Aaron Storck: Spring Theme / Sweep It Clean Gallery Opening Celebration
Feb 23 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Feb 23 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Join Crossroads Hotel, Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston & Eldorado in welcoming Aaron Storck (the wizard) for his residency in the Gallery!
Aaron Storck’s video and painting work grows from jotting down quick poems and making little drawings from the imagination. Storck’s wizard character emerged as a persona arising from these drawings and poems.
For Storck, the wizard persona acts as a sort of director of themes that guide his artwork. The wizard fundamentally believes that magic and intuition are not to be underestimated, and endeavors to explore their use cases. The character, serving as an alter ego whose attitude is by turns sanguine or belligerent, allows Storck to explore ideas the artist may or may not believe or even understand, with levity and play.
The wizard has his broom, the tool of magical flight, as well as his dustpan. He performs cleaning and maintenance both literally and figuratively. A possible implication is that the artist Aaron Storck has tended to his tidying, and is now able to create paintings and other artworks that embody the exuberance and animal spirits of the Spring Theme.
The wizard wants you to clean this Spring: to rise to the occasion, to be disciplined, and to judge between what’s trash and what’s valuable in your life.
He may help, but he ultimately wants you to deal with your own crap. “I’m going to even metaphorically clean up your mess that you made, that you neglected to clean up” he admonishes in a 2023 video.
In a frightening new world, in which we are confronted by global warming and AI (among many other challenges) one must do more than merely sweep and sort belongings. But the wizard seems to suggest that if you take to the broom and do your duty as he has, a mystical path awaits, a chance for adaptation through creativity and opportunity.
When the spring finally comes for you, you’ll want to be squared away.
Aaron Storck: Spring Theme / Sweep It Clean is curated by Hesse McGraw, executive director, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.