Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow
2024-05-18 11:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), 5216 Montrose, Houston, TX, 77006, United States
Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow is the artist’s first solo museum presentation in the United States. Across an installation, a video, and a series of commissioned sculptures, Erlanger continues her decade-long disruption of the “semiotics of suburbia.” In her practice, Erlanger thinks of the home as a greater ecosystem containing not only houses but also their surrounding infrastructures and interior architectures.
At Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), massive illuminated planet sculptures map the suburban landscape, positioning the development of home as an environmental force in itself. These new works explore “speculative memory”—how progress can only be understood through hindsight—and what this psychic limitation implies for the artist. Viewers will then move to new diorama sculptures that play on an institutional language of presentation, positioning the enclosed scenes as already-past. Here, Erlanger proposes both impossible architectures and terrestrial forms created using strategies of model-making. These works are each marked by changes in season, emphasizing receding memories of a once-diverse climate.
The exhibition culminates in a sitcom set, riffing on the psychology of interiors as well as acting as a platform to watch Erlanger’s new short film Appliance. The film dovetails recent research into the history and cultural significance of domestic technologies, such as the shower or washing machine, with a specific focus on how their operations have been considered interchangeably with human bodily functions. In our age of “polycrisis,” wherein multiple seismic events occur simultaneously, If Today Were Tomorrow provides a framework for thinking about the porousness of interior and exterior, self and non-self, body and home.
Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Hatje Cantz containing newly commissioned texts about the artist’s practice, as well as contributions focusing on the interplay between architecture, psychology, and science fiction.
Support
Major support for Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

Theaster Gates: The Gift and The Renege
2024-05-18 11:00 - 18:00 | Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), 5216 Montrose, Houston, TX, 77006, United States
Theaster Gates: The Gift and The Renege presents work by the acclaimed Chicago-based artist, featuring large-scale paintings, sculptures, and installations that highlight the seen and unseen dynamics of Freedmen’s Town in Houston’s Fourth Ward. Throughout his career, Theaster Gates has soulfully elevated our understanding of Black labor, materials, place, and community to revitalize underrecognized neighborhoods by combining urban planning and a multifaceted art practice. His work powerfully highlights the true value Black spaces hold—although often devalued—as sites of American resilience, liberation, and redemption. Gates is a shape-shifter, a world-builder, and an artist who singularly connects the dots in both poetic and pragmatic ways. For over 20 years he has worked to transform the Southside of Chicago through various initiatives aimed at preserving and continuing the neighborhood’s vital role as a site for Black creativity. His multifaceted practice, which demonstrates the dual importance of building community and exposing power structures, has made him one of the most significant artists working in our time.

Abstraction after Modernism: Recent Acquisitions
2024-05-18 11:00 - 19:00 | The Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross Street, Houston, TX, 77006, United States
“Abstraction after Modernism: Recent Acquisitions” highlights work made by succeeding generations of artists who forged new paths in their approaches to non-representational art. The exhibition brings together acquisitions made by the Menil over the past fifteen years, including work by Agnes Denes, Suzan Frecon, Sam Gilliam, Ellsworth Kelly, Rick Lowe, and Richard Serra.

Ruth Asawa Through Line
2024-05-18 11:00 - 19:00 | The Menil Drawing Institute, 1412 W. Main St., Houston, TX, 77006, United States
Ruth Asawa Through Line is the first exhibition to focus on the artist’s lifelong drawing practice. The exhibition presents drawings, collages, & sketchbooks alongside stamped prints, paperfolds, & more, showing the breadth of Asawa’s innovative practice.

Janet Sobel: All-Over
2024-05-18 11:00 - 19:00 | The Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross Street, Houston, TX, 77006, United States
The Menil Collection will open “Janet Sobel: All-Over” on February 23, 2024, featuring some thirty paintings and drawings made by artist Janet Sobel (1893–1968). This exhibition, the first to focus on Sobel’s highly accomplished and influential abstract paintings, will explore the artist’s work as one of the first to pioneer a new approach to modern abstraction known as “all-over” painting.

Asian Heritage Performance
2024-05-18 12:00 - 12:30, 2024-05-18 14:00 - 14:30 | Children’s Museum of Houston, 1500 Binz, Houston, TX, 77004, United States
High caliber Asian cultural performance by Dance of Asian America. Performance will include amazing new dances from all over China and surrounding countries. Each dance incorporated amazing costumes, exciting choreography and authentic music. Learn about cultures from the east through these fun dances. This is a wonderful family event and great for all ages. Hands-on participation available for audiences of all ages.

Third Ward Unity in Faith: Backbone of Our Souls
2024-05-18 12:00 - 17:00 | Community Artists’ Collective, 4101 San Jacinto Ste. 116, Houston, TX, 77004, United States
Early African American settlers in Houston’s Third Ward area established small worship places, reminiscent of the praise houses attended during slavery in the Jim Crow era. The intimate and personal size of the congregations created bonds in the community that would last for more than 90 years.
Images of the still-standing small houses of worship, captured by art photographers Earlie Hudnall, Ray Carrington and Tamirah Collins, will be shared at the exhibition “Third Ward Unity in Faith: Backbone of Our Souls,” opening March 23 at the Community Artists’ Collective, 4101 San Jacinto, Suite 116.
Kathleen Coleman, a fourth generation Third Ward resident, curated the exhibition.
These small churches resembled rural structures like those in many sharecropping communities near Houston. A few of these small congregations linger and tell the story of the Third Ward’s ever-changing landscape. Because of its proximity to downtown Houston, the churches are often sold and inhabited by a younger demographic.
Hudnall and Carrington, who attended Texas Southern University, have been cataloging the Third Ward area for more than 30 years, telling a story with their photos of the community block by block, from past to present. Hudnall’s mentor, Dr. John Biggers, saw the shotgun houses as urban pyramids. Carrington’s mentor, veteran photographer and teacher Herbert Provost, instilled a love of photography and of the community in him as a student at Jack Yates High School.
Collins, a mentee of Carrington and the exhibition coordinator at The Collective, will continue documenting the area from a new generational perspective.
The exhibition, which continues through May 18, is part of the FotoFest Biennial and is free to attend. An opening reception will be held Saturday, March 23, at 2 p.m. and an artists’ talk Saturday, April 27, at 3 p.m.

Gabriel Lester: Odeon
2024-05-18 12:00 - 17:00 | Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, 4173 Elgin St The University of Houston, Fine Arts Building, Houston, TX, 77004, United States
The Blaffer Art Museum is proud to present the first solo museum exhibition in the United States of preeminent European artist Gabriel Lester, who has gained an international standing for his art, performance, and film as well as his dynamic public art installations. Across his now decades-long career, Lester has developed a captivating cinematic lens through which to see and imagine the world – consistently locating wonder in the seemingly stolid and mundane. For this exhibition Lester is most interested in the interplay between light and shadow, as well as the seen and unseen, as he responds to Houston and the fossil fuel industry that so deeply sheathes the region.
In the title installation StarStruck, a dark, viscous pool of oil is continually interrupted by droplets of water and corresponding flares of brilliant light – piercing a thick chamber of shadow with illuminating transmission. This waking effect is further articulated in the neighboring video sculpture Cosmic Call, where the artist chases amorphous scenes of the universe through effervescent, yet ultra low-resolution LED monitors to create a mesmerizing, if highly elusive display. The capacity for light to simultaneously lead and lose us is expanded in the charmingly immersive installation How to Act as flickering colors surround us – pulsing to the soundtracks of various genres of film and television. The result is familiar and uncanny at once, evoking the abstract languages of televisual entertainment while also making them strange and disorienting. Early modes of cinema flash before our eyes in the adjacent series Jump Cut, where methodically rotating cubes house a variety of laser cut tableaux – coming into focus just long enough to dance away, over and over again. Persistence of vision and retinal residue accumulates here, propelling the art to work as much before your eyes, as within and behind them. The final installation marries optical with environmental effect as rays of sun shine through the increasingly perforated ebony towers of Bambaataa, projecting floating holo-graphic cubes that speak to the fleetingness of so-called structure. Taken and received as a whole, this exhibition pierces heavy, weighted geometries and their absolutes with the delightful, if perplexing magic of discovery.

Unearthing: Black Porosity – Open Studio Hours
2024-05-18 12:00 - 17:00 | TX
Unearthing: Black Porosities by artist-in-residence Rian Crane (he/they) will be open for public viewing in tandem with Sawyer Yards’ Second Saturdays!
Unearthing: Black Porosity is an amalgamation of works exploring the ongoing lasting legacies, histories, and current relations of Black +/ Indigenous lifeways in the gulf south/ global south. Engaging writings from Black/ Caribbean scholars like the “The Black Shoals”, by Tiffany Lethabo King and Glissant’s “Poetics of Relations,” Imageries of Black life physically antithesis Blackness and colonial enclosure: Indigeneity and extraction: land and water relations. Unearthing: Black Porosities materializes as performance, sculpture, cyanotype, soundscapes, and cinema.

Potentia // Actualitas
2024-05-18 12:00 - 18:00 | Throughline, 3909 Main St, Houston, TX, 77002, United States
Potentia // Actualitas is a collaborative, immersive installation that explores the potential and actualized complexities of natural intelligence through lens-based media, found objects and ready-mades in a site-specific installation. The lens-based works record iterations of light, space and water surrounding a central structure created from organic matter, rusted artifacts, glass, and construction materials. Running throughout is a neon line that connects these varying attributes into a systemic relationship. Together, Cindee Travis Klement and JR Roykovich build a world that investigates the balance of opposing dichotomies and subsequent freedom from dualistic constraints. They advocate for a wild and intuitive response to a possible future of unbound potential.

Free High School Senior Photos - The Sessions
2024-05-18 12:00 - 19:00 | Art in the Heart, 8321 Jensen Dr, Houston, TX, 77093, United States
The project is a community-driven initiative that provides free high-quality, both digital and physical prints, senior photos to 30-50 high school students in need from diverse backgrounds in the Houston area. Collaborating with local talents, including 8-10 experienced photographers and 4-6 skilled makeup artists, each student will experience a personalized photo shoot, capturing their individuality and celebrating their unique journey. Aspiring photographers and makeup artists will have shadowing opportunities, fostering learning and growth. The project’s innovation lies in breaking financial barriers and showcasing generational support through a heartwarming public exhibition.
Part 1: “Free High School Senior Photos” Sessions: May 18th to 19th, 2024, at 8321 Jensen Dr., Houston 77093, for personalized sessions with local makeup artists and photographers, indoor/outdoor settings, and creative chalk wall photos. Aspiring talents will also get the chance to shadow professionals in the makeup and photography business, learning from their expertise and skills.
Attendance at the session is strictly by application and appointment only. We do maintain a waiting list. While walk-ins are welcome, please note that slots are not guaranteed.

The Music of Star Wars
2024-05-18 14:30, 2024-05-18 20:00 | Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana St., Houston, TX, 77002, United States
May the Force be with you! Travel to galaxies far, far away as the orchestra performs your favorite music from across the Star Wars universe, from “Rey’s Theme” to “Yoda’s Theme” and “The Imperial March.” You’ll hear music from all nine films in the Skywalker saga, performed in chronological order, plus selections from Rogue One and Solo.

Quiet Write-In
2024-05-18 14:30 - 16:30 | Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street Ste 125, Houston, TX, 77007
TIME: Third Saturday, May 18, 2:30–4:30 p.m. CDT
PRICE: Free for members. $5.00 for nonmembers. Become a member here.
LOCATION: Writespace, 1907 Sabine Street, #125, Houston, TX 77007 (map).
Whether you are hard at work revising poems for a chapbook, pantsing your way through the first draft of your novel, or outlining an essay, we made a date to do the work of writing!
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​Come take advantage of the collective energy and encouragement found in the Writespace community.
This event is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. This project is generously funded by the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.
This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

POSTPONED: Resident Artist Talk & Open Studios
2024-05-18 15:00 - 16:00 | Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 4848 Main Street, Houston, Tx, 77002, United States
Due to widespread power outages related to the May 16th storm, HCCC will be closed until further notice and the May 18th resident artist talk has been postponed.
Join HCCC for a talk by current resident Hai-Wen Lin (fiber), who will discuss their kite-making practice, which borrows from the languages of garment construction and pattern-making as a sculptural means of understanding how to free, fly, and extend the body, placing it in conversation with the sun, wind, and sky. After the talk, join Hai-Wen and other current residents, Sarah Knight and Robert Hodge, for open studio visits before they all wrap-up their residencies this month.
The artist talk portion of the event will be held in person as well as streamed on our Facebook Live page promptly at 3:00 PM.
Learn more about our current resident artists here.

Frida's Fiesta
2024-05-18 15:00 - 17:00 | Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, 4916 Main Street Suite 100, Houston, TX, 77002, United States
A bilingual (English/Spanish) interactive adventure about a shy young girl who must find the courage to outwit an evil witch who’s turned the girl’s mother into a tree. Inspired by the Russian folktales, the Baba Yaga stories. Written by Jack Helbig and Tim Fried-Fiori, Directed by Tim Fried-Fiori

In Conversation | Theaster Gates with Charonda Johnson and Hesse McGraw, moderated by Ryan N. Dennis
2024-05-18 15:30 - 17:00 | Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), 5216 Montrose, Houston, TX, 77006, United States
Join artist Theaster Gates alongside Ryan N. Dennis, Charonda Johnson, and Hesse McGraw, for a lively conversation about the exhibition, Theaster Gates: The Gift and The Renege, Gates’s artistic process, how he amplifies Black spaces, and how art can catalyze urban transformation. They will also discuss the impacts of the Rebirth in Action initiative. Gates’s exhibition on view at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) features large-scale tar paintings, sculptures, and installations that highlight the seen and unseen dynamics of Freedmen’s Town in Houston’s Fourth Ward.
Theaster Gates: The Gift and The Renege was developed throughout the planning and engagement process of Rebirth in Action in partnership with Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy. The exhibition is organized by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and co-curated by Ryan N. Dennis, Senior Curator and Director of Public Initiatives, and Hesse McGraw, Executive Director.
Ticket Information
This event is free to attend, but RSVPs are encouraged. Tickets for the general public will be available Friday, May 10, 2024 at 12PM CST.
Space and seating are limited. We recommend arriving as early as 3PM to find a seat. Even if you have RSVP’d, your seat will be released at 3:15PM.
If your plans have changed and you need to release your ticket please contact fcleveland@camh.org.
Accessibility
This program will have seating available on a first-come basis. Please reach out to ytorres@camh.org if there are specific accessibility requests.

EL PRINCIPITO
2024-05-18 17:00 - 18:30 | The DeLuxe Theater, 3303 Lyons Avenue, Houston, TX, 77020, United States
¡La amada obra de Antoine de Saint-Exupéry regresa a Houston! Disfruta en familia con “El PRINCIPITO” en esta extraordinaria puesta en escena apta para toda la familia, con una espectacular producción donde el color y la fantasía inundarán el escenario!
Las presentaciones serán en Deluxe Theatre. Presentado por Hispanic Alliance for Performing and Audiovisual Arts.
Elenco: Leonardo Alanis, Jesús Lira, Hannia Valle Rosales, Alan Balderas, Andrea Torres y Paulette Morey.
Director: Alexandro X Martínez.
Presentación en español, con subtítulos en inglés y frances.
Público en general
No hay asientos asignados
*****
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved work returns to Houston! Enjoy as a family with “The LITTLE PRINCE” in this extraordinary staging suitable for the whole family, with a spectacular production where color and fantasy will flood the stage!
Presentations will be in Deluxe Theatre. Presented by Hispanic Alliance for Performing and Audiovisual Arts.
Cast: Leonardo Alanis, Jesús Lira, Hannia Valle Rosales, Alan Balderas, Andrea Torres and Paulette Morey.
Director: Alexandro X Martínez.
Presentation in Spanish, with subtitles in English and French.
Open to the general public.
There are no assigned seats.

Opening Reception of the Inaugural Stateside Exhibition for UK-based artist, David Farrer
2024-05-18 17:00 - 19:00 | Hooks-Epstein Galleries, 2631 Colquitt, Houston, Tx, 77098
Hooks-Epstein Galleries proudly presents the inaugural stateside exhibition for UK-based artist, David Farrer. An exhibition of papier-mâché sculptures, “Mounted, but NOT Stuffed!” will open on Saturday, May 18, 2024; the Opening Reception and Artist Meet and Greet will take place from 5:00PM–7:00PM.
David Farrer specializes in creating bespoke papier-mâché sculptures of animal “trophy heads”. The concept of these sculptures was originally inspired by his travels to South Africa, beginning in 1995. Farrer sought to encompass the ecological and environmental impacts of trophy hunting, and he has been creating collaged animal heads ever since. The recycled materials used to create the sculptures also reflect Farrer’s interest in “green” matters and sustainability. The creatures depicted by Farrer have since diversified into European and North American species.

Level 0 – FREE Intro to Improv Class
2024-05-18 19:00 - 19:30 | Station Theater, 2219 Crockett St #C2, Houston, 77007, United States
Our FREE Level 0 class is a fun, no-pressure way to try improv! This weekly 30-minute class lets you get a taste of Station’s improv training program, and it’s a great way to spend a Friday night! Level 0 students will receive a $25 discount code for our nine-week Level 1 – Fundamentals of Improv class and are invited to stay for the 8:00 pm show on us!
Free 8:00 pm show tickets are only available at the door and are based on ticket availability at showtime. Special events are excluded from the free ticket offer.

Sophisticated Lady: The Songs of Natalie Cole starring Belinda Munro
2024-05-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby Street, Houston, TX, 77002, United States
The Hobby Center & Jazz Houston Present Live at the Founders Club.
An unforgettable night of pure musical magic, glamour, and sophistication with the incredibly talented Belinda Munro and the Jazz Houston Ambassadors. Belinda’s powerful yet soulful vocals and unparalleled stage presence will take you on a journey honoring each era of Natalie Cole’s career. This exhilarating tribute evening features some of the most beloved toe-tapping and energetic hits from Ms.Cole’s 40-year career such as Unforgettable, Orange Colored Sky, Our Love, This Will Be, and many more favorites.

Vocalist Henrietta Robinson In Concert
2024-05-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Houston Piano Company, 1600 West 13th Street , Houston, TX, 77008, United States
Prepare yourself to experience one of Houston’s best-kept jazz secrets, vocalist Henrietta Robinson. Henrietta is a Houston native, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Huston-Tillotson University, Austin, TX and Master of Science degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Her early musical training included an introduction to both sacred and secular music. She honed her jazz skills while living on the East Coast where she served as a radio host of WGBH’s Friday night edition of the Jazz Gallery in Boston, MA.
Henrietta’s deep contralto voice and scat singing abilities evoke the legacy of Lady Day, Sarah Vaughan, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. An evening spent with Henrietta will encompass her creative interpretations of jazz standards, sacred music, and exciting storytelling.
The trio of accompanying musicians will include Brooke Wyatt on piano, A.J. Moyler on bass and Jerré Jackson on drums.
Join The Live Music Movement Foundation in welcoming Henrietta Robinson at 7:00 pm on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at the Houston Piano Company, 1600 W.13th Street, Houston, TX 77008.
Tickets for the event are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.com and www.livemusicmovement.com.
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The Live Music Movement Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization formed in 2011 with the mission to promote, present, and preserve jazz, blues, and soul music through performances, education, and the commission of new works.

Mr. Putifar’s Wacky Plan (Les Vengeances de Maître Poutifard)
2024-05-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Museum of Fine Arts – Nancy & Rich Kinder Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX, 77005, United States
The location for this screening has changed to the Lynn Wyatt Theater in the Kinder Building.
As a middle-school teacher, Robert Putifar was teased by students during his entire career. After 37 years of torment, a bitter Putifar finally retires in the home he still shares with his mother. Deep in his secret man cave, the former teacher plots revenge on the first kids who made his life miserable 20 years ago. Putifar’s revenge plan is going well, until his elderly mother discovers it . . . and makes it even better! As a team, this unlikely duo turns out to be extremely efficient!”

Beyond Broadway Series: Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age
2024-05-18 19:00 - 21:30 | Hobby Center – Zilkha Hall, 800 Bagby, Houston, TX, 77002, United States
In Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, he covers all the bases: sex, death and bacchanalia, with a set list as eclectic as the man himself. Songs from Cabaret authors Kander and Ebb blend with contemporary favourites and even a self-penned paean against plastic surgery. ‘I am literally the only person on American TV who has not had botox!’ he quips. He also discusses the effects of gravity, the time the mum from the Brady Bunch punched him, and what his dog taught him about the quality of life.

THE FATHER presented by 4th Wall Theatre Company
2024-05-18 19:30 - 21:00 | 4th Wall Theatre, 1824 Spring Street Studio 101, Houston, TX, 77007, United States
Estimated runtime of 1 hour and 30 minutes with no intermission.
Andre is an elderly man who is struggling with memory loss and confusion as he ages. Through shifting perceptions of reality, he grapples with the loss of his sense of self and the people around him.
THE FATHER questions the nature of identity, memory, and the human experience, as it explores the profound impact that dementia can have on individuals and their loved ones.
Winner of the 2014 Molière Award for Best Play
“One of the best plays of the decade.” -The Times

Taking Steps
2024-05-18 19:30 - 21:30 | Main Street Theater – Rice Village, 2540 Times Blvd. , Houston, TX, 77005, United States
By Alan Ayckbourn
A tongue-tied solicitor has bitten off more than he can chew overseeing the sale of a crumbling, possibly haunted house that, um, used to be a brothel. Then in the course of one hectic night and morning, two couples, the solicitor and realtor, each immersed in their own personal problems, end up in more of a mess than ever. And it all happens in a highly ingenious and original theatrical setting in which all the rooms, passages and stairs of this three-story house are on a single level. Did we mention there’s a ghost?! Let’s just say that in this British farce by the brilliant Alan Ayckbourn, hilarity definitely ensues!

Beetlejuice
2024-05-18 19:30 - 22:00 | Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby Street, Houston, TX, 77002, United States
He earned his stripes on Broadway… now the ghost-with-the-most is coming to Austin.
It’s showtime! Based on Tim Burton’s dearly beloved film, this hilarious musical tells the story of Lydia Deetz, a strange and unusual teenager whose whole life changes when she meets a recently deceased couple and a demon with a thing for stripes. With an irreverent book, an astonishing set, and a score that’s out of this Netherworld, BEETLEJUICE is “SCREAMINGLY GOOD FUN!” (Variety). And under its uproarious surface (six feet under, to be exact), it’s a remarkably touching show about family, love, and making the most of every Day-O!
Beetlejuice contains strong language, mature references, and a lot of the crazy, inappropriate stuff you would expect from a deranged demon. Recommended for ages 13 and up.
Presented by the Memorial Hermann Broadway at the Hobby Center
