Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Kambel Smith, “Houston Astrodome,” 2024, cardboard, acrylic, spray paint, astroturf and foam board, 42 x 42 x 4 inches.
1. Kambel Smith: RAW
Barbara Davis Gallery (Houston)
March 8 – May 2, 2024
From Barbara Davis Gallery:
“Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce Raw, a solo exhibition by Kambel Smith. The artist declares himself to be superhuman — ‘Autisarian,’ to be exact. Redefining what it means to be autistic, Kambel approaches both his art and his life from an extraordinary point of view.
Kambel Smith’s exhibition Raw at Barbara Davis Gallery highlights a revelation of his genius, the crudeness of his hand, his obsessiveness, and his close relationship with the most modest of materials. These works are as touching and awe-inspiring as they are historical, as he makes these scaled down replicas feel larger than life. His work emphasizes human connection to our own built environments and how our buildings become architectural icons through their aesthetics, scale, and surroundings. They achieve monumentality, becoming symbols of our own cultures. Some buildings are created icons, while others become iconic. In the same vein, Kambel Smith’s work grow into iconicity. Today’s outsider artists have become very mainstream in the world of contemporary art.”
Katsushika Hokusai, “The Hanging-cloud Bridge at Mount Gyōdō near Ashikaga,” 1833–1834, color woodblock print, 10 x 14 7/8 inches. Worcester Art Museum, John Chandler Bancroft Collection
2. The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan from the Worcester Art Museum
Blanton Museum of Art (Austin)
February 11 – June 30, 2024
From the Blanton Museum of Art:
“Enjoy more than 130 woodblock prints and painted scrolls from one of history’s most vibrant artistic eras. After centuries of conflict and war, Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868) was a time of peace, stability, and economic growth. Members of the ruling class patronized artists, merchants, entertainers, and courtesans in major cities like Tokyo (then called Edo), Kyoto, and Osaka. Sharing a visual culture and appreciation for the transient pleasures of life, such diverse groups comingled in a metropolitan melting pot known as ukiyo, or ‘floating world.’ There, a new art genre emerged: Ukiyo-e. These ‘pictures of the floating world’ depict the lifestyle, pleasures, and interests of the urban population— from samurais, geishas, and kabuki actors to boat parties, palaces, and lush landscapes.”
Torn Apart: Punk + New Wave Graphics, Fashion and Culture, 1976-1986
3. Torn Apart: Punk + New Wave Graphics, Fashion and Culture, 1976-1986
Hawn Gallery (Dallas)
February 8 – May 10, 2024
From Hawn Gallery:
“Torn Apart: Punk + New Wave Graphics, Fashion & Culture: 1976-1986 brings together two notable collections of posters, flyers, clothing, and ephemera from this highly influential era of pivotal cultural shift in Britain and the United States. This exhibition features the collections of Andrew Krivine, scholar and collector, and Malcolm Garrett, MBE RDI, prominent graphic designer of this decade, to highlight the DIY counterculture in areas of music, graphics, and fashion.
Featured graphics include designs for The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Cramps, Grace Jones, Talking Heads, Devo and many more. Clothing featured in the exhibition include original pieces from BOY and Vivienne Westwood’s SEX, revolutionary shops on King’s Road in 1970s London. Accompanying the exhibition are Sheila Rock’s iconic photos of punk and New Wave bands.”
Orly Genger in her studio. Photograph by Ruth Fremson.
4. Orly Genger: Stomping Ground
McNay Art Museum (San Antonio)
October 14 – April 14, 2024
From the McNay Art Museum:
“Austin-based Orly Genger activates the McNay Sculpture Garden with a sprawling work of art composed from brightly painted recycled lobster rope. Genger is known for her vibrant site-based interactive sculptures including those seen at New York City’s Madison Square Park and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where the artist completed her bachelor of arts degree. Through her sculptural interventions, Genger explores issues of femininity and women’s work by incorporating weaving and knotting as part of her artistic practice. The artist’s sculpture refers to political and social concerns, while being tactile, playful, and inviting to the public.”
Julie Bozzi, “Eye Candy,” 2024, Installation View, Talley Dunn Gallery
5. Julie Bozzi: Eye Candy
Talley Dunn Gallery (Dallas)
February 17 – April 6, 2024
Read our review of the show here.
From Talley Dunn Gallery:
“Talley Dunn Gallery is excited to present Julie Bozzi: Eye Candy, a solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper by the nationally recognized, Fort Worth based artist. Conceived and created by gallery Director Trini Martinez, the exhibition is a sweet shop of artistic delights and tasty miracles, Milagros Salerosos. Celebrating Bozzi’s exquisite paintings in a variety of intimate formats, the exhibition reveals the artist’s fascination with studying sweets, candies, and breads from around the world. Always painting from her delectable source material, Bozzi’s shares with us her insatiable fascination with collecting, categorizing, documenting, and painting sweets and food.
Traveling throughout Mexico and Japan, Bozzi shares with the viewer her meticulously rendered paintings of each culture’s treasured breads and candies. From the suggestive forms of Mexico’s pan dulce to the seasonal references of Japan’s wagashi, Bozzi studies the centuries-old traditions within these cultures, revealing her encyclopedic knowledge of her subjects. Intriguing, tiny handheld holiday booklets reveal jewel-like paintings of American candies associated with cultural holidays.”
