The Hidden Agenda: Conspicuous Consumption
Now that the weather is cooperating and spring is fully in swing, there’s never been a better time to get out and enjoy the wide range of exciting events Houston has to offer. Check out our roundup of the city’s best lesser-known events and plan your week, from an exhibition by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s Teen Council and a unique screening and performance at River Oaks Theatre, to a poetry reading at The Menil Collection and two events hosted in observation of the 15th anniversary of the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Monday, April 7
Performance — They, Who Sound
Lawndale Art Center
They, Who Sound — the experimental performance series from Nameless Sound, hosted at Lawndale Art Center (4912 Main Street) — packs a punch with a stellar lineup this week, including a showing from Houston’s own Danny Kamins (saxophone, clarinet) and Jawwaad Taylor (trumpet, voice, electronics). The evening also includes a performance from the Michele Brangwen Dance & Music Ensemble. Doors open at 7 p.m. for this free performance that runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 8
Screening & Performance — Swimwear Department Present: Secret Mall Apartment
River Oaks Theatre
As their name implies, Houston’s own Swimwear Department loves mall culture (and pool culture, but I digress). The band presents a screening of Secret Mall Apartment, an almost unbelievable documentary about — well — a secret apartment built (and lived in) within a busy Rhode Island mall. The truly stranger-than-fiction film screening kicks off with a live performance from the band at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to the event, hosted at River Oaks Theatre (2009 West Gray Street), are $20.
Wednesday, April 9
Reading — The Space City Medievalism Poetry Reading
The Menil Collection
From 7 to 8:30 p.m., The Menil Collection (1533 Sul Ross Street) hosts the Space City Medievalism Poetry Reading — co-presented with the University of Houston Department of English and Inprint — featuring new poems inspired by medieval literature and personal encounters with objects from the museum’s collection. The poems, created by UH graduate students and scholars of medieval literature, will be read by students from UH’s English, Creative Writing and Spanish Creative Writing programs, as well as UH and UH Downtown faculty. The event is free and open to the public.
Thursday, April 10
Anthony Suber, Ralph, The Cosmic Traveler, 2024.
Courtesy of Nicole Longnecker Gallery
Opening Reception — Anthony Suber: As Vast As We Need It To Be
Nicole Longnecker Gallery
Southeast Texas-based artist Anthony Suber explores connections of past, present, and future in his latest exhibition, As Vast As We Need It To Be, presented at Nicole Longnecker Gallery (1440 Greengrass Drive). Suber uses the lexicon of Afro-surrealism to create works portraying figures as “time travelers” set in “an extended story that transcends time and cosmic location.” The opening reception, which runs from 6 to 8 p.m., will feature a meet-and-greet with the artist.
Opening Reception — OUT OF STOCK
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Celebrating 25 years of the museum’s Teen Council, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (5216 Montrose Boulevard) hosts the opening reception for the Teen Council’s 14th biennial exhibition, OUT OF STOCK. The group exhibition features work from more than 25 Houston-area teen artists working in varying mediums, all created in response to the subject of “consumption” and its effects on teens, the public, the planet, and themselves. The opening reception, which runs from 7 to 9 p.m., features music by DJ Taye and food by El Deleite. The exhibition is on view in the museum’s Zilkha Gallery through October 19.
Friday, April 11
Opening Reception — Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft & Houston Museum of African American Culture
Co-presented by the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (4848 Main Street) and the Houston Museum of African American Culture (4807 Caroline Street), the exhibition Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other is showcased in both institutions with opening receptions taking place from 6 to 8 p.m. The celebrated artist is known for using everyday fiber materials — including hair, flags, and found fabric — in crafting works as a means of examining issues like history, racial injustice, and cultural legacies. The exhibition will be on view at both institutions through August 16.
Opening Reception — Ariana Gomez: My Mother Speaks of Land as Memory
FLATS
Don’t miss FLATS (2402 Montrose) opening reception for Ariana Gomez’s exhibition, My Mother Speaks of Land as Memory, the first solo exhibition hosted in their new gallery space. Drawing from her own personal histories and an examination of the concepts of ownership, legacy, and identity — particularly through the lens of diasporic experience — Gomez uses photography, film, and sound to explore the intersections of these mediums in creating an “experiential memory-scape of place.” The opening party runs from 6 to 9 p.m. and the exhibition will be on view through July 6.
Performance — SPILL
Moody Center for the Arts
In observance of the 15th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry — Moody Center for the Arts (6100 Main Street) hosts the Houston premiere of SPILL, a documentary play about the tragedy as told by the Gulf Coast residents who lived through it. Written by award-winning playwright Leigh Fondakowski, the play “vividly stages the events leading up to the disaster and the long personal and environmental consequences of its aftermath across the Gulf Coast.” Tickets to the play are free, with an opening night performance on Friday at 7 p.m. and additional presentations on Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 12
Brandon Ballengée, Collapse, 2010/12.
Courtesy the artist and Various Small Fires,
Los Angeles// Dallas// Seoul
Opening Reception — Brandon Ballengée: The Sea of Lost Children
Galveston Arts Center
Presented in conjunction with the 15th commemoration of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Galveston Arts Center (2127 Strand) hosts Brandon Ballengée’s exhibition, The Sea of Lost Children. The exhibition includes Ballengée’s sculptural installation Collapse, comprised of 26,162 preserved specimens, as well as work from the series La Mer des Enfants Perdus (The Sea of Lost Children), with flags depicting X-rays of missing Gulf species in a tribute to these lost beings. The opening reception, hosted in conjunction with Galveston ArtWalk, runs from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition is on view through July 6.
Opening Reception — London Ham: The Hand of God, with a Paring Knife
Pablo Cardoza Gallery
Based around the concept of automated creative labor, Houston-born artist London Ham’s latest exhibition, The Hand of God, with a Paring Knife, presents a unique look at the interplay between man and machine in using algorithms to create images. Using a computer vision model originally designed for industrial applications, such as package sorting and surveillance, the artist transformed the tool into a vehicle for creative production, resulting in artwork that is neither entirely man-made nor purely manufactured, but something else entirely. The opening for the solo exhibition, hosted at Pablo Cardoza Gallery (803 William Street, Unit 3), runs from 6 to 9 p.m.
