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72 ART TOPICS BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON EAST END BIRD SONG A nother worthy discovery is Jonathan Hopson Gallery, whose nuanced, intelligent programming we've profiled on these pages in the past, most recently in conjunction with Latin Art Now! The gallery is home base for Houston-based painter Bradley Kerl of the Matisse-an moments and photographer/ sculptor Emily Peacock, whose exhibition last month was both provocative and deeply personal, incorporating the artist's baby teeth and her son's placenta. Also in Hopson's tightly honed stable are Julie DeVries (whose nature-shaped work reminds us of Alex Katz in its abbreviated sense of the lyrical) and Steven Evans (whose poignant neon signage and related work are featured this summer at the CAMH). The handsome gallery space is in a meticulously restored Arts & Crafts bungalow. Weekend visitors are greeted by Hopson and engage in a serious discourse about the works on view — there's no marketplace feeling here. The collectability quotient is high, though. Case in point: This month's group exhibition, "This Paradise," presents Houston collaborators Lovie Olivia and Preetika Rajgariah (aka Two Dykes and a Knife; a dinner party/performance is planned Thursday, July 11); New York painter Andrew Brischler and his text-based work; and the face of the transgendered art world, nationally known Juliana Huxtable (through August 4). The latter is a big coup for Hopson and aligns with the dialogue of our times. Huxtable's practice focuses on the intersection of the body with race, gender, and queer sexuality via performance, DJing, writing, poetry, and a turn as a fashion model. The Texas-born artist has exhibited at the Whitney, New Museum, and MoMA PS1. Jonathan Hopson Gallery, 904 Marshall St., jonathanhopson gallery.com. ANDREW OKANO (continued on page 74) O ne of our favorite under-the-radar art destinations is Space HL, a mash-up of an alternative space and a traditional gallery — with a nonprofit status. Rebranded from its former moniker, GalleryHomeland, this 1,200 square-foot micro- space in the East End is directed by founder Paul Middendorf, a Portland transplant who presents some of the most thoughtfully curated programming in town, ranging from the shocking to the profound. One recent Space HL headliner was MFAH Core Fellow Ryan Hawk, whose creepy sculpture of a distended limb was scooped up from the show by Houston's Medici, collector Lester Marks. Space HL's current installation is an immersive work by Rice University research fellow Lina Dib, a Canadian-born anthropologist who has also shown at venues including Day for Night and as part of the Occupy Museums component during the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Here, Dib continues her focus on nature (last year, she tackled coral reefs) with the haunting, multi-channel sound piece North to South and Back. The work captures the calls of extinct avians and current migrating birds, both sampled from the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, m i x e d w i t h i m m i g r a n t v o i c e s m i m i c k i n g b i r d c a l l s (through July 7). From the outside, Space H L m a y b e deceiving: It's a humble single- story cinder- block building BUNGALOW AS PORTAL surrounded by a scruffy green space that Middendorf is cultivating in tandem with School of the Woods student volunteers (with charming window boxes salvaged from discarded bureau drawers). The important, unassuming art space blends with its working-class neighborhood. Just back from NYC where he's collaborating with fiancée Mary Mattingly on the barge/art project Swale, Middendorf plans a salon-dinner benefit this summer. That will be followed by the performative work of San Antonio-based Jose Villalobos (August 2 - September 8), alongside Ronald L. Jones' site-specific outdoor installation. Space HL, 1303 Cullen Blvd., spacehl.org. Paul Middendorf with an installation by Lina Dib at Space HL Jonathan Hopson Gallery with a sculpture (front window) by Emily Peacock CDA Paul Middendorf