5 Art Events to Attend This Weekend

Aurora 
The ephemeral nature of this biennial event gives the whole night a sense of magic. It also requires something of visitors: Clear the calendar and show up. Starting at 7 p.m. Friday, 19 city blocks will be filled with light, video and music to create a sometimes messy, sometimes brilliant outdoor group show. This year, founders Joshua King and Shane Pennington have recruited four additional curators to program different areas of the event, which means each section of the Arts District will benefit from a sharp eye and specific focus. There will be a blend of Dallas-based and international artists spread throughout the city blocks. Don't be the one who missed it. Admission is free — though you might want to invest in pre-paid parking for $10 at attpac.org. For more information about the Aurora experience, visit dallasaurora.com.


Lily Hanson, The Once Over Twice
This weekend, Conduit Gallery opens three exhibitions, but we'll likely spend most of our time in the Project Room near the wine, admiring Lily Hanson's The Once Over Twice. The Dallas-based artist embraces the disorderly, though her work is never messy. If the form of her mixed-media sculptures, made from foam, fabric and wood, seems inapposite or out of place, keep looking. There's more to her creations than a first glance allows.They are uncategorizable critters. The show, named for a song by LA punk band X, is described as taking its "fuck it, shitty shit happens, get over it " attitude from this kind of music. Of course, from what we've seen Hanson doesn't specialize in shitty shit. Quite the opposite. See the work, concurrent with exhibitions by Ted Larsen and Lance Letscher from 6-8 p.m. Saturday. 


Brad Tucker: Decent, Recent Pieces
Austin-based artist Brad Tucker is clever. His work, much of which is abstract and colorful, seems to take on a life of its own. Perhaps it's because Tucker doesn't rest in a singular medium. In recent years, he's designed an art book for children, and he even completed a new, homemade record called Spare Changes, which is a series of living room recordings of original music and instrumental jazz pop standards. See the energy up close at RE Gallery, which opens an exhibition of his newest sculptures and wall reliefs, from 6-8 p.m. Friday. 
 


Jupiter Island
In 1992, artist Cy Twombly was working in Jupiter Island, Florida, a small town on a barrier island. An American-born painter and sculptor, Twombly lived in Italy for most of his life. But when he spent time in the United States, it was either brief stints in New York or coastal cities in Florida. Curator Lauren Fulton used this specific 1992 period, late in his career, as a starting point for a group exhibition she curated at Circuit 12 Contemporary (1811 E. Levee St.). Centered around themes of isolation, remoteness and anticipation of the unknown, she's worked with eight artists from throughout the country, all of whom work in different media. See it all come together in the exhibition, Jupiter Island, which opens at 6 p.m. Saturday. More at circuit12.com.

Curve of Forgetting
Look around your living room, or wherever you're seated or standing right now. How many objects have a story? There's the quilt from your grandmother, the snow globe from your first trip overseas, the picture frame holding the memory of your wedding day. These objects we buy and store not for their financial value but because they allow us to own moments, and they are the starting point for Fort Worth-based artist David Wilburn. For his latest show, Curve of Forgetting, he abstracts these domestic objects into collaged paintings and thread-based drawings as a sort of test to see how long it takes for even him to forget what the subject once was. He's interested in the short distance between remembering and forgetting. See the work in an opening reception form 6-8 p.m. Saturday at Galleri Urbane.