Bower 12: Jack Massing

Jack Massing, Next Exit, 2023. Photo: Paul Hester.

Jack Massing

12

Next Exit, 2023, fabricated metal sign

Artist Statement by Jack Massing

About The Artist

Jack Massing attended the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and graduated from the University of Houston. While a student, he met Michael Galbreth and began a 34 year collaboration known as The Art Guys, who used a “direct-to-the public” methodology that often circumvented the established art world. They staged exhibitions and events at grocery stores, movie theaters, airports, restaurants, sports arenas, and many other non-traditional venues. The Art Guys’ work has been included in more than 150 exhibitions in museums, galleries and public spaces throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Most recently, their work is included in the 2021 installation of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Collaborators:

This Earth by Toussaint St. Negritude (text) / Trio Jam of Ambience and Antsyness by Aralee Dorough, Colin Gatwood and Corin Gatwood (sound)

About The Collaborators:

Aralee Dorough

Colin Gatwood

Corin Gatwood

Toussaint St. Negritude

Afrofuturist / Oro-shamanic poet and bass clarinetist Toussaint St. Negritude dually conjures the lyric timbre of both his horn and verse, creating his own collaborative ceremony of empathic wonders. Black, queer, artist, mountaineer, devout congregant of the wilderness, Toussaint St. Negritude honors his multiplicity of freedoms quite seriously. Perennially informed by the pan-cosmic realms of philosophic discovery and the corresponding spirituality evoked by the surrounding Green Mountains of Vermont, his works are inherently intoned by both the liberation and the expansion of the African Diaspora. Self-taught on the bass clarinet, poet, hat maker extraordinaire, Toussaint St. Negritude blends the unique dual performance of his poetry and reeds, by interspersing his words with the compositions of his bass clarinet.

Bower 12

Jack Massing

A Gift From The Bower is presented by DiverseWorks and the Locke Surls Center for Art and Nature @ Splendora Gardens (LSCAN).

12

BOWER

Bower 12: Jack Massing

Jack Massing, Next Exit, 2023. Photo: Paul Hester.

Jack Massing

Next Exit, 2023, fabricated metal sign

Artist Statement by Jack Massing

Jack Massing attended the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and graduated from the University of Houston. While a student, he met Michael Galbreth and began a 34 year collaboration known as The Art Guys, who used a “direct-to-the public” methodology that often circumvented the established art world. They staged exhibitions and events at grocery stores, movie theaters, airports, restaurants, sports arenas, and many other non-traditional venues. The Art Guys’ work has been included in more than 150 exhibitions in museums, galleries and public spaces throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Most recently, their work is included in the 2021 installation of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Collaborators:

This Earth by Toussaint St. Negritude (text) / Trio Jam of Ambience and Antsyness by Aralee Dorough, Colin Gatwood and Corin Gatwood (sound)

Aralee Dorough

Colin Gatwood

Corin Gatwood

Toussaint St. Negritude

Afrofuturist / Oro-shamanic poet and bass clarinetist Toussaint St. Negritude dually conjures the lyric timbre of both his horn and verse, creating his own collaborative ceremony of empathic wonders. Black, queer, artist, mountaineer, devout congregant of the wilderness, Toussaint St. Negritude honors his multiplicity of freedoms quite seriously. Perennially informed by the pan-cosmic realms of philosophic discovery and the corresponding spirituality evoked by the surrounding Green Mountains of Vermont, his works are inherently intoned by both the liberation and the expansion of the African Diaspora. Self-taught on the bass clarinet, poet, hat maker extraordinaire, Toussaint St. Negritude blends the unique dual performance of his poetry and reeds, by interspersing his words with the compositions of his bass clarinet.

Bower 12

Jack Massing

A Gift From The Bower is presented by DiverseWorks and the Locke Surls Center for Art and Nature @ Splendora Gardens (LSCAN).