Art Thrives on the South Plains: A Survey of Lubbock’s Cultural Scene
Our short time in Lubbock revealed a vital and varied cultural arts scene.
West Texas
Colette Copeland: My Jesse James Adventure at the Old Jail Art Center and Jody Klotz Fine Art
Driving alone through the middle of the country, spanning nine states and more than 4,000 miles, Dallas-based artist, cultural critic, and social activist Colette Copeland spent three summers visiting the numerous sites where Jesse James lived and outlawed, filming on location throughout her performative journey.
Representation in the Borderlands: UTEP Brings Latinx Theater to El Paso
On August 3, 2019, El Paso entered the national zeitgeist when an active shooter killed 22 people at a Walmart. The shooter’s goal: to kill as many people of Mexican descent as possible.
Shifting Landscapes: Learning from the Land at Texas Tech
In 2016, Claudia Vásquez Gómez, an artist from Chile, was especially struck by the way border police attached tires to the backs of their vehicles, dragging them across the desert.
Border Crossings and the Transborder Biennial at the El Paso Museum of Art and Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez
Extending nearly 2,000 miles from the state of Texas, though Southwestern New Mexico, along the southern edge of Arizona to California, and all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the border of the United States and Mexico is a massive, expansive region.
Imaginary Concerts & Charged Objects: Marfa Myths/Hyperobjects at Ballroom Marfa
Sitting at a red light in Houston, behind a Range Rover with an “I [red cube] Marfa” (like I [heart] NY) bumper sticker, I’d say Marfa’s myth is at peak mythology.
Tierra. Sangre. Oro.: Rafa Esparza at Ballroom Marfa
An adobe brick archway made by artists Rafa Esparza and Beatriz Cortez reorients and frames the entrance of Ballroom Marfa for the exhibition Tierra. Sangre. Oro., on view through March 18.
Oz and Odessa Collide: Kelly O’Connor at the Old Jail Art Center
Two hundred miles separate the West Texas towns of Albany and Odessa. Best known for oil derricks and high-school football, Odessa is home to artist Kelly O’Connor’s maternal family and serves as the thematic basis of her work on display at the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, on view through Feb. 3, 2018.
Disco Balls in the Desert and other Marfa Adventures
When I saw that this year's Marfa Sounding focused on the great California-based legend and dance maker Anna Halprin, I knew that I had to make trek to Marfa for Memorial Day weekend.
Differences Intertwined: Teresa Margolles at UTEP Rubin Center for Visual Arts
How might artists use their work to create connections across difference in these difficult times? Two shows currently exhibited at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas El Paso provide partial responses to this difficult question.
The Varieties of Experimental Experience: Soundings on Marfa Sounding
The thing about writing about “experimental music” is that the phrase “experimental music,” if it means anything anymore, means too many things.
Playing the Block: Maria Chavez at Marfa Myths
Marfa Myths is the devil-may-care response to the revelry of SXSW. Curated by Ballroom Marfa and Brooklyn-based record label Mexican Summer, the festival returns March 10-13, 2016, with a cultural program that fuses music, art, and film.