Trenton Doyle Hancock, Xpect Sex (detail), 2003, drawing 15 x 9 inches.
Artwork courtesy of Trenton Doyle Hancock. Photo by Rick Wells, courtesy of Art League Houston.
Editor’s Note: Our hearts go out to the people of Houston dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The toll to artists, the Downtown Theater District and the fall season is significant. Please check the websites for updates on Houston events and keep the people of Houston and the surrounding areas in your thoughts. Consider donating to the city’s relief effort or the Harvey Arts Recovery Fund.
#10: Fall Season at Houston Ballet
HOUSTON-Post Harvey, Houston Ballet is on the comeback trail thanks to the efforts of many hard working people and the generosity of the community. Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s epic drama Mayerling, a Houston Ballet premiere, has been rescheduled for Sept. 22-24 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. MacMillan’s ballet is based on the true and harrowing story of the murder-suicide of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Crown Prince Rudolf, and his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera. If this doesn’t seem like a typical ballet, that’s the point; MacMillan was first to move away from fairies, princes and happy endings. The season opener, Poetry in Motion, has been moved to Oct. 26- 27, also at the Hobby Center.
Ian Casady, Melody Mennite and artists of Houston Ballet in Symphony in C.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar.
#9: Annabeth Rosen at CAMH
HOUSTON-CAMH presents Fired, Broken, Gathered, Heaped, an exhibition featuring two decades worth of intimately and monumentally-scaled ceramic sculptures created by “rabble rouser” Annabeth Rosen. The show, on view through Nov. 26, also includes Rosen’s works on paper, and serves as her first substantial survey exhibition, organized by the museum’s former senior curator Valerie Cassel Oliver.
Annabeth Rosen, Droove, 2012, fired ceramic and rubber inner tube, 13 x 20 x 16 inches.
Courtesy the artist; Anglim Gilbert Gallery, San Francisco; and P.P.O.W, New York.
Image courtesy the artist. Photo by Lee Fatherree.
#8: Miller, Mississippi and Hair at Dallas Theater Center
DALLAS-The Tony Award-winning Dallas Theater Center launches into the fall season with two strong plays, Miller,Mississippi, Book Killerbrew’s civil rights saga, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, through Oct. 1 at Wyly Studio Theater, and an immersive reimagining of the groundbreaking classic rock musical, Hair, directed by Kevin Moriarty, Sept. 22- Oct. 22.
Liz Mikel, Dylan Godwin, Leah Karpel and Alex Organ in DTC’s Miller Mississippi.
Photo by Karen Almond.
#7: Sounds Modern and Misty Keasler at the Modern
FORT WORTH-On Sept. 23 Sounds Modern will perform a series of pieces inspired by the work of Texas-based artist Misty Keasler, whose FOCUS show will be on view at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Sept. 23 through Nov. 26. The performance will feature music inspired by Keasler’s photographs of haunted houses and include work by Jeffrey Stadelman, Pang Vongtaradon, Andrew May, and Pauline Oliveros.
Misty Keasler, Blackthorne Manor, Terror on the Fox, Green Bay, WI, 2016.
#6: Ballet Hispánico at TITAS
DALLAS- TITAS Presents brings the riveting Ballet Hispánico, directed by Eduardo Vilaro, and fresh off the company’s stunning performances at Jacob’s Pillow Dance festival, with a program of works by three outstanding women dancemakers. The evening includes Linea Recta by the Belgium-based Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Con Brazos Abiertos by Houston native Michelle Manzanales and Catorce Dieciséis by Tania Pérez-Salas, a leading voice in Mexican contemporary dance, Sept. 15-16 at Moody Performance Hall. The company returns to Texas through Society for the Performing Arts on May 19 at Wortham Center.
Ballet Hispánico in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Linea Recta.
Photo by Paula Lobo.
#5: Tommy Fitzpatrick at Holly Johnson Gallery
DALLAS-Texas-based artist Tommy Fitzpatrick has been focused on architecture as the subject of his paintings for the past twenty years. And since 2013, he has been creating sculptural motifs made of transparent plastics—assemblages based on the ideas of the Russian constructivists.
His current exhibition, Crystal Cities at Holly Johnson Gallery through Nov. 4, is a selection of new paintings and sculptures inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s unrealized 1940 project of the same name.
Tommy Fitzpatrick, Crossvault, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 36 inches.
Courtesy Holly Johnson Gallery.
#4: Macbeth at Opera San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO- Opera SA opens its fourth season and second under the direction of Enrique Carreón-Robledo with Verdi’s Macbeth, based on Shakespeare’s story of greed and ambition, and described by Verdi as “one of mankind’s greatest creations,” with Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Macbeth and German Soprano Nadja Michael as Lady Macbeth, directed by Crystal Manich with Sebastian Lang-Lessing conducting, Sept. 8 & 10 at H-E-B Performance Hall at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
Glimmerglass production of Macbeth
Photo by Karli Cadel.
#3: John Bock at Austin Contemporary
AUSTIN- John Bock’s Dead + Juicy is a cinematic exhibition that combines an “uncanny musical” with an installation of transformed versions of the film’s props and sets at The Contemporary Austin, where the show is on view from Sept. 23, 2017 through Jan. 14, 2018. Senior curator Heather Pesanti describes the work as “a little bit classic Western, a little dark comedy, a little musical murder mystery.”
John Bock, Dead + Juicy (still), 2017. HD video. Commissioned by The Contemporary Austin for the exhibition John Bock : Dead and Juicy, 2017.
Artwork © John Bock. Courtesy the artist; Anton Kern Gallery, New York; and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photograph by David Schultz.
#2: Kyle Abraham at Texas Performing Arts
AUSTIN- Texas Performing Arts presents MacArthur Fellow and Jacob’s Pillow Award winner Kyle Abraham’s Abraham.In.Motion in his daring work Live! The Realest MC, a reenactment of Walt Disney’s Pinocchio in an urban environment, presented in partnership with Texas Theatre and Dance and KUT-FM, Sept. 29 at McCullough Theatre.
Kyle Abraham.
Photo by Steven Schreiber.
#1: Texas Artist of the Year at Art League Houston
HOUSTON-Trenton Doyle Hancock is this year’s Texas Artist of the Year, and his exhibition at Art League Houston looks back on his 20 years as a professional artist, featuring an artwork from each year since 1997 plus highlights from his self-built universe of personal iconography. The showcase of works, which mirror his “fervor for life,” runs from Sept. 22 – Nov. 11.
