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OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. 12 A s Moody Center for the Arts celebrates its second anniversary, its reputation — and role — at Rice University and the city itself, comes into clearer focus. This month, the think tank, art space, and nexus for cross-pollination begins the year with its first salon/ideas fest. Cue the Houston debut for a big international concept, co-presented by the Cultural Services o f t h e F r e n c h Embassy: "A Night for Philosophy and Ideas." Spun around the topic of our time — ecology and climate change — this roving global THEATER OF NATURE: SALON MOODY CENTER evening has been staged to date in Paris, New York, London, and Berlin. It unfurls Saturday, January 26, 7 pm to 1 am, at Moody Center. Its dual keynotes begin with Rice professor Timothy Morton, an avant-garde environmental author and collaborator with Björk, Olafur Eliasson, and Pharrell Williams. Morton is followed by iconic multi-media master Laurie Anderson. The evening also encompasses exhibitions by Paris-based Michel Blazy, one of the standouts from the Venice Biennale 2017 for transforming designer sneakers into receptacles for potted plants; and Rice art professor Natasha Bowdoin, known for her painted and cut-out collaged flora and fauna. (The artist is concurrently on view at MASS MoCA). Additional headliners include NASA oceanographer Josh Willis channeling Elvis, and TED talk and Stanford art-and-design fellow Jae Rhim Lee addressing the after-life through a burial suit implanted with mushrooms. A final flourish is the screening of Living in the Future's Past, by award-garnering filmmaker Susan Kucera, narrated by Jeff Bridges. For those wanting to stay into the wee hours, Katz Coffee dispenses comp caffeine. Free. moody.rice. edu. Catherine D. Anspon P laster artist Stephen Antonson sometimes spins a little wit into his work. A plaster bust of Pan wears a cream pie in his face and, here, a sculptural table erupts into its own fruit bowl. Part form, part function, the Tabowl dining table was inspired by his wife, New York design writer and editor, Kathleen Hackett, who "always puts a bowl in the center of the table and fills it with fruit," explains the Brooklyn– based artist. "So, I just made it permanent."Stephen Antonson by Hand, to the trade at Wells Abbott, Decorative Center Houston, 5120 Woodway, 713.626.5915, wellsabbott. com. Rebecca Sherman JUST ADD FRUIT L et There Be Light: R o m a n i a n - b o r n Texas artist Adela A n d e a b e g i n s '19 with a new body of illuminated sculpture that melds light projections, LEDs, consumer plastic, 3-D printing technology, and inspiration from the world's largest glacier, Iceland's Vatnajökull formation. One of the artist's most ambitious installations to date — based upon her trek to this Nordic land — it unfurls at Anya Tish Gallery (January 11 –February 9) … A Princely Talent: At Hooks- Epstein Galleries, a Houston Arts Alliance grant supports Prince Varughese Thomas' "The Light of Other Day." The elegiac exhibition, its title taken from a poem by 19 th century-Irish Romantic Thomas Moore, departs from the artist's usual photography (January 19 – February 16). Thomas describes his show: "Charcoal drawings that intersect my interests in news and journalism with explorations into the process of grief and mourning in private and public contexts." … Camp Campaign: On a lighter note, the witty wood sculptures of Marfa artist Camp Bosworth headline at Galveston Arts Center, on a triple bill that includes New Orleans-based puppeteer Miss Pussycat — who improbably hails from Antlers, Oklahoma — and her Crescent City collaborator, organist and bandsman, Grammy-nominated Quintron (January 19 – March 3 (Bosworth) and April 21 (Miss Pussycat and Quintron) … New Kids on the (Bartlett) Block: A promising new arrival is Winston Contemporary Art, which rolls performance and poetry into an exhibition program that pairs Texans with talents from other places. This month, Tara Conley's lithe metal sculptures, lyrical abstractions in steel and stainless steel, are presented alongside wall pieces formed from bronze and neon. The show is titled "Gymnopedie," a reference to early 20 th -century French composer/ pianist Erik Satie. Menil-collected Houston painter David McGee curates (January 3 – February 3; artist-and-curator talk, Saturday, January 19, 1 pm). Catherine D. Anspon ART NOTES Natasha Bowdoin's Maneater, 2018, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art COURTESY THE ARTIST AND MASS MOCA Laurie Anderson Prince Varughese Thomas opens this month at Hooks-Epstein Galleries BRITT THOMAS CANAL STREET COMMUNICATIONS