Houston News Blog

Each week, we cull the most interesting photos from the Houston Press Flickr pool for your viewing pleasure here. Want to see your photographry featured on the blog? Jump into the pool and start submitting.

For more information on any of the pictures, including photographer and subject, simply click on them.

Each Friday, we choose our favorite images from the Houston Press Flickr pool. Want to see your photos featured here? Jump in to the Flickr pool and start submitting.

For more information about a photo, including the photographer and subject, simply click on it.

Photo by Sandra Koop

​The 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston is rolling out the red carpet as we speak, for today's opening night screenings.

Over at the Angelika Film Center, the highly anticipated Precious starts at 7 p.m., while over at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the festival's opening night gala starts with a screening of Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, with Mr. Linklater in attendance (hence the red carpet).

Richard Herskowitz, curator for the festival, spoke with Hair Balls about the five-day, multi-venue celebration of the arts on film.

Hair Balls: The 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston is quite an ambitious project. How did it get started?

Richard Herskowitz: Many of Houston's arts organizations got together to come up with a concept for a festival that would be unique to Houston. They discovered that they were the concept. The variety of arts organizations in Houston was so great, and the quality was so great, that it was really worth [showcasing] that. So, we decided to create a festival of films that are by and about visual, performing, and literary artists. One that would be presented at most of the Houston arts institutions -- from the Menil, to the Museum of Fine Arts, to SWAMP, to the Aurora Picture Show.

Earlier this fall, you announced that Academy Award winning Tilda Swinton would be among the directors, writers, and musicians participating in the festival. Who are some of the others?

The actress Tilda Swinton is coming to present, not the Hollywood movies that she won her Academy Award for and is famous for, but the independent films that she cares about the most. On Sunday night, she'll be at Discovery Green park presenting The Red Shoes, which is one of her favorite films and, of course, fits our festival theme because it's possibly the greatest dance film of all time. It's a film that she distributes to children as part of her 8 ½ Foundation that tries to expose kids to the best in cinematic art.

We also have people like the great novelist and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga who is coming to present Amores Perros and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and read from his novel. And then we have the photographer Susan Meiselas. She's coming to present a program of films that were done in partnership with her late husband, Richard P. Rogers.

​For the second year in a row, the Houston Press is on the prowl for artists, innovators and entrepreneurs who are changing our creative and cultural landscape.

And we need your help.

If you know of one of these life-changing artistic types -- if you are one yourself -- please tell us. From all the nominees, we'll honor three of these creative superstars on Saturday January 30, 2010 at our Artopia Party at the Winter St. Studios when the Press once again presents its winners with MasterMind awards of $2,000 each.

Anyone can nominate a potential MasterMind. Please remember: our goal is to honor current, cutting-edge work being done right now, right here. This is not a lifetime achievement award, nor is it a popularity contest, and nominees need not submit proposals outlining how they'd use the money.

Instead, a committee of Houston Press representatives will evaluate the potential honorees in each field, and then pick winners whose cultural and creative contributions are helping to redesign -- and redefine -- where we live.

Among the annual must-see shows is Lawndale Art Center's "Retablo Exhibition." The show is winding down, with Saturday as its last day, so if you haven't seen it yet, get to it.

Dozens of Texas artists re-interpreted the Mexican tradition of retablos or devotional paintings for the show. The artists, including The Art Guys, Adrian de la Cerda, Gonzo0247, and Houston Press writer Kelly Klaasmeyer, produced work that runs from whimsical to cutting-edge. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. 4912 Main. For information, call 713-528-5858 or visit www.lawndaleartcenter.org. Free.

The first musical ever produced in the 30-year history of the University of Houston-Downtown, Ain't Misbehavin', is coming to a close on Saturday. The show celebrates the life and music of American jazz pianist and composer, Thomas "Fats" Waller, with a roster of songs that include "The Joint is Jumpin,'" "Honeysuckle Rose," and "Ain't Misbehavin'." Former UHD student Tony Glover is directing the musical and says that he's excited to be at the helm on the show. "What I really love is that the cast is non-traditional, because UHD and the UHD theater are non-traditional. We have created a show where everyone in the cast is a star," he's said. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. One Main Street. For information, call 713-221-8000 or visit www.uhd.edu. $5.

The director of the 12th Annual Polish Film Festival, Zbigniew Wojciechowski, spoke with Hair Balls about the ever-growing event, including the festival's beginnings, the current state of Polish cinema, and how he selected this year's closing film, Mala Moskwa by director Waldemar Krzystek.

Hair Balls: How did Houston's Polish Film Festival start

Zbigniew J. Wojciechowski: I organized the first Polish Film Festival in Houston in November 1997, three years after moving down from Seattle, Washington where I enjoyed [the] Polish Film Festival organized [there] by a friend of mine, Dr. Michał Friedrich. I was fascinated by [the] opportunity to share my passion, Polish films, with others. I liked an idea to give back to the community, after years of being a spectator.

The first Polish Film Festival...lasted two days, and we screened four films at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Brown auditorium. One of the most popular actresses of that time in Poland visited us. I remember having goose bumps and stomach butterflies when we started screening films. "We did it!" was going through my head.

It seems that you look at the festival as more than just entertainment, you see it as a way to build bridges between the Polish community and Houston's mainstream.

Showing Polish films at Angelika, I hope to popularize Polish cinema in Houston and have viewers to better understand who we Polish living in the US are, our history and culture. I think our festival is one of few, if not the only, ethnic film festivals that is annual and with 12-year history. It is an excellent way to communicate and to show the multinational community of Houston who the Poles are, where they come from, why they behave the way they do, what they believe in, what values they represent, how they live, what they love and how they love, et cetera. It is the great way to introduce ourselves through the expression of the visual art.

The photographers in our Flickr pool capture stunning and cheeky scenes from the city each week.

For more information about any of the pictures, including subject and photographer, simply click on them.

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You can catch one of the most spontaneous and eclectic events of the season this weekend at The Recycle Club. It's a combination of dancing, speaking, singing, and video projection in what choreographer Karen Stokes calls "a theatrical re-mix."

Stokes, who has been working as a dancer and choreographer in Houston for more than eleven years, has selected dance phrases and sequences of movement from pieces that have been previously performed. But more than just repeating the previous performance, Stokes has reinterpreted them.

New staging and costumes have been added along with new lighting and music. Performers include Karen Stokes and Travesty Dance Group members Kara Ary, Teresa Chapman, Mechelle Flemming, Erica Lewis, Catalina Molnari and special guests Farrell Dyde & Roberta Stokes, Yahudi Castaneda & Richard Lyders-Gustafson.

​Last week the city of Juarez, Mexico passed a milestone: as of October 21, the number of murders in the border town reached 2,000. That number surpassed last year's 1,600 murders, and eclipsed the pre-2008 murder average of 200 per year. Many of the victims are women, continuing an alarming trend seen there for more than 15 years. Almost all of the murders are unsolved and it's widely believed that police and government officials are, if not directly involved, actively looking the other way.

Madeleine Crozat-Williams, artist and owner of Las Manos Mágicas folk art gallery, celebrates the Day of the Dead annually. This year she has a Día de los Muertos altar dedicated to the murdered women of Juarez. The altar is a made up of a weathered wooden cross. Spoons and religious medals tied to pink ribbons hang from it. A delicate pink net wraps around the entire cross. At its base are black skulls, candles and dozens of slips of pink paper, each of which has the name of murdered woman on it.

"The spoons come from a video that was done about the Juarez women," says Crozat-Williams. "In it was a young woman who lived near the maquiladoras (factories which produce goods for American consumption). "I was really taken by the fact that these women were so poor that not only did they live in cardboard shacks, but this particular girl said that she and her sister only had a spoon, a fork, a bowl and a pot. Every morning when they left to go to the maquiladoras, they would go bury them in the sand so that they wouldn't get stolen, because people there were that poor. To me the spoons are also a symbol of nurturing and sustenance, which obviously these women who work in these maquiladoras don't have."

There are three art exhibits vying for your attention this weekend, and each of them is worth a visit. First is "Perspectives 167: Jason Villegas" at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, which closes November 1. A University of Houston graduate, Villegas is living in Brooklyn while he attends grad school at Rutgers.

​For "Perspectives 167," which was curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Villegas's work is made up of cast off-clothing, which he cuts, glues, and stuffs into collages and sculptures. Houston Press writer Kelly Klaasmeyer wrote, "Villegas's work doesn't summarize easily, which is not a bad thing. Basically, using his fabric sculptures, collages and videos, the artist explores the imagery of his private universe, one packed with thrift-store fashion, both prestigious and pathetic, obscure pop-cultural references, the sexual and the scatological." 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. 5216 Montrose. For information, call 713-284-8250 or visit www.camh.org. Free.

Second is Leandra DiBuelna: "Leandra's World of Fantasy." Never has an exhibit title been more appropriate. Houston based Di Buelna paints vivid scenes of made-up worlds, with strange creatures, and, it seems, no regards for gravity. (His style has been called "Dali on acid," and it's not far off the mark.) 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Canal Street Gallery, 2219 Canal Street. For information, call 713-223-2219 or visit www.canalstreetgallery.com. Free.

​And third is "Unseen and Rediscovered" by Keith Carter, the 2009 Texas Artist of the Year. As implied by its name, the exhibit is made up mostly of photographs that had never been seen by the public. After losing the vision in his left eye, Carter began a new series of works. Ocularia combines photographs sent from the Hubble Space Telescope with the artist's ocular images. With work spanning the years from 1970 to 2009, "Unseen and Rediscovered" is open for just a few more hours. It closes at 5 p.m. today. Art League Houston, 1953 Montrose. For information, call 713-523-9530 or visit www.artleaguehouston.org. Free.

Nicole Temple

​The 22nd annual celebration of the important "Day of the Dead" holiday at Lawndale Art Center is an open, non-juried exhibition of art by area artists and students. In addition to the exhibition, Lawndale also offers workshops and classes and will have a grand fiesta on November 7. For more information, visit its website.

Check out our slideshow for various images from Día de los Muertos exhibits at Lawndale and around town.

Photo by Groovehouse

​October saw the first cold snap of the season and a slew of concerts, festivals, expos and shows. Check out our favorite photos from the month in our slideshow.

​Oops! Night + Day mistakenly listed "Never Die" Day of the Dead Rock Stars art exhibit by Carlos Hernandez as opening at Cactus Music/The Record Ranch on Sunday, November 1. The show actually opens on October 30, with a reception with the artist.

So if you were going by the information in the print edition, you sorta woulda missed the thing. Or at least you would have been standing around on Sunday wondering what the big deal was.

But witness the power of the Internet!! See us be allowed to correct information, hopefully in time for everyone who wants to go!!!

(Luddites who depend only on dead trees will be disappointed, we sorrowfully acknowledge.)

The Houston Press regrets the error.

Click here for more information about the show.

The photographers in our Flickr pool had their share of festivals, concerts, parties and scenery to choose from this past week, as Houston blossoms during the fall months. One such festival was Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, celebrated in Sugar Land and seen below. Enjoy some of our favorite reader-submitted photos from the last week below.

For more information about any of the pictures, including subject and photographer, simply click on them.

Love and Light Reverberated by Laura Tyler

​Laura Tyler took care of her grandmother while her grandmother was dying of cancer 20 years ago. Tyler is an artist, and she mainly worked on dark-charcoal and pencil drawings while serving as a caretaker, but her grandmother convinced her to paint.

Tyler herself is dying of cancer now, and it's the painting, she says, that allows her to deal with the disease.

"[My art] will be here a lot longer than I am. It's my investment, not just for my child or my husband or my family or my friends, but it's an investment for the world," Tyler tells Hair Balls. "My work has always been about my experiences, but when you're dying, living becomes so valuable, and that started showing through my work a lot."

A couple of Tyler's paintings will be displayed and for sale at Saturday night's "Gone to Hell" show at H Gallery. One of her paintings, Love and Light Reverberated -- pictured at the top of this post -- is "about something that stands true and present over everything else that would jade you in this life," Tyler says.

​New York actor and former Houstonian Bernardo Cubría is starting to get a little nervous right about now -- he's just hours away from the staged reading of his play Down, Boy by Wordsmyth Theater Company. At the first reading, earlier this year, he was, ah, anxious. "It's like watching your baby bungee jump," he tells Hair Balls.

"This is the first full-length play I've ever written," he says, adding, "though I did, in the seventh grade, write an amusing play about the O.J. Simpson trial."

Cubría had written poetry and short stories for most of his life but he thinks of himself as an actor first and he wasn't intending to add playwright to his credits. After being challenged by a teacher, "If you can act, you can write a play," he went home, locked himself in his room and emerged three days later with Down, Boy.

The storyline is based on a theater world's version of an urban legend. "I have an unhealthy obsession with Marlon Brando," Cubría admits. "Supposedly Marlon Brando had a stalker when he lived in New York, this was right after On the Waterfront came out and he was at the height of his fame. The story is that one day he went to his window, looked down and she was standing there. So he opened his window and told her, 'Come upstairs.' She went up, he made love to her and then told her, 'There, I've given you what you wanted, now leave me alone.' She left and she stopped stalking him.

"I've always been fascinated by that story, by both people. Why he would do that, why she would do that, why she would stop stalking him. The first scene in Down, Boy, is basically that situation, but in my version she stays."
 

​The Classical Theatre Company's well-received production of Hamlet comes to a close on Sunday; it's a show we highly recommend.

An original one-man adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet stars Guy Roberts, who adapted the piece and also co-directed with John Johnston. During the ninety-minute production, Roberts plays eighteen different characters. (A few scenes and minor characters have been cut, but Hamlet's story remains intact.) Roberts manages to jump from one character to another with just a toss of his head or a change in his voice, making it easy for the audience to keep up.

The production's stage set is simple: there's just a cot, a couple of chairs and a sink onstage. Oh, and a toilet.

Originally from Texas, Roberts splits his time between the U.S. and the Czech Republic where he is Artistic Director of the Prague Shakespeare Festival. Roberts was last in town during the Houston Shakespeare Festival.

Classical Theatre Company's a small troupe and they mount just a few shows a year, but don't let CTC's size fool you. They produce energetic, well-done work few other small companies would dare attempt. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday. and Sunday. HITS Theatre, 311 West 18th Street. For information, call 713-963-9665 or visit www.classicaltheatre.org. $7 to $15.

We've got a cold, wet winter ahead of us this year, so the photographers in our Flickr pool have been hitting the streets and enjoying Houston's mild fall weather while it lasts. Enjoy some of our favorite reader-submitted photos from the last week below.

For more information about any of the pictures, including subject and photographer, simply click on them.

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Karyn Olivier, visiting artist at the University of Houston's Mitchell Center for the Arts, is doing what lots of Houstonians wish they could -- erasing billboards. Actually, for her exhibit "Inbound: Houston," she's replacing the images on more than a dozen billboards around the city with life-size images of what's behind the billboard, sky, trees, buildings, and homes. (Take a second look at the photo above and you'll see what we mean.)

Karen Farber, director of the Mitchell Center, says through press materials, "We are thrilled to present this wholly original event in Houston. Karyn Olivier will bring a totally new experience to our daily trips on Houston's freeways. What is invisible will become visible, and vice versa."

A solitary deer captured in the morning mist on a university campus. The seams of a petrochemical tank seeming to look like creases in paper. Snow falling on a used car lot off Washington Avenue.

These photos and more were on display this past Friday night at Xniliho Gallery as Houstonist, the local offshoot of blog collective Gothamist, hosted its second 600 sq mi juried photo exhibition reception. Photographers from around the city -- amateur or professional -- were invited to submit their best work which most accurately fit this year's 600 sq mi theme: hidden. Madeline Yale of the Houston Center for Photography served as this year's jury, which resulted in 45 photographers and 60 photos chosen for the show.

While the big opening bash was Friday night, you can still catch the show every day at Xniliho Gallery until November 23. We recommend grabbing a cup of coffee at the adjoining coffeehouse (Taft St. Coffee) and spending some time getting acquainted with the hidden side of Houston.

In the meantime, check out some of our favorite photos from the reception below. For more information about the photos, including the photographer, simply click on them.

Fall has officially hit Houston (even if you can't tell from the weather). That means the light is subtly changing and the talented photographers in our Flickr pool are out there capturing scenes from the city both day and night. Enjoy some of our favorite reader-submitted photos from the last week below.

For more information about any of the pictures, including subject and photographer, simply click on them.

Fotofest's The Art of Social Media: A Conversation on Media Collision, taking place Wednesday night at 6 p.m., promises to be informative and entertaining on more than one level. Part of the title, Media Collision, sounds pretty entertaining by itself, conjuring up visions of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter crashing full-speed into each other in some other spatial dimension.

The "happy hour lecture", designed to help artists tame the wild west of social media sites and harness their advertising power, includes Houston-based media marketing consultants Monica Danna (www.cosmopolitician.net) and Katie Laird (contributor to www.Houstonist.com and web-strategy advisor for a firm that represents the Houston Zoo, Reliant Stadium and the Houston Theater District); and Houston web-media artist Brian Piana, and will be moderated by Jenni Rebecca Stephenson (www.Spacetaker.org.)

What truly promises to be entertaining, however, are some of the folks that will attend the event.

​Opera in the Heights is presenting its final performance of Il Tabarro and Pagliacci this Saturday. The shows, by Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Adami respectively, premiered in the 1890s but still have a heck of a punch. Houston Press arts writer D. L. Groover said of the shows, "Puccini and Leoncavallo's tuneful melodramas both deal with wifely adultery and the consequences when the husband finds out. The end results are the same, no matter what century. It's powerful stuff." Opera in the Heights, 1703 Heights Boulevard. For information, call 713-861-5303 or visit www.opera-in-the-heights.org. $35 to $45.

If you haven't seen "No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston" over at the Contemporary Museum of Arts Houston, get there before it closes this Sunday. The exhibit is a look at what happens to a city when no zoning or land use ordinances are in place. (CAMH touts the "No Zoning" as "the first museum exhibition to consider the current and past efforts of regional artists working in the urban environment.)

More than 15 local artists and teams of artists, most of which have been engaging their environments in the '80s, have installations in the show. There are representations of several Houston sites, including Cleveland Turner's Flower Man House in the Third Ward (a mock-up graces the CAMH's front lawn) and notsuoH, the downtown hangout Jim Pirtle founded in the '90s. Other participating artists include The Art Guys (Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing), Mary Ellen Carroll, Rick Lowe, and Ben Tecumseh DeSoto (who just won Best Photographer and Best Art Exhibit in the Press' Best of Houston Awards). 5216 Montrose. For information, call 713-284-8250 or visit www.camh.org. Free.

Photo by John Nova Lomax

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Out walking with our kids in the Binz section of the Museum District the other day, we came across one of those random little discoveries that makes you glad you live in Houston, even if it's allegedly fall and still 90-odd degrees.

It was this odd little plaque in the ground, dated 1987. which grandly proclaimed that it was "one of five markers along the Human Tour, a permanent art project designed for and dedicated to a more human city." The plaque was inscribed by Michael Galbreth and also informed us that we were standing on "the right hand of the city," and that if we wanted more information, we would be able to find it at the downtown library.

A few days later, HairBalls Googled up Galbreth, who as most of you artsy types will already know, is one of the Art Guys, along with cohort Jack Massing. We also searched "the Human Tour" in the Houston Chronicle's archives. Back then, the paper of record called it "the single most exciting event of the 1987 Houston International Festival," and described Galbreth as having a vision both "embrasive [sic] and provocative." (While we were at it, we Googled up "embrasive." Turns out it is a word, albeit a lame one and one generally spelled "embracive." Our copy editor Richard Hebert suggested "all-embracing" as an alternative, and we concur. And we digress...)

Here is how this project worked.

​It's a trio of art shows that should catch your attention this weekend. Lawndale Art Center closes its "30th Anniversary Show" this Saturday. Houston Press art writer Kelly Klaasmeyer reviewed this show; one artist especially caught her attention: Seth Alverson.

Klaasmeyer  said of his paintings, "'One depicts the bent-over butt of a woman in running shorts, each dimple of cellulite on her pale legs exactly modeled. In the artist's nearby painting of an upholstered brown velveteen armchair, the soft fabric is rendered with a sheen that mimics the tufted flesh of the woman's legs. In between the chair and butt images is a canvas depicting a pair of hefty, less-than-pert breasts propped on a windowsill. There are also portraits, both of chubby girls, one seemingly painted from a class photo of a smiling Pentecostal student, the other depicting a big, surly-looking girl with her arms crossed, looking like she's just waiting to kick your ass in dodge ball. The Gerhard Richter-like smudged paint of her face is especially ominous." Lawndale Art Center, 4912 Main, 713-528-5858. Free.

​Fernando Dovalina, who along with Island ETC artistic director Kim Mytelka organized this Saturday's Eyes on the Tempest - The Ike Plays, has often hosted readings of new plays in his home. Most of those readings were themed, with all the participating playwrights agreeing to write on one topic. The aftermath of Hurricane Ike seemed an natural topic for Dovalina and his friends to tackle. Given the topic, Dovalina wanted to hold this reading in Galveston which mean that not only did he have to find playwrights and actors willing to work for free, but they had to be willing to go to Galveston to work for free.

It turned out finding participants was easy.

Once the participants were lined up, Dovalina worried about the tone of the work. "I thought, 'Are we going to have just a bunch of downer plays here?' But the human spirit is so resplendent, it just bounces back. Even in the worst of times we make jokes," he says.

The range of the work surprised even Dovalina.

​The national touring production of the musical comedy Grease, being presented by TUTS, is taking its final bow on Sunday. Emily Padgett and Eric Scheider play the star-crossed lovers Sandy and Danny, but it's Allie Shultz as Rizzo and David Ruffin as Kenickie who steal the show. American Idol winner Taylor Hicks appears as the Teen Angel, who appears in a dream sequence giving beauty school dropout Frenchy some advice. 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 713-558-2600 or visit www.tuts.com. $24 to $79.50.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but there's a lot of killing in Killdozer Productions' The Pillowman. The Brothers-Grimm-on-crack show, written by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lieutenant of Inishmore), is a look at Katurian, a writer who specializes in stories about violence against children, and his brother Michal. After a series of child murders that closely resemble Katurian's stories, he's brought in for questioning by police. In the next room is Michal, waiting his turn at being interrogated (read: tortured). The story unfolds in twists and turns, each darker than the last one, and by the end of the play, killing children almost makes sense. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Express Theatre, 446 Northwest Mall. For information, call 832-561-1601. $10 to $12.

​It's good news for the Deborah Colton Art Gallery: Carolyn Farb is joining Colton as a partner and Lester Marks is coming onboard as Director.

Big whoop, you say?

Ah, actually it is. While both Farb and Marks have been longtime patrons of the arts and both are recognized as savvy collectors (Marks was even named one of the Top 200 Collectors in the World by ARTnews magazine), neither has ever been involved in a gallery setting to this extent.

"It's exciting news for the gallery," Colton tells Hair Balls, "but it's exciting news for the city, too. Lester and Carolyn have mentored so many artists in Houston. I've always thought that ... my greatest weakness has been not knowing enough of the artists in the Houston community. I've very connected with the national and international art communities but Lester and Carolyn know the local community much better than I do."

Together, Colton says, they'll cover artists on every level, emerging to masters, local to international.

​Saturday is the last day to see "Pieced Together, All Texas Graffiti Show" over at Aerosol Warfare Gallery & Boutique. The first traveling graffiti art exhibit to make its way around the state, "Pieced Together" features works by Austin's Sloke (who curated), San Antonio's Enks, and Houston's WEAH and GONZO247. (Local fans saw WEAH's work earlier this year at the Art League Houston's "The Boardroom.") From here the show goes on to LA, Phoenix, San Francisco and Brooklyn. 4 to 9 p.m. 2110 Jefferson, Suite 113. For information, call 713-503-5714. Free.

Project Row Houses has its closing reception for the 2009 Summer Studio Artists on Saturday. Robert McShan from Texas Southern University and Jonatan Lopez of Houston Community College were among the seven student artists who participated in the project. Student artists might be a bit of a misnomer for some of these folks. True, they haven't finished their formal education, but some, like Lopez, have been exhibiting in several local galleries for some time now. Artists's talks and slideshows are both on the schedule, but there'll be plenty of time to visit each house and do some meet-and-greet schmoozing. 3 to 5 p.m. 2521 Holman. For information, call 713-526-7662. Free.

A few theater productions are closing this weekend ...

Photo courtesy Houston Family Arts Center

​On a Labor Day weekend you might have other things on your mind that Art-with-a-capital-A (Such as, say, football-football-football), so you're lucky that there's not a huge list of shows closing this weekend that you only have one last chance to enjoy.

But there are two things in now-or-never mode.

Eclectic Compilations at the Galleria Lazzara is described as "a self defined exhibit featuring the artists Bryan Dominguez, Bethany Robert, Jennifer Pod, David Moore, and Gabriel Mack. Art that consist of mixed media. Objects that were once rejected, possibly due to its inability to function on the level it was created; it has been collected to regain a purpose to create a sense of freedom from emotions, status quo, and the past."

The gallery is at 5400 Mitchelldale.