IMAGE ABOVE: (San Antonio) Erin Shirreff, Concrete Buildings, 2013. Video still. Two-channel color video, silent loop. Image courtesy of the artist.
Albany
ac•qui•si•tions: A Selection from the Past Decade
Drawn from the 462 artworks acquired since 2003 by everyone’s favorite repurposed jail, the exhibition unveils works by Robert Rauschenberg, Vernon Fisher, Joseph Havel, Jesus Moroles, Xiaoze Xie, James Surls, Helen Altman, Kelly Fearing, Will Henry, and even Francisco Goya. Through Jan. 19, The Old Jail Art Center, theoldjailartcenter.org.
Austin
Charles Long
With CATALIN, “a Wagnerian hybrid environment of sculpture, film, music, fragrance, theater, performance, and grand spectacle” at Jones Center; and Pet Sounds, sculptures at Laguna Gloria that “begin as railings and morph into luscious, playful blobs that engage the viewer with murmurs, vibrations, and strange sounds when touched,” Long explores the human condition “and the fragility of our physical and psychological worlds.” Jan. 18-April 20, The Contemporary Austin, thecontemporaryaustin.org.
Pop-Up Exhibition by Alec Soth and Brad Zellar
After an excursion around Texas, exploring the state’s faces, voices, places, and stories, Magnum photographer Alec Soth and writer Brad Zellar share the results of their wanderings in a one-night-only pop-up exhibition, and provide a preview of the Texas installment of their limited edition newspaper The LBM Dispatch. 7 p.m. Dec. 6, Harry Ransom Center, hrc.utexas.edu.
Send Off
After three-and-a-half years at its South Austin space, grayDUCK hosts a farewell group show in collaboration with master printmaker Satch Grimley before moving to the Eastside. The show features original, small-batch prints by Allen Brewer, Sabra Booth, Adrian Landon Brooks, Jeannie Crosby, Jennifer Davis, Jenna Foster, Katy Horan, Mark S. Nelson, Terrence Payne, Casey Polacheck, Tonja Torgerson, Pamela Valfer and Matthew John Winters. Dec. 6-26, grayDUCK Gallery, grayduckgallery.com.
Angie Renfro
Inspired by long road trips across Texas, Renfro makes paintings of quotidian subjects such as factories, weeds, and birds on a telephone wire, rendered in loose brush strokes and a simple palette. Jan. 4-25, Wally Workman Gallery, wallyworkmangallery.com.
Kurt Herrmann: Siberian Street Scenes
The Pennsylvania artist presents watercolors made while visiting in-laws in Siberia, where he was taken with the outdoor markets on the edge of town: “Each street corner, vendor or kiosk seemed like a stage set. The ever-present grays, whites and blacks would be punctuated with bursts of color in a red wig or pink shoes. I would make as many mental notes as I could and come home and paint.” Through Dec. 31, Yard Dog Gallery, yarddog.com.
Dallas/Fort Worth
Permanent Collection, European Art to 1800
The Kimbell inaugurates what will normally be a gallery for traveling exhibitions in its new Renzo Piano Pavilion with a selection of works by Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Nicolas Poussin, Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour and others. After the show comes down, the collection will return to the Louis Kahn building. Nov. 27-Jan. 31, Kimbell Art Museum, kimbellart.org.
Robert Smithson in Texas
Billed as the first examination of five projects Smithson proposed throughout Texas, the exhibit presents lesser-known drawings, photographs, and sculpture related to Smithson’s Texas-based projects from a period of his career that was bookended by the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport project (1966-67) and Smithson’s only realized work in Texas, Amarillo Ramp (1973). Nov. 24-April 27, Dallas Museum of Art, dma.org.
James McNeill Whistler: Lithographs from the Steven L. Block Collection at the Speed Art Museum
Drawn from the Louisville, Ky. museum’s holdings and supplemented with eight prints owned by the Amon Carter, this show represents the full range of Whistler’s lithographic career and includes his ethereal images of London’s Thames River at night, as well as his daringly modern depictions of family and friends. Jan. 25-April 27, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, cartermuseum.org.
Peninsulas and Dragon Tails: Southeast Asian Art from the Crow Collection
Lacquered wood sculptures of young monks from the Mandalay period of Burmese history; a textile from 20th-century Bali; and a 7th-century sandstone sculpture of four-armed Vishnu, a rare example of early Khmer culture in Cambodia, are among the objects from modern-day Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia on view. Nov. 30-March 2, Crow Collection of Asian Art, crowcollection.com.
SHATTER
Brooklyn-based collage artist Clark Goolsby explores information overload with “a process which uses almost no found materials, creating all of the collage-based elements of his paintings from scratch. This exploration includes a series of multi-step processes that have taken approximately one year to complete.” Nov. 23-Jan. 3, Circuit 12 Contemporary, circuit12.com.
Pleasure Tempest: Bonny Leibowitz and Winter Rusiloski
Leibowitz presents her inaugural series of 3-D works in various media, Plight of the Pleasure Pods. Rusiloski “introduces her Tempest series of paintings that continue her persistent exercises of experiencing the spontaneity and physicality of oil on canvas.” Through Jan. 4, Cohn Drennan Contemporary, cohndrennancontemporary.com.
MacGuffin
For what’s billed as “a continuous and ever-changing process,” the Fort Worth collective HOMECOMING! Committee has transformed the gallery “into an expansion of the collective’s creative brain space with a hot tub and noodles,” making “a creative soup to catalyze conversation, concepts and creation.” Through Jan. 18, and x art space, brand10artspace.com.
Baroque on the Border: The Paintings of Rigoberto González
Born in Mexico, the Harlingen-based González presents large-scale paintings depicting the hardships of life on the U.S.-Mexico border and the brutality associated with drug cartels and illegal immigration. Through Jan. 10, Latino Cultural Center, dallasculture.org/latinocc.
Kinetic Friction, 2009
Acrylic on canvas
69 1/4 x 59 inches
Courtesy of the artist.
FOCUS: Terry Haggerty
The London-born, Berlin-based artist “draws on the vocabulary of abstract art to create his illusory paintings and large-scale wall works. The artist’s central motif is created by painting patterned lines that alternate a light and dark color, such as white and blue. When juxtaposed, these colors play off each other, appearing to advance and recede.” Through Jan. 5, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, themodern.org.
Jackie and Main Street
Clothes lent by Vintage Martini, photographs, and ephemera explore the influence of Jacqueline Kennedy on fashion retail during the early 1960s. Included are mug shots, fingerprints, and documentation of crime scene locations from the Dallas Police Department investigation into the JFK assassination. Last chance: Through Dec. 13, H. Paxton Moore Fine Art Gallery at El Centro College, elcentrocollege.edu/artgallery.
Sadie Hawkins
Leigh A. Arnold curates this group show of “of women artists whose work focuses on challenging traditional gender expectations, role-reversal, and Feminist/post-Feminist sensibilities.” Participating artists include: The Bridge Club, Celia Eberle, Linda Finnell, Susan kae Grant, Margaret Meehan, Nina Schwanse, and Faith Wilding. Last chance: Through Dec. 14, CentralTrak: The University of Texas at Dallas Artist Residency, centraltrak.net.
Georg Herold
Playful, enigmatic, figurative sculptures from the Cologne-based artist, a contemporary of Sigmar Polke and Franz Erhard Walther in the late 1970s. Last chance: Through Dec. 22, Dallas Contemporary, dallascontemporary.org.
NasherXChange
The Nasher Sculpture Center marks its 10th anniversary with an ambitious constellation of citywide public art commissions by Rick Lowe, Charles Long, Vicki Meek, Lara Almarcegui, the Good Art/Bad Art Collective, Rachel Harrison, Liz Larner, Ruben Ochoa, Ugo Rondinone and Alfredo Jaar. Through Feb. 16, Nasher Sculpture Center and various sites, nashersculpturecenter.org.
Untitled, 1963
Graphite and soot on paper
10 x 13 inches
Collection of the artist
© 2013 Lee Bontecou
Photo: Paul Hester.
Houston
Lee Bontecou: Drawn Worlds
Curated by the Menil’s Michelle White, the first retrospective exhibition of Bontecou’s drawings spans more than five decades of her career, from the late 1950s, when she began her innovative works on paper using a welding torch and soot, to ongoing work from her Pennsylvania studio. The drawings are joined by a recent sculpture Bontecou selected to spell out the connection between drawing and sculpture in her oeuvre. Jan. 31-May 11, The Menil Collection, menil.org.
Anton Ginzburg: Terra Corpus
Organized by Blaffer director and chief curator Claudia Schmuckli, the Russian American artist’s first U.S. solo museum show presents At the Back of the North Wind and Walking the Sea, parts one and two of “a trilogy of works in film, photography, sculpture and painting developed around historical and cultural conceptions of mythical or legendary landscapes and places that have conquered popular imagination and spawned collective memories.” Jan. 18-March 15, Blaffer Art Museum, blafferartmuseum.org.
See Food: Contemporary Photography and the Ways We Eat
“When mediated through the lens of a camera, our cultural relationship with food is transformed into a complex single-sensory engagement that is guided by sight but charged with personal, political, and sensual associations,” writes curator Natalie Zelt. “The eleven artists in See Food experiment with this visual investment in the power of food by exploring both its formal qualities and its cultural relevance.” Nov. 22-Jan. 12, Houston Center for Photography, hcponline.org.
Robert Pruitt: First Contact
Fresh on the heels of his solo exhibition The Women at the Studio Museum of Harlem in New York, the Houston-based draftsman and conceptual artist returns for his third Hooks-Epstein Galleries solo show. Dec. 7-Jan. 11, Hooks-Epstein Galleries, hooksepsteingalleries.com.
Jang soon Im: War
Fantastic images of warriors and staged historical battles are invaded by irrepressible color and pop-images from electronic media in the former Core Fellow’s paintings, sculpture, digital collage, video, and installations, which express his “concern with romanticized and sterilized representations that occur with the westernization, commercialization, and imposition of entertainment value upon history.” Jan. 10-Feb. 8, Anya Tish Gallery, anyatishgallery.com.
Lee Baxter Davis, Geoganne Deen, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Robyn O’Neil & Gary Panter
A group show featuring the five artists at the former Domy Books, now run by Cody Ledvina, co-founder of the former Joanna. Dec. 6-Jan. 10, The Brandon, thebrandoncontemporary.com.
Heather and Ivan Morrison: Slyk Chaynjis
Slyk Chaynjis is both the name of the Morrisons’ first major U.S. institutional project and “the protagonist in a fictional narrative about an unlikely pair of travelers on an epic journey. The Morrisons’ dark comedy unfolds over the course of six acts and in multiple locations—inside and outside of DiverseWorks—and unpacks the construction of “self” as a performance provoked by personal trauma, psychological breakdown, and ethical discrepancy.” Last chance: Through Dec. 28, DiverseWorks, diverseworks.org.
LOKALKOLORIT (Local Color)
Leipzig, Germany-based artist Jochen Plogsties, who had a solo exhibition in 2009 with Inman Gallery, returns with several friends and colleagues who also studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, where some of them studied under Neo Rauch. Though their media and practices vary, all “employ representation to question the vitality and veracity of image production and reproduction today.” Through Jan. 3, Inman Gallery, inmangallery.com.
The Maker’s Archive: Works by Tybre Newcomer
Curated by HCCC curatorial fellow Kathryn Hall, The Maker’s Archive debuts a new body of work that builds on Newcomer’s “established fascination with tools, their histories, and the craftsmen that use them. Speaking directly to the endangerment of professional craft practices, Newcomer honors the field through his life-sized re-creations of workspaces and his construction of gilded niches, displaying tools like religious icons.” Through Jan. 19, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, crafthouston.org.
Danielle Frankenthal
The veteran artist, whose work is included in the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s big abstract painting show Outside the Lines, returns with her characteristic multi-panel resin paintings. Last chance: Through Dec. 7, Wade Wilson Art, wadewilsonart.com.
Outside the Lines
CAMH fills both its floors with a six-part exhibition presented in two rounds — all devoted to contemporary abstraction. Texas artists David Aylsworth, Christopher Cascio, Joseph Cohen, Gabriel Dawe, Nathaniel Donnett, Christian Eckart, Mark Flood, Nathan Green, Geoff Hippenstiel, Floyd Newsum, Susie Rosmarin and Shane Tolbert are represented alongside such figures as David Hammons, John Outterbridge, Amy Sillman and Charline von Heyl. Through March 23, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, camh.org.
Marfa
Comic Future
Curated by Fairfax Dorn, this group exhibition surveys political satire and cultural commentary since the 1960s through art movements from capitalist realism and contemporary pop. Arturo Herrera’s commissioned, site-specific wall installation joins early drawings by Sigmar Polke; collage by Walead Beshty; paintings by Carroll Dunham, Peter Saul, Dana Schutz, Sue Williams, Michael Williams and Erik Parker; and sculpture by Aaron Curry, Liz Craft and Mike Kelley. Through Jan. 26, Ballroom Marfa, ballroommarfa.org.
San Antonio
Blane De St. Croix: Broken Landscape III
Broken Landscape III reconstructs a selection of some 3,000 miles of fence construction along the U.S. Mexico border “as a monumental miniaturized section of the border fence and surrounding landscape. The sculpture itself divides the space, acting as a border or barrier controlling the viewer.” Dec. 5-Feb. 16, Blue Star Contemporary Arts Museum, bluestarart.org.
Eldzier Cortor: Master Printmaker
Drawn from the artist’s gift to the museum, the exhibit includes complete runs of many of Cortor’s print series, including Jewels and Facets—as well as impressions of a series he called L’Abbatoire (The Slaughterhouse), a response to Cortor’s years living and teaching art in Haiti. Dec. 14-March 2, San Antonio Museum of Art, samuseum.org.
Tom Fairs and Nancy Rexroth
Tom Fairs’ pencil-on-paper drawings of London’s green spaces and Nancy Rexroth’s wistful photographs of America’s Midwest, taken with an inexpensive Diana toy camera, are brought together in this exhibition. Through Dec. 20, Lawrence Markey Inc., lawrencemarkey.com.
New Works: 13.3
Guest curator Paola Morsiani, director of the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, N.Y., presents work by international artists in residence including Micol Assaël (Italy), who employs elements of science, mechanics, and natural phenomena to her artwork; Ivor Hartley Shearer (Houston), who works with film, video, and installation; and Erin Shirreff (New York), who creates sculptural works specifically for the camera that confuse perception. Through Jan. 12, Artpace, artpace.org.
Throw me a party or throw me away, 2013
Carrara marble, Neapolitan ice cream, pedestal
dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist.
Re-enchant the Moment
Guest curator Mark Harold Ponder presents work by Debra Barrera, Chuck and George (Brian Scott and Brian Jones) and Jonathan Armistead. Through Jan. 4, Unit B, unitbgallery.com.
Tyler
Celebration of Life and Death: Selections from the Boeckman Collection of Mexican Folk Art
Through the ingenious use of everyday materials, artists and artisans create memorable works of art that celebrate both the vibrant joy of life and reverence for the deceased that pervades Mexican culture. This exhibition includes humorous scenes designed for Day of the Dead celebrations and ornately carved nativity sets, as well as toys, ceramics, and textiles used every day by the rural citizens of Mexico. Through Jan. 19, Tyler Museum of Art, tylermuseum.org.
Wichita Falls
Texas Sculpture Inside and Out: Invitational Exhibition
This exhibition will be held in conjunction with the 2013 Texas Sculpture Network Symposium and will consist of three parts: outdoor monumental sculptures, indoor sculpture and works on paper made by sculptors. Through Feb. 22, Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, mwsu.info/wfma/.
— DEVON BRITT-DARBY
Email visual-arts submissions with hi-res images by Jan. 10 to devon@artsandculturetx.com.
