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60 T he Nasher Sculpture Center and Crow Collection of Asian Art, facing each other on Flora Street, seem quite diverse in both aesthetic and aim. But this summer, both museums roll out shows that focus on traditional craft materials transformed into high art by international talents — both of whom have been included in the Venice Biennale and the prestigious Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Roni Horn's solo at the Nasher marks her first U.S. exhibition since 2010 and the first in America devoted solely to her glass works: eight translucent cylindrical columns, approximately 51 inches high by 56 inches in diameter, that transfix viewers in the first-floor exhibition space like relics from a future civilization. Yale- educated Horn — a veteran of five Venice Biennales — works in varied media besides sculpture. Her latest objects mysteriously glow, with colors ranging from spring green and lavender to celestial blue and faint peach, bearing literary titles borrowed from Edgar Allen Poe, Cormac McCarthy, even food writer M.F.K. Fisher. The titles add a conceptual layer to minimalist creations that can take upwards of three or four months to be cast. "Roni Horn" at the Nasher Sculpture Center, through August 20, nashersculpturecenter.org. In contrast to Horn's pristine glass surfaces, Cambodia-born Sopheap Pich — currently one of the headliners in the 57th Venice Biennale — has his way with bamboo and rattan at the Crow Collection. Pich was the first Southeast Asian artist ever to receive a solo at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013); he's now in the collections of The Met, the Guggenheim, and the Pompidou. He came to the U.S. as an adolescent when his family fled the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime. In 2002, armed with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he returned to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he is currently based, attracting international notice for a practice that comments on time and memory, evoking the corporeal through unexpected materials. His largest work to date takes over the mezzanine level of the Crow Collection: Rang Phnom Flower, a 25-foot-long sculpture that appears to bloom throughout the galleries. The startling work references the cannonball tree, which is equated with the sal tree under which Buddha was born, and is so intricate that Pich needed a team of five to help him construct it. "Hidden Nature: Sopheap Pich" at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, through January 7, 2018; artist talk Thursday, July 13, 7 pm; $10 for Friends of the Crow Collection; $15 for the public; crowcollection.org. GLASS+BAMBOO ART + DECORATION SQUARE OFF Roni Horn at the Nasher Sculpture Center Sopheap Pich's Rang Phnom Flower, 2015, at the Crow Collection of Asian Art BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON FROM TOP: PHOTO KEVIN TODORA, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH; COURTESY THE ARTIST AND TYLER ROLLINS FINE ART.