Did Someone Say Fall?
I know I heard the words so it must be true. Fall is kind of sort of maybe upon or near us. It’s actually not horrible outside. I spent a lot of time outside and checking out last week's Hidden Agenda chart toppers. So take off those shorts and replace them with slightly longer, thicker shorts because it's in the 80s! Yes the fall season feels different, say if you are in New York City, and you might actually feel a season. However, when it comes to the season and its programming Houston has some bangers for you and we are excited to share them with you. We have a new round of installations and murals as part of Moody Center’s Tent Series, a dive into several different historical shows, and a monumental 50th anniversary of the beloved Moody Gallery.
I am truly excited about this week in Houston and I hope you will plan around your schedule to fit in these inspirational evenings. The weather is going to be spectacular and there is an eclectic and diverse list of programs for you to immerse yourself into. Let this week in particular set the creative cells within to flourish. A remarkable and unprecedented start to the season. Come see what Flak has got for you to seek and examine.
Wednesday, 9/10
Artists Loc Huynh, Tay Butler, and Virginia L. Montgomery
Opening Reception for Tent Series: Tay Butler, Loc Huynh, Virginia L. Montgomery, 6-8pm
Rice University Moody Center
A lovely and lively evening of great artists and new projects. It's always great to see these rounds and we will certainly be attending this one. Celebrate the new large-scale commissions by local artists Tay Butler, Loc Huynh, and Virginia L. Montgomery installed on Rice's campus. In the sixth round of commissions for the Tent Series, The Moody continues to engage with Houston-based artists, inviting them to respond to the current moment and the campus environment with interventions intended to foster conversation in the academic year ahead.
Thursday, 9/11
Speaking of Mahmoud Darwish: The Great Palestinian Poet, 7-9pm
Basket Books and Art | 115 Hyde Park Blvd.
This is an important night and highly recommended. Basket Books and Art is consistently impressing with their line up of great writers, speakers, and creatives set within the comfy environment of the first floor book store. Finding voice, space, light, and elevation through an event such as this one is key. Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who gave voice to the struggles of the Palestinian people. His poems are noted for their themes of loss, exile, and resistance.
Darwish authored several books of prose—including the memoirs Yawmiyyāt al-ḥuzn al-ʿādī (1973; Journal of an Ordinary Grief) and Dhākirah lil-nisyān (1987; Memory for Forgetfulness)—and more than 20 collections of poetry. Commemorating the life and legacy of Mahmoud Darwish. The evening includes poet and novelist Hayan Charara, Pulitzer Prize nominee Fady Joudah, and PhD Student in History at Rice University, Mohamad Kadan. Please come by and support this important evening.
A Conversation about the de Menil House, 7pm
The Menil Collection | 1533 Sul Ross
A great exhibition and a splendid panel discussion. The de Menil House on its own could have led the conversation in art history all on its own outmatching many institutions with its dialog. It served as a meeting spot for artists, collectors, art lovers, and professors. In conjunction with the exhibition The Space Between Looking and Loving: Francesca Fuchs and the de Menil House, a panel of speakers reflects on the de Menil’s Houston house, its architecture and interior spaces, and how they lived with works from their collection.
Friday, 9/12
Miguel Calderón, Camaleón, 2017. Courtesy of kurimanzutto
Miguel Calderón: Spitting Upwards Fri & Sat. 8pm
Aurora Picture Show | 5601A Navigation Blvd.
Have you been to Aurora's new beautiful space on the East Side? If you have, wonderful! Come again! If you haven’t, what is holding you back? Presenting an evening of not one but two nights of experimental films, music videos, and documentaries by the Mexican multidisciplinary artist who will be in attendance. A leading alternative creator since the 1960’s Calderón’s work focuses on the underside of reality and society’s outsiders.
Split into two nights of two different programs Aurora presents this fantastic double feature. The first night this Friday will feature a selection of Miguel Calderón’s music videos and his documentary El placer después (Pleasure Afterwards) retelling events experienced by the caretakers of the Cibeles Fountain after a major earthquake. The screening will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with the artist, moderated by Aurora Picture Show Executive Director Sarah Stauder. On Saturday the second program with Miguel Calderón includes early experimental short films made in San Francisco (Un Nahual Veracru’ and Disritmia Cerebral), narrative short Guest of Honor, and Camaleón, an intimate portrait of a day in the life of a falconer. Get your membership and both are free! $10 per night otherwise. More information here.
The Space We Make, 6-9pm
Throughline Collective | 3909 Main St
The Main street gallery is one of the only few galleries left on the legendary Isabella Court block, once a crème de la crème locale. Throughline is a collective of collaborative artists as well as a very solid curatorial space, facilitating large scale installations, performance, and beyond. Their newest exhibition The Space We Make opens this Friday and celebrates the evolution of the organization, bringing many of the members to engage in their own investigation and role within the space.
The exhibit features works by Beatriz Bellorín, Carolina Borja, Maddie Casagranda, Jonas Criscoe, Diana Davis, Luisa Duarte, Diana-Sofia Estrada, Garland Fielder, Heather L. Johnson, Sherry Tseng Hill, Cindee Travis Klement, Jennifer K. G. Martin, Venessa Monokian, Carolina Otero, Ellen H. Ray, Lia Rodi, JR Roykovich, Henry G. Sanchez, Alexander Squier, Sarah Sudhoff, Trenton Teinert, Chris Wicker.
Saturday, 9/13
Detail of Wonky Circles by JR Roykovich, image courtesy of the artist.
A Flash of Light and a Loud Roar
Collaborative Performance, 4pm
Lawndale Art Center | 4912 Main St
Lawndale Art & Performance Center will present Perhaps Just a Trick of the Light by 2024/2025 Artist Studio Program participant JR Roykovich (JRR) in the John M. O’Quinn gallery.
Perhaps Just a Trick of the Light is a multimedia installation that continues the artist’s modes of using light, lens-based media, and found objects to build immersive environments that explore geographic and metaphoric space, perception, and experience.
The artist will collaborate with Margaux Crump, Jake Eshelman, and Jeanette “Joy” Harris on Saturday to create the performative movement titled “A Flash of Light and a Loud Roar”. Exploring trama and its journey within individuals manifesting paranormal like experiences. Pulling from the 1957 Project Blue Book report from Harris’s hometown of Centerville. Based on a civilian report near the creative’s family home and where an unknown flash of light and roar happened so many years ago leaving an unforgettable moment in time. A day of performance we hope you will be able to attend.
Betty Moody in 1985
Moody 50th Anniversary Part 1, 3-5pm Talk at 4pm
Moody Gallery | 2815 Colquit St
When talking of the leading gallerists and curators of Houston and the South, for that matter, Betty Moody is “The One”. 50 years or more of the most exceptional and genuine exhibitions. From the museum level blue chip artists to the young emerging artists that will soon climb to the blue chip level ranks with Moody’s guidance, Moody Gallery has the vision we collectively strive for. As a younger creative and curator, I met Betty and Lee Steffy 15 years ago. They perfume excellence and it's palpable. Nestled in the gallery neighborhood off Kirby, their beautiful space and inspiring space is a beacon.
This part 1 of 2 exhibitions will feature, Terry Allen, Lucas Johnson, Arthur Turner, art duo MANUAL (Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom), Helen Altman, Michael Bise, Pat Colville, James Drake, Roy Fridge, Page Kempner, Michael Kennaugh, Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Jim Love, Mary McCleary, Melissa Miller, Al Souza, Gael Stack, Bill Steffy, Dan Sutherland, Ellen Tanner, Randy Twaddle, Liz Ward, and Tracye Wear. It takes some chops to maintain the level of commitment Moody has with her gallery for so many decades. The artists move beyond works on the wall and a name on a page and become part of an anthology of life and family.
Do we need a few openings to celebrate Betty Moody and Moody Gallery? Can't we just make it a daily meditation? Truly our Houston favorite.
Informed Informalism / New Classicism in Collage: Edgar Negret, Louise Nevelson, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizarp, 6-8pm
Sicardi Ayers Bacino | 1506 W Alabama
With multiple openings at the Sacardi compound off Alabama you surely won't be disappointed. “Informed Informalism, features early works by Colombian artist Fanny Sanin, and by Venezuelan artists Elsa Gramcko, Mercedes Pardo and Alejandro Otero. In the voluminous book Twentieth Century Art of Latin America, Jacqueline Barnitz states, Informalismo (informalism), as this type of abstraction was known in Latin America, took two main directions: one that depended on surface elaboration and texture, the other, on gestural brush strokes.”
On the same night, New Classicism in Collage opens featuring the works of Edgar Negret, Louise Nevelson and Ramírez Villamizar. “In New York, Geometric Abstraction in the early sixties was thus construed in the critical discourse of the time as a “new classicism”: an art of order, balance, and repose that was diametrically opposed to the “romantic,” overheated approaches of the action painters of a previous generation”. Three artists rise to the top of this movement. A core sample of art history and Modern Classicism. I'm fascinated by the gallery's historical exploration and its top on our list.
Sunday, 9/14
Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, 7:30pm
Sarafin Hall at the Hobby Center & Performing Arts Houston | 615 Louisiana St
Got plans Sunday night? Well, now you do! Who doesn’t love some sultry vibes of Jeff Goldblum. Performing this weekend's long stint, come for the cool Jazz stay for the Goldblum. Will he be singing all of your Jurassic Park classics? Could be? But in all seriousness his career is impressive and it should be an amazing evening. Maybe at the end you can shout out your favorite tunes by request?
“Jeff Goldblum’s storied career now spans six decades of award-winning work as a starring actor in film, television, and theater. He has also produced both film and television projects and is an Oscar-nominated director for his short feature film, Little Surprises. Goldblum launched the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra 30 years ago. Since then, he and his band have performed for delighted audiences throughout the United States and all over the world playing contemporary arrangements of classic jazz and American Songbook standards”. The Performing Arts Houston is one of the best and leading venues for Performance. 60 impressive years of dance, music, theater, and experiences. Follow the link for tickets and to learn more.
