Power Player from Milan Brings Intrigue to Houston’s Art Scene

After months-long vacancies, 4411 Montrose now percolates with fresh energy. Besides a Zen garden pop-up curated by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s, Christine Starkman (see our arts story for details), Unix Gallery stakes a permanent claim to the ground-floor space recently occupied by The Mission.

Milan-born owner Alex Cesaria — his other gallery is based in Chelsea — opens his second outpost of Unix, tapping David Solomon (formerly a director with the iconic Riva Yares Gallery in Santa Fe) to helm the new Houston space. Cesaria and Solomon made an impressive debut with a group sampling of artists, including intriguing headliners Italian grand master painters/Venice Biennale-exhibited Marcello Lo Giudice and Pino Manoe,whose spatial improvisations remind the viewer of Fontana. Houston expressionist Alfredo Scaroina, whose canvases reverberate with a Latin beat, also joins the stable; we were won over by Desire Obtain Cherish’s edgy little pop statements, especially an unexpected baby-blue poodle sculpture in a vitrine.

Pay attention: Through November 17, concurrent with his Station Museum solo, is Unix star Eugenio Merino, who crafts hyper-real sculptures of dictators then places them in the deep freeze.