Get Cultured: Artsy Happenings in Montrose Right Now, Photography Edition

The Montrose District is fortunate to count some world class museums within its boundaries. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the latest exhibits at some of them, it’s time for a visit.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston / 5216 Montrose
On display through August 2 is Marilyn Minter’s “Pretty/Dirty” exhibit. Described as an artist that produces “lush paintings, photographs and videos that vividly manifest our culture’s complex and contradictory emotions around the feminine body and beauty,” Minter has been producing works of dark beauty since 1969. “Pretty/Dirty” features Minter’s paintings, photographs and videos from as far back as 1976 and as recently as 2013.

Museum of Fine Arts, Beck Building / 5601 Main
Peek into the photography collection of Michael and Michele Marvins from now until July 5. Celebrating the Marvins’ gift of over 400 photographs to the museum are 60 works representing “varied themes” of the collection including portraits, “spatial perspectives,” “urban views” and “Images of childhood.”

Houston Center for Photography / 1441 W. Alabama
The Houston Center for Photography’s fellowship recipient, Ben Altman, presents “Site/Sight” beginning May 8, running through July 5. Altman’s work focuses on “sites, memorials and museums related to genocide, atrocity and war,” where he notes “it is almost automatic for visitors to raise their smart phones and cameras.” Altman’s prints were photographed using a 1940s-era camera that he feels “fits well with looking at the present in terms of the past.”