On view at the Menil Collection through Oct. 16, As Essential As Dreams: Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Stephanie and John Smither borrows its title from the idea that the desire to create and collect is a deeply rooted human instinct.
When we watch the walls of a house go up, we are aware of an implicit narrative in the skeletal studs, a uniformity that allows us to imagine a cozy life being lived inside their orderly framework.
Almost seventy paintings and works on paper by Norman Lewis are on view through Aug. 21 at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth as part of Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis.
In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1872), the heroine Alice holds a mirror to the inverted words of “Jabberwocky” and realizes she has entered a mirror world. The quote also serves as an entry point to the Blanton Museum’s upcoming exhibition of Book from the Sky by artist Xu Bing, on view through Jan. 22.
Downstairs at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Zilkha Gallery is a cold space. When it’s empty, the bare white walls and concrete floor can make it feel like an icy cavern buried deep in the Tundra. It’s a suitable place for flow, the latest in a series of site-specific installations by Jae Ko called Force of Nature, on view through September 18, 2016.
Clint Willour is a force in the Texas art world and beyond. His legacy reaches far and wide, through his museum donations, influence on artists and curators, founding of major public art events, and his ability to pull Texas artists into the national art conversation.
In Anna Bogatin’s second solo show, on view through July 30 at Holly Johnson Gallery in Dallas, twelve acrylic paintings executed in the last two years occupy the entry space.
As museums today compete for social media attention, Dallas Contemporary currently finds itself pulling ahead of the pack thanks in no small part to Paola Pivi’s Ma’am (on view through August 21).