After Dark
Wally Workman Gallery | Dec. 3-23

In this group show, 30 artists were challenged to create works inspired by the exhibition title. Although each artist is sure to interpret the task in a different way, it is also sure to be a darker genre of art both literally and figuratively. This show promises to be a little more mysterious, maybe even a little wilder than the average gallery opening ­— something to incite interest from even the not-so-arty. If edgy is the name of the game, this exhibition is in.

 El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You About Africa
Blanton Museum of Art | Sept. 25- Jan. 22 

The Blanton hit the exhibition jackpot with this show. Anatsui’s work is revered and collected internationally by some of the world’s most established museums. The UT museum will be the only southwest venue for this retrospective on the artist’s work over the past 30 years — the largest collection of his art ever assembled in the US. His large-scale works, made from discarded material, create powerful visualizations about global, local and personal African histories—as well as being truly beautiful, yet accessible.

Mike Egan: The Death of 1977
Yard Dog | Opens Sept. 10

Since the artist was formerly a funeral director, his paintings gravitate towards themes of religion, life and death. Egan cites everything from German Expressionists and stained glass windows to Southern folk art, horror films and lowbrow art as his inspiration. Cartoonish in style, his paintings of skeletons and the like are much more Dia de los Muertos meets Grateful Dead than they are gruesome. Egan will be in attendance at the opening and he definitely seems like someone you’d want to talk to — or watch intently.