5 Art Events for Your Weekend: February 2-5

A Conversation with Carey Young: The New Architecture Dallas Museum of Art
1717 N. Harwood St.
Opens 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday

This exhibition of photographic and text-based works by the London-based artist will also include the global debut of the video Palais de Justice, named after Palais de Justice in Brussels, a sweeping, ornate 19th-century courthouse. Contradicting the familiar patriarchal tendencies of the legal system, Young’s camera portrays female judges and lawyers at court. Sitting at trial, directing proceedings or delivering judgments, female judges are seen through a series of windows in courtroom doors. Palais de Justice subtly builds a counternarrative: a legal system centered around, and maybe controlled by, women.

The New Architecture, which is Young’s first solo stateside exhibit since 2009, samples a decade of Young’s practice, offering a meditation on power and justice peppered with a little bit of the sublime. Tickets cost $5. More info at dma.org.

Artist talk: Murielle White — Mutation (pictured at top)
Cris Worley Fine Arts
1845 E. Levee St.
Artist talk 4 p.m. Saturday

Murielle White’s grandparents came from four different countries. When she was commissioned (out of 300 applicants) to create a mural for the new student union on the University of North Texas’ campus, it was important to her that the work reflected diversity, both her own and that of the collective campus.

Alongside a prevailing obsession with cultural identity, and inspired by recent personal events, the artist began down a new path of self-evolution. This culminated in the seven new mixed media paintings found in Mutation. In this body of work, White incorporates themes from her past — popular iconography and language from the four countries of her grandparents, along with lone figures in silhouette — that allude to her own personal transformation. The works have a focus on lines: lines demarking borders, and cracks that form innocuously, later creating great divides.

Avi Varma: Co-Work Space for Potential Dropouts
Pollock Gallery at Southern Methodist University
3140 Dyer St.
Opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday

They had us at Potential Dropouts. For this exhibition, artist Avi Varma will use the gallery space as a debt- and grade-free experiment in education. Every Friday evening during the run of the show, an artist will lead interactive “Hacking the Common Sense” sessions from 5 p.m. to midnight, during which students and visitors will be able to engage in discussion and research on specific topics drawn from the (fictional) course descriptions, which include topics like shamanism, think tanks and 22nd century architecture.

The project re-creates a co-work space complete with the familiar regalia of a garden variety start-up: desks, WiFi, a library and refreshments. The installation includes a promotional video, sound piece, fake course catalogue and website. Following the reception, Co-Work Space will run through March 11. Admission is free. More info at potentialdropouts.info.

Darren Bader — Meaning and Difference
The Power Station
3816 Commerce St.
6 to 8 p.m. Saturday

Perplexed by the countless ways to define what America means, artist Darren Bader finally arrived at two words he feels are universal: meaning and difference. Operating on those two concepts, he’s created a multisensory exhibit through the lens of 42 people who live in the United States. The collection’s ephemera run the gamut, from a song lyric composed of 10 words to a single image from a smartphone photo library. “America is a terse word, a pregnant word, a pliant, complex, luminous, cavernous word,” Bader says, “perhaps a foolish word for some.”

Closing: Rachel Livedalen – To Lisa With Love
500X Gallery
500 Exposition Ave.
Closes Sunday

Rachel Livedalen’s interdisciplinary works explore contemporary femininity viewed through the lens of generations past. Growing up, she loved Lisa Frank so much she decided to dedicate an entire solo exhibit to the sticker maven. It’s a delightful harbinger of other good things to come in 2017. The collection, which closes Sunday, features new drawings that combine classical Western images of idealized femininity with the ideals, if not the neon kittens, of the iconic 1990s folder designer.