Houston creatives in visual arts and dance bounce back in 2021
Look on the bright side — that’s the spirit Houston’s creative communities embraced as artists, museums and institutions attempted to rebound after a year of uncertainty and seemingly endless shutdowns.
Navigating the “new normal” presented challenges but also possibilities. Dancers returned to the stage. A treasure trove of rarely seen works diverted to Houston’s Museum District. Emerging artists scrambled to show their pieces in unexpected places and salvage pieces of local history.
In 2021, gallery doors reopened and theater curtains lifted as the Bayou City’s most talented residents stepped back into the spotlight. The best is yet to come.
Two grand returns to Wortham
Late September, after a 568-day hiatus, Houston Ballet returned to its home stage at Wortham Theater Center for the Margaret Alkek Williams “Jubilee of Dance,” which functions as the professional dance company’s opening night. The return to live, in-person performances for 202122 felt more like a homecoming.
For the first time, “Jubilee of Dance” — traditionally, a one-night-only event — stretched to five performances. The three-act productions comprised of 13 micro-performances showcased how Houston Ballet spent those 18 months away from Wortham and reminded patrons why the organization is so often described as world class.
Electricity rippled through Brown Theater for the grand finale, artistic director Stanton Welch’s world premiere of “In
Good Company.” The full breadth of Houston Ballet brought his 11-part, formerly digital work to life, at long last, in real-time, set to music by the Dead South. The contemporary piece resembled an amalgamation of cultural dance and transcended any traditional notion of ballet.
November welcomed “The Nutcracker” back to Wortham for the first time since 2019. The production marked Houston Ballet’s fifth presentation of
Welch’s rendition, choreographed to Pyotr Tchaikovskuy’s timeless score, with larger-than-life scenery created by acclaimed designer Tim Goodchild.
Dueling Van Gogh immersive experiences
An international obsession with “Atelier des Lumières,” a Vincent Van Gogh-inspired light show on the Netflix series “Emily in Paris,” instigated the race to bring similar experiences to major cities — Houston included. That’s how two immersive events surrounding the life, death and work of the Dutch, post-impressionist painter landed in town: “Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit Houston” and “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.”
The former has actual
street cred — Massimiliano Siccardi is the Italian director behind “Atelier des Lumières” and the film shown inside “Immersive Van Gogh,” which also counts “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins as a fan. Its competition, however, packs a mean art history punch. “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” boasts a towering, 3D sculpture of the artist, an in-depth career timeline, a series of 11 “Sunflowers” canvas wraps, a re-creation of his “Bedroom in Arles” and a dazzling virtualreality experience.
Photography, reimagined
Fotofest without photography? This year, few of the pieces on display were framed or even one-dimensional.
For the first time in its eight-year history, FotoFest was presented in conjunction with the 2021 Texas Biennial: “A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon,” curated by Max Fields,
Ryan Dennis and Evan Garza. The trio coined the term “Texpats” to describe the 12 artists native to or currently working in Texas who contributed to Houston’s group exhibition, “In Place of an Index,” which derived from writer Ariella Aïsha Azoulay’s notion of potentiality and “potential history.” Through their respective work, each Texpat essentially asked “What if ?” or suggested an alternative outcome when confronted with an imperial event, personal experience, contemporary culture and colonial institution through the camera lens.
Impressionists make an impromptu MFAH stop
“Incomparable Impressionism,” a collection of 100 masterworks from the French impressionist and post-impressionist movement, was intended to show at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia for four months in early 2021. Then the pandemic hit, and the show’s overseas tour was cut to 25 percent of the planned run.
So Museum of Fine Arts, Houston director Gary Tinterow placed a phone call and asked, “Would you consider sending the exhibition to Houston?” Six months and $800,000 worth of emergency fundraising later, master artworks by Théordore Rousseau, Claude Monet, PierreAugust Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Jean-Bapiste-Camille Corot arrived in the Bayou City. Among the works that made rare appearances and drew sizable crowds were Renoir’s famous “Dance at Bougival” (1883), Gustave Caillebotte’s “Man at His Bath” (1884) and Monet’s “Camille Monet and a Child in the Garden in Argenteiul” (1875).
Violence, victory at Menil Collection
Juxtaposition proved a central theme of “Enchanted: Visual Histories of the Central Andres,” which opened at the Menil Collection in late July. The exhibition, timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Peru’s independence, showcased a mixture of works from both the Menil’s permanent collection and artwork on loan from the Museum of International
Folk Art in Santa Fe, N.M. More than 40 ceramics, textiles and pieces of festival dress from the western side of South America were on proud display; a selection of gelatin silver photographs by Pierre Verger added narration, context and contrast.
From Forever 21 to artist pop-up
“From Houston, With Love,” a 60-day collaborative exhibition, transformed a former Forever 21 store into a temporary art gallery last June. The 23,000-square-foot space contained nearly 150 works by 30 artists. Emmanuel Alia, a Houston native who founded Prauper Studios in 2014, pulled the concept together in less than a month.
Alia’s goal was to encourage big businesses to tap Texas creatives and painters for art projects and commissions instead of looking to Los Angeles or New York. Cary Fagan’s “Chairs are People” sculptures were a standout. As was Chandrika Metivier’s commission: a single-story
“mock-up house” sculpted with BoPET, a polyester film resembling aluminum foil, better known as Mylar.
Repurposing pieces of Rothko Chapel
Upon completion, Rothko Chapel’s $32 million Opening Spaces capital campaign and master plan will eventually include a program center, energy facilities, landscape and drainage infrastructure and a guesthouse for artists or scholars-in-residence. The Welcome House, another new addition, is already
complete and open for business. As is the recently restored chapel, now enhanced by a reimagined skylight, lighting design and entryway.
The fate of two gray bungalows with white trim on campus is less certain. All an interested party would have to do is split each one in half and haul them off. An expensive and time-consuming undertaking, though it wouldn’t be the first time artists, or an organization, have moved mountains to claim a piece of Rothko Chapel.
Guild member Carlos Silva salvaged the Chapel’s original 600-pound doors. Eventually, he’ll use them to create a site installation, reinforcing the doors with a steel platform surrounded by a solid frame. And artist Geraldina Interiano Wise partnered with former Glassell School of Art classmate John Cryer III to reimagine lighting baffles as ‘Texas Light Dancers.’ The duo’s abstract interpretation of a dancer will express the movement and dynamics of light, and represent their original purpose.