Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, schools are out, and the heat has been steadily growing, all of which means it is now officially summer. If everybody's headed to the beach, then the art will follow. Galveston's regularly scheduled ArtWalk just happens to be this Saturday night for those of you who will be bidding our city adieu for the holiday weekend. Our local galleries are getting into the partying spirit as well: The CAMH has pulled together some local musical artists for their Steel Lounge Underground event tonight (starting at 8pm) and Lawndale Art Center is holding their very own Night at the Ballpark on Wednesday (Astros v. Nationals), which sounds like the perfect excuse to support a team that needs it. G Gallery is working in conjunction with Apama Mackey for an impressive show of over 50 artists from Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. The show will be on view all day Saturday starting at 11am, with a reception starting at 6pm.
Results tagged “artsampevents”
This weekend there won't be so much running about town, but what's going on is an amazing concentration of events at some of Houstonist's favorite venues. On top of what are sure to be great opening parties at labotanica, The Joannex, and The Temporary Space, there are a number of great film, dance, and performance festivals going on this weekend. The Houston Fringe Festival continues its smorgasbord of events at various venues across town — check out their schedule. The Slant Film Festival returns for their tenth year to bring the city a selection of the best short films by up-and-coming Asian American artists. And the Palestine Film Festival is picking up where they left off last weekend and moving their show to the MFAH. And of course, if you haven't checked out Catastrophic Theatre's new production, it is a must see.
Last Friday night, as thunderstorms rolled in and out of the city, Catastrophic Theatre premiered their production of Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner in the converted living room space of their offices. And though I am sure the difficulties it supplied the company where not much appreciated, the intermittent rain helped to magnify the haunting and carefully moving nature of the play. Not to say that it was a "dreary" play or that lightning struck at the moment of some criminal act or even that the script mentions the weather that much, but, you see, the play progresses not through a series of actions but of definitions — definitions of beauty, of meaning, of morality, of pleasure, of contempt, of culture — definitions that try, amidst all the wild complications of human society, to either keep things together or mark them as being apart. The rain kept the audience together, cozy in our seats during the performance, packed on the porch at all points before, between, and after — the rain kept the audience apart from the wicked world on the other side of the wall.
There's always a lot going on in Houston's arts community so Artlandish is moving a day earlier to cover it all. On top of the gallery fare we have a Palestine Film Festival being put on by Rice Media Center (there's a kick-off party tonight at Khon's bar in midtown, p.s.). DiverseWorks is hosting the run of a new dance performance which is supposed to be top-notch. Urban Market Houston is back this weekend for all antique-lovers out there. And let's forget about economic crises for a few days and celebrate the 15th Annual Festival of Greece which starts tonight and runs through Sunday at the St. Basil the Great Greek Orthodox Church. What Houstonist is most excited and will not forget about, however, is the new production by Catastrophic Theatre, The Designated Mourner, which opens tomorrow night at the Catastrophic offices across the street from the Menil Collection. Seating is limited so get your tickets while you still can.
In case you haven't heard, this weekend is full of all sorts of Art Car related activities but the art doesn't stop there. Objectif Magazine magazine is working with labotanica to present the New World Creole Festival which started yesterday and runs until Sunday, including the Caribbean Short Films screening going on tonight at 7pm.
Join Catastrophic Theatre tonight at the Big! Bang! Catastrophe! gala as the troupe celebrates another great year and raises funds for future seasons of some of the the most thoughtful and original theatre productions in Houston. This year's special guest is actor Jim Parsons, Infernal Bridegroom alum, who has made it to the big time as Sheldon Cooper on CBS's The Big Bang Theory.
It's 2010, which means our neighbor to the South is celebrating not only the centennial of the Mexican Revolution, but also the bicentennial of their independence. Houston is joining in on the celebration by hosting renowned lecturer and expert on Mexican and Latin American art and culture Gregorio Luke and his traveling Murals Under The Stars presentation at Discovery Green tonight. Projected onto the park's large outdoor screens, the murals of Los Tres Grandes (Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros) as well as those of Rufino Tamayo will come to life in a way only comparable to seeing them in person. This is the first time the presentation will come to our fair city, having already been shown across the world including the Florence Biennale in Italy and The Smithsonian. The event should appeal to art lovers and the public at large — murals, after all, are meant for the people.
As long as the spring showers hold off, tonight's free multimedia presentation Murals Under the Stars at Discovery Green will be a nice way to end the week. Saturday and Sunday, Lawndale Art Center will be throwing its Design Fair 2010 (formerly the 20th Century Modern Market) for the curious and the collector alike, showcasing (and selling) the best of the modern and contemporary design scene: furniture, glass, ceramics, lighting, books, metalwork and fashion. A two-day pass for the weekend is only $5. And if you end up leaving with some classy new bookshelves, Friends of the Houston Public Library will also be holding their 32nd Annual Bargain Book Sale this weekend.
This weekend we've got the Japan Festival at Herman Park and the Traders Village 15th Annual Bayou City Cajun Festival to keep us cultured on top of all the other openings and events around town. Even better, the Aurora Picture Show will be hosting cocktails and cupcakes before tonight's outdoor screening of films from the Menil Archive in the park.
Tonight, Grandfather Child are having a release party for their new self-released 7". Local bands Balaclavas and Buxton, as well as Los Angeles-based Warpaint will be opening for the foursome at Mango's. With just two songs, the new 7" covers as much of the group's varied abilities as possible, going from the dramatic and soulful build of "Waiting For You" to the barn-burning southern punk of instrumental b-side "Dogwater."
The Bayou City Art Festival starts today in Memorial Park. This year's featured artist is Vic Lee, a pop surrealist from New Mexico with a bit of a theological bent. This weekend also concludes the MFAH's Alain Renais retrospective with a screening of one of his classic films each night this weekend.
Tonight begins the final weekend of Horse Head Theatre's run of Stephen Belber's Fault Lines at The Brewery Tap. The play is centered around two friends, Bill (Drake Simpson) and Jim (Rick Silverman), who have drifted apart over the years but who have come together at a bar to celebrate a birthday. The setup seems typical enough — old pals unsure of what brings them together, uncomfortable of still calling each other "dude" — but the script makes a few hard turns before all is said and done and the actors keep it moving from the early jokes to the final meltdowns. This is only Horse Head's second production, following last year's Red Light Winter, and it finds the troupe further along in their mission to make theatre a more interactive, "real" experience.
Catastrophic Theatre debuted their production of Wallace Shawn's Our Late Night at DiverseWorks last Friday night to great reception. The play is an at-times-dark, at-times-comedic string of conversations circling the absurdities and difficulties of sexual and personal connection. Our Late Night was Shawn's first produced play, first put on in New York in 1975, and despite the awards and recognition it garnered at the time, the script's difficulty and potential to offend kept it unpublished until only recently. Catastrophic's production is only the fourth run world-wide and marks another step in director and founder Jason Nodler's mission to ultimately have put on all of Shawn's plays.
The gallery scene has settled down a bit from last weekend, but Houstonist knows you didn't go see everything you meant to. Openings (and closings) are still going to be around town, and with all the on-going shows, there's plenty to keep busy with. Rice Design Alliance has organized a self-guided tour of the city's Southgate neighborhood for those who want to stay out in the nice weather and get to know the city a little better. There's also the Houston Downtown Alliance's Dowtown Home Tour and
::ArCH Opening Exhibit: Elsewhere, Tx ::
:: HSPVA Annual Juried Show ::
![Weekend-ist [Aug 14-16]](http://houstonist.com/attachments/Brittanie Shey/garden_080709_restrict_height_110.jpg)
As it seems most of the city's indie kids are still debating hipsters vs. hippies from last weekend's Summer Fest, we prepare to guide you into another weekend full of heat, music, art, and of course, f-f-f-fun.
::Mayoral Forum on the Arts::
Relax, this does not involve Roger Clemens, or sports at all for that matter. This week is Polaroid Week 2009, a celebration of all things instant - at least in regard to film cameras. Hosted on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/groups/polaroidweek2009, the event is open to everyone.