'The End'

As Cantanker magazine wraps its final issue, the founding members of this local visual-arts publication's staff came together one last time to jury a group show and celebrate the publication's six-year run. "The End," opening Saturday, Dec. 15, will feature more than 20 artists, including Hollis Hammonds and Shawn Camp, as well as a contribution from Ink Tank Lab. The exhibition plays to the bittersweet notion of demise, encapsulated by the publication's own end but heightened by the looming sense of the Mayan-predicted apocalypse.

Cantanker's closing comes soon after the news that Fluent Collaborative's online art journal ...might be good will also stop production, leaving a palpable vacancy in the art scene. With the closing of Houston-based Art Lies in 2011, the future of Texas art publications remains uncertain.

Shea Little, a founder of Cantanker and, along with Debra Broz, John Mulvany, and Sean Gaulager, one of the jurors for "The End," remarked, "I hope [Cantanker] finds a happy home on the Internet to live in peace for as long as possible. I think our years of work on the project generated some interesting ideas and gave quite a few good artists a platform to explore and develop ideas. I'd also love to see the print issues preserved for future generations to gawk at like a hot pink rotary phone."

"The End" will run Dec. 15-Jan. 18 at Big Medium, 5305 Bolm #12. An opening reception will be held 7-10pm. For more information, call 939-6665 or visit www.bigmedium.org.