Saturday evening happy hour was well spent on South Anderson Street hopping between UTA Artist Space, Ibid Gallery and Museum as Retail Space

UTA’s “HeatWave” is an energetic show that explores the influences of pop culture on artists, including a massive painting of emojis by Nate Lowman titled Various Yellow Happy Endings; a black canvas showcasing hundreds of old chewed-up gum called Dresden by Adam McEwen and expressive neon paintings suggesting faces with purple light bulbs for eyes by Jon Pylypchuk. Clusters of young MFAs milled around the space trying to one-up each other or schmooze their way into someone’s pants.

Carsten Nicolai

Ibid Gallery posed as a more “mature” alternative to the hyperactive “HeatWave.” Finding Francesca Longhini’s “Baroque Anxiety” a little too tense, we preferred Carsten Nicolai’s “autonomo” in the next room. Nine enormous silver gongs hovered above a field of black tennis balls. As we weaved between the giant plates, an attendant pushed the balls around the space with a broom. The scene resembled an uncooperative Zen garden.

Perfect venue…

A landscaped alley stretches behind UTA and Ibid Gallery, the perfect venue for cocktails, tacos and people-watching. As the sun set the volume of drunk MFAs in the yard increased, letting their guards down enough to ask their equally-inebriated comrades, how to get into curating? “Just do, man, like, it’s not that hard. . .”

Marvell’s sculptures at MaRS

Kristan Marvell’s bracelets

We ran across the street to MaRS with our gin and tonics, arriving in time to valiantly fight off rivals for free bracelets crafted by the exhibiting artist Kristan Marvell; their swirling designs around our wrists made us feel like mermaids. While we pretended to be mer-people, in the gallery Marvell’s sculptures pretended to be marble—his chunky monoliths and rippling slabs bear the majestic aura and glossy finish of uncut marble, but are actually made of Styrofoam, a totally underrated medium.