THURSDAY

Summer Smackdown [And/Or Gallery + House of Dang]
It's movie night in the yard behind the building and they're showing Clueless. Bring your own chair + booze.

UT Dallas Lecture on Native American artist Allan Houser.
I'm assuming this is some time in the evening, but no time is listed. [More Info] [UPDATED: it was at 10:00 AM]

Festival of Independent Theatres starts at Bath House
Admittedly, I don't know anything about theater/re, but I don't even remotely recognize a single title or playwright in the list except Václav Havel, and only then because of his significance in Czech history. So, I guess this is pretty hardcore independent.

FRIDAY

Chiura Obata (featured picture)
Holy crap! I just found this in the backlog. There's an exhibition going on through August 23 at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art of Chiura Obata's woodcuts of Yosemite National Park done in 1930. See some of his prints here. It's kind of like Hokusai meets Yosemite Sam. Really nice.

Paper Jam [The Public Trust]
2-Day print sale benefiting other good stuff. Party Friday from 6-9PM.

Carrollton DIY at the Plaza Arts Center (more info)
Starting at 7:00 PM Friday, eight artists and six bands for $5. Promises to be "radical".

SATURDAY

"cool artist talk" [Barry Whistler Gallery]
I swear, if I have to read one more summer event description that starts with "beat the heat", I'll... oh well: "Kirsten Macy and Robert Wilhite will both be talking about their current exhibitions [...] Topo Chicos* and chips will be provided." Saturday July 19 at 2:00 p.m. Unfortunately, the Barry Whistler site runs solely on Flash, and I can't really find much about Kirsten Macy because her name coincides with a b-list actress from the late 90's (same person?). However, Robert Wilhite's portfolio looks interesting, particularly the theater sets and housewares (check out the stainless steel place settings).

* this seems to be some kind of fancy bottled mineral water.

CLOSING THIS WEEKEND
Through July 19...

Cory Arcangel + Olia Lialina & Dragan Espenschied [And/Or Gallery]

There's No Place Like Home & Twenty-One [Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery]

Takashi Iwasaki [Conduit Gallery]
As mentioned previously by El Tocadiscos, this stuff is amazing (see some samples).

Closing at Craighead-Green Gallery:
Jackson Hammack (great name, obvious Modigliani influence, still good)
Jason Brown (abstract IKEA shelving on wall)
Jeanie Gooden (nice acid-bath abstracts)

Maestros Tejanos: Benito Huerta Solo Exhibit [Latino Cultural Center]
The last event I attended at Latino Cultural Center resulted in my stumbling around drunk until I spilled an entire plastic cup of red wine all over my favorite blue shirt. And all down my pants. And all over the floor. So, I looked around to make sure no one saw, and then quietly left by the side door. But man this is a really beautiful building with an incredible view of downtown, and they've done some really unique shows there. You might want to check this out (or events in the future).

BAD ARTIST STATEMENT EXCERPT OF THE WEEK
[game points in bold]

Diversity of the capacity to break monotony and engage the hiden realms of energies and causes them to arise to communicate with the hiden realms of nature; Energies which cannot be explained/taught, they can 'only', be experience to commune/learnt; Art awakens the realms of these energies and process/evoke them in dialogue...; The.'spirit'is higher than the 'mind' and 'body',its metaphysical,which I focus on because of its intense abstract, philosophical,imaginative transcendentical power; This'spirit' permeates the pores of my concepts; My art expresses, my deep awareness of global and urban issues is counterbalanced with my cultural heritage; Inspiration:Life and the mental energy that creates the dialogue,leaps and spirals into the imaginative energy and breaks the Monatony...; To paint reality,not dreams because I don't know what dreams are;It is always clear what belongs to the real world and what belongs to the dream world;I don't think dreams/paint them and I don't experience dreams but I know about life because life is visible, I can feel and touch it; I cannot discribe my process of creating, it's too spiritual to express, however, it is the same expressive energy as the work itself,transfused between energies...; Art defines itself.

Score: 14.99 points

.99 extra points (max allowed) for putting concrete concepts in quotes to make them sound abstract; creative use of spelling, punctuation, and spacing; and abundant use of the word "energy" in its various forms. This one was so good (and long) that I decided to break it up over two weeks. Stay tuned to find out how "art defines itself"!