Let There Be Light, Send in the Clowns: The year begins with an emphasis on light, brought forth literally and figuratively by four Texas artists. First up, at Anya Tish Gallery, Adela Andea dazzles with light displays that take the legacy of Flavin’s eloquent minimalism and propel it into today. Andea’s free-form, exuberant sculptures with jutting bolts of lights and organic explosion of electrical parts and whirring fans make you want to celebrate. Her exhibition “Bioluminescence” also concocts a wild installation that recalls a cyber, underwater fairy tale (January 7 – February 5) … At DiverseWorks, Houston-based Patricia Hernandez, one of our most eagerly watched painters during the late 1990s, makes a comeback. Her new solo, “Parody of Light,” is a send-off of mall artist Thomas Kinkade that includes some pretty strange paintings embedded with clown imagery, alongside an installation that mimics a domestic interior and a shopping mall. Attend the final day of the exhibition, and for a minimal donation — which goes to fund the artist’s nonprofit Studio One Archive Resource that preserves and promotes the histories of Houston’s alternative spaces — you can acquire a nifty collectible (January 14 – February 26) ... At Wade Wilson Art, Lucinda Cobley and Joan Winters continue their investigations in light, space and translucency in their respective painting and sculpture (January 7 — February 12).
The Impressionists Are Coming: Secure your tickets now for the stampede of treasures when the National Gallery of Art’s formidable masterpieces arrive next month at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Fifty canvases by Impressionist and Post-Impressionism’s greatest are showcased — Cézanne, van Gogh, Monet, Manet and more — while the National Gallery’s 19th-century French galleries are shuttered for a redux. MFAH audiences reap the visual rewards, rather than their being put in storage (February 20 – May 23; its final days coincide with the annual American Association of Museums’ conference traveling to town May 22 – 26; tickets mfah.org).
Auction-Rama: Get your collecting on at AIDS Foundation Houston’s ART4Life, Saturday, January 22, at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art. Among the silent auction goodies curated by co-chairman Barbara Davis are stellar works by Robert Longo, Joe Havel, Donald Lipski, James Drake and Mie Olise; PaperCity is media sponsor (afhouston.org).
Let’s Look at Art: Resolve to enroll in Looking at Art for enthralling tours and insider visits with artists, gallerists and collectors led by Victoria and Marshal Lightman (lookingatart.com) ... If you’re a 20-something, check out Canvases and Cocktails, a series of lively mixers that amp up the art dialogue, led by PaperCity’s Lauren Fred and gallerina Eloise Frischkorn (canvasesandcocktails@gmail.com) ... The new Tootsies at West Ave has tapped the great Mondini, aka Whitney Biennial-Rome Prize Texas talent Franco Mondini-Ruiz (represented in Houston by Colton & Farb), to create fashion-suffused paintings that are being super-sized for the new store windows. Tootsies’ main man Mickey Rosmarin is a big Franco fan.
Cornell-copia, Cheers to the RDA: News of another Joseph Cornell creation headed to The Marks Collection: Lester Marks, enamored of this American surrealist, has just scored a sand tray from 1946, originally shown in one of the first exhibitions Cornell ever had ... Finally, we love what the Rice Design Alliance is doing. Check out their blog, offcite.org, for submissions about readers’ favorite places that epitomize Houston as the Unexpected City. RDA’s Katie Plocheck hopes to translate this concept into an exhibition and publication.
Images:
Adela Andea’s Light Curve, 2010, at Anya Tish Gallery.
Patricia Hernandez’s Tenacious Clown, 2010, at DiverseWorks.
Houston-based Patricia Hernandez, one of our most eagerly watched painters during the late 1990s, makes a comeback.