San Antonio-based artist Jennifer Ling Datchuk reminded me of Brecht’s riddle-like assurance while discussing her current exhibition Later, Longer, Fewer: The Work of Jennifer Ling Datchuk, on view at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft until Jan. 8, 2022.
If 2020 into 2021 was the ultimate annus horribilis, the year really became the worst of times for that most ephemeral and impermanent of arts, live performance.
We’re still holding our breath, knocking on a forest full of wood and sacrificing chicken-shaped tofu to Dionysius, but it looks like in-person, inside-an-actual-theater, theater will finally take the stage this fall.
Nastassja Swift’s primary mode of artmaking in recent years has been needle felting—a form of textile production that renders wool into saturated, light-absorbing forms. Her dolls, figures, and tapestries of tiny faces are equal parts comforting and unsettling.
“My pathology is your profit,” a banner reads. Hanging from the rafters of the Contemporary Art Museum Houston’s main gallery, the silvery background glimmers as the text picks up the purplish hue of the light.
Texans love Impressionism in all its nationalities and schools, and Texas museums love bringing us Impressionist exhibitions in a myriad of flavors and themes.
“There’s a powerful thing with nostalgia and remembrance,” TUTS executive director Dan Knechtges says. “There’s great comfort in it after we’ve been through this plague—this pandemic.”