Critic Dave Hickey subtitled his seminal UltraLounge show of 1998 as “the return of social space (with cocktails).” A new Houston business melding art instruction with socializing and drinking called Art Class and Wine Glass takes an unusually forthright approach to serving the desire for socializing with like-minded hobbyists that drives many part-time art students.
Along with Painting with a Twist, a national franchise, AC&WG marks the commercial/hobbyist end of a spectrum of art-as-social event groups leading, in graduating levels of seriousness and quality, all the way through Mr. Sketchy, Houston’s I Love You Baby, the recent Soulstice event at Houston’s Silo, Houston artist Emily Sloan’s napping performances, and collectives like OK Mountain or the now defunct Good/Bad Art Collective of Denton. Whether it’s Sunday painters or serious avant-gardists, everyone’s clumping together, drinks in hand. To paraphrase Incredibles arch-villain Syndrome: “When everyone’s an artist, no one is!”
