LOCAL Houston | The City Guide AUGUST 2015 | Page 44

Local August 2015_FINAL.qxp_002houston 7/27/15 12:18 PM Page 44 THIS MONTH’S MUST-SEE EXHIBITS 1. I AM A CAMERA, thru August 29, FotoFest International | Silver Street Studios | 1. Sepuya_Self-Portrait 2000 Edwards Street | www.fotofest.org Caitlyn Jenner’s stand on accepting one another is in perfect timing with this exhibit featuring nine international artists exhibiting work focused on communities, specifically lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer (LGBTQ) and questioning communities. Curated by FotoFest Executive Director Steven Evans, I Am A Camera is about representation, sexual orientation, gender identity expression and society. The members of the communities pictured self-identify across a broad spectrum of sexuality, gender roles, race, class, culture and politics. Included in the show are: Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst (USA), Sunil Gupta (India/UK), Lindsay Morris (USA), Frédéric Nauczyciel (France), Irina Popova (Russia), Anna Charlotte Schmid (Germany), Paul Mpagi Sepuya (USA) and Charan Singh (India). 2. WHISKEY RIVER, thru August 15 | Barbara Davis Gallery | www.barbaradavisgallery.com Donald Lipski’s Whiskey River features the artist’s Scotch-filled glass creations made over the last year. Lipski worked with teams of expert glass artisans at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA; Wheaton Arts in Millville, NJ, and Red Hook, Brooklyn Studio. The new work plays with the plasticity of glass which is the complete opposite of the fragile medium. The resulting pieces are oddly soft and warm through the amber colors of the artist’s spirit of choice and the rubber-like quality achieved by the custom blown glass works. 3. RUSSIAN CULTURAL CENTER, www.ourtx.org The Russian Cultural Center held a contest for a mural to be installed on the side of their building located on Bissonnet to encourage foot traffic. Their hope was to get a grant to pay for this work to be installed. Although they did not get the grant, they did receive various submissions and of them the work of local-based Maksim Koloskov best represented the points important to the cultural center: ballet, space, Mukhina’s sculpture Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, musical instruments, nesting dolls and khokhloma paintings. In order for Koloskov’s work to be installed, there’s the small matter of raising $2,800. To donate, please call 713.395.3301 or email [email protected]. 4. PASSAGES, thru September 5 | Galeria Regina | www.galeriaregina.com Venezuelan artist Carolina Otero’s mixed media collages depict her fascination for paper. Thru her meticulous combination of printed subjects, painting and drawing, Otero weaves intricate collages resulting in other-worldly locations. Vivid depictions of what can only been seen in one’s imagination, but these are depictions of the artist’s inner landscapes shaped by her travels in the US, Norway, France and Venezuela. “Art and life are intimately intertwined, for they nourish each other,” shares Otero. 5. BLUE INK RUNS IN HER VEINS, opens August 1| Archway Gallery | www.archwaygallery.com In this solo exhibit an architect’s daughter, Cecilia Villanueva, interprets ancient cities. “The ink of my father’s blueprints got into my veins and my palette. Architecture is my life – I draw, I build and I paint.” Villanueva is the daughter of prolific Mexican architect Luis Villanueva and was raised in an architectural world of drawings, buildings and structures. Today she translates this into beautiful, moody paintings rendered in oils and mixed media of stucco and various fibers. Inspired by ancient cities the likes of Jericho and Lepenski Vir, Villanueva becomes an artistic archeologist peeling away layers into the souls of the cities. 44 L O C A L | august 15 2. Whiskey River