The Hidden Agenda: A New Perspective
Hannah Jickling and Helen Reed, “Tall Tale Postcard,” 2024 (detail)
This week brings in an array of exciting art and film events, including opening receptions for exhibitions at Art League Houston, Hiram Butler Gallery, Redbud Gallery and Houston Community College’s Wedge Space.
Thursday, August 4
Opening Reception — Brittney Anele: Serving Size: One Medium Banana at Wedge Space
Hosted at Houston Community College’s Wedge Space (6815 Rustic), Serving Size: 1 Medium Banana is the first solo exhibition by Houston-based multi-disciplinary artist Brittney Anele. “Starting with the banana as her focus, Anele creates an absurd and playful environment by re-imagining this unassuming, organic object in countless new iterations” and the show includes soft sculptures, paintings, and video installations. The opening reception takes place from 6 to 9 pm and the exhibition runs through September 2.
Friday, August 5
Opening Reception — with/in: blurring the line between art and education at Art League Houston
Hosted in the main gallery at Art League Houston (1953 Montrose), with/in: blurring the line between art and education is a group exhibition organized by the institution’s Education Programs Director Zachary Gresham. “The exhibition, which includes documentation and works across a range of mediums, aims to challenge the dichotomy of physical and conceptual space while exploring socially-engaged work centered on pedagogy to incite individual/communal action, response, contemplation, resistance.” The opening reception takes place from 6 to 9 pm and the exhibition will be on view through September 17.
Opening Reception — Betsy Huete: A Collection of Babysitters at Art League Houston
Opening in Art League’s front gallery, A Collection of Babysitters is a solo exhibition by Houston-based artist and writer Betsy Huete featuring a chapbook of poetry and sculpture based on the popular children’s fiction series, The Babysitters Club. Huete assembles poetry by lifting phrases from the first eight Babysitters Club volumes, selecting and reordering the words into prose poems of her own, and the sculptures featured in the exhibition are physical translations of the poems.
Opening Reception — Michael McFadden: aesthetic][equity at Art League Houston
As the third exhibition opening at Art League, aesthetic][equity by Houston-based writer and organizer Michael McFadden focuses on the turbulent history of socio-economic inequity that exists within the Houston arts community. “Through a presentation that is part visual record and part call-to-action, the exhibition lays the groundwork for artistic intervention and theoretical efforts to level an unjust art-world hierarchy.”
Screening — Midnight Madness: Kiki’s Delivery Service at River Oaks Theatre
River Oaks Theatre (2009 West Gray) is hosting another edition of their popular “Midnight Madness” screenings, this time of Kiki’s Delivery Service, a Japanese animated fantasy film from director Hayao Miyazaki. Telling the story of a young witch, Kiki, who moves to a new town and uses her ability to fly to earn a living, the film has received countless accolades and was the highest grossing film in Japan in 1989. Tickets are $10, the screenings begin promptly at midnight, and there will be an additional screening on Saturday.
Saturday, August 6
Opening Reception — Jennifer Bartlett: Two Paintings at Hiram Butler Gallery
Hiram Butler Gallery (4520 Blossom) is hosting the opening reception for Two Paintings, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist Jennifer Bartlett. The exhibition features large form works presented as dual diptych oil paintings, conceived within ‘grids’ of parallel lines. The opening reception takes place from 11 am to 1 pm and the exhibition will be on view through September 24.
Open Studio: Activities Inspired by Mark Flood: Gratest Hits at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
In Mark Flood’s exhibition Gratest Hits, visitors will discover a large collection of media and ephemera entitled “The Edge of Fame” featuring photographs of actress Lindsay Lohan. In a massive wall created of paintings, works feature images of celebrities that have been distorted and altered. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (5216 Montrose) invites patrons to remix pop culture and create “celebrity collages” as part of their monthly Open Studio event, taking place from 2 to 4 pm.
Opening Reception — Berry Horton: Transformative at Redbud Gallery
Redbud Gallery (303 East 11th) presents a solo exhibition of never-before-seen erotic drawings from the 1930s and 40s by Chicago-based artist Berry Horton. The show depicts the transgender world that existed more than seventy years ago in Chicago’s South Side and the drawings convey the beauty resulting from individual sexual transformation from the artist’s viewpoint. The opening reception takes place from 6 to 9 pm and the exhibition will be on view through August 28.
Opening Reception — Thomas Walsh: The Unfamiliar Norm at Gspot Contemporary Art Space
For Thomas Walsh’s solo exhibition The Unfamiliar Norm at Gspot Contemporary (310 East 9th), the Texas-based artist presents paintings that are abstractions based on his photographs of rock formations in Narita, Japan. “Exchanging earth-tones for flesh-tones and painting them on unpainted wooden panels, I traded the subjects’ traditional roles as landscape for portraiture,” reads the artist’s statement. The opening reception takes place from 6 to 9 pm and the exhibition will be on view through August 31.
