Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1172262
ART TOPICS D immitt Contemporary Art may be celebrating its first anniversary on the West Alabama d e s i g n c o r r i d o r, but owner Kathy Dimmitt's art-advisory expertise spans two decades. After eight years as an indie advisor, she founded Dimmitt Contemporary Art in 2013; it immediately became a destination for designers. Now with a Hollywood Square address and the addition of Bailey Miller as director, Dimmitt appeals to her designer base as well as a new generation of Houston collectors. Within its 2,000-square-foot footprint are expansive canvases by senior Houston ab-ex painter Michael Von Helms; op art by Austin-based Sarah Ferguson; animalia C prints N ew York has the Whitney Biennial; New Orleans organizes the citywide Prospect exhibition. Now Houston steps up with the fourth edition of Sculpture Month Houston, an immersive visual festival and banquet of installation art titled "Outta Space," which promises to be the strongest iteration to date. Five venues participate, with the main action spun around two spaces repurposed for art: SITE Gallery at The Silos, Sawyer Yards, and the 1940 Air Terminal Museum Hangar. The former, a creepy-cool relic BETTER THAN THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL: SCULPTURE MONTH RETURNS DESIGN DISCOVERY: DIMMITT CONTEMPORARY ART from Randal Ford of Austin; and geometric paintings by Fort Worth's John Holt Smith. The gallery also represents the serene abstractions of New Orleans painter Mallory Page, whose collectors include designer Bunny Williams; dramatic brushstroke-inspired neo-Pop work by Donald Martiny (headlining November 2 through January 2); and Canadian-born Sara Genn's whispery, colorfield topography (through October 17). 3637 W. Alabama St., dimmittcontemporaryart.com. Catherine D. Anspon 52 of Houston's agrarian past, hosts "Outta Space"; the latter, a monument to the city's early age of aviation, complete with vintage planes, serves up a dialogue about man and machine in "Pitch and Roll." James Surls' Splendora Gardens, City Hall, and Rudolph Blume Fine Art / ArtScan Gallery round out Sculpture Month stops. Hangar headliners include 10 Texas notables spanning generations: Williams Cannings, Dylan Conner, Sharon Engelstein, Orna Feinstein, Alex Larsen, Steve Murphy, Eduardo Portillo, Troy Stanley, James Surls, and Ed Wilson. The Silos' SITE Gallery pairs national names such as Suzanne Anker and Mark Dion with our best and brightest, including the obsessive Patrick Turk; Ryan Hawk, an on-the- edge surrealist who mines body parts; biosphere-inspired work by Henry G. Sanchez; and the sexcapade sculpture of Margaux Crump; alongside Denver-based Nicole Anona Banowetz's wild, whimsical world. The festival opens Saturday, October 12, 6 to 9 pm, at SITE Gallery, 1502 Sawyer St.; through November 30; all exhibitions free; sculpturemonthhouston.org. Catherine D. Anspon A s its first anniversary approaches, the Menil D r a w i n g I n s t i t u t e reaches to the past. This month's exhibition departs from MDI's recent contemporary emphasis by focusing on a talent from the 18th century — an architect, not an artist. "Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect, Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France" takes over the serene spaces of the Institute with 50 architectural renderings and anatomical studies that demonstrate Lequeu's deft draftsmanship. The occasion is a homecoming of sorts. Sixteen of the works were first exhibited in 1967 in a traveling show that Mrs. de Menil brought to the University of St. Thomas, before she arranged an extensive American tour for "Visionary Architects: Boullée, Ledoux, Lequeu." Some 50 years later, MDI chief curator Edouard Kopp and assistant curator Kelly Montana present Lequeu's fantastical, elegant architectural schemes to a 21st-century audience. October 4 through January 5, menil. org. Catherine D. Anspon DRAWING CONCLUSIONS PHOTO AND COLLECTION THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE Jean-Jacques Lequeu's Mouth study (Étude de bouches), 1792, at the Menil Drawing Institute CLAUDIA CASBARIAN / JULIE SOEFER Kathy Dimmitt, Bailey Miller with Donald Martiny's Ori, 2019, at Dimmitt Contemporary Art Steve Parker's Ghost Box, 2018, at SITE Gallery, The Silos COURTESY THE ARTIST AND SCULPTURE MONTH HOUSTON