Karen Navarro's 'El Lado Oculto de la Luna' (photo by Alex Barber)
Each year, FotoFest invites spaces across the region to participate in the Biennial and exhibit their own selections of talented photographer-artists who are doing exciting work with the medium, from traditional portraiture to wildly experimental combinations of images, sculpture, and the written word. It’s a lot to take in, so the extended dates are welcome. What follows is just a sampling of the many excellent exhibits you still have time to take in, in person, with your own eyes.
Spring Street Studios
Karen Navarro's 'El Lado Oculto de la Luna' (photo by Alex Barber)
Argentinean artist Karen Navarro was one of several Houston-based artists in the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s 2020 group exhibit Slowed and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses, and she has shown widely in galleries and museums across the US and abroad. Navarro’s first site-specific installation, El Lado Oculto de la Luna (The Hidden Side of the Moon), on view through May 11 at the TANK Space at Spring Street Studios, welcomes its visitors with two left and right curtains of floor-to-ceiling braids of synthetic hair. They lead to a portrait of a young woman, her indigenous heritage made apparent in her clothing, hair and jewelry. The image is comprised of and divided into several tiles that transform unpredictably, one square at a time, through the magic of digital video-mapping, to reveal one female subject after another. Despite the potential for sensory overload, the space and projections are crafted and timed to encourage an immersive experience, not unlike what one experiences at the kitchen table, flipping through an album of family photos.
The Cultural Center
Photo by Vladimir Frumin
Houston-based photographer Vladimir Frumin’s exhibit Resilience in Exile: The Ukrainian Refugee Experience, on view at The Cultural Center – Our Texas through April 30, is a series of subtly staged, black-and-white portraits of individuals who have been displaced due to ongoing war in the Ukraine. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1955, Frumin’s empathy with his subjects, people from all walks of life, is clear, and this stately body of work is a welcome reminder of our shared humanity.
Anya Tish Gallery
Photo by Andrey Chezhin
Of Love, Pins, and Needles is the punk-rock-like title of a cross-generational group exhibit at Anya Tish Gallery through April 20. (Somewhere, Joey Ramone is smiling.) Artists Han Cao, Andrey Chezhin, and Marcella Colavecchio are each fascinated by early-20th-century darkroom processes, as seen in Chezhin’s silver gelatin sepia prints, and Colavecchio’s uncanny Polaroids (created by digitally manipulating 35mm film). Their work is defiantly irreverent, even as it pays respect to its historical antecedents.
Colavecchio is also a talented painter, and her photos offer a dramatically different aspect of her practice, with images that look like something found between the cushions of a thoroughly nicotine-stained couch in CBGBs circa 1978. In a time when so much art feels leaden with dubious, socially conscious messaging, it’s refreshing to see an imaginatively curated show that is so unapologetically sensual, even decadent.
George Bush Intercontinental Airport
Since 2019, thanks to the hard work of Public Art Program Director and Curator for the Houston Airport System, Alton Dulaney, George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) has transformed itself of the city’s primo locations to experience great art in just about every medium one can imagine, including photography. From now through Dec. 31, ticketed passengers can take in Mark Menjívar’s Looking Up (Voices from Jack Yates High School), a project co-presented by FotoFest, its Literacy Through Photography Learning Program, and the Public Art Program at Houston Airports. Comprised of 28 large transparencies on the windows between Terminals C and D, Looking Up features the students’ photographs of the sky above their school overlaid with original texts describing an ideal learning environment, revealing their hopes and dreams for a strong, inclusive, and supportive community.
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Local Foods sandwiches
The team has maxed out the menu and the space with extremely impressive upgrades. Working her magic, interior designer Brittany Vaughan of Garnish Design has transformed a simple, small space into a chic, intimate oasis with a dynamite 35-seat covered patio — one that will stay crowded, we’re sure. Interiors have a soothing desert meets ocean vibe with nods to mid-century Mexico and spot on southwestern art from Houston’s Southern Kindness Art Gallery.
Meanwhile, Levit and partners have also just opened a brand-new, 3,300-square-foot Local Foods on Post Oak, complete with new menu items, more wines by the bottle, seafood-savvy weekend brunch, and more. Vaughan decked out this spot, too, including its 1,100-square-foot covered patio. Guests will be thrilled with the ample parking and new specialty cocktails, too.
Back at Maximo: If you recall chef Luhrman’s style at El Topo, the vision for the menu is similar, honoring Mexican and Texan heritage cooking and its place on the Gulf Coast. Levit’s culinary director Seth Siegel-Gardner worked closely with San Antonio-native Luhrman to create an authentic menu showcasing dishes made from scratch, including handmade Tortillas de Nixtamal.
Those tortillas are the star of the extensive taco menu boasting inventive combos like sweet potato with baby kale and cumin vinaigrette; king crab with edamame, asparagus and Baja crema; vegan mushroom tacos; and the more classic crispy fish tacos, and mesquite-roasted barbacoa taco withepazote aioli (Luhrman’s prized signature from El Topo). Also expect specialty burritos and tortas; small plates; soups and salads, and crafted cocktails and margaritas. We can’t wait to tuck into the Watermelon and Cotija Salad with pickled Fresno chili, cucumber and peanut crumble!
“Every item on this menu was carefully selected to ensure all our ingredients are from nearby farms and producers that reflect the bounty of the Gulf Coast region,” said co-owner Benjy Levit, “From farm-fresh vegetables to locally sourced meats and cheeses, every ingredient embodies the ethos of local foods.”
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Local Foods
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