"Calaveras Mexicanas: The Art and Influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada" The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, commemorates the 100th anniversary of Posada's death with an exhibition titled "Calavaveras Mexicanas: The Art and Influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada." The exhibit decorates the white walls between the lower-level staircase of MFAH's Caroline Wiess Law building. It is separated into three sections, looking to the viewer like an unfolded pamphlet. In the center are Posada's pieces, which include La Calavera Catrina, his "most iconic calaveras" and others, such as La Calavera Amorosa (The Skeleton of Love). Drawn in 1907, it was printed in a Mexican newspaper in 1911 as the principal image for a cartoon depicting the execution of two Guatemalan criminals who assassinated General Manuel Barillas. Posada's El doctor improvisado (The Improvised Doctor), hanging in the very center of the exhibit, tells a different story, albeit with the same outcome: a traveling doctor who comes across death. As a gesture of friendliness, the doctor offers the bony burier his coat; in return, Death gives the doctor the ability to know whether his patients will live or die. In the end, however, it's the doctor who dies. The expiration of both the murderers, who took life, and the doctor, expected to sustain life, makes clear that death is not a respecter of persons. It falls on the just and the unjust. The left and right sections of this wall "pamphlet" display the artists influenced by Posada's works. To Mexican-American artist Luis Jimenez, death is a dance. His Baile con la Talaca (Dance with Death) (1984) lithograph shows him in a lusty tango with La Catrina, while Self-Portrait (1996) shows the artist decomposing. That Self-Portrait was created after Baile is probably a coincidence, but it does help to illustrate the inevitable conclusion to being in death's clutches. Baile shows Jimenez and Lady Death as half-human and half-skeleton. They embrace each other, with Jimenez's hand grazing her ribs while her bony fingers clasp his head. Jimenez is also half-skeleton in the latter lithograph. He is not a completed calavera, but the process is under way, as his sagging, pockmarked flesh reveals bone underneath. Jimenez's eyes and lips are uncovered, revealing hollow eye sockets and an eerie grin. The image takes up the frame, forcing viewers to come close — and become entangled in death's permanent embrace. Posada's influence reached Texas, too. Jerry Bywaters, an American artist and native Texan, created a lithograph painting of a graveyard in Terlingua. This place, Mexican Graveyard-Terlingua, transforms every year during Dia de los Muertos, when residents of the city come to pay tribute to the dead. Through December 15. 1001 Bissonnet, 713-639-7300. — AO

"Funnel Tunnel" Clunky, streaked wood and wiry metal are the last things one would consider using to celebrate Art League Houston and the colorful Montrose neighborhood that surrounds it. Then again, talent is as talent does, and bare-bones as they may be, Patrick Renner's pieces are feats of size and color. Bounded Operator (2012) is a wall of windows glued together and filled with sand, rock and gravel, mingled with pieces of wood splashed in tie-dye, exchanging its windowpane aesthetic for a swirling metal one. The rainbow brightness of Wooddauber (2012) is one of many rainbow-colored chunks of wood from Renner's "Vestigial Structures" show exhibited last year at Avis Frank Gallery. The two pieces are combined to create "Funnel Tunnel," a metal-on-wood masterpiece so big that Art League publicly called on volunteers to help paint the wooden strips in the weeks before its opening. Before then, Renner could be seen blowtorching metal pieces together to create a wiry foundation for the wooden strips to attach to. It would, however, be inaccurate to describe "Funnel Tunnel" as skeletal. While other Renner pieces may come off as hollow, the wood and metal in "Funnel Tunnel" work together to create an artwork representative of the inclusive nature of the area around it. Those wooden strips? Painted in the hues of the rainbow, they very accurately represent the diverse people, businesses and culture of Montrose. The metal? Permanently melded together to hold the rainbow strips of wood, it represents the collectivity of this community. These materials create a 180-foot civic art sculpture seen whirling down the center of Montrose Boulevard. "Funnel Tunnel" will be on display in front of Art League Houston for the next nine months. 1953 Montrose, 713-523-9530. — AO

"Gary Komarin: The Bowman Sixpence Has Got to Have Soul" The first thing you notice about "Gary Komarin: The Bowman Sixpence Has Got to Have Soul," showing at Gremillion Fine Art & Co., is the absence of theme. There is no identifiable rhyme or reason to any of the paintings; each oil on canvas tells its own little story. Even the series of birthday cakes hanging between the canvases seem disconnected, random. However, a little bit of prodding reveals that the randomness is the theme. "The Bowman Sixpence" is an exhibit created by, of course, Gary Komarin, a New York artist who resides in Connecticut. Komarin graduated from University at Albany, State University of New York, followed by an MFA from Boston University. His curriculum vitae boasts more than 100 solo and group exhibitions in places from Houston to Zurich. With all the accolades Komarin has won, it's understandable that his current exhibition is so carefree; like a retired teacher who comes back to substitute when the mood strikes, Komarin can now paint what he wants, when he wants. Unburdened by the looming deadline of negative or positive reviews, he creates with childlike abandon, and so "The Bowman Sixpence" is the manifestation of this self-actualized freedom: a collection of cute, candy-colored abstract paintings on canvas and on paper. The colors of many of the pieces bowl you over as well. Ipso Facto in Orange with Black is a mixed-media of bright, bright orange with pockets of white blobs and black lines — a suitable Halloween decoration to go in a quirky billionaire's mansion. The Egyptian Hat Trick is another mixed-media on canvas. An assortment of blue, orange, purple and pink doodles saves a pretty dull white-and-gray background, like a shower of multicolored sprinkles livening up a plain sheet cake. Komarin further sweetens the exhibition with images of lovely layer cakes hanging alternately between the abstract paintings. This is one the kids can appreciate: These decadent treats are outlined in hot reds and pinks, inducing drools and pleas like "Can we get some when we get home...please?" Untitled (Green Cake on Pale Pink), a stacked confection outlined in lime green, is sure to be a mouthwatering crowd-pleaser. Through October 11. 2501 Sunset Blvd., 713-522-2701. — AO