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Curators of the unique. KATHERINE WARREN, J.D. BROKER ASSOCIATE Circle of Excellence, Hall of Fame 832.725.4340 ELIZABETH GREGORY CHIPMAN, J.D. REALTOR ASSOCIATE Circle of Excellence 713.265.7455 Epic: "Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream …" at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is the show of the moment — not just for the CAMH, but for the Houston art world. Co- organized by CAMH and the heavy-hitting MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, the expansive exhibition marks the first time in CAMH's history that the museum has devoted the entirety of its space, taking over both levels, to a single artist. This monumental mid-career museum survey — Valdez's first — debuts in Houston before traveling to MASS MoCA, where it opens May 2025, remaining on view for nearly a year. Its ambitious presentation aligns with CAMH director Hesse McGraw's grand vision to export Texas talent beyond Houston. CAMH curator Patricia Restrepo and MASS MoCA senior curator Denise Markonish have organized this retrospective that challenges us to confront our own history; its opening coincided with the fraught days following the U.S. election. With a practice incorporating drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation, the artist says in his press statement, "This exhibition marks an important moment in my lifelong effort to create images about people, for people. I offer this work as a report. My visual testimony about an unfolding tale of hope, struggle, and survival in 21st- century America." Pay attention to such searing works as Eaten, featuring a gargantuan hog after his human dinner; The New York Times-featured The City I and The City II, owned by Blanton Museum of Art; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art's El Chavez Ravine, painted on a vintage Chevy Good Humor ice cream truck (through March 23). Subtle + Poetic: Slow down at The Menil Collection and bask in the nuanced beauty of the deeply layered "Tacita Dean: Blind Folly," organized by Menil senior curator Michelle White over a seven-year period. Discover heroically scaled photo- based works and monumental chalkboard drawings of fragile nature as well as intimately scaled found postcards and drawings in chalk on time-worn slates. Then catch rotating gallery screenings of Dean's elegiac 16mm films including a cinematic portrait of Cy Twombly (Edwin Parker, screening January 15 – March 9; exhibition through April 19). Pastel Drama: It's always thrilling and affirming to watch the ascent of a deserving talent. At Hooks- Epstein Galleries, Kingsley Onyeiwu dazzles in a solo showcase of his prowess w i t h p o r t r a i t u re rendered in the unforgiving pastel medium. A TSU grad who was influenced by the legacy of Dr. John Biggers a n d K e r m i t Oliver, as well as his own teacher, Robert Pruitt, Onyeiwu shines in his fourth one- person exhibit at the gallery, which continues his dialogue w i t h t h e A f r i c a n diaspora. The artist's life has come full circle, too: He is now a professor at Texas Southern University (December 7 – January 11). State of the Arts: Stay tuned for uplifting news in the New Year, beginning with arrivals on the gallery scene. Hint: See what Megan Olivia Ebel is up to with Ruby Projects, a light-filled space in a historic house near Hermann Park that's a haunt of art-world insiders. Catch hometown talent Preston Douglas Boyer, in from L.A., whose immersive take on soft sculpture and painting walks the line between beauty and seduction in "COUTUME." Included are his collaborations with interior designers Marissa Reynolds and James Myers, alongside ethereal wedding- dress paintings and a cache of early works by Boyer, such as his collectible zipper canvases (through December 21, 1705 Ewing St.; by appointment, rubyprojects.xyz). Catherine D. Anspon Art Notes Vincent Valdez's Recuerdo, 1999, at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Kingsley Onyeiwu's The Vanguard, 2024, at Hooks-Epstein Galleries COLLECTION JOE A. DIAZ 26