Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1110880
3 7 S A D D L E B R O O K L A N E S A D D L E B R O O K RUTHIE PORTERFIELD ruthie@ruthieporterfield.com ruthieporterfield.com Design BUZZ OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. 28 ART NOTES P aint the Town: Three exhibitions d e m o n s t r a t e the tremendous range of painting s h o w c a s e d b y Houston galleries. Texas Gallery's solo for acclaimed art critic, author, and painter Peter Plagens focuses on his brilliant, idiosyncratic language of abstraction. The artist, who also weighs in on the museum world for The Wall Street Journal, presents recent large- scale canvases in this latest showing (through May 18) … At G Spot Gallery, explore the raucous world of Austin-based Josh Kight. Painting informed by Wild West myths, Bosch-like drawings commenting upon the American experience, and a side of poetry are part of the action (May 4 – 26). Kight has Texas roots going back to the collaborative Rubber: An Art Mob, from back in the day ... At Laura Rathe Fine Art, German painter Udo Nöger makes his Texas debut with creamy abstractions of white and gray pigment that hearken to the Arte Povera movement. The Geneva- and Florida-based talent is paired with West Coast collagist James Verbicky (May 18 – June 22). A Worthy Trifecta: Art League Houston lifted the veil on the trio of honorees set to be celebrated this fall at its annual ALH Gala on Friday, October 11. Texas Artist of the Year goes to San Antonio-based Margarita Cabrera, coming off a solo at the Dallas Contemporary, where her series of cacti stitched from Border Patrol uniforms assumed potent meaning. Anita and Gerald Smith are anointed with the Patron award, while stalwart gallerist Betty Moody receives Lifetime Achievement honors. Latino Art Now!: Catch the fi nal fl urry of important Latino art exhibitions presented in conjunction with the Inter- University Program for Latino Research conference at the University of Houston last month. San Antonio and New York gallerist Dr. Patricia Ruiz-Healy curates a jewel of a show for Octavia Art Gallery, "Latinx Art: Transcending Borders." The deft roundup of the (mostly) San Antonio scene includes Texas Artist of the Year Margarita Cabrera, Jesse Amado, and the late Chuck Ramirez (through May 11) … Over on Colquitt, Hooks-Epstein Galleries presents a sextet in "Nuestra Realidad — Our Reality," including the remarkable myth-informed glass works of José Chardiet (through May 11). Mann Mines the South: In the midst of the Van Gogh fervor, be sure your visit to the MFAH also takes in Sally Mann's luminous retrospective, "A Thousand Crossings" (through May 27). Catherine D. Anspon COURTESY THE ARTIST AND G SPOT GALLERY Josh Kight's Poison Prize, 2016, at G Spot Gallery N e l s o n B y r d W o l t z Landscape Architects, the NYC firm shaping Memorial Park's new master plan as well as New York's epic Hudson Yards, has opened its fourth global office — and it has a Houston address. Principal Thomas Woltz, with senior associate Jeff Aten, will direct NBW in Houston, from offices at 3131 Eastside Street in the Upper Kirby District. In addition to five years reshaping the green space of Memorial Park, the landscape architects count the Rothko Chapel restoration (beginning this spring_ and Aga Khan Trust for Culture's first Ismaili Center in the U.S. as its current Houston projects. The firm, profiled in PaperCity August 2014, is known for its sensitive practice interweaving ecology, urban planning, history, civil engineering, and issues of agriculture into traditional landscape design. Catherine D. Anspon Thomas Woltz treed in Memorial Park JACK THOMPSON