Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1162040
ART TOPICS 126 SUPER SIX FOR TOP SHOWS LAUNCHING THIS SEASON RANGE FROM A BRANDING-IRON-TOTING SPLENDORA NATIVE WHOSE ART SIGNAGE IS OH-SO DADAIST TO ITALIAN PERFORMANCE ART THAT RISES TO THE LEVEL OF THE TRANSFORMATIVE. SEPTEMBER F irst up, Venice- and N e w Yo r k - b a s e d Andrea Bianconi returns to Houston for a performance and exhibition of his intuitive drawings at Barbara Davis Gallery (opening Friday, September 6, 6 to 8:30 pm, performance at 7:30 pm; through October 19). Bianconi's arrival in town follows his recent acclaimed performance at the San Vittore prison in Milan, where he collaborated with female inmates. The artist has also been tapped as brand ambassador for Italian luxury fashion house Kiton, for whom he created a collection of hand-drawn t-shirts, each one an original. (Kiton in River Oaks District will host a private party to toast Bianconi, which benefits the MFAH). Over on Colquitt, two extravaganzas underscore that more is more. At Heidi Vaughan Fine Art, Alton DuLaney continues with his ART brand, as well as a performative painting crafted while brandishing an actual branding iron. (The busy artist is also a candidate for mayor of Splendora, as well as the new art czar for Houston Airport System.) One of the showstoppers of DuLaney's "ART Provocateur" exhibition is a memorial stone finely etched with the three-letter word ART (opening Saturday, September 7, 5 to 8 pm; through October 12; artist talk Saturday, October 5, 1 pm). The wondrous menagerie of Hunt Slonem and his passion for preservation and historic places are in the limelight at Laura Rathe Fine Art. "Wonderland" features Louisiana landscapes and Slonem's three Bs: birds, bunnies, and butterfly canvases, as well as new rabbit sculptures (opening Friday, September 6, 5 to 8 pm; artist talk 6:45 pm; through October 14). The late Mr. Houston Painting, AKA Dick Wray, gets a well-deserved posthumous exhibition, "A Revelation," at Deborah Colton Gallery — part of DCG's ongoing Houston Foundations series of historic shows (opening Saturday, September 7, 6 to 8 pm; through November 2). Nearly a decade has lapsed since Wray's passing in 2011, but Mr. Crow (the artist's stand- in within his canvases), looks very good, indeed. At Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art, L.A. painter Kysa Johnson makes her debut with gestural abstractions of a generous scale, informed by a nod to quantum physics and surreal, calligraphic brushstrokes (opening Saturday, September 7, 6 to 8 pm; through October 12). Gonzo247, the talent who began Houston's street art movement — and who showcased Shepard Fairey at his edgy Aerosol Warfare Gallery — is onto a new endeavor. Why graffiti a wall when you can have a plane as your canvas! At the 1940 Air Terminal Museum (1940airterminal.org), adjoining Hobby Airport, Gonzo247 has created a magnum opus upon a 1969 Hawker Sidley jet; a project dreamed up in collaboration with museum director Amy Rogers. Visit Gonzo's aerosol- embellished jet on permanent display on the tarmac in front of the time-capsule terminal. Catherine D. Anspon Artwork clockwise from above: Andrea Bianconi's Prisoner of Love, 2019, at Barbara Davis Gallery; Dick Wray's Untitled, 2003, at Deborah Colton Gallery; Hunt Slonem's Bayou Teche (detail), 2019, at Laura Rathe Fine Art. Gonzo247 Kysa Johnson Alton DuLaney ALL ARTWORK IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS AND THEIR RESPECTIVE GALLERIES. ALTON DULANEY PORTRAIT BY JAY MARROQUIN. GONZO247 PHOTO BY CDA. KYSA JOHNSON PORTRAIT BY YURI HASEGAWA.