“Video Now: Artists Working in the Spirit of Bruce Nauman”

If you’re the type of art lover who gets aroused by the words “video installation,” thank Bruce Nauman. The San Francisco-based artist, whose works on and off the screen are on display at the Menil’s “A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s,” was one of the first to loop weird film captures (such as, say, clowns subjected to various degradations, the subject of his semi-infamous Clown Torture). The Menil and Aurora Picture Show are paying tribute to artists who’ve paid tribute to Nauman with “Video Now: Artists Working in the Spirit of Bruce Nauman,” screening today in the museum’s parking lot. Get a peek at modern “video artists” like Jill Miller, whose I Am Making Art Too superimposes her hip-hop dance moves over John Baldessari’s 1971 tai chi-inspired performance piece, I Am Making Art; Alex Villar, who places himself within re-creations of everyday objects like manholes and garbage cans for passersby to see; and Anne McGuire, who injects herself into vintage TV footage, always going for an eerie effect. 8 p.m. 1515 Sul Ross Street. For information, call 713–868–2101 or visit www.aurorapictureshow.org. Free.

Sat., Jan. 12, 8 p.m., 2008

This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2008.