Raul Servin (b. 1946), “Olvidate del Alamo #2” (Forget the Alamo #2), 2003, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 inches, courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ruben C. Cordova, from the exhibition “The Other Side of the Alamo: Art Against the Myth.” In vertiginously shifting positive and negative space, the façade of Servin’s Alamo church seems to be completed by a black United Farm Workers eagle. The red background also reads as a screen of blood, alluding to the loss of life during the Texian Revolt, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War. In 1836, abolitionist Benjamin F. Lundy warned in a pamphlet ca ..read more

Glasstire counts down the top five art events in Texas. For last week’s picks, please go here. “This Side Up,” installation view. Photo by Katy Anderson 1. THIS SIDE UP Houston Center for Contemporary Craft January 26 – May 4, 2024 From Houston Center for Contemporary Craft: “Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to present THIS SIDE UP, a group exhibition that frames art handling and collections-care practices within the field of craft. Featuring the work of mount makers, crate builders, and exhibition fabricators, as well as artwork informed by these practices, the show b ..read more

Artists James Surls and Charmaine Locke have announced that they are gifting 20 acres of wooded land north of their studio and family land in Splendora, Texas to create the SURLS + LOCKE MUSEUM.  James Surls, “Oak Stump,” 2022, wood. Photo: Paul Hester. The land to be donated is the same plot where A Gift from the Bower, an exhibition that was organized by DiverseWorks and featured sculptures by 14 artists and collaboratives, was located. In addition to the land, the artists will donate approximately 50 sculptures, more than 40 prints, including one print from each edition the artists h ..read more

The Affordable Art Fair has announced local, national, and international galleries participating in its upcoming inaugural Austin-based event.  Earlier this year, the fair, which hosts events in 11 cities across the world, announced that it will debut its inaugural Austin edition this spring. More than 60 galleries will be displaying thousands of artworks by emerging and established living artists. The prices of works will range from $100 to $10,000.  Affordable Art Fair Austin-based Big Medium is partnering with the Affordable Art Fair to present an exhibition on-site at the fair ..read more

Marfa Invitational has announced dates and events for its 2024 iteration in the West Texas town of Marfa. The Marfa Invitational Foundation is a contemporary art nonprofit founded in 2018 by artist and curator Michael Phelan and his wife Melissa Bent with the support of Kenneth Bauso, a former investment banker. The foundation hosts an annual art fair bringing artists and galleries from across the U.S. and the world to Marfa. The first fair was held in 2019, then in 2020, the yearly occurrence was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  In May 2023, the foundation temporarily lost its 501 ..read more

Meow Wolf Grapevine, an arts entertainment company located in North Texas, has announced an open call for artists, designers, and creatives, to participate in its inaugural Trashion Show. Meow Wolf, Denver Fashion Week 2022 In 2022, during Denver Fashion Week, Meow Wolf Denver hosted its first fashion show, featuring a fantastical line of designs by Kate Major, a Costume Designer at Meow Wolf. The following year, the organization hosted its inaugural Trashion Show in Denver, which focused on themes related to sustainability.  In a press release, Kelly Schwartz, Meow Wolf Grapevine’s Gen ..read more

Adam Cole outside his KISS/CRASH installation at SXSW. Photo: Michael Flanagan With lineups that regularly include former presidents, Oscar winners, and stars like Lizzo and Willie Nelson, Austin’s South by Southwest festival has grown into one of the premier international venues for music and film since its inauguration in 1987. In recent years, the festival has expanded to include a focus on visual arts and other forms of new media, with the 2024 line-up including a panel on “Salvador Dali, AI, and The Future of Creativity,” an exhibition of “fine poster art,” several artist documentaries ..read more

Ballet Austin’s production of “Poe: A Tale of Madness.”  Photo: Anne Marie Bloodgood, courtesy of Ballet Austin To create his latest work, a ballet that weaves together Edgar Allan Poe’s life and famous writings, Ballet Austin’s Artistic Director Stephen Mills assembled a team of collaborators from among Austin’s most exciting performing arts creatives. The result is a mysterious web of dance storytelling that explores madness, trauma, and loss, some of the themes Mills has returned to time and again throughout his career in works like Hamlet and the Light/The Holocaust & Humanity P ..read more

A 35mm film and television installation in Únies González’s “Leave the Kitchen Light On” I met Únies Gonzalez years ago when my best friend and I created the zine and support group formerly known as TULIPS. Since then I’ve seen Gonzalez‘s work in group exhibitions around Houston and have gravitated towards it as a fellow lens based artist myself. When I heard they would be doing something utilizing the entirety of Stinson House, an art space and home located in the Washington Terrace neighborhood of Houston, I was pretty stoked to see what they would come up with. After taking just a few ste ..read more

A photograph included in Paul Hester’s “Prisoners of Masculinity” exhibition The images in Paul Hester’s current exhibition of photographs, Prisoners of Masculinity, are organized by architectural elements that frame and obscure the visual field. Hester’s stunning compositions are marked by moments of surreal, spontaneous insight that pierce the environs within which bodies, and the narratives they enact, are posed. The title of the show suggests normative frameworks that Hester’s photographs seek to disrupt. In these formally rigorous images, there are insinuations, or registers of intense ..read more