Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Nari Ward, “Say Can You See,” 2021.
1. Longing, Grief, and Spirituality: Art Since 1980
The Menil Collection (Houston)
June 15, 2023 – October 15, 2024
From the Menil Collection:
“Featuring works created over the past forty years, many of which are owned by the Menil, this display presents artists’ response to the precariousness of life through the expression of longing, grief, and spirituality. Artworks include Kara Walker’s powerful 40-foot-long silhouette work, Freedom Fighters for the Society of Forgotten Knowledge, Northern Domestic Scene, 2005; Andy Warhol’s expansive late painting, The Last Supper, 1985; Mel Chin’s monumental sculpture Our Strange Flower of Democracy, 2005, on special loan from the artist; and a major recent acquisition by Nari Ward, Say Can You See, 2021. The display highlights a myriad of artistic approaches to political issues of the past decades.”
Rachel Comminos, “Portal 07.”
2. Sense of Space
GrayDUCK Gallery (Austin)
May 18 – June 23, 2024
From GrayDUCK Gallery:
“Sense of Space features Katie Baldwin, Rachel Comminos, and Raul Rene Gonzalez. This exhibition seeks to create a dialogue between the artists and their connection to place, time, and color. The show includes quilts, hand tufted yarn, and concrete. These artists have a sensitivity to materials coupled with a willingness to explore different resources, processes, and surfaces. Their interest is in seeing with one’s own eyes, guided by the mind’s eye, in a pursuit of a deepening personal vision.”
Nida Bangash, “I Am a Tree I,” 2015, letterpress printing and natural pigments on paper, 15 x 22 inches.
3. Nida Bangash: I Am a Tree
Talley Dunn Gallery (Dallas)
May 11 – June 8, 2024
From Talley Dunn Gallery:
“Interdisciplinary artist Nida Bangash was born in Iran, raised in Pakistan, and currently lives in North Texas. While she works in a variety of media, Bangash was formally trained in Persian and South Asian miniature painting. Utilizing intricate patterns and precise details, Bangash’s works weave in personal identity and experience to investigate the complexities of immigration, colonialism, culture, and race. Bangash earned an MA (Hons.) Visual Arts degree from the National College of Arts in Lahore and an MFA from Southern Methodist University. Additionally, Bangash received the Charles Wallace Arts Fellowship to study at the Princes School of Arts in London.”
“Strangeness, Tone, Translucency.” Photo: Thomas Dubrock.
4. Strangeness, Tone, Translucency
McClain Gallery (Houston)
April 20 – June 22, 2024
From McClain Gallery:
“Collage, an additive medium by definition, consistently produces mystery. The technique allows artists to investigate layering, concealing, masking, and covering: all acts which have the potential to reveal histories and ideas often hidden from view. The superposing of disparate elements levels their original separation, sparking connections and a certain metaphysical space. The works in this show use opacity, texture, rhythm, and see-through veils to shake the ground on which the viewer stands – surrealist vistas seep, and the irresistible urge to hear, touch, and look take over. Built around the magical yet formally rigorous collage work of artist Dorothy Hood, Strangeness, Tone, Translucency is a wander through collage today and its history.”
5. RE:ASSEMBLED
MixHause Gallery (Comfort)
May 10 – June 30, 2024
From MixHause Gallery:
“RE:ASSEMBLED celebrates the virtues of human imagination and reinvention. The exhibit features the work of Karen Freeman and John Self—two Kerrville artists who gather objects and ephemera with histories serving specific functions and reassemble them into works of art mostly unrelated to their former utility. Both artists are informed by their respective careers of building imaginative environments and objects.”
