Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1519564
We first spotted a work by Kaima Marie Akarue at Hogan Brown Gallery, Eldorado Ballroom, in a show curated by artist/community builder Robert Hodge. In Akarue's photo collage, Black protagonists struck a pose in opulently layered home interiors from the pages of shelter magazines. The mash-up of high design and multiracial actors earned the attention of the museum and collecting community. Now this daughter of a Nigerian immigrant father and a white mother is one of the breakout stars of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's "Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage" exhibition, where Akarue's work holds its own among creations by such notables as Mark Bradford, Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas (through May 12). Collages $3,500 – $15,000, from two to eight feet wide in size, through Art Is Bond Gallery, artisbond.gallery, and the artist's studio, kaimamarie.com. Catherine D. Anspon T wo art acquisition opportunities arrive in early June, so calendar these dates. Friday – Sunday, June 7 – 9, head to the bucolic Texas countryside — that would be Round Top, natch — for the antiques and design Mecca's inaugural Round Top Folk Art Festival at The Compound. Mayor Mark Massey is the brain behind the event. The three-day gathering of artists and dealers from Texas and beyond showcases the au courant and timeless collecting field of folk art crafted by outsider and visionary makers, joined by works from respected artisans. Expect creations that celebrate the hand, priced for beginning to seasoned collectors. Admission is free and a portion of proceeds Arts program. (Preview days Monday – Wednesday, June 3 through 5, 11 am to 4 pm daily; Tuesday, June 4, 5 to 8 pm cocktail preview with talk by Marks; RSVP requested for auction and cocktail preview, 713.869.1335; bidding online now open.) roundtopcompound.com. lmauctionco.com. Catherine D. Anspon Art Buzz: Collector Alert Discovery: Collage Queen Kaima Marie Akarue Gallery to Garden benefits Houston's Orange Show Center for Visionary Art … Concurrently, it's a chance to hang your walls with Lester Marks-approved artworks — specifically those that bear the tony provenance of The Marks Collection. On Wednesday, June 5, 6 pm, Houston-based Lewis & Maese Antiques & Auctions organizes The Lester Marks Curated Collection Auction at Horizon on Sunset (formerly Gremillion & Co. Fine Art), 2501 Sunset Boulevard, with bidding in person and online. Marks, who's appeared on both definitive lists, the Artnews Top 200 Collectors and Art & Antiques America's Top 100 Collectors, is divesting himself of more than 200 lots by artists Jesús Moroles, Michael Ray Charles, Ed Ruscha, Christian Boltanski, Ushio Shinohara, Lawrence Weiner, Angelbert Metoyer, Maripol, Helen Altman, David Brown, Al Souza, and more. Proceeds benefit Art League Houston's Healing F rom canvases to wallpaper, fabrics, and historic houses, museum- collected artist Hunt Slonem is known for his multi-hyphenate menagerie of bunnies, butterflies, and birds that joyfully cross-pollinate the worlds of art, interiors, and design. Now, Slonem — who is exclusively represented in Texas by Laura Rathe Fine Art — makes his garden debut in "Huntopia: Bunnies, Birds & Butterflies" at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, in a partnership with the Mays Family Foundation. The exhibition, four years in the making, offers a bicoastal exploration of the art of blown glass undertaken between studio teams in New York and Seattle. Slonem's resulting al fresco sculptures burst forth outdoors. Many are executed on a monumental scale, encrusted with mirrored, colored mosaic surfaces that give off disco-ball vibes. May 4 through November 3, at San Antonio Botanical Garden; tickets and info sabot.org/huntopia. Catherine D. Anspon Left: Hunt Slonem's "Huntopia: Bunnies, Birds & Butterflies" exhibition debuts at the San Antonio Botanical Garden May 4 – November 3. Kaima Marie Akarue's Reader's Digest, 2022, through Art Is Bond Gallery and the artist's studio Jesús Moroles' Texas Shield #2, 2007, at Lewis & Maese's Lester Marks Curated Collection Auction 18