Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas.
For last week’s picks, please go here.
Yukihiro for the Kinshodo Studio, “Wave Crest Supporting the Tide- Ruling Jewel,” c.1890, rock crystal sphere supported by a silver, bronze, and gold wave crest. Private collection, New York City. Photo: © Noel Allum
1. Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
July 7 – September 15, 2024
From the MFAH:
“Japan’s Meiji era (1868-1912) was a period of unprecedented cultural and technological transition. Over these remarkable decades, the country experienced radical social and political shifts, which propelled the historically inward-facing society into a new modern, global era. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents a fresh look at the art of this transformative era with the landmark exhibition Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan.
Following over two centuries of near-total isolation, the archipelago of Japan was thrown into chaos with the arrival of the American Commodore Perry in 1853; following a series of international trade agreements, the feudal fiefdoms of Japan were transformed into a modern nation-state, with the Emperor ‘restored’ to the throne. Through more than 150 extraordinary objects borrowed from over 70 public and private collections, the exhibition reveals the profound cross-cultural impact of the country’s developing relationships with the wider world.”
2. In Conversation: Will Wilson
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
July 12 – September 15, 2024
From the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts:
“The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts announces the public opening of the exhibition In Conversation: Will Wilson on Friday, July 12. The exhibition features a stunning selection of portraits by contemporary Navajo (Diné) photographer Will Wilson, together in a dialogue with the work of Edward Curtis, best known for his portfolios of romanticized photos published as The North American Indian between 1907 and 1930. Wilson’s Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX) project, on the other hand, is dedicated to creating a contemporary vision of Native North America.
Wilson employs a wet-plate collodion photographic technique, based on the nineteenth-century method, but he pushes the CIPX project into the contemporary with inclusion of ‘Talking Tintypes,’ which use augmented reality (AR) technology to bring photographs to life. For Wilson, CIPX is a way to create new conversations and emphasize exchange over problematic documentation.”
A work from “Lu Colby: Eve Leaving the Garden”
3. Eve Leaving the Garden
Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (Lubbock)
June 7 – August 31, 2024
From LHUCA:
“Lu Colby is a multimedia artist that concentrates on the role of women and the evolution that has taken place over the last one hundred years. Colby states ‘Women have evolved from domestic laborer to full time careerist, and full-time mothers to outsourcing childcare. These major shifts have forced us, as a society, to examine what this means for women’s’ work, women’s’ bodies, and what it means for women’s relationships with their partners, family members, friends, and children.’
By using textiles such as women’s stockings and embroidered tea towels, she pushes the exploration and the conversation of these topics to invite the viewer to further explore the change that has happened.”
4. Principe Azul, solo exhibition by Salvador de la Torre
Daphne Art Foundation (Laredo)
“From Daphne Art Foundation:
Born in Jalisco and raised in Laredo, Principe Azul is artist Salvador de la Torre’s long-awaited homecoming. After undergoing a social and medical transition as a transmasculine person, de la Torre returns to Laredo as a new man. Imbued with tradition and ritual, Principe Azul subverts heteronormative fairytales and traditional Catholic and Mexican milestones tied to gender and sexuality.
The title, Principe Azul originates from a saying the elder women in de la Torre’s family repeated to them as a child. They would say, ‘Una siempre tiene que estar bien arreglada y maquillada, no importa a dónde vayas porque nunca sabes cuándo te vas a encontrar a tu principe azul.’ Growing up in this environment, de la Torre believed he needed to embody hyper-femininity and adhere to beauty practices that would make him attractive to the male gaze; so he could find his savior, his principe azul.”
Dontrius Williams, “Riley Holloway,” 2022, silver gelatin print, 11 x 14 inches
5. DONTRIUS WILLIAMS: Flowers While You’re Here
Kirk Hopper Fine Art (Dallas)
June 22 – July 27, 2024
From Kirk Hopper Fine Art:
“Dontrius Williams is a film photographer living and working in Fort Worth, Texas. Much of his work documents people, street scenes and incredibly unique situations through a variety of analog cameras and processes. He is a visual historian exploring and capturing the beauty of the here and now. Oftentimes depicting people, places, and residential artists that have energized a contemporary scene in Fort Worth. He captures raw situations alongside beautiful portraits that tell of a city’s large demographic and community. All of which will go into his digital and physical history book through social media and self published photo books.”
