A Day in the Mahatma Gandhi District: A Proposal for a Future of “Sprawlsteading”
Houston personifies both the grim reality of sprawl retail and its possible salvation. There is no reason suburbs and sprawl have to suck.
‘Rebel, Jester, Mystic, Poet: Contemporary Persians’ at the MFAH
This is a deeply emotional and visual show, with some pieces that stop one in awe.
‘Interval’ at Ruiz-Healy Art
"...be on the watch for the interval, the place where you are given a choice and a chance to add goodness to the world.”
Three Walls at Sala Diaz: ‘Under the Gun’
How to make art in this operatic ambience and grim reality of actual deportations, bombings, and general governmental reactionary cruelty?
Anthony Rundblade at Hello Studio
I did feel a pang of longing looking at this show despite the latticed dread it conjured.
A Trip to the Stark Museum in Orange, Texas
The sleepy bayou town of Orange is home to perhaps the best Western Art Museum in the country, and the reason I traveled there with my dad to see its current dazzling show.
Neil’s Top Picks at the McNay
One of the best things a super-rich person can do is turn their mansion into a museum when they die.
How to Erase the Flood
Our second Civil War would be fought over the removal of monuments to the first Civil War.
John Paul Rosenberg at Co-Lab Projects, Austin
There is an alchemic energy in the pieces, the collage of disparate materials fuse into mysterious and enticing portals. The white walls of the gallery space become infinite.
Pradeep Dalal at Sala Diaz, San Antonio
This is not a straight polemic, but rather something more removed and elusive.
Maria Chavez at Co-Lab Projects, Austin
The show has a torque to it, an energy, like a suspension bridge.
Sol Lewitt at Rice Gallery
It is fitting that the modest yet noble Rice Gallery should conclude its run with a show that really demonstrates how much you can do with a single room.
Artpace Spring Artist-in-Residence Exhibition
The show, featuring a Texas, an American, and a New Zealand artist is strikingly resonant and cohesive, and steeped in community and demarcation.
Neil’s Marfa Myths Dispatch, Part 2
I realized that for a few days I hadn’t really read the news, hadn’t really felt afraid, hadn’t really felt enraged.
Neil’s Marfa Myths Dispatch, Part 1
We headed out via I-10 for a weekend of transcendent music, provocative art, and the recurring experience of wondering whether you are actually seeing Father John Misty everywhere or whether there are just 35 dudes around you who all look exactly like Father John Misty.
The Greenaway Timeline
My feeling of dread has been validated in a series of grotesque tableaus that have been almost elegant in their cruelty and stupidity. I believe we are living in the universe of Greenaway’s masterpiece 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.'
The Twisted Manifesto: Rules for Making Art in End Times
What I refer to when I use “twisted” is art that casually, bracingly depicts the depravity and cruelty of existence with wryness, elegance and awe.
Jonathan Schipper at Rice Gallery, Houston
The installation contains multitudes: stasis, anticipation, movement and memory.
Ken Jacobs in Austin
Jacobs is an aesthetic wizard; there's a refinement to these works that renders them intrinsically alluring. But he does not mask his outrage.
Charles Zhang at Las Cruxes, Austin
Some people are simply wittier than others. Zhang's show clicks as a study of ridiculousness and exasperation at being alive, being human, being flightless.
