Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Eduardo Chillida, “ABEST GOGORA IV.” On view at the Meadows Museum.
1. In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art
Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University (Dallas)
February 26 – July 30, 2023
From the Meadows Museum:
“This spring the Meadows Museum, SMU, will host the first major exhibition of Spanish abstract paintings and sculptures to take place in the United States since the 1970s. Titled In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Creating the Museum of Spanish Abstract Art, the exhibition presents a comprehensive selection of highlights from the eponymous museum (Museo de Arte Abstracto Español) whose historic building in Cuenca, Spain, is currently undergoing renovations. The Dallas presentation will be the only American venue of this multiyear touring exhibition, which also includes stops in Spain and Germany. It features both globally recognized artists such as Eduardo Chillida, José Guerrero, Pablo Palazuelo, Antonio Saura, and Antoni TaÌpies, as well as their lesser-known contemporaries, encompassing more than 40 works of art by over 30 artists active in the 1960s and 1970s.”
Ming Smith, “Holy Ghost,” painted Vintage photograph, 16 x 20 inches.
2a. Ming Smith: Feeling the Future
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
May 25 – October 1, 2023
From Contemporary Arts Museum Houston:
“Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) is excited to announce the upcoming exhibition, Ming Smith: Feeling the Future. Feeling the Future is artist Ming Smith’s first solo exhibition at a major institution to survey her work from the early 1970s through the present. The exhibition explores Smith’s unparalleled and under-recognized career, highlighting her improvisational and experimental approach to photography, which is grounded in portraiture and amplifies the heartbeat of Black life in the United States.”
2b. Ming Smith: Catching the Light
Barbara Davis Gallery and Art is Bond Gallery (Houston)
May 26 – July 8, 2023
Note: This is a joint exhibition on view at both Barbara Davis Gallery and Art is Bond Gallery.
From Barbara Davis Gallery and Art is Bond Gallery:
“With a gentle but decisive eye and a deep love for the spirits of the figures and spaces she captures, Ming Smith holds in her hands a truly unique world. A pioneer in her field, Smith has been telling stories for decades through her dynamic and considerate photographs; they follow her life as she modeled, danced, and explored through the midwest and east coast, and they follow all the lives she touched along the way.”
Darcie Book, “Abstract Landscape with Fog,” 2023, digital photograph, dimensions variable.
3. Darcie Book: Second Sight: A Visual Opera
Dougherty Arts Center (Austin)
May 27 – July 22, 2023
From the Dougherty Arts Center:
“Second Sight: A Visual Opera functions as a single artwork, an abstract narrative that unfolds as the viewer-participant moves through the space. In the darkness, in the unknown, we are in a world between dimensions. Inner worlds surface and secret lives are revealed. The large installation is an immersive experience, incorporating unexpected materials, and offering opportunities for discovery. Bring your flashlights!”
Jane Piper, “Composition in Blue & Green,” 1957, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches. On view at Baker Schorr Fine Art
4. Elegant Complexity
Baker Schorr Fine Art (Midland)
May 11 – July 1, 2023
From Baker Schorr Fine Art:
“I am often wowed by works of art as they arrive at the gallery, but I have to say, this collection of paintings by Jane Piper and photographs by Edwin Hale Lincoln takes my breath away! Our upcoming exhibition, Elegant Complexity, juxtaposes two artists from two time periods, using two different mediums, whose modernist abstractions are complex, sophisticated, and beautifully complementary.”
John Miranda, “Volando,” 2023, encaustic on panel, 73 x 61 inches. Photo: Kevin Todora. Image courtesy of Cluley Projects
5. John Miranda: Poco a Poco
Michelson Museum of Art (Marshall)
May 4 – July 29, 2023
From Michelson Museum of Art:
“In John Miranda’s exhibition, Poco a Poco, meaning little by little, symbols are used to explore cultural identity and memory by recreating found objects from the artist’s childhood. He describes his work as a ‘mapping’ of environments based on his Mexican American heritage by presenting the desert landscape of Del Rio, Texas where he spent his childhood mixed with a sharp contrast to his life in the metropolis of Dallas as a young adult.
Miranda’s work invokes a Chicano sensibility and an attitude of Rasquachismo – an underdog perspective rooted in resourcefulness and adaptability, yet mindful of stance and style. In his first museum solo show, Poco a Poco represents a transition from blurred edges to refined lines while still paying homage to his roots.”
