Unconventional Everyday: The Hidden Agenda

Analia Saban, “Trough (Flesh),” 2012

This week in Houston brings in exhibition openings at Blaffer Art Museum, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and Cardoza Fine Art, as well as the always-interesting Performance Art Night at Notsuoh.

Tuesday, September 20

Performance Art Night at Notsuoh

First started in 2024 by Julia Claire Wallace, Performance Art Night has recently become an increasingly regular occurrence at Notsuoh (314 Main). With some of the city’s most active performers coming out, as well as the opportunity for the uninitiated to take part, the event certainly promises to be eye-opening for all. Performances begin around 9 pm and admission is $5.

Friday, September 23

Performance — Houston Grand Opera Song Cycle: Magnificent Pretty Boy at The Menil Collection

At 5:30 pm, join The Menil Collection (1533 Sul Ross) for a concert collaboration with the Houston Grand Opera. The event introduces a new song cycle based on Houston artist Henry Ray Clark, a street hustler also known as the “Magnificent Pretty Boy” who passed in 2024. The songs are brought to life by the unique bluegrass-tinged group, the Grant Wallace Band. During his time in Huntsville State Prison, Clark discovered his natural talent for visual art, saying, “I am never imprisoned as long as I can draw.” The event is hosted in conjunction with the institution’s exhibition of self-taught artists, As Essential as Dreams and there will also be a second performance on Saturday at 7:30 pm.

Opening Reception — CraftTexas 2024 at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

From 5:30 to 8 pm, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (4848 Main) is hosting the opening reception for CraftTexas 2024, the ninth in a series of biennial juried exhibitions showcasing the best in Texas-made contemporary craft. Featuring 53 works by 38 artists, the exhibition includes everything from sculpture, jewelry, installation, and cut paper to works that explore diverse subject matter, including genetics, upcycling, and process. The exhibition will be on view through January 8, 2024.

Opening Reception — Analia Saban at Blaffer Art Museum

From 7 to 9 pm, Blaffer Art Museum (4173 Elgin) is hosting the opening reception for a solo exhibition by Argentinian artist Analia Saban, surveying the last decade of her practice through 30 works that explore everyday objects through unconventional usage of materials. Multi-disciplinary artist Saban, whose work is deeply tied to the ongoing process of conditional evolution and boundary-pushing renegotiation of the possibilities of media-based practices, creates a “dialogue between media’s historically defined conventions and their manifestations within the anatomy of individual artworks.” Saban’s exhibition runs through March 18.

Opening Reception — Michael Abramowitz: Irreversible Inspiration at Cardoza Fine Art

From 7 to 10 pm, Cardoza Fine Art (805A William) is hosting the opening reception for a solo exhibition of works by Houston-based artist Michael Abramowitz. The artist’s statement reads: “My artwork tells the mystery that words won’t. Words are an excuse of what we can’t always explain. A lot of times words can get in the way. This is why people like myself make pictures that hack into the same instrumentation used to create words. Instead of claiming street credibility being critically acrobatic; I’ve chosen to invent structurally unsound images that breaks through the common laws of light & sound.” The exhibition will be on view through October 23.

Sunday, September 25

Filming Oil Refineries in Texas: Screening and Roundtable with Tania Mouraud at Rice Cinema

In conjunction with her exhibition Everyday Ogres at The University of Texas at Austin’s Visual Arts Center, Rice Cinema (6100 Main) presents a discussion and presentation by visiting French artist Tania Mouraud, including a screening of her newly commissioned video and sound installation FATA MORGANA. Filmed at night at an oil refinery in Pasadena, FATA MORGANA captures a haunting vision of Texas’ industrial cities shrouded in smoke. “It follows from Mouraud’s other videos, which bring to life the immensity of environmental industrial sites around the world to audiences often removed from a direct experience of such sites’ force and intensity.” A wine and cheese reception will be held at 5 pm, just prior to the screening at 5:30 pm.

by Elizabeth Rhodes