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The Art Guys at AMSET

The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) is showing that no idea is too outlandish or impossible, especially for the Houston artist team of Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing, who work collaboratively under the name The Art Guys. The Art Guys: Cloud Cuckoo Land will be on display from Feb. 2 through April 6, and features selections from 25 years of the team’s drawings, proposals, failed schemes and pipe dreams. The public is invited to meet The Art Guys at a FREE opening reception and gallery talk from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Feb 1.

As the title implies, this exhibition takes viewers right into the realm of Cloud Cuckoo Land, a mythical place where anything is possible. The Art Guys: Cloud Cuckoo Land features proposals for works of art that did, did not and often just could not come to fruition and includes drawings, maquettes, ephemera and documentation. Several works from the series 101 of the World’s Greatest Sculpture Proposals will be on view, including The Big Sneeze (Study), 1991, and Suitcase Wheel (Study), 1989. A letter from the billboard commissioned by Absolut Vodka will be on display from Absolutly 1,000 Coats of Paint, 1998–99. The project evolved over a nine-month period as The Art Guys applied approximately three coats of paint a day to the three-dimensional letters and bottle on a billboard on display in Houston’s Galleria area. The exhibition will also include studies from Travel Light, 2004, the public art project made of 360 cast translucent suitcases illuminated with computer controlled L.E.D. lights that is permanently installed in the international baggage claim area of Terminal E at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Often described as “exhilarating,” The Art Guys employ an extremely open and “the sky’s the limit” approach to making art. The New York Times described them as “a cross between Dada, David Letterman, John Cage and the Smothers Brothers.”

“When applying descriptors for what it is that they actually do, it is difficult to choose just one. Their work falls under the categories of visual, performance and conceptual art. It is often described as low-brow, slapstick, engaging, entertaining or amusing,” notes Alexandra Irvine, Galveston Art Center’s executive director. “Overall, the one consistent thing that the Art Guys do is create cleverly conceived ways to poke fun at their own chosen profession and the elitist or high-brow attitude — often rightly so — attributed to the fine art world.”

Joining forces while studying art at the University of Houston in 1982, The Art Guys are celebrating their 25th year of collaboration, enthusiasm and cheering each other on in the most amazing artwork creations.

The Mission of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas is to provide education, inspiration and creative vision to the people of our culturally diverse region through our collections, exhibitions, public programs, and outreach in the visual arts.

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