The Gallery's Grand Opening, Featuring the Art of James Perez.

May 7th, 2011 marked the official Grand Opening of the Heights' newest art space, Cueto James Art Gallery. Yes, yes, our doors have been open to the public since early April, but every gallery deserves a Grand Opening celebration, right? But this party had an added bonus (aside from the delicious fine wine and excellent company) - it was also the opening night of our very first exhibition, featuring Houston artist James Perez's "Seven Deadly Sins" series.

This series will stop you in your tracks. Whether in awe, confusion, agreement, anger, or just plain curiosity, every single day numerous people walk into the gallery, some completely at random, wanting to know about these paintings. Perez uses surrealism and fantasy to create images that are widely interpreted, often controversially, but they are always ultimately deeply personal to the viewer. Here are just a few public opinions that were either stated to me or published by the local news (Channel 2) about the controversial painting (of Obama - see the image, above right) hanging in our front window on April 22:

"That's very insulting and disrespectful."
"I really don't know what to think about it. It's art, isn't it?"
"At first I was shocked by the image, but after taking time to understand it, I love this painting."
"This artist has some serious balls, doing this. I'm impressed."
"A nice change from the proper and stale paintings hanging in many galleries."

The vast array of reactions I've witnessed to this series in the past month has been one of the most interesting things I've ever observed (and I have some VERY interesting reaction stories - I'll have to write a post about those another time). In the end, human reaction may be the crowning jewel of the series: the pieces never fail to get one thinking. Getting people thinking = good.

Click HERE to watch a video clip of the Channel 2 news segment regarding the painting (features a brief interview with the artist himself, and even yours truly for about 1.5 seconds). 

 And Cueto James Gallery has no plans of letting up! Perez's "Seven Deadly Sins" series will grace our walls until June 22, and following him we have an exhibition by Jason Ransom, who is an absolutely outstanding local painter (more details on that later).

My next post will actually be about the "Seven Deadly Sins" series - I'll be discussing each piece in brief, as well as including the bio of the artist, Perez, which may help some understand his psyche and thoughts behind the paintings.