Top Five: April 6, 2023

Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.

For last week’s picks, please go here.

1. Dana Frankfort & Glenn Goldberg: One Fine Day
Basket Books & Art (Houston)
March 11 – April 15, 2023

From Basket Books & Art:

“Basket Books & Art is delighted to present One Fine Day, a two-person exhibition featuring the work of artists Dana Frankfort and Glenn Goldberg. This is a gathering of work bound together in fond embrace, a party convened in celebration of friendship and love; it constitutes a dialogue born of affinity and filiation.

One Fine Day is an exhibition made on and with paper, a preferred substrate of epistolary communication. Paper is a wonderfully receptive material: it bears and receives many forms of imposition. Here, paper is marked, folded, smoothed, wrinkled, and wet, and then refashioned, resurrected in new form. The material bears the marks of a vibrant conversation elapsed over time, and each work offers a peculiar way of coming to know, a unique invitation into relation.”

2. Hiromi Stringer: The Dog Show: Time Traveler Umeyama’s Drawings from the 21st Century
Blue Star Contemporary (San Antonio)
March 3 – June 4, 2023

From the artist:

“The concept of dog breeds is relatively new. Within the last 150-200 years, most dog breeds were established through generations of artificial selections and intentional breeding to achieve certain desirable characteristics. Therefore, what you are about to see are not just dog portraits but a representation of this time in which we live. Dogs are the most variable of all mammals. It’s no exaggeration to say that their current physical traits are a reflection of human history, ambition and culture of the last 200 years.

In Japan, during the time when Umeyama lived in the mid-19th century, dogs were loosely divided into four categories: Inu (regular Japanese dogs with erected ears and tightly curled tails, e.g., Shiba), Kouken (Western tall dogs especially with hanging ears, e.g., Greyhound), Nouken (long-haired dogs) and Chin (small dogs in general). Umeyama’s original intentions for dog drawings were materialistic, and his was a speculative money-making. However, there is something universal thing in the dog-human relationship. People love dogs regardless of time, culture or value system. Dogs unconditionally love people. It is time for us to once again contemplate how we have transformed them and how we can repay their love by respecting them as faithful companions.”

3. Texas Art X-change: Border Run
Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts
April 1 – 22, 2023

“Border Run art exhibit is a three-week multimedia pop-up art exhibition open to the public. Eighteen Houston visual artists are traveling to Brownsville to showcase their work in three different art venues: The Brownsville Museum of Fine Art (BMFA), The Carlotta Petrina Cultural Center (CPCC), and the Brownsville Performing Arts Academy (BPAA). Texas Art X-change (TAX) is a grassroots, Houston based artists-run endeavor that researches, designs, organizes, and executes art projects, exhibitions, and installations open to the public that showcase and share Texas art and artists from one Texas city with another. TAX is spearheaded by Houston artist Mark Nelson.”

4. College Expo 2023
500X Gallery (Dallas)
April 1 – 16, 2023

From 500X:

“500x is proud to announce our selected artists for College Expo 2023. The annual exhibition showcasing work from visual artists enrolled in higher learning institutions across Texas. This year’s addition is juried by Julie Liebersat , intermediate artist and art educator at TWU.

The exhibiting artists for the College Expo 2023 are: Jean Ricks, Jose Navaez, Lauren Allen, Lane Rosal, Kirupa Sargunaraja, McConnell Brown, Konstantin Soldatos, Daniel Pope, Jae-Eun Suh, Max Marshall, Capri Woss, Lauren Fleniken, Jenna Grace, Hannah Baskin, Paul Armstrong, Alexandra Green, Era Yousuf, Taylor Hilley-Carroll, Arthur Mangum, Audrey Williams, Shannon West, Kiara Daniels, Marco Alvarado, Ricky Rios, and Aliyah Cydonia.”

5. Take a Closer Look
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
February 16 – April 9, 2023

From the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts:

“Take a Closer Look features a dazzling display by two cutting-edge Texas artists: Printmaker/sculptor Orna Feinstein and painter/sculptor McKay Otto. Feinstein’s work is inspired by the organic and geometric in nature. She continues to investigate the printing processes using various surfaces, such as fabric, paper, concrete and Plexiglas. These experiments led her to create major sculptural installations and prints that move beyond the flat surface of the paper. Her most notable innovative approach to printmaking resulted in 3D monoprints that create depth as well as an illusion of optical movement. McKay Otto’s paintings and sculptures aim to transcend time and space. The artworks reveal themselves differently in differing lights and in the dark, retaining their glow and adding another intriguing layer to the work. Reveling in the beauty of the possibilities of the artistic expression, Otto says, ‘The work is obsessed with the expression of color, light, and the way we perceive these things.'”