Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/594381
Bring on the Greats: Pat Steir, whose heroic abstractions allude to the landscape, solos at Texas Gallery in one of the defining exhibitions of the fall. Included in the show is a series of short films by videographer Molly Davies, who captures the painter during her very physical process (through December 12) … The mighty Frank Stella's sculpture and works on paper open Thursday, November 5, at Meredith Long & Company, coinciding with the artist's Whitney retrospective. Silos Rising: The metamorphosis of the former industrial/agricultural Success Rice silos (adjoining Winter Street Studios) into the city's newest art space is celebrated with the opening of SITE (Silos on Sawyer Installations Transdisciplinary Exhibition). Watch our arts blog for the big reveal of the inaugural SITE project, in which juried artists transform silo structures into immersive art environments (November 6 – January 30; sitehouston. com). This Side of Paradise, Indeed: A personal highlight of the year was curating "Talent in Texas," a biennial show co-organized by FotoFest and Houston Center for Photography that's on view at both venues (through November 14). Interweaving landscape, identity, still life, portraiture, time travel and the women's movement, the exhibit unfolds in an open-ended way that leaves space for the viewer to enter. Pop work — a personal fave — is included, as well as quieter elegiac offerings. You'll see Irby Pace's smoke plumes swirling across a Marfa townscape; Nancy O'Connor's continuation of Milam's Journey, begun in the mid-1980s and first shown at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and a return by Mary Margaret Hansen and Patsy Cravens to a never-before- exhibited series of the artists themselves cavorting nude in nature, originally taken 1981 through 1982. Take Off: New public art has landed at William P. Hobby Airport. Watch these pages for more on the latest commissions managed by Houston Arts Alliance, funded by the City of Houston's percent for art program and, in a big way, by Southwest Airlines. Included are buoyant works with color as a motif by Houston-based Libbie Masterson and Christian Eckart and Brazilian Henrique Oliveira, as well as a cheeky text piece by Chris Sauter of San Antonio. Eckart's Cloud Room Field, to be installed in the near future, signals the artist's latest investigations into dichroic glass. Oliveira's painting Travessia punctuates the international concourse; concurrently, his show unveils this month at McClain Gallery (November 14 - December 19; artist talk November 21). Isabella Best: Make tracks to the Isabella Court complex for Matt Messinger's way with collage and found objects, edged with Surrealism, at Devin Borden Gallery (through November 28) and Margaret Meehan showcased by David Shelton Gallery. Meehan takes up the banner of the suffragette in a smart conceptual show that employs video, antique cabinet cards, costumes and props, film stills and drawings that examine the women's movement and where we are during this age of continued witch hunts, also referenced in her title (through November 14). Man of Metal: Sculptor master Ben Woitena has just been picked up by Hooks-Epstein Galleries; his first show for this Colquitt denizen underscores his prowess with steel and bronze in compelling abstractions (through November 25). Booking It, Cartoon-Rama: We never miss The Printing Museum's annual convergence for bibliophiles: Houston Book Fair, unfurling Saturday, November 7 … At Rudolph Blume Fine Art / ArtScan Gallery, Fort Worth's Ed Blackburn serves up a 20-year retrospective informed by cartooning, including comments upon au courant events (through November 21). Catherine D. Anspon Art Notes P erhaps it was a good omen, an ode to the precipitation that befalls the land that inspired the new British- style eatery Hunky Dory. Plagued by weather delays, Treadsack Group's latest Heights restaurant — named for a David Bowie album, not the Merriam-Webster definition — opened quietly last month after two years of planning. Treadsack's Chris Cusack and Joey Treadway are known for their Heights neighborhood eateries (Down House and D&T Drive Inn); Austin-based architect Michael Hsu is the talent responsible for the ground-up design of this space, which borrows from the architecture of simple barns erected for generations throughout the English countryside. The interiors feel like the Duchess of Devonshire's guest quarters (after a little fluff-up circa 2015) with sturdy oak floors, custom iron windows and plush tufted settees covered in gray and white houndstooth in lieu of commonplace banquettes. The molding and the coffered-like ceiling (which cleverly disguises the acoustical tiles) evokes an Old English library made modern with crisp mint-colored paint. Fans of chef Richard Knight and his long-shuttered Feast restaurant, take note: At Hunky Dory, he only dabbles with the offal that gained him a following among the adventurous; examples of his most daring dishes here are black pudding and onions ($12) and escabeche of rabbit ($34). Otherwise, you'll find straightforward hearth- cooked filet au steak poivre ($32), New York strip with salsa verde ($38) and cake-stand pork chops served in sets of four ($28 to $75) with a double helping of starch — French fries and mashed potatoes. The dressy dining room abuts a more casual no- reservations-accepted pub separated simply by a brass-rod wall screen. On the pub menu are apps such as pork fingers with mustard sauce ($9) and a silver salver of starters of game pie, savory mousse, cheeses and relishes, similar to what you'll find at the next-door dining room, but at a lower price tag ($18 versus $30). The edited selection of mains includes what you'd hope to find in a British-style pub stateside: shepherd's pie ($16), fish and chips ($18) and a mighty burger with two beef patties and English cheddar ($16). Cusack and Treadway's Gulf Coast seafood concept Bernadine's is set to open just next door before the year is out. Hunky Dory (1801 N. Shepherd Dr., 713.864.2450, treadsack.com/hunkydory. Laurann Claridge The British FARED WELL Homemade scones with clotted cream, jam and butter; hot-cross buns, fruit tarts and shortbread bunnies Crispy pork chops with pepper jelly, schmaltz and fresh thyme, served with mashed potatoes and French fries. C onsider this: Bad-boy photographer Juergen Teller and models Anna Cleveland and Freddy Drabble traipsing through the Museo Casa Mollino in Turin, Italy — the former home of Carlo Mollino, one of Italy's most significant interior designers. Teller's goal? To interpret the eerie opulence of creative director Thomas Maier's Fall/Winter 2015 collection for Bottega Veneta's ad campaign. This was but the most recent example of Maier's notable partnerships with contemporary artists and internationally significant photographers as part of Bottega Veneta's Art of Collaboration series, a project he began in 2002 to unite art and fashion. The roster of contributors is golden, with names such as Lord Snowdon, Alex Prager, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Peter Lindbergh, Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel and more. Now, all of the works of fashion art are under one cover, Bottega Veneta: Art of Collaboration (Rizzoli, $135). The nearly 700-page tome, with a foreword by Business of Fashion editor at large Tim Blanks and essays from author and literary critic Daphne Merkin, includes more than 1,000 images. It's a most fashionable feast for the eye. At the Bottega Veneta boutique. Christina Geyer TO A FINE ART Nan Goldin for Bottega Veneta's Spring/Summer 2010 campaign Bottega Veneta: Art of Collaboration (Rizzoli) by Bottega Veneta creative director Thomas Maier, $135 COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TEXAS GALLERY COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GALLERI URBANE, DALLAS + MARFA Pat Steir's Black, Blue, Silver and Gold …, 2013, at Texas Gallery Irby Pace's Terra Firma, 2014, at FotoFest CHUCK COOK CHUCK COOK K auri wood is an ancient, treasured resource found only in New Zealand and prized for its extraordinary grain, unmatched in other wood species. Artistic Tile has captured the essence of one of the world's oldest woods in the new Kauri Collection — highly polished and glazed tiles with the sensational look of petrified wood. In multiple colors and patterns, at artistictile.com. Rebecca Sherman POSH Preservationists Artistic Tile's Kauri Collection in Tasman Blue