Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art - Houston, Texas

Enjoy the peace and serenity within this silo created by Wimberley artist, McKay Otto. It serves as a multidimensional space for meditation, reflection and self discovery. Tapping into elements of Eastern religion, the seven chakras of the body are represented in paintings with corresponding Tibetan singing bowls. Explore the ways in which Otto experiments with light and sound vibrations to create a complex and beautiful exhibit that fills the entire 40-foot silo.

SUMMER IS WRAPPING UP AND HOUSTON’S ART VENUES are preparing for a busy fall season. Here’s a handpicked list of commercial gallery exhibitions to check out before August comes to a close.

The Eyes Have It: the eye, beautiful and visionary, intrigues 48 artists.

The Time Between is a selection of photographs by Jack Thompson that document the unknown and what was to come during the first six months of COVID lockdown. The highly personal exhibition presents the artist’s broken narrative of finding his place amidst the uncertainty.

Since the 2016 election, we have seen a growth in the number of artists involved in political organizing. This has included voter turnout efforts, fundraising, letter writing, and the advocacy for particular issues. Below, Noah Simblist speaks with a group of artists, based in Texas and around the US, about their political organizing work. Some of these artists are also educators and, as a result, the conversation dips into universities as communities of young people and the challenges and opportunities of that context.

AbStranded features ten contemporary American artists—Polly Apfelbaum, Paolo Arao, Sanford Biggers, Samantha Bittman, Julia Bland, Rachel B. Hayes, Elana Herzog, Anne Lindberg, Sheila Pepe, and Sarah Zapata—who use fiber-based materials to investigate the complex lineage of abstraction. Utilizing a diverse variety of methods, styles, and forms, these artists uncover and co-opt textile traditions and material sources in order to re-assert their validity and relevance in an increasingly global-industrial culture. A prominent use of the hand looms large—through knitting, weaving, quilting, and more—and suggests an alternative mode of communication within today’s digital society. Together, the works reveal how artists employ the language of abstraction to speak about the intertwined histories and politics of craft, race, and gender.

In 2005, Austin artists Rachel Koper, Jon Lawrence, Shea Little, Arturo Palacios, Joseph Phillips and Jana Swec launched the Texas Biennial to showcase artists living and working in the Lone Star State. After three outings, the Texas Biennial merged with Austin nonprofit Big Medium in 2011 and stretched beyond the capital — first to San Antonio and Houston, then to Dallas and Marfa.

Cruz and Olivia Ortiz, the folks from the San Antonio-based design studio Burnt Nopal, are featured in a new National Geographic documentary, Texas: Spirit & Soul.

After the Hamptons last summer and Palm Beach this past winter, Aspen is the new art gallery destination that’s moderate in size, yet abundant in opulence. As the art market slowly heals from pandemic trauma, the summer of 2021 is on a path to enter the history books as the industry’s busiest for a typically sleepy season—and the tiny Colorado ski hub is a hotbed for QR-coded checklists.

Kysa Johnson collaborated with the band A Great Big World for their latest album cover.

Naturally, we love the return of in-person art events. This summer, the minds from Intersect Art and Design stage a pop-up edition of Intersect Aspen, a sensational art and design fair.

The poet and art critic John Ashbery wrote, in relation to painting, “most good things are tentative, or should be if they aren’t.” I think of this idea when I experience Clare Grill’s abstract paintings.