7 Must-See Texas Museum Exhibitions During Dallas Art Fair

“Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet”

at Dallas Museum of Art

This eight-month rotating exhibition incorporates video work by several international artists, investigating the ways in which advances in technology have affected perceptions and depictions of personal identity. The artists—from ars viva prize winner Aleksandra Domanović to this year’s New Museum Triennial co-curator Ryan Trecartin—will display their work for a month each, beginning with Trecartin, who will show his Tommy-Chat Just E-mailed Me (2006).   

Several concurrent exhibitions will also be on free public view at the Museum. The special exhibition “Michaël Borremans: As sweet as it gets” is $16 or free with a Dallas Art Fair ticket.

“Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet” is on view Apr. 10–Dec. 6, 2015.

“Michaël Borremans: As sweet as it gets” is on view Mar. 15–Jul. 5, 2015.

Dallas Museum of Art is located at 1717 North Harwood Street, Dallas, open from 11 am to 5 pm Tues.–Wed. and Fri.–Sun., and from 11 am to 9 pm Thurs. Free general admission.

“Melvin Edwards: Five Decades” at Nasher Sculpture Center

Dallas’s Nasher Sculpture Center boasts a collection of sculptural work by world-renowned artists from Picasso to Rodin. On view during Dallas Art Fair is an exhibition of 50 years of work by Texas native Melvin Edwards—the first African-American sculptor to have had a solo show at the Whitney. His pieces in welded steel have drawn on the structure and improvisation of jazz music and the dynamism of football. Since the early ’60s, Edwards has been working on and off on his series “Lynch Fragments,” small sculptures with titles that reference not only their compositions but also the civil rights issues that have long been of interest to Edwards’s varied practice.

“Melvin Edwards: Five Decades” is on view Jan. 31–May 10, 2015.

Nasher Sculpture Center is located at 2001 Flora Street, Dallas, open from 11 am to 5 pm Tues.–Sun. Adults $10, seniors and military $7, students $5, under 12 free.

“C.R. Smith Collection of Western American Art” at Blanton Museum of Art

Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas promises a permanent collection that captures the American West’s history and pioneering spirit through paintings, drawings, and sculptures made mainly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Spurred by his homesickness while living in depression-era NYC, collector C.R. Smith gravitated toward western art for its affinities to Texan sensibilities and traditions.

Blanton Museum of Art is located at 200 East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Austin, open from 10 am to 5 pm Tues.–Fri. (to 9 pm the third Thurs. of the month), from 11 am to 5 pm Sat., and from 1 to 5 pm Sun. Current UT faculty/students/staff, 12 and under, and Thurs. free admission, adults $9, seniors $7, students of other colleges and youth (ages 13–21) $5.

“Sam Falls” at Ballroom Marfa

Sam Falls’s new video and sound works, sculptures, and wall pieces are on view at Marfa’s favorite dancehall-turned-arts-space—some of which were made during his residency there last year. His multimedia works investigate the natural world, focusing on elements of time and transformation. Similar to works by Donald Judd, Falls’s pieces become minimalistic yet intimate records of place and environment.

“Sam Falls” is on view Mar. 13–Aug. 16, 2015. Ballroom Marfa is located at 108 East San Antonio Street, Marfa, open from 10 am to 6 pm Wed.–Sat. and from 10 am to 3 pm Sun. Free admission (suggested $5 donation).

“Barnett Newman: The Late Work” at The Menil Collection

In Houston, The Menil Collection offers an exhibition of work by 20th-century color field pioneer Barnett Newman. Featuring unfinished acrylic works from the end of Newman’s life, as well as oil paintings from the ’40s and ’50s, the show offers the first look into the painter’s last five years of art-making and explores the trajectory of his small yet celebrated oeuvre.

“Barnett Newman: The Late Work” is on view Mar. 27–Aug. 2, 2015.

The Menil Collection is located at 1533 Sul Ross Street, Houston, open from 11 am to 7 pm Wed.–Sun. Free admission.

“Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty” at CAMH

While Contemporary Arts Museum Houston features exciting exhibitions during the fair, if you’re able to stick around Texas after the fair’s close, consider a return to the museum. Never one to shy from the provocative, Marilyn Minter skews traditional fashion images to examine and critique society’s often male-driven ideas of the female body, femininity, desire, and beauty. CAMH presents a look at more than 45 years of Minter’s paintings, photographs, and video pieces—from pictures she took as a 21-year-old of her mother to a recent film following a woman’s high-heeled romp through silver liquid.

“Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty” is on view Apr. 18–Aug. 2, 2015.

CAMH is located at 5216 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, open from 10 am to 7 pm Tues., Wed., Fri., from 10 am to 9 pm Thurs., from 10 am to 6 pm Sat., and from 12 pm to 6 pm Sun. Free admission.

“SHOTGUN” at Rice University Art Gallery