Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Iva Kinnaird, “That’s All Folks!” 2022, cockroach, acrylic, and cardboard.
1. Last Laugh
SP/N Gallery at UTDallas (Richardson)
October 14 – November 19, 2022
From SP/N Gallery:
“Laughing is a magical elixir – prescribed to cure illnesses, maintain relationships, and vex enemies. Like a sneeze or a yawn, laughing is a visceral, contagious response. It can signal pure joy, break an uncomfortable silence, or bookend bouts of crying. Perhaps at its most powerful when used to confront a truly absurd situation, laughter often heralds a final act, the moment a protagonist uses laughter to shift the balance of power in their favor. “Having the last laugh” signals a triumph, but also connotes a slightly devious intent: a twist of the knife already buried into the side of a foe. Remove “the,” and it becomes a “last laugh,” a final shout into the void, the utterance of a person at the end of their rope or on the brink of death.
The artists in Last Laugh use humor to address the absurdity of everyday life, bring attention to issues of injustice and corruption, and work through personal traumas. Through various mediums these artists shift between leaning into the meaninglessness of existence and searching for meaning amidst the madness.”
Installation view of “Above the Fold,” on view at Jonathan Hopson Gallery
2. Mia Sandhu & Jennifer Ling Datchuk: Above the Fold
Jonathan Hopson (Houston)
September 18 – December 4, 2022
From Jonathon Hopson:
“As the second-generation daughter of mixed Punjabi Sikh-Canadian heritage, Sandhu’s cultural and personal identity is composed of diverse narratives. These narratives play out in her current body of work that explores woman’s arduous search for self-love and the accompanying strength of spirit that this personal journey necessitates. Employing an intricate aesthetic that layers the female figure, foliage, East Indian motifs and the nostalgic pallet of 1970’s and 1980’s home decor, Sandhu’s work examines the conflicting feelings of shame, self-acceptance, and sexuality; aspiring to seek out self-authenticity in current cultural, political and emotional contexts. Although informed by her previous body of work which focused on ethnic identity in an alien culture, Sandhu’s current work draws from experiences that are both deeply personal to her and are also shared by women more broadly- attempting to portray inner conflicts seemingly intrinsic to womanhood regardless of ethnicity or heritage.
Jennifer Ling Datchuk work is an exploration of her layered identity – as a woman, a Chinese woman, as an ‘American,’ as a third culture kid. Trained in ceramics, Datchuk works with porcelain and other materials often associated with traditional women’s work, such as textiles and hair, to discuss fragility, beauty, femininity, intersectionality, identity, and personal history. Her practice evolved from sculpture to mixed media as she began to focus on domestic objects and the feminine sphere. Handwork and hair both became totems of the small rituals that fix, smooth over, and ground women’s lives. Through these materials, she explores how Western beauty standards influenced the East, how the non-white body is commodified and sold, and how women’s – globally, girls’ – work is still a major economic driver whose workers still struggle for equality.”
Jessica Halonen, “Wallpaper #69,” 2022, acrylic on panel, 20 x 16 inches.
3. testsite 22.3
Testsite (Austin)
October 24 – December 4, 2022
From testsite:
“Jessica Halonen’s research-based work explores intersections between art, science and history. She has engaged with topics such as genetic engineering in the pharmaceutical industry and the historical and metaphorical implications of the color blue. Halonen’s current project, PM, is a series of paintings that co-mingles abstraction and trompe l’oeil informed by a collection of toxic wallpaper samples. Jessica Halonen was born in Milford, Michigan and lives and works in Austin and San Antonio. She received an MFA in Painting from Washington University in Saint Louis and has been an Artist-in-Residence at Artpace, San Antonio; Kunstlerhaus Bethanian, Berlin; the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire; and the Core Program, Glassell School of Art.
Kelly Baum is the Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Curator of Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has worked as a curator for over twenty years, holding positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Princeton University Art Museum, where she established the institution’s first department of modern and contemporary art.”
Mary Margaret Johnson, “Unexpressed Love,” 2022, film still from performance.
4. Mary Margaret Johnson: Unexpressed Love
Clamp Light Studios and Gallery (San Antonio)
November 11 – December 4, 2022
From Clamp Light Studios and Gallery:
“Unexpressed Love is a project exploring the collective experience of grief, loss and the longing for human connection through cyanotype textiles, prints and per’ormance art. The title of the exhibition is inspired by an interview with Andrew Garfield. He says, talking about his mother, “I hope this grief stays with me, because it is all of the unexpressed love I didn’t get to tell her.’ This project is an avenue for me and my community to express love to those lost.
The images seen in the work contain family photographs, self-portraits, my own photographs and submissions from friends and family. When discussing the concept of Unexpressed Love to those around me, I was asked to include photographs from someone or something they had lost, a screenshot of the last conversation they had with a friend, or poems/journal entries they had written around the subject of unexpressed love. This led me to open submissions to the community and affirmed that I was not alone in these experiences. It is collective.”
Catherine Prose, “Daisy Protecting Our Indigenous Sisters,” 2021, screenprint and vinyl, 15 x 19 inches
5. Supporting Indigenous Sisters: An International Print Exchange
LHUCA (Lubbock)
October 7 – November 27, 2022
From LHUCA:
“Supporting Indigenous Sisters is an exhibition featuring 16 artists creating a portfolio of prints. This portfolio was created to help begin conversations on many levels about missing and murdered Indigenous women. The images from all the women artists act as an advocacy for change and for voicing this dark present history. What we believe connects us is our support of our sisterhood to be safe and healthy. We want to emphasize that the sisterhood is vast and from a wide variety of backgrounds.”
