Christopher Blay and Christina Rees on a show that deconstructs our public-facing identities, a Hill Country show featuring 50 years of a Texas printmaker’s history, and a Dallas show featuring some deceptively sublime imagery.
“The artist pretty much documents how humans are killing the Earth.”
Last week’s Top Five with Brandon Zech and Christina Rees featured Text writ LARGE in Dallas, musicians interpreting art in Austin, and a must-see show in Corpus Christi. To watch the video, please go here.
1. Heyd Fontenot: Sacred Order of Eternal Wounds
April 24 – July 11
Galveston Arts Center
From the Galveston Art Center”
“Heyd Fontenot’s exhibition, Sacred Order of Eternal Wounds, delves into the myth of American identity to explore the politicized topics of gender, sexuality, queer identity, and what the artist calls ‘the false-promise of comfort-in-conformity.’ Fontenot is well-known for his stylized and delicate nude portraits. This exhibition debuts new visual experiments in figuration, illustration, and decoration in a series of mural-scaled paintings.”
2. Karen Navarro: The Constructed Self
April 30 – June 25,
Foto Relevance (Houston)
“Karen Navarro’s The Constructed Self is the Houston-based photographer and multimedia artist’s first solo exhibition at Foto Relevance. A vivid and even more tactile expansion of the artist’s earlier portfolio El Pertenecer en Tiempos Modernos (Belonging in Modern Times), Navarro’s The Constructed Self realizes meditations on self-representation and identity through dynamic photosculpture configurations. Disrupting photography’s traditional two-dimensional presentation, these colorful new works come assembled in a multitude of ways—some stacked and spinning, others paneled and puzzled together.”
3. Concentrations 63: Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole
May 2 – August 8,
Dallas Museum of Art
From the Dallas Museum of Art:
“The Dallas Museum of Art presents Concentrations 63: Julian Charrière, Towards No Earthly Pole, the first US solo museum exhibition for the multidisciplinary French-Swiss artist. Julian Charrière creates work that bridges the realms of environmental science and cultural history. Based on scientific research and expeditions to remote regions of Earth, his sculptures, photographs, and films investigate the irreversible transformation of the natural world by human activity. Charrière references pre-human origins, global explorers of the past, present-day climate change, and the uncertain future of the planet. While his works address environmental exploitation, they also emphasize nature’s magnificence and resilience.”
4. Gloria Sanchez Hart: Retrospective: 50 Years of Printmaking
May 1 – June 30
Tiemann Art Gallery (Round Rock)
From the gallery:
“The May 1 MayDay Celebration at Tiemann Art Gallery features 28 works by San Antonio artist and educator Gloria Sanchez Hart. Mexican born, living in San Antonio since 1989, she has a Master degree in printmaking. Her artwork has been extensively exhibited in Mexico. In 1990 she exhibited at the UNAM campus in San Antonio, and in 2006 at Ado Gallery in Kumamoto, Japan. In 2010 she had a retrospective celebrating 40 years of printmaking at Stone Metal Press in San Antonio’s Blue Star Arts Complex. In 2013, she was Artist in Residence at the Guanlan Printmaking Base in Shenzhen, China.”
5. Sounds to Live By with Jamal Cyrus, Peter Lucas, and DJ Flash Gordon Parks
May 1
The Menil (Houston)
From the Menil Collection:
“Visual artist Jamal Cyrus, arts organizer, curator, and writer Peter Lucas, and DJ and musicologist Jason Woods (aka DJ Flash Gordon Parks) spin vinyl records from their personal collections, selected especially for a communal outdoor experience. Music is important to the personal lives and creative processes of these three figures in Houston’s creative community; for this event, they come together for the simple, healing act of collective listening.
“The concert will take place on the Menil’s south lawn. Please bring your own picnic blankets or lawn chairs; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Guests are required to abide by the museum’s COVID-19 safety protocols by maintaining social distance (at least 6 feet between each household) and wearing a face mask that covers your nose and mouth unless eating or drinking. Additional green space policies apply. Further information regarding accessibility and parking can be found here.”
