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OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. ICONS ARE US:NESTOR TOPCHY AT THE MENIL A decade ago, we profiled Nestor Topchy when the artist gave us a rare peek into his Houston studio, a verdant complex in the Brooke Smith neighborhood and certainly not your regular Arts Corridor enclave. Perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised his property contains a moat; a built environment known as The Crescent, which owes a debt to the mid-19th- century Crystal Palace pavilion in London; giant planetary blue orbs suspended from trees; and a warren of shipping containers. After all, Topchy internationally respected temple of art and architecture co-founded by patrons Dominique and John de Menil. Topchy enters a rare pantheon of Houston artists ever to receive solo exhibitions at the Menil. And what a grand entrance it is: Organized by Menil senior curator Michelle White, "The Iconic Portrait Strand by Nestor Topchy" culls more than 100 paintings of art-scene pals and insiders, depicted in the centuries-old language of the Byzantine icon, an artwork tradition well- represented in The Menil Collection as well as a successful saga of the de Menils saving, preserving, and returning a pair of 13th-century Byzantine frescoes to Cyprus. Working with materials that often have a sacred connotation (gold leaf, marble dust, red clay and other earth pigments, and egg tempera), Topchy's portraits require a preparatory d r a w i n g s e s s i o n from life with each sitter. Topchy then creates each small- scale icon with his subjects recognizable yet illuminated by an inner beauty b e y o n d p h y s i c a l f e a t u r e s , e d g i n g towards a window into the energy of the soul. The artist considers his ongoing portraiture series to be a single work of art. "It's an honor," he says, "to show this corpus at my favorite museum, in my hometown, and share the ongoing work with family and friends, some of whom are portrayed in the paintings, which in part stem from my ancestors' practice of ikon writing, unbroken since the 6th century." "The Iconic Portrait Strand by Nestor Topchy," August 4 – January 21, 2024, at The Menil Collection, menil.org. Catherine D. Anspon U p for oysters? We have just the spot. The cool A ustin eatery Clark's Oyster Bar is coming to Houston. Poised to open its doors later this summer in a former auto repair shop on Montrose Boulevard at West Alabama Street, the third incarnation of this popular seafood joint is brought to us by MML Hospitality, the stylish trio of Larry McGuire, Tom Moorman, and Liz Lambert, who together have developed and managed more than 15 restaurants in Austin and Aspen, plus hotels including the recently opened Hotel Saint Vincent in New Orleans. The original Clark's Austin opened in 2012 in a former gas station (spot a theme?) in the historic Clarksville neighborhood, inspired by the seafood-centered fare of New England. Throughout the day and well into the evening, you'll find lobster rolls, fresh baked sourdough bread, sustainable caviar, steaming bowls of chowder, seafood stews such as cioppino, burgers, and, of course, a daily array of oysters pulled from the waters off both coasts. Given Houston's location, Clark's will make it a priority to source shellfish and seafood from the waters off the Gulf Coast. We can't wait to see the interiors Lambert McGuire Design conjures for this Houston outpost, which has a decidedly larger footprint than its Austin and Aspen cousins. Laurann Claridge AUSTIN'S COOL CLARK'S OYSTER BAR is one of the city's most unique creatives. During our visit, we previewed a series in process. Topchy, whose paternal heritage is Ukrainian, has been creating remarkable portraits of art-world figures, mostly centered around those he's intersected with in Texas. Flash forward, and this CAMH-exhibited polymath artist — who's not only a painter but a performance artist and maker of environments — receives the ultimate accolade: a one- person show at The Menil Collection, the Nestor Topchy CAROLINE PHILIPPONE CAROLINE PHILIPPONE Nestor Topchy's Iconic Portrait Stand (Al "Kool B" LeBlanc), 2008-2022, at The Menil Collection 10