Capsule Art Reviews: "Aaron Parazette: New Paintings," "Chantal Akerman: Moving Through Time and Space," "Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006," "Tony Berlant," "A Visceral Valentine,"

"Tony Berlant" California-based Tony Berlant crafts colorful abstract collages using found tin scraps and fabricated and printed sheet tin. He fixes the pieces of tin to plywood using steel brads. The effect is like a jumbled-up puzzle put together incorrectly, like the pieces were hammered and forced into the wrong places, except Berlant intricately overlaps and massages shapes into his works. It isn't clear where Berlant finds the imagery printed on his fabricated tin, but it looks like cheesy wallpaper design — there are flower motifs, woody scenes with deer antlers, even what look like classic car patterns. Certain pieces employ a central representational image, like the birdlike shape at the center of Nest; others contain a well-scattered coverage of different colors and similar-sized scraps, like Sunny Side. Petrified Forest comes the closest to a recognizable correlation between image and title. Berlant has cleverly composed a realistic rendering of a petrified tree trunk broken in seven pieces. Also surprising is the textural element. The tin actually looks more like synthetic textile, rather than metal. Perhaps the steel brads suggest, in a way, a natural juxtaposition between fabric and metal. It's beautiful work. Through March 29. Texas Gallery, 2012 Peden, 713-524-1593. — TS

"A Visceral Valentine" More visceral than valentine, the current group show at Apama Mackey Gallery delivers a darkly comic look at love. Riffing on the February 14 holiday, there's also an exploration of color, particularly red and pink, on display here. Jennifer Tong's comic book panel A Romance depicts a young woman and her talking frog "boyfriend" going for a walk in the woods. She takes a nap in the grass, and bestial mythological molestation ensues; it's cute! Kuro Unagi (the artist's name is literally a species of freshwater eel) takes us to the disturbing side of animal love with a series of women engaging in sex acts with, you guessed it, eels. Think Patrick Nagel as a demented schoolboy, doodling in detention. Lisa Alisa contributes some colorful and visually engaging acrylic paintings of Asian females in various communions with animals. You can't miss Marcus Adams's airbrushed acrylic Three Legged Hermaphrodite; the deranged, grotesque Kewpie-doll-headed freak feels ever-present in the tiny gallery. And Yuka Yamaguchi's twisted illustrations of a little schoolgirl playing mutilation games with a giant rooster just might make your viscera a little queasy. Through March 23. 628 E 11th St., 713-850-8527. — TS