2019 Experimental Action artist Michael Antony Garcia. Image courtesy of the artist and Co-Lab Projects
Houston’s Experimental Action Performance Art Festival has just announced the current lists of artists who have been confirmed for its 2019 event. Now gearing up for its second iteration — the biennial festival first occurred in 2017, rising from the ashes of the Lone Star Explosion performance festival — 2019’s Experimental Action will take place February 21-23 at venues across Houston. While specifics of the locations haven’t been announced yet, we expect the festival to use both art and alternative spaces: the 2017 event occurred over three nights at Notsuoh, The Secret Group, and the now-defunct concert venue, Walter’s Downtown. After attending the entire 2017 festival, I reviewed it for Glasstire:
“Experimental Action filled a niche that Houston has a long history of but has recently lacked: a strong presentation of young and subversive performance art. Drawing on connections that ExA’s curators have made from past festivals and visiting artists, this year’s lineup offered a glimpse into the many ways performance is interpreted by both emerging and veteran artists across the world.”
Vincent Tiley’s ‘Sad Pretty Boys,’ performed at Experimental Action 2017
While this year’s lineup so far includes national and international acts, the festival also features many emerging local and regional performers, fulfilling the organizers’ mission to foster local talent. This goes along with Experimental Action’s focus on community. The festival’s co-founder and director, Julia Wallace, who is a performance artist herself, expanded on this sentiment, saying: “I am looking forward to experiencing the exchange that will occur when this uniquely diverse line up of performance artists come together and engage with Houston. We chose artists that we believe are willing to bravely engage in actions that are experimental in nature and that have the capacity to grow with Houston artists.”
2019 Experimental Action artist Marcela Torres. Photo: Jesse Meredith.
The 2019 Experimental Action festival is themed around the idea of “taking intentional and calculated risks.” The event’s management team includes Julia Wallace, Evan McCarley, Jonatan Lopez, Karren Lovelady, Chantal Wallace, Jennifer Free, Cassie Mira, Keely Richey, Cassie Mira, Joy Harris, and Dean Liscum. In addition to performances, the festival will feature Houston poets writing in response to the event, in collaboration with the organization Public Poetry.
Artists in the 2019 festival include:
Roos Hoffmann (The Netherlands)
Schmitt & Schulz (Germany)
Simla Civelek (Turkey/Canada)
Miao Jiaxin (New York City/China)
Esther Neff (Brooklyn, New York)
Marcela Torres (Chicago / Salt Lake City)
Cynthia Post Hunt (Fayetteville, Arkansas)
Doug Gast (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Colton White (Dallas, Texas)
Jose Villalobos (San Antonio, Texas)
Michael Anthony Garcia (Austin, Texas)
CLA022019: An artist collective comprised of Alison Starr and friends (Dallas, Texas)
Kellen Stanley (San Antonio, TX)
Lukas Wade (Houston, Texas)
S. Rodriguez (Houston, Texas)
Sean Penabler (Houston, Texas)
Sarah Sudhoff (Houston, Texas)
Andrew D’Mateo (Houston, Texas)
Antonius Tin-Bui (Washington D.C. & Houston, Texas)
Rosalia Lucio (Houston, Texas)
Julia Barbosa Landois (Houston, Texas)
Jim Pirtle (Houston, Texas)
Evan McCarley (Houston, Texas)
Brittani Broussard (Houston, Texas)
Dana Suleymanova (Houston, Texas)
Cassie Mira (Houston, Texas)
Dinolion (Houston, Texas)
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