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DECORATION JENNIFER ANGUS' INSECT OBSESSION WINGS TO HOUSTON GOING BUGGY O ne of the most captivating installations this spring takes place not at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston or the Blaffer Art Museum but at Esperson Gallery at GreenStreet. This veritable time machine will transport you back to the Victorian age, when the natural world possessed real magic and collectors were obsessed with W hen designer Garrett Hunter and architect Michael Landrum decide to pool their extraordinary wares and open a shop, stand back. Hunter is known for the exquisite placement of unusual and amazing furnishings and objects with fascinating backstories; Landrum designs enchanting projects with art and furnishings as focal point. Together they've opened Tienda X, filled with the rare bohemian masterpieces both men are drawn to. We saw fiberglass-and-resin chairs made from a gingko-leaf-pattern mold that are being produced in-house ($7,000); an exceptionally brilliant and angular Joe D'Urso gold-colored velvet chaise longue designed for a house in the Hamptons in the '70s ($12,000); a Tobia Scarpa prototype for a desk, early '60s Italian ($25,000); and a pair of amazing and rare Victor Delfin leather-and-metal chairs ($20,000 for pair) — Delfin was one of the most important contemporary artists in Peru and made only a handful of chairs. We also saw a fantastic Orientalist sofa and two chairs made from Oriental rugs — very Hearst Castle; a steel chaise prototype, Italian '70s; and a modular Shaker long table that can be taken apart for traveling. When you enter the dark charcoal bricked building, take a look at the door hardware, inside and out — black metal masks fashioned by a Vermont artist who will be making these and more hardware for Tienda X. Need we go on. Tienda X, 1420 W. Alabama, 713.534.1257, tiendaequis.com; open Wednesday – Saturday, noon – 5 pm — gentleman hours. Holly Moore X MARKS THE SPOT Jennifer Angus installs In the Midnight Garden, 2015, at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum COURTESY RENWICK GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM, PHOTO RON BLUNT PHOTOGRAPHY MAX BURKHALTER. ART DIRECTION MICHELLE AVIÑA. Orientalist chair made from Oriental carpets Michael Landrum, Garrett Hunter Rare Victor Delfin leather-and-metal chairs Seventeenth-century Spanish Vargueño and 19th-century portrait Fiberglass-and-resin chair made from a gingko-leaf mold, antique brass Chinese pagoda lantern Deco crystal chandelier above Italian stone-and- iron table with abstract pink resin stool, Pierre Jeanneret chairs in background Seventies female nude sculptures atop a whitewashed Jacobean library table, with rare Victor Delfin chairs Jennifer Angus' Insecta Fantasia (detail), 2008-2009, at the Newark Museum COURTESY NEWARK MUSEUM, NEWARK, NJ cicada, part grasshopper and wear dresses made of beeswax rule these places. Look out for some new colorful praying mantis." Her solo in Houston coincides with her inclusion in a prestigious nine-artist group show at the Smithsonian, "Wonder," which spills throughout two floors of the newly renovated Renwick Gallery; there, her wallpaper from insect specimens collected from around the world steals the show from talents such as Maya Lin and Leo Villareal (through May 7). For our Q&A with Angus, wing it to papercitymag.com. "Jennifer Angus: Silver Wings and Golden Tails" at Esperson Gallery at GreenStreet, March 24 through June 24. Catherine D. Anspon acquiring rare and beautiful insect specimens from the corners of the (mostly British) empire to display under bell jars. For the Esperson show (March 24 through June 24), University of Wisconsin professor of design studies Jennifer Angus creates a unique take on bug mania, with insects literally taking over the walls and filling elaborate etymological dioramas. The exhibition incorporates "cicadas, grasshoppers, katydids, beetles, walking sticks, moving leaf…" Angus shares via email. "My plan is to show a little bit of all the things I do, from installation to printmaking to fanciful narrative type dioramas. I would be inclined to call this show a broad survey of my work. I've created some brand- new insect dioramas under bell jars. Far from a traditional museum diorama, the insects in my work live in otherworldly environments where anything is possible. The mysterious cicada ladies who are part