope-like pink one that seems to be straining to get a peak of the polo grounds at Memorial Park:

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