Heights gets Happyville Saturday

Na-haus Art Space, 223 East 11th, will host a reception 6-9 p.m. Saturday for the opening of Happyville, an installation from longtime artist Perry House.
Judging just from the images available over the Web (Click here), this looks like a fabulous show, a wonderful explosion of color and compelling images from somehow who has been in the Heights for 30 years (10 years longer than me. HAH!). His experience in our changing neighborhood clearly comes through in the Happyville images I have seen, and I'm really looking forward to heading over to Na-haus Saturday night.
Check out this e-mail from Na-haus' Dan Allison about House, his longtime friend:

Perry is a Houston Home town, Heights artist, one of the original "11th Street Cafe Gang" with Lucas Johnson, Dick Wray, and Don Foster. They used to have me buying them beers so I could hang out with them, back when they were still serving beer on the corner of Studewood and 11th in the early "80's. Saturday night is going to be a love fest for the guy with a lot of notables in the art community in attendance. If you want to see what my gallery is all about, this is it. Along with introducing new talent, I'm exhibiting Houston roots. Perry is a foundation and a landmark in the story of how Houston became the vibrant contemporary art scene it is today.

And here's what House himself has to say about his own work:

My art has always been about some particular opposites. Elegance and violence, humor and horror, the sacred and the profane. Things are sectioned, distorted and exploded. That's been my artist's statement as long as I can remember. I have it tacked to the wall.

If you want to know more, head on over to the gallery Saturday, check out the Web site at www.nau-haus.com or e-mail Allison at dan@nau-haus.com.