- [Edit]: Sometimes, after publishing this roundup, I hear about something else worth your time and add it to the end of the post. Not today. An opening at And Now that lists Michelle Rawlings, Pierre Krause, Jeff Zilm and Brian Fridge goes up top. These four artists who claim Dallas or Fort Worth have been advancing conversations formally in their mediums — painting, video art, text-based work — and showing internationally. About this time last year Rawlings showed at the same gallery, revealing a wistful collage-mind (she values tiny pieces of ephemera, fragments of nostalgic thought) to lend insight into the reflective process of her paintings, which are feats of exactitude, a sort of intellectual kindness. Krause has been steady releasing tinny studies of pop with stream-of-consciousness spoken word — and sometimes, songs — on Soundcloud as Lil’ Beige. The entries feel like the memory of music which is what makes Krause and Rawlings such a fitting pair. Along with After Deth Productions collaborator Jake Elliott, Krause will DJ after the 6-8pm reception.
2. The basement of J&Js Pizza is back in an unlikely turn welcomed by alums of its rowdy weekend and weeknight all-ages parties who hail from DIY scenes across the country. And what’s more, a song predicted the arc of the would-be close. Eric “Fishboy” Michener, a J&Js regular in every way possible and the central character of this piece on the basement’s significance, released a concept album called Art Guards in May that ends with each of its figures appearing together in an epic food fight at a pizza place. The takeaway from this final scene at the “reopened restaurant,” Michener sings: “If you are an artist, do not give up.” There’s a party Saturday to celebrate with comedy and music.
3. An exquisite idea from Austin’s analog-synth-positive Holodeck Records, inspired by Austin Film Society and Hyperreal Film Club: take the four shorts within Masaki Kobayashi’s 1965 fantasy/horror film Kwaidan, assign acts to write new soundtracks for each section, and set them up to perform the new scores live with a screening of the film. Holodeck has done this before with its artists, who have in common a talent for filmic hypnosis. This time Dallas artist Jake Schrock takes a chapter. You won’t want to miss it. Here’s more on Saturday’s re-score at Alamo Drafthouse.
4. Sunday’s the last chance to see Dallas Theater Center’s Fade. This layered comedic drama by Girls writer Tanya Saracho follows a Mexican-born novelist to Los Angeles and her new life as a TV writer. Lucia bonds easier with Abel, an American-born Latino on the janitorial staff, than anyone working in her department. Witness the intriguing dynamics at play in the scenes below and find tickets here.
5. At Liliana Bloch Gallery Saturday an opening marks SMU M.F.A Bret Slater’s new direction as a painter. With vivid colors he’s obscuring the physical process of painting, in a deliberate style he owns as post-painterly. His show, named for the artist, is on until February 10. More information about the reception is here.
