Eye Candy: Wide Eyes, Cold Feet
By Megan McIlwain
Six more weeks of “winter” can’t keep an art watcher down.
WEDNESDAY
The closing of Emily Peacock’s Soft Diet at Hello Project Gallery is looming. Tonight, join panelists Michael Bise, Sebastian Boncy, Vinod Hopson, and Emily Peacock for “Photography as Content,” the first of a new series of Real Talks featuring critical and crucial discussion. The panel will delve into the exhibition, discussing the medium of photography, photographs as objects, and the role of the photographer in contemporary art making. Come with your questions and curiosity at 6pm and/or be sure to check out the show before it’s closing on Saturday.
THURSDAY
Make a night of it at Rice University’s Sewall Hall with two openings, an artist tour, and faculty slide jam.
Beginning at 6pm in Rice Gallery, German artist Thorsten Brinkmann will give a virtual tour via video and images of his permanent installation La Hütte Royal, a compound of German and French words meaning, “The Royal Hut.” In Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood, Brinkmann transformed the interior of an abandoned 1,900 sqft three-story home. Over the course of two years, he used found and discarded materials such as vinyl records, furniture, trophies, as well as things of his own invention, like a cast of his fist in a faux boxing ring, to turn the ordinary into “gesamtkunstwerk, where life and art melt into one.”
Beginning at 7, the faculty in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts will present their most recent work in 5 minutes with Little Bigs sliders served afterward.
In Matchbox Gallery from 7-10, Melinda Laszczynski brings you Everything All At Once, an on-site installation of wonky, massive piles of shiny, bright colored items from her studio that individually, represent imagined narratives and as a group, are a series of vignettes smashed together.
Beginning at 8pm in the EMERGEncy Room, Logan Sebasian Beck brings you A Description of the Sun. Using a homemade heliostat made of wood, metal, circuits, and mirrors used for tracking the coordinates of the Sun, Beck’s artwork itself is intended as the transitory experience of viewing the light it reflects.
Beck can often be seen documenting others’ art at at openings and performance, so this is your chance to come out and support his work for a change. The machine is an amazing piece of work, but to focus on that entirely is to miss the work itself, an ever-changing halo of light.
FRIDAY
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft presents the opening of three exhibitions: Dining and Discourse: A Discussion in Three Courses, one day, late in the afternoon…, and Nourish: ClayHouston Membership Exhibition.
In the Main Gallery, Dining and Discourse is a response to the increasingly popular demand for locally sourced food and handmade products and looks critically at the intrinsic relationship between craft and dining. Curated by Kathryn Hall, the exhibition features 26 emerging and mid-career artists working in wood, glass, ceramics, fiber, metal, and mixed media and is organized into three dining-room scenes: Role Play, Hunter-Gatherer, and Opulence and Excess.
In the Front Gallery, Kelly O’Briant’s one day, late in the afternoon… installation is reminiscent of the traditional still life that captures a moment of intimacy between practical objects and their users. Based on the concept that things, like a favorite mug, are as integral to people’s lives as the conversations that take place around them, O’Briant elevates these utilitarian objects to a position of aesthetic and emotional value.
In the Artist Hall, Nourish is a juried group exhibition that explores the concept of nourishment through the endless possibility of clay. The word can imply a variety of meanings and ideas – growth, health, caring, fostering life – yielding a diverse range of personal interpretation and outcomes.
Check out all three openings from 5:30-8.
At Aurora Picture Show, Nick Bontrager brings you SIGNALS, an interactive video installation utilizing artificial intelligence, allowing the viewer to visually communicate directly with a projected entity while bridging the gap of science fiction and near-future technology. By sending a cellular text message, visitors will create Morse code messages that are flashed to a virtual representation of the artist on screen via a military signaling lamp. Bontrager will then respond from an unseen location, signaling back to the participant through video in Morse code with a similar lamp. You are invited to decode the video response, thus customizing the content and crafting a unique exchange. Taking place in different biomes and locations reminiscent of film history, like an iconic bridge from the 1986 film Stand By Me, SIGNALS creates the illusion that the character in the film is communicating directly with you in real time. The opening reception is from 6-9 with an artist talk at 7pm. Installation will remain on view daily from 11am-2pm through February 13.
Celebrate Winter Street Studio’s 10 Year Anniversary with an exhibition from The Originals – 19 artists who first leased studios when they opened in 2024 and have never faltered. Tool around the open studios and join the artists and community and we recognize this significant milestone. The reception in from 6-7:30 and studios will be open until 9pm.
Zoya Tommy Gallery is moving in March, celebrating its final month on Montrose Blvd with a group show New Work. The show brings, you guessed it, new work by artists Ibsen Espada, Felipe Lopez, Whitney Oldenburg, Mark Perry, Julon Pinkston, Eric Sall, Earl Staley, and Marco Villegas. Bid farewell to the space from 5:30-8:30pm.
Over at Isabella Court, Devin Borden Gallery is opening a show by Dutch painter Anders Moseholm from 6 - 8 pm.
Finally, the Barbee Manshun will be putting on a satellite show, hosted by The Flex Space, in what used to be Domy Books and Tha Brandon Gallery. Part of the Barbee Manshun’s project is to bring art to people outside of traditional galleries and traditional gallery hours — to make art more accessible — so this will be going from 10 pm - 3 am. Read more about this unique show in this fun interview by Michael Meza.
SATURDAY
As Project Row Houses announced earlier this month, the home of Cleveland Turner, Houston’s beloved Flower Man, will be razed by Cherry Companies. on February 7, 2024, due to a severe infestation of highly toxic mold making the structure and many of his possessions unsalvageable. His final home at 2305 Francis St. became a living work of art and has been recognized as one of the nation’s best examples of African American yard-art while his sculptures gained international recognition, but Mr. Turner will always be treasured most for his presence. He will be remembered for his bicycle decorated with silk flowers, earning him the name “Flower Man,” and he will be cherished for welcoming all visitors with open arms. Although Cleveland gained much notoriety for his artwork, his greatest talent was his ability to inspire others and help them bloom like the flowers he loved. He contributed much to each community he lived in, and he will always be thought of fondly for his smiling face, his wisdom, and his optimism.
Project Row Houses would like to welcome everyone to come and join us at 3239 Simmons St. at 10am for a Second Line or 2305 Francis St. at 10:45am to help us celebrate and honor Mr. Turner’s memory – schedule of activities below:
10:00am
Second Line with Free Rads 2nd Line from the church (3239 Simmons St.) to Flower Man’s House (2305 Francis St.)
10:45am
Welcome and Remarks from Rick Lowe and the committee (2305 Francis St.)
11:00am
Special performance by the First St. Matthew’s Missionary Baptist Church Choir
11:15am
Demolition by Cherry (approx. 30 minutes)
11:30am
Crafts for commemorating Flower Man
11:45am
Community stories and performances
with a song from Lisa Harris
1:00pm
Community bike ride and walk organized by Autumn Knight, Lisa Harris, and M’kina Tapscott.
It’s that time again, the First Saturday Arts Market located in the Historic Houston Heights by Gen’s Antiques at 504 W. 19th featuring the works of dozens of visual artists. The market showcases paintings, sculpture, photography, jewelry and handcrafted items. Open from 11am-6pm, check out this months artists and enjoy music from Alyse Black and Chaz Nadegeat 11am and Wendy Elizabeth Jones & Jimmy Lee Deen at 3 pm.
SUNDAY
There are just a few days left of Patrick Renner’s Funnel Tunnel on Montrose! The work will take new form in NOLA’s Poydras Corridor as part of a project to bring attention to the visual arts and the artists of post-Katrina New Orleans, local artists will assist and install the artwork on a Poydras Street median. Join the community saying goodbye to the Tunnel in this break down event from 10am-5pm. And feel free to keep a piece of wood from the sculpture, you sentimental softy, you.
