David Aylsworth

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is pleased topresent the final three shows organized under the broader exhibition Outside the Lines.Presented on the occasion of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's 65th anniversary,Outside the Lines is a six-part exhibition series conceived as an evolving dialogue oncontemporary abstraction. The first three exhibitions—UIA (Unlikely Iterations of theAbstract), Outside the Lines, and Black in the Abstract, Part 1: Epistrophy—opened October 31,2013. The final three presentations—Rites of Spring, Painting: A Love Story, and Black in theAbstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves—open in January over three weekends.

From recent paintings embracing more traditional definitions of abstraction to multimediaworks that challenge such notions, Outside the Lines showcases the Museum's commitment tochronicling shifts in contemporary art practices by presenting some of the most compelling workbeing made today and revisiting the historical foundations to which they speak. CAMH's director Bill Arning and full curatorial staff—Valerie Cassel Oliver and Dean Daderko—eachorganized two exhibitions; these six complete visions are mounted in two rounds. Outside theLines is installed in both the Brown Foundation and the Zilkha galleries, uniting the wholemuseum in one thematic exhibition for the first time. Constructed as a dynamic, diverse, andinnovative curatorial project, Outside the Lines offers a variety of vibrant visual experiences andperspectives on abstraction in the present moment.

Hearkening back to the popular CAMH exhibition Abstract Painting, Once Removed (organizedby Dana Friis-Hansen, 1998) and the curatorial experimentation in Changing Perspectives(1995), Outside the Lines opened October 31 with three presentations: UIA (Unlikely Iterationsof the Abstract) organized by Arning, Black in the Abstract, Part 1: Epistrophy organized byCassel Oliver, and Outside the Lines organized by Daderko. Staggered openings in January 2014for the remaining three exhibitions in the series—Rites of Spring by Daderko, Painting: A LoveStory by Arning, and Black in the Abstract, Part 2: Hard Edges/Soft Curves by Cassel Oliver—invite audiences to re-visit the evolving exhibition and consider abstract painting from multiplevantage points. Though installed in dedicated spaces, these exhibitions converse with eachother. The full complement of shows will be contextualized within a single catalogue to bepublished in 2014.