Suzanne Bocanegra’s The Farm.
Photo courtesy of Suzanne Bocanegra.
#10: CounterCurrent 2017
HOUSTON—The University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts’s CounterCurrent festival, April 18 – 23, is developing a look and feel all of its own. This year’s spectacular line up includes winter gests in Simulacrum, Ghana ThinkTank, Tiny Dances (co-curated by Nancy Wozny!), Kevin Beasley, Dictaphone Group, Harry Gamboa Jr., Suzanne Bocanegra, Raphael Rubenstein and a collaboration with Catastrophic Theatre, Inprint Houston and other partners on the world premiere of Donald Barthelme’s Snow White.
Shōji Kojima in the winter guests’ production of Simulacrum.
Photo courtesy of Alan Lucien Øyen.
#9: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art at San Antonio Museum of Art
SAN ANTONIO— Of Country and Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, through May 14, presents 75 artworks translated from ephemeral sand and body paintings. These works position the San Antonio Museum of Art’s collection of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art as one of the top five or six collections in the United States.
Patrick Mung Mung, Australian (Gija, Kimberley), born 1948 Purnululu, 2007
Natural ochre and pigments on canvas,
h.35 7/16 in.; w. 47 ¼ in.
Gift of the Lam Family, 2016.14.50
© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York / VISCOPY, Australia
Photography by Peggy Tenison
#8: Fusebox Festival
AUSTIN—The Fusebox Festival is always fun, surprising and chock full of performance events that are both weird and wonderful. Fusebox runs April 11- 16, with 103 events at 19 venues and locations around the city, featuring performances by David Neumann/Advanced Beginner, Beth Gill, Graham Reynolds, Lagartijas Tiradas Al Sol Irvin Morazan Francine Thirteen and more.
Lagartijas Tiradas Al Sol performs Yanhuitlan/Tijuana on April 15 & 16.
Photo courtesy of the artists.
#7: Ron Mueck at MFAH
HOUSTON— Ron Mueck, on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, through Aug. 13, 2017, gives a new perspective on an artist known for his sculptures of humans that are at once hyper realistic, but always at an unhuman scale.
Ron Mueck, Man in a Boat, 2002, mixed media, Courtesy Anthony d’Offay, London. © Ron Mueck
#6: Dance Salad Festival
HOUSTON—The fun part of Houston’s Dance Salad Festival is in the mix of companies, dancers and choreographers. The Festival runs April 13-15 with a special Choreographer’s Forum on April 12 at the MFAH. The line-up features dancers and works from Carolyn Carlson Company, Susanna Leinonen Company, Eastman (Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui), Norwegian National Ballet in a work by Daniel Proietto, Lil’ Buck, Evidence, Shantala Shivalingappa and Texas Ballet Theater. Yes, Texas is in the mix! TBT stars Leticia Oliveira and Carl Coomer will be dancing a pas de deux from Carlos Acosta’s fiery Carmen.
Whitney Jensen of the Norwegian National Ballet in Daniel Proietto’s Player. Photo by Erik Berg.
#5: Electra at Dallas Theater Center
DALLAS – For the last few seasons, Dallas Theater Center’s artistic director Kevin Moriarty has been crafting contemporary productions of classical theater. For Electra, April 4 – May 2, he moves the action outdoors. The audience will follow the actors to four different locations during the action of the play. In an interview with Moriarty, he says he wanted the actors to actually yell at the heavens.
#4: Che Malambo
DALLAS/SAN ANTONIO/HOUSTON—Argentina’s all male powerhouse troupe Che Malambo makes three stops in Texas, in Dallas on April 14-15 at Dallas City Performance Hall through TITAS Presents, in San Antonio, April 20 at the Majestic Theater through ARTS SA, and in Houston, April 22 at Miller Outdoor Theatre.
Photo courtesy of Miller Outdoor Theater and the artists.
#3: Casey Arguelles Gregory at GSpot
HOUSTON— In Have It All, April 1-29 at G Spot Gallery, Houston artist and writer Casey Arguelles Gregory gets deeply personal.
She grapples with issues including feminism, gentrification, middle-class materialism and the landscape of suburbia, yet her sculptures and paintings remain rooted in a process-based practice.
Casey Gregory, People Pleaser, 2017,
acrylic, oil and collage on canvas,
Photo courtesy of the artist.
#2: Fort Worth Opera Festival
FORT WORTH – One of the state’s most exciting opera events returns this month. Fort Worth Opera’s annual festival, April 15 – May 7, includes Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, which is part of a new program spotlighting works in Spanish, as well as the world premiere of a courtroom drama, Voir Dire, and the beloved Carmen.
The cast of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán. Photo – Tim Trumble, Arizona Opera.
#1: Dallas Art Fair
In its 9th year, the Dallas Art Fair, April 6-9, continues to see rapid growth. This year the internationally renowned Gagosian Gallery joins the nearly 100 hundred galleries packed into the Fashion Industry Gallery. Additionally, the week of the fair sees an increase in events, including concerts, art openings and parties.
