A collection of works of diverse artists who changed the aesthetic landscape in Texas.

September 18–October 8, 2014

Texas might have been one of the last states of the Union where a person could expect to find a vital current of modernist painting and sculpture in the mid-twentieth century. Texas popular taste in art, like the majority of Americans, favored traditional modes. Modern art originated in Europe, a fact that seems antithetical to the independent spirit of Texas, with its historical struggles against foreign intervention. Yet the same Texas that encouraged political independence and free-spirited citizens turned out to be fertile ground for an autonomous spirit in sculpture and painting. For centuries, Texas has been shaped by the geologic characteristics of its land as well as by the rugged determination of those who choose to inhabit it. The state's vast geography and secessionary zeal allowed artists to work in whatever style of art they pleased. Many drew literal and metaphoric inspiration from the land; still others abandoned any semblance of mimetic representation. Some Texas modernists were indeed independent-minded and passionate, embodying a new incarnation of the Texas myth.

Adapted from Katie Robinson Edwards, Ph.D, Midcentury Modern Art in Texas (University of Texas Press, 2014)

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists and William Reaves Fine Art, LLC

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

A Retrospective of the works of Michael Rogue Collins And a Continuing Reflection of the Works of Lowell Daunt Collins

January 11–April 5, 2016

In 1948 the American Federation of Arts invited 21 of the nation’s artists to exhibit their work in an exhibition which toured the country. Lowell Collins, then 23 years old and living in Houston, was one of the 21. His work showed great curiosity and great courage. He tried new ideas and challenged himself continuously. He worked in several mediums: encaustic, watercolor, graphite, oil, and various metals and stone in creating his paintings and drawings and beautiful small, but powerful, sculpture. Using dental drills and dental equipment, Collins commented in 1963, “Jade is the toughest known material, harder than steel or iron, with a close interlocking fiber which can withstand tremendous pressure. It is heavenly stuff to work with because it resists anything you do to it. You learn patience.”

A dedicated teacher throughout his life, Lowell Collins generously and passionately shared all he knew with others and especially with his son, Michael Roque Collins. Innovative and intellectual, purposeful and poignant, his work consistently reflects the spirit of the artist, the spirit of a Renaissance man. Lowell Daunt Collins died at the age of 79 in 2003.

As a young boy, Michael Roque Collins was surrounded by a family of artists: his grandparents, his aunts and uncles, his mother, and most significantly, his father. Classically trained, Collins has known that each artist must find his or her own voice. His early work is realistic, followed by works prompted by dreams. Ultimately, Michael Collins embraced post symbolism, capturing the reflections of life’s journey. Facing his canvas head on with brushes, knives and tubes of paint, he lays on paint and glazes, scraping them down until he and his materials are one, embodying nature and the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. And within it all is the energy of light…light from darkness, light overwhelming darkness.

The transference of artistic insight, encouraging other artists to find their own narrative, is the gift of the teacher, and Michael Collins, like his father, continues to be the consummate teacher.  He has said, “For me, art is plumbing the soul, and painting is a magnificent creative expression, an opportunity to offer discovery with each glance.” The works of Michael Roque Collins are landscapes of metaphor and light overwhelming darkness. They are the landscapes of his dreams. As such, they are not for the fainthearted, for as always, a creative struggle is required to maintain the honesty which reflects life’s true journey.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist, Michael Rogue Collins & LewAllen Galleries

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

An installation by Ben Butler

January 20–May 13

This installation, Exchange, grew at the invitation of Brookfield, from a previous installation by Ben Butler commissioned by Rice University Art Gallery. Although that installation was site specific and temporary, as is this installation, the 10,000 hand cut sticks of poplar wood have been reassembled using 30,000 hand cut matchsticks tapped into drilled holes. Roughly 300 two-dimensional grids, originally assembled in the artist’s Memphis studio, were intuitively assembled in this space to form a brand new sprawling installation of approximately 1,500 square feet.

Noting the quantity of materials and labor involved, however, does not begin to describe the nature of this piece. In contrast to the standardization of the units, the installation grew organically, the artist subtly manipulating the ever-enlarging forms by editing, by prioritizing negative space, and, in a sense, by pruning and replanting. As Butler reflects, “This piece is a meditation on structure and space. At its core is a beautiful contradiction — the grid is entirely systematized, predictable and rigid, and yet it accumulates into a form without definition, wild, amorphous, and dynamic. The complexity of this relationship is what interests me. It is a complexity that reveals itself slowly over time, as the scale of the form requires a physical exploration of its space. It manipulates the viewer’s movement and encourages a sense of discovery.”

Butler’s work is a seeming contradiction, a tense balance of the pattern and precision of the grid, and the organic forms that grow from it. It is clearly hand-built and seemingly static, yet renders waves and undulations as if blown by the wind. The spaces between are filled by the unique vocabulary of each viewer, and the experience of passage is continuously refreshed. Nothing is in fact static, and as the title suggests, there is an exchange between two worlds, the predictable and the dynamic, as the meanings of these words shift and even trade places. Exchange celebrates the one constant in our lives, change. It collects the simple until it is complex, yet simultaneously redefines the complex as something that is simple.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist and Rice University Art Gallery

Artist in his studio constructing components for Exchange, 2015, Poplar Wood |  Photo: Nash Baker

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

The Photography of Renate Aller

January 25–April 25, 2016

An exhibition of Renate Aller's photography at Total Plaza in Houston, Texas.

The ocean and desert are seeming disparate pieces of our planet. One is wet and one is dry. We think of them as opposites. We consider them as very separate places. But when we find sea shells in the mountains, we begin to understand each carries the memory of the other. There exists a shared relationship, a shared memory which suggests the uniqueness we applaud, the separateness we acknowledge, is actually illusion. The ocean and the desert are one for they share the memory of the other.

This exhibition is a purposeful collection of photographs of the ocean taken on Long Island's southern shore and the desert taken at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico and the Great San Dunes National Park in Colorado. The images reflect the continual engagement of the same landscape and record observations which revere that which is observed. Alain de Botton has written, "Artists act as guides to a truer, more judicious, more intelligent understanding of the world." Renate Aller guides us to revere our planet and embrace an origin where all is interwoven and connected, and the space between memory and expectation is the most precious. It is now.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In collaboration with the artist and in co-operation with Fotofest 2016 and Catherine Couturier Gallery

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

An exhibition of Remembrance, Reflection, and Hope

April 18–July 6, 2016

Located at Two Allen Center in Houston, Texas. 

There is a fortress situated where the Labe (Elbe) River flows into the Ohre (Eger) River, built by Emperor Joseph II of Austria in 1780. He named this garrison town for his mother, Maria Theresa, and over time the Czechs came to call the place Terezin. With the occupation of German troops in 1939, Terezin was renamed Theresienstadt, and became a designated ghetto.

From the inconceivable darkness of such a place, children would listen to the stories of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, a Vienna born Bauhaus-trained painter and teacher, and draw the words they heard and the images they contained in their concealed inner worlds. They drew and they wrote. In the eyes of their minds, they escaped. And then, they died.

Of the 15,000 children deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, 100 survived – none under the age of fourteen. Two suitcases of their drawings survived, to later be discovered and exhibited around the world.

In 1995, Holocaust Museum Houston embarked on a far reaching project, a project to connect children with the past, to help them remember those who have preceded all of us. Taking Flight: The Butterfly Project, is a collection of 1.5 million butterflies conceived and created by all ages from all over the world, reflecting a richness and diversity of materials in remembrance of life tragically altered. It is a collection of the ephemeral, translucent delicate beating of wings ever ascending. This exhibition, one of many, is a collection of butterflies in flight toward light. It is a profound statement of hope.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with Holocaust Museum Houston Celebrating its 20th anniversary in Houston

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Everyone Knows Someone But Not Everyone Knows Everyone

April 20–September 12, 2016

An exhibition in 1600 Smith Street in Houston, Texas.

The third coast, our gulf coast, is teeming with expansion, diversity, and the ability to envision new frontiers and push out for them. And, it is also teeming with extraordinary visual artists and their visionary dealers. This exhibition of some of the artists of the Gulf Coast captures the diversity of vision and intention, reflection and humor, heartfelt concern, the organic order undercutting all, and the ethereal beauty of light itself. It is a rich tapestry strengthened by many fibers and many colors, and it reflects the strength, energy, and importance of the arts.

Artists: David Aylsworth, Amanda Michelle Barry, Andrea Bianconi, Carlos Canul, Felipe Contreras, Matthew Craven, Shala De David, Esther Delaquis-Baidoo, Clark Derbes, Joey Fauerso, Rachel Gardner, Marcos Hernandez, Bradley Kerl, Bill Meek, Seth Miller, Hans Molzberger, Kelly O'Connor, Beth Secor, Joel Stanulonis, Brad Tucker, and Bill Willis

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists and Art Palace, Barbara Davis Gallery, Devin Borden Gallery, David Shelton Gallery, Esperson Gallery, Inman Gallery, Meek Studio, Redbud Gallery, Samara Gallery, and The Visual Arts Department at Houston Baptist University

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Selected works by Billy Hassell & Isaac Smith

May 3–September 8, 2016

When we hear, “It’s second nature to him,” we really mean it is actually his first nature, it is fundamental, and is seemingly inherent. It is easy. And when something is second nature, it is of the core. It most often is true and clear, honest and direct­ — as is the art of Billy Hassell and Isaac Smith.

An ardent supporter of the environment, Billy Hassell sees us, all of us, animals included, as one big extended family. His vision and commitment has grown to encompass a global view of the environment and the interconnectedness of every living thing. His work is intense and vibrant and he has an uncanny ability to forthrightly layer this interconnectedness without a hint of doubt. Hassell paints the freshness and the fragility of our world. He celebrates the beauty and honesty of our planet in an ideal state, suggesting that we proceed through each day and walk down each path with care and caution. Hassell, whose work is found in many private, public, and museum collections, holds a B.F.A. from Notre Dame and an M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Isaac Smith, born in 1944 in Winnsboro, Louisiana, loved to hunt and fish with his father. He held great fascination for all the animals. Years later, at a crossroads in his life, Isaac felt compelled by an inner spirit to create art. His life was changed, spiritually and professionally. A self-taught artist, he carved thousands of pieces of wood, learning how to work with the medium, sampling different species of trees, testing the hardness or pliability of the wood. As a woodcarver, Smith uses a chainsaw and a hatchet and he paints his animals the bright colors of his imagination. That is when they become real.

Sali Griffiths, photographer and collector reflects, “I used to go visit Isaac a lot in the early days. On one visit I asked him how he decided what he was going to do next, and he said, ‘I look at the wood.’ Then he pointed to a piece of wood and said, ‘That’s a tiger.’ I said that it looked like a log to me, and he said, ‘That’s obviously a tiger. I just go and get my chainsaw and lean over and say — come out of there tiger!” (From Isaac’s Ark, by Ronald J. Gard)

Together, the works of Billy Hassell and Isaac Smith sing to us of humor, of the fierceness of the lion and the softness of the flower petal, of the unity of all. What is second nature? It is our first nature and in it, we are one.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In collaboration with the artists, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, and Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas  |  And through the generosity of The Stephanie Smither Collection

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Selected works by Steve Murphy

May 25–November 8, 2016

Located at Heritage Plaza in Houston, Texas.

There is a seductive simplicity in the works of Steve Murphy. This current work addresses the classical elements of sculpture: form, volume, surface and edge. As Murphy explains, “My intent is to be non specific in alluding to recognizable objects. In other words, non objective. I want the viewer to bring their references to the work and find their unique connection to the pieces.” Although these forms speak of flight and propellers, marine vessels and rudders, the work is motion arrested, motion about to begin. And, as in all things, there is an inherent energy in these forms even as they appear completely quiet. The materials utilized to create each piece are not quite what they seem. What looks like wood is steel, what looks like steel is graphite. As we each come to know, nothing is exactly as it appears. The titles themselves are provocative and they wink at you: As Real As The Dream, Long Enough to Realize, Should Have Seen It Coming, Taken In, Your Eyes or Their Words.

The works of Steve Murphy offer the opportunity to be quiet, to have an internal conversation. You might find yourself going down a path completely unexpected. But, like Alice, we do that every day. It’s only a conversation. Or is it?

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist, William Campbell Contemporary Art, Ft. Worth and Davis Dominguez, Tucson

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

An installation of garments from 2016 Fashion Fusion, an annual fashion competition presented by Houston Community College Fashion and Design Program and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

July 12–September 29, 2016

Located at Two Allen Center in Houston, Tx.

The Art Deco design style was an international design movement which began after World War 1 and continued through the 1940s. Embracing all of the arts, interior design, furniture, textiles, fashion and industrial design, Art Deco reflected modern technology, smooth lines, geometric shapes, streamlined forms. It was a tribute to scientific progress, the rise of technology and of speed. In reaction to the austerity imposed by World War I, the materials used were costly, silver, ivory, jade, crystal, but in the 1930s, after the Depression, designers and artists turned to mass produced materials, plastics and chrome. Zigzagged and triangular shapes, chevron patterns and sweeping curves defined the Deco motif.  Architecture captured the Art Deco movement in The Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center all in New York. And in Houston, the Houston City Hall, JP Morgan Chase Building and the 1940 Air Terminal Museum reflect for us today the geometric shapes and the distinctive design elements of this movement.

This exhibition of selected garments created by the students in the Fashion and Design Program of Houston Community College, highlights Fashion Fusion, an annual and collaborative fashion competition presented by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and HCC.  Inspired by the museum’s recent exhibition, Sculpted in Steel: Art Deco Automobiles and Motorcycles, 1929-1940, students were challenged to create contemporary garments responding to the vehicles in the exhibition. Embodying a variety of contemporary and classic materials, these garments and accessories stretch conventional limits and creatively reflect the streamline forms, the chrome detailing, and the innovation and technology of the Art Deco period and of the vehicles in the Museum’s exhibition. They speak to us of an earlier time and at the same time, enthusiastically look to the future.  

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with Houston Community College Fashion and Costume Design Program and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Featuring garments by Criseyda Arriaza, Kitty Dupas, Bridget Fizer, Alan Gonzalez, Maria Hammond, Luisa Nadarajah, Silvia Otaola, and Teresa Rangel

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

An installation by Natasha Bowdoin and selected works by Anthony Sonnenberg

September 19– November 21

Located at Total Plaza in Houston, Texas.

What does it mean to grow wild…to grow without restraint, to grow with abandon, to grow with no limitations, to possibly grow excessively? It is in the tantalizing unstructured surprises that we, in fact, encounter the pattern of nature, its redundancy enmeshed with continual change. We enter Natasha Bowdoin’s exuberant garden with the happiness of an uncomplicated child. And it is in the midst of accumulated layers of color and form that we discover both growth and decay. The spirit of the natural world articulatesin a new and often surprising grammar telling its very own tale. Incorporating a variety of literary sources, Bowdoin reflects, “My paper sculptures and installations interweave, overlay and merge these transcriptions with organic and geometric patterns to present a new experience of the written word, celebrating language and story as more of a primordial event than a codified system. My translation is a visual process, seeking to make a piece that is somehow permeable, liberated from language’s structural expectations.” Her work is a visual manifestation of verse, not the illustration of the word. Bowdoin received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA in 2007 and a BA in Classics and Studio Art from Brandeis University, Waltham, MA in 2003. Born and raised in Maine, she now lives and works in Houston, TX where she is an Assistant Professor in Drawing and Painting at Rice University.

Anthony Sonnenberg, through the dramatic and elaborate ornamentation of his ceramic works, critiques what he observes as the cycle of denial and decadence, of restraint and uncontrolled exuberance inherent in his life experiences. “Decadence”, he believes, “is a by-product of our attempt to cope with the fear of uncertainty. We build screens of over-abundance and hide behind fantasies to try and forget our seemingly cruel and unavoidable fate. A fate, which, more often than not, is self-imposed.” Sonnenberg’s works embody a contagious organic energy constantly tantalizing and providing opportunity for discovery and new interpretation. The drama and tension inherent in his works is soothed by the overlay of flowers, pearls, plants, animals, and figures all disguised to some extent by the independent nature of dripping clay before it is frozen in place by the extraordinary heat of the kiln. Sonnenberg was enrolled in the University of Texas Study Abroad Program in Castilion Fiorentino, Italy in 2007. He received his MFA in Sculpture from the University of Washington, Seattle in 2012, and his BA Art Studio with an emphasis in Italian and Art History from the University of Texas Austin in 2009. Anthony Sonnenberg lives in Houston, TX and currently is an Adjunct Professor at Lone Star College.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists, Art Palace Gallery Houston, and Tally Dunn Gallery Dallas

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

A selection of Matrices

September 21–January 12, 2017

Located at 1600 Smith in Houston, Tx.

The desire of duplicating images is thousands of years old, dating to the Sumerians who engraved inscriptions and designs on cylinder seals to formalize inventory, transactions, and important information. Between 764 and 770, Buddhist charms were rubbed from blocks and printed in Japan. Centuries ago playing cards, religious studies, as well as sensual and purely decorative images were printed from metal plates and wooden blocks created by the artist, often in book form to illustrate and enhance the written word. The common thread was the desire for multiple images.

In this digital age of refined and effective reproduction and the resounding proliferation of imagery, the hand of the artist can become a secondary instrument. A cautionary suggestion: the printed photograph of an image is not the work itself. As Walter Benjamin wrote in 1936 in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.….that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.

The art of fine printmaking lies in the hands of the artist, incising the copper plate, carving the wood block, preparing a screen for the transfer of an image, an image created by the artist. It also can be a profound collaboration between the artist and a highly knowledgeable and creative printmaker, one who understands the intricacies and the innuendos of paper, ink, the refinement of line of the etching needle as well as saturation of ink into the powerful cut of a block of wood. It is a collaboration of experimentation and experience, testing the pressure of a press, understanding the strength of a particular metal plate and accurately predicting the layering of color, choosing the perfect paper for the medium of transfer. A print can be pulled by the artist in the solitary enclosure of a studio. And a print can be the result of the creative experiences of a master printer, the studio assistants, and the necessary interaction and hands on involvement of the artist.  And we find, although we have multiple images, each print is unique, for the pressure of the press, the wiping of the plate, the delicacy of the screen instructs the resulting image to be its own. It is there we find the aura of the work itself.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the Artists, Flatbed Press, Austin, The Printing Museum, Houston, and Devin Borden Gallery, Houston

Works by Terry Allen, Dan Allison, Josh Bernstein, John Robert Craft, Charles Criner, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Luis Jimenez, Jules Buck Jones, Sharon Kopriva, R. W. Kubach, Mary McCleary, Dan Rizzie, Armando Rodriguez, Camila Ruiz, Elizabeth Montgomery Shelton, Julie Speed, James Surls, Frank X Tolbert 2, Liz Ward, and David J. Webb

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

The Legacy of John Biggers

January 11–April 3, 2017

Born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1924, the youngest of seven children, John Biggers lived at a time when the small community provided the oversight and support to all who belonged. His close knit family protected and nourished one another, and the family provided guidance at a time when racial relations were disturbing and challenging. John Biggers attended Hampton University where he met his wife, Hazel. It was there he fell under the superb guidance and focused support of the Chairman of the Art Department, Dr. Viktor Lowenfeld. John Biggers remembered Lowenfeld: “He taught us that art was a way for all people to speak. There is no censorship in art. Discrimination, restrictions, almost anything could be overcome with art, with self expressive thought.” (Houston Post, November 17, 1968, p.21).

John Biggers followed Viktor Lowenfeld to Pennsylvania State University and there received his three academic degrees; Bachelor and Master Degrees in Science in Art Education, and a Doctorate in Art Education. In August, 1949, he and his wife came to Houston. He had been asked to begin an art department at Texas State University for Negroes, later to be named Texas Southern University. Biggers, thoughtfully and with great purpose, designed a vital and transformative department of art, and he began by recruiting one student at a time. As they assembled that first day, they were told each would have to furnish his own materials and equipment. In 1952 the student, Abraham Washington, painted the first mural on the third floor of the newly constructed Hannah Hall. So began the tradition of the extraordinary student murals painted on the walls of several university buildings.

Biggers provided his students with hands on instruction. He challenged them to move beyond what they thought they could do. He challenged them to justify what they were doing, to handle and understand their materials, to make their own paint colors, not to accept the tube color if it wasn’t right, and to express themselves in their own medium. He had a broad vision and the art department came to encompass painting, drawing, composition, printmaking, weaving, ceramics, sculpture and housed a photographic laboratory.

In 1957, sponsored by a UNESCO travel fellowship, Hazel and John Biggers traveled to Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.  And so began a transformative encounter with the land and the people of Africa. Drawn into the spirit and the heart of the people, both grew in their understanding and in their profound appreciation of the mythologies, the parables, the unrelenting unity of nature, all of which depicted the interconnected life forces of all living things. From this journey came the book, Ananse — The Web of Life in Africa, which John Biggers wrote and illustrated. Biggers recounts, “Ananse is the spider, a heroic character in African folklore. Like Br’er Fox, he outwits all the other creatures of the forest. He depicts every kind of hero. There is an Ananse story for every situation in life. God gave Ananse the meaning of order. He taught him architecture, the structure of dwellings, and the structure of life and society. This is symbolized by his web, which stands also for the sun and its rays, and the sun personifies God.”

John Biggers left a legacy for all of us, in his works and in the works of his students. They are his legacy. Their insight, their spirit, their tenacious commitment of each to his and her unique creativity continues to inform us that art is life. It is in the perseverance of our dreams that we live the life we imagine. On the wall of his studio, John Biggers had a sign, On My Journey Now. As are we all.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

On My Journey Now — The Legacy of John Biggers has been supported through the efforts and the generosity of University Museum at Texas Southern University: Alvia J. Wardlaw, Ph.D., Director/Curator and Monica Vidal, Museum Registrar, Rev. Dr. Marcus D Cosby, Charles Criner, Drs. Jean and Robert Galloway, Earlie Hudnall, Jr., Herbert and Ava Jean Mears and Family, Michelle Barnes, Wanda Kissentanner, Eugene Foney, Sarah Trotty

and The Artists: John Biggers, Charles Criner, Diedre Curnell, Karl E. Hall, Earlie Hudnall, Jr., Harvey Johnson, Earl Jones, Josie Mendoza, Robert Meyers, Edward Mills, Trudell Mimms Obey, Katie Oliver, Kermit Oliver, Willie Mo'e, Annie Moore, Robert Pruitt, Bert Samples, Elizabeth Montgomery Shelton, Jesse Sifuentes, Charles L. Thomas, Roy Vinson Thomas, Roy Williams, and Henry Wilson

Introduction wall photograph: Earlie Hudnall, Jr.

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Selected works by Marta Chilindron and Graciela Hasper

January 25 – April 26, 2017

The vocabulary of Marta Chilindron and Graciela Hasper suggests straight forward clarity, a clear responsiveness to light infused by movement and color. They speak well together, harmoniously sharing innuendoes, all the while prodding discrete perceptions.

Marta Chilindron’s constructions are each based on a simple form: a circle, a square, a hexagon, a cube, a pyramid. But, as in all things, what is not so apparent is that the illusion of simple depth in Chilindron’s work can be complex. The sharply cut and hinged shapes can be folded, elongated, stacked, to form a variety of configurations. With a simple adjustment, a vastly different form emerges and the mind’s eye finds a new, and quite different, articulated image. The transference of light and shadow allow the work to tumble and dance. Sometimes playful, sometime pushy, the constructions invite a new perspective. She says, “I am looking for the engine of life; what keeps everything together and functioning. I use movement because it implies instability and illustrates the continuous change of our uncertain realities.”

Graciela Hasper’s multicolored layered shapes appear to be a simple overlaying of color and form. Her lines are handmade, no tape or rulers are used, and to amplify the hardedge of design, she layers her colors and shapes with delicate precision, eliminating the trace of a brushstroke. Influenced by the history of abstraction, she draws from the Latin American modernists, referencing also Malevich, El Lizzitsky and Mondrian. Hasper moves her lines and layers her colors with apparent simplicity, all the while suggesting there is always more to what you think you see. She says, “I’m looking for your eye not to rest. The painting will not let you be quiet, will move your eye…I’m looking for the movement.”

Marta Chilindron was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1951, grew up in Montevideo, Uruguay, and has lived in New York since 1969. Graciela Hasper was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1966. Both artists have traveled and exhibited their works extensively, creating large scale site specific installations to small, intimate encounters. Chilindron has said, “We all have a different idea of what reality is…” The works of both artists take us beyond what we clearly believe is obvious.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists and Sicardi Gallery, Houston

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Selection of works by Madeleine Dietz, Perla Krauze, Marion Reis, and Regine Schumann

February 16–June 1, 2017

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." -Henry David Thoreau

The renewal of the earth is the natural change which gives to each of us hope. It is the realignment of particles from which new life emerges. And light, in its inherent prismatic diffusion, is uplifting in its energy and in the spectrum of colors it offers. We are grounded by one and released by the other, and both, working together, speak to us of the profound unity of the forces we call nature.

Madeleine Dietz (born in Germany in 1953) recounts, “Earth you are, and to earth you shall return.” Earth is the matter from which living things grow. Life is inherent within it and her work explores earth in various shapes and states, including cracked surfaces. By enclosing varying earth forms within steel, she creates a tension between the change inherent in nature and the order and control of static steel.

Perla Krauze (born in Mexico in 1953) uses found natural objects such as stone, rocks, and sticks and preserves them by casting them in resin or aluminum. She captures the visible marks of our lives, a crack in the sidewalk, a fissure in a wall, and brings to our attention the rather ordinary we take for granted, and often rarely see. Cast in colored resin, her stones and cubes provide a dialogue with light and nature inviting us into a quiet and contemplative journey.

Mario Reis (born in Germany, 1953) is wonderfully organic in his medium and process as he collaborates with nature. His works are nature’s watercolors and capture the essence of the river itself which paints its own image. He places a blank stretched canvas on the shallow waters of a riverbed and waits for the fabric to collect sediment. Carefully retrieving the canvas, the sediment is allowed to dry and is submerged into an acrylic-acetate solution to preserve the natural pigments and the canvas. His river paintings capture the natural force and patterns only the water can leave behind.

Regine Schumann (born in Germany in 1961) explores color, light, and form in her constructions using fluorescent Plexiglas, plastic light cords and, occasionally a black light. Her objects are luminous and captivating, reflecting natural light and atmospheric changes. Contained in simple geometric forms, they come together reflecting a diverse layering of energy and the shifting of the perception of space. Space becomes new in the ever changing energy of light.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Selected works by Frances Bagley, Michael Dunbar, Jeff Forster, Jesse Lott, Richard Stout, and Charles T. Williams

April 18–June 15, 2017

Frances Bagley Beginning with a degree in painting, Frances Bagley transitioned to pottery then to sculpture employing many materials. Working to express the human form and the human condition, she works abstractly using the visual elements of line and balance. As in ceramics where we find such figurative elements as lip, foot, neck and belly, Bagley creates vessel figures, hollow, but containing space. In her sculpture, Reach, she is addressing the eternal desire for hope, the reaching up and forward, inherent in the human quest for sustaining answers. Fragile split cedar shingles, held by small pins, are cast in bronze using the lost wax process. The surface is painted with acids and heated, allowing the patina to reflect the ever changing surfaces of nature.

Michael Dunbar With meticulous precision, Michael Dunbar conforms steel and bronze to create momentarily dismantled measuring devices that seem to be on the brink of calculating aspects of the earth and the movement of the stars. They are ready to measure the earth and explore space. Ironically for all their anticipated motion, they are frozen, fabricated instruments, gigantic gears anticipating start-up. Strategically, Dunbar cleanly connects the arcs, planes and beams to create an instrument, or a portion of an instrument ready to do great things. Known for his monumental abstract works, installed publicly in several states, Dunbar also creates what he refers to as machinist studies, structures conceived for intimate appreciation.

Jeff Forster In reflecting on his work Jeff Forster comments, “Inspired by historical objects alongside the cast off agricultural equipment and dilapidated farm structures that dot the rural Minnesota landscape I grew up in, my creative research is an inquiry in the forces of entropy. Referencing the long story of ceramics I aim to create objects and installations that speak to decomposition and reflect the types of objects our culture is leaving behind while simultaneously investigating larger questions.” Foster has served on the board of ClayHouston as well as the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. Recently, Jeff received the first annual “Faculty of the Year’ award at the Glassell School of Art where he heads the Ceramics Program. Jesse Lott After finishing his studies at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1969, Jesse Lott recognized that art materials were expensive and turned to the discarded and dismembered treasures and ordinary objects found in an urban environment from which others had simply walked away. Using paper, wire, wood and found objects, Lott references historical, political and personal settings for his creative compass. His work reflects folk art and depicts heroes as well as the common person. As a teacher and mentor to emerging artists as well as to many recognized artists, he has demonstrated his commitment to lifelong learning and community building. Lott’s work has been widely exhibited throughout Texas, the South and in New York. In 2016, Jesse Lott received the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts from the Art League Houston. In reflecting on who and what an artist is, Lott has said, “Artists are entrusted with a metaphysical vision. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That means that many words have been entrusted to those to whom God has given the ability to create. When a pebble hits a pool, it starts a wave that covers the whole pool. The pebble is the concept. An artist puts out a concept and the concept changes the consciousness of the viewer, leading to a positive change in the pattern of his activity.”

Richard Stout Growing up in Beaumont, Texas, Richard Stout and his family recognized his early interest in art. After receiving a BFA from the School of Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Stout earned his MFA at the University of Texas at Austin. A consummate mentor and teacher, he taught at the University of Houston until his retirement in 1996. Richard Stout has felt his paintings and sculpture are closely aligned. Using the simple folded form as the basis for his sculpture, he has said, “Sculptures are abstract, but figurative in nature, evoking familiar friends, children and animals.” In 1999, Michael Tracey invited Richard to Mexico where he immediately began to launch into his sculpture. “It was one of those unique times where every gesture was a good one.” From the first group of his sculptural works shown, Stout remembers the irrepressible artist, Dick Wray, reached out and simply took one of Stout’s pieces for his personal collection! In 2004, Richard Stout was recognized Texas Artist of the Year by the Art League Houston.

Charles T. Williams (1918-1966) Born in Weatherford, Texas Charles Truett Williams lived and worked in the Fort Worth area from the late 1940s until his death in 1966. During World War II, Williams was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers and participated in the Normandy invasion. While serving in France he had the opportunity to see the works of Braque, Brancusi, Picasso and Miro, artists he had known only by reputation. The war opened important windows to Williams as it did for many soldiers. After the war, he received a BFA from Texas Christian University in 1952, followed by an MFA in 1955, also awarded by TCU. Casting, carving, welding, hammering and assembling found objects, Williams used his engineering experience to execute large outdoor organic abstract sculptures. He was just as adept in composing small, intimate, often whimsical works for friends. And his frequent visits to junkyards with friends such as Jim Love, provided the “found” materials for his assemblages. His studio was the social center for the Fort Worth art crowd as well as artists, collectors, and critics from Northeast Texas. Donald Vogel, longtime art observer and authority on Texas art reflected, “Charles T. Williams was the first significant modern sculptor of Texas. Only his unaggressive nature kept him from being acknowledged as the premier sculptor in Texas through the forties, fifties, and sixties. He died a young man at the age of forty-eight. The legacy he left is worthy of a second look, for he was the purest of sculptors, the most inventive, with a profound certainly of direction. He was an enchanter, a magician, a creator of magical things.” 

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists, Clarke and Associates, Houston, D.M. Allison Art, Houston, Karl Williams, Fort Worth, and William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston

Photos by Dawn Baxter

An installation of works by Adela Andea

May 18–September 8, 2017

The medium of the works of Adela Andea is light. And since this medium does not exist alone, the artist creates one unique lightscape after another, infusing herworks with new, energy efficient technology. Each cable connecting component is important to the overall design of her work and each cable is freshly positioned for the installation. Using recycled plastic materials, she manipulates light provoking lines of communication and forms of conversation uniquely interpreted by the viewer. Of her conversations in light she says, “My work relies on man-made materials to create artificial environments that suggest “beauty” assigned to the natural landscapes or environments. My installations insist on the visual transformation of inorganic into organic matter, and the blending of the organic with geometric.”

Technical equipment or objects inherently carry meaning, but it is in the overlaying, the imposition of color, and the infusion of found materials, that such meaning becomes new and grows organically. The electric storm over the prairie is captured to blend with the crystalline formations found deep in the earth’s rocky formations. The energy of light and color spilling over and inherent in a variety of forms takes each of us to a new place and does it over and over. This is a visual conversation that is never complete, but is continuously refreshed. It is an exploration of light, the most powerful and the most ephemeral phenomenon in the universe.

Born in Romania in 1976, Adela Andea came to the United States in 1999. Her work was included in several exhibitions in California, Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas. Cap Sciences, a center for scientific culture in Bordeaux, France, will host an exhibition of her work completed during her residency in France, opening in June 2017. Adela Andea graduated Valedictorian and Summa Cum Laude from the Painting program at the University of Houston. She holds a Master in Fine Arts in New Media with a minor in sculpture from the University of North Texas in Denton. She is currently an adjunct professor at Lone Star College and Houston Community College teaching 2D and 3D media, art appreciation and sculpture, and recently completed a permanent installation in the Human Sciences Building at Texas Tech University.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist and Anya Tish Gallery, Houston

Photos by Dawn Baxter

Selected works by Roberta Harris

June 2–September 5, 2017

What do we do when we wing it? Well, sometimes we trust ourselves to fate, we let go, probably unprepared, and we do the best we can. We improvise as if we were an understudy in the wings of the theater who didn’t quite learn all the lines, we push on.  We try to fly! We join our feathered friends and at times get a new perspective, an elevated look at a broader landscape.

These collected works by Roberta Harris, dating from 1995 to the present, firmly acknowledge the artist’s gutsy embrace of color and an energetic layering of a variety of materials to bring movement and message to the canvas. Her work is joyful and uplifting. It also takes us back in time with the simple and forthright imagery of birds, vines, leaves and flowers and paper cut out with precision. We see the lushness of a rich and steaming landscape and we encounter whimsy as well as thoughtful, poignant memories of challenge and resolution. A ladder appears suggesting a path to a new place, possibly a higher order. And the birds, sitting, hovering, flying, beckon each of us to courageously take wing as they do.

Born in New Jersey, Roberta Harris grew up in Houston. She was chosen for the Independent study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art and studied at Parson’s School of Design, Hunter College, University of Texas, and received a B.A. degree from the University of Houston. She has been a visiting lecturer at the Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth; the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; Brookhaven College, Dallas; University of Houston and the Menil Collection, Houston. Reflecting on her work, Harris states, “Throughout my career, through a variety of media, my mission as an artist has been to inspire hope and its corollaries — dialogue, joy, encouragement, strategy, peace, kindness, and imagination. This approach is not the least bit sentimental. Given the challenges that we face, hope demands courage, commitment, endurance and renewal – the best expressions of the human spirit.”  

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist

Photos by Dawn Baxter

Everyone know someone But not everyone knows everyone

September 18–November 17, 2017

The gulf coast is a fertile place, continuously reinventing itself and reasserting itself. And the city of Houston, teeming with diversity and expansion, continues to envision new frontiers, nurturing opportunity. This exhibition of some of the artists of our city and this dynamic region, captures the diversity of vision and intention, reflection and humor, heartfelt concern, and penetrating engagement. We find in the organic order of the delicate symmetry of nature, the strength of inherent light. And through a variety of media we are reminded, once again, that we all share in the commonplace and the extraordinary.

Artists: Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak, Michael Crowder, Karen Eisele, Carter Ernst, Sarah Fisher, Jay Giroux, Megan Harrison, Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Meredith Jack, Page Kempner, Cindee Travis Klement, Laura Lark, Mark Larsen, Caroline Layne, Kristin Musgnug, Vanessa Nasta, Russell Prince, Katya Vassilyeva, Debbie Wetmore, and Shang-Yi Hua

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists, Art Palace, Cindy Lisica Gallery, Devin Borden Gallery, Inman Gallery, Moody Gallery, Nicole Longnecker Gallery, and Rudolph Blume Fine Art/Art Scan Gallery

Photos by Dawn Baxter

Collected works by Daniel H. Phillips

September 19–November 15, 2017

The North Bennet Street School in Boston is renowned for its program which brings its students into the rare world of utilizing hundred year old hand tools to create extraordinary pieces which often reflect designs of the eighteenth century. Residing in Dallas, Daniel H. Phillips initially chose to become immersed in the Bennet School program to help him make sculpture. He wanted to “learn all the woodworking tricks.” He grew to find he loved making furniture also. The intimacy the artist feels with his materials is clear as he translates his drawings into furniture and works of sculpture. They offer a rare refinement in the hand tooled surfaces of each piece. The wood simply sings. The corners meticulously dovetail and the joints are clean and pure. There is clarity and a quiet moral consistency.

Phillips uses traditional hand tools because they are the right tools for the task. His detailed drawings are functional, but they also express a conversation with the idea that allows for growth and exchange. They are more than simple construction drawings. And his paintings are unplanned and simply “come out.” The formative lines are carefully brushed with color. Dan Phillips uses the techniques of yesteryear. He draws, paints, drafts with a free hand, and uses chisels, hand planes and saws to transform wood into quite refinement and sometimes into humor.

H.C. Westermann (1922–1981), an important and influential American sculptor, is a particular favorite of Phillips. At times playful and at other times reflecting strong moral feelings, Westermann addressed his materials with respect. He once remarked, “I feel that life is very fragile. We’re all just hanging by a thread; it’s very spooky. I can best come to grips with it by doing my work. I guess that’s why I am an artist.”

In our world layered with options and diversions, the works of Daniel H. Phillips extend a rarified simplicity to all of us.  

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artist and Webb Gallery, Waxahachie

Photos by Dawn Baxter

A Photographic Legacy Chronicling Black Society in Houston

February 7 – April 20, 2018

Louise Martin was born in Brenham, Texas. Her father was a waiter and her mother a maid. Her mother bought her first camera for her when she was eleven years old for $3.98, a Kodak box camera. Always focused and intense, Martin worked as a domestic to save money to pay for her studies. At that time, schools in the South only admitted white students to their photography courses, so Louise Martin made enough money to attend the Art Institute of Chicago and the American School of Photography in Chicago. The only black woman at the time, she also enrolled at the Denver School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. In the early 1950s she became a member of the Rocky Mountain Association and in 1952 was asked to join Southwestern Photographers Convention. She remained active with both organizations and won several competitive photographic awards.

In 1946, Louise Martin opened her first studio, Louise Martin Art Studio, in Houston’s Third Ward. She became the society photographer for the black community capturing families, soldiers, pageants, organizations, weddings and events of significant importance to her community. She was indefatigable, organizing in 1952 at the Louise Martin Art Studio, an exhibition described as,“one of the largest, most colorful and complete art exhibits to be held in Houston…featuring photography, oil painting, pastels, ceramics and sculpture.” Her studio sponsored the First Annual Photo Baby Club Contest, and from 1973 – 1976, she provided a sixteen week course of study in photography. Among many professional accolades Louise Martin received during her long career, she was particularly please to be named in 1967 Outstanding Business Woman of the Year by the Houston League of Business and Professional Women.

Louise Martin had never heard of Martin Luther King, Jr. when she took his picture at the graduating class ceremony of Houston’s Irma Hughes Business College in 1958. King was a stand-in speaker for the President of Morehouse College who couldn’t attend. Ten years later, she was one of only two female photographers with press credentials to cover the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 9, 1968. Two of her photographs of this far reaching ceremony are held in the collection of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The service at Ebenezer Baptist Church began at 10:30 a.m., followed by a march of all attending to Morehouse College for the second service which began at 2:00 p.m. Recalling the day, Martin said, “They all laughed when I came up with my old Graflex…my lenses were so good, I even got the cracks in the wagon.” Documenting the historic event placed Louise Martin in rarefied company. She knew exactly when to snap the shutter and record for us, all of us, the pathos and the deep sadness felt by our nation and the world.

Louise Martin spent her lifetime documenting with clarity the vital, gracious, and extraordinary black community of Houston. Her legacy continues, and it all began with a Kodak box camera.

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In collaboration with the artists, Sarah A. Trotty, Ph.D. from the Willy and Sarah Trotty Collection—SAIMM

With thanks to Ida and Hubert Thompson and The Midtown Arts Center

Photographs by Dawn Baxter

Selections from the Mosaic Art of Chris Silkwood

February 12 – May 14, 2018

Creating imagery and pattern in mosaic is centuries old, 4,000 years or more. Initially terracotta cones were used for background decoration, and by the eighth century BCE, pavements embellished with pebbles provided free form decoration to those on the path. The Greeks in the fourth century BCE raised the decoration of the pebbles to a true art form, creating detailed images of people, the Greek gods and goddesses, daily life, the four seasons. The floors of Hellenistic villas and Roman dwellings were enriched by the imagery of the stones imbedded in the earthen floor. From the fifth century forward, the Byzantine Empire, embraced the art form, decorating their ceilings and floors with light refracting glass. The small glass pieces, tesserae, glued to a backing, created intimate images of great detail and depth. The Islamic designs were primarily geometric and mathematical. They were and are patterns of forms and numbers, enriched by exquisite color design.

The mosaic art form is the gathering of thousands of broken pieces of glass, of little stones of relatively little value, thoughtfully placed in patterns exuding light which is stunningly beautiful. The fragments of light and color, the transparency of reflected energy create beautiful reservoirs, compositions of durable depth.

Chris Silkwood learned the art of mosaic approximately fifteen years ago while studying with the artists of ArtBusters, a respected mosaic studio in Brisbane, Australia. She furthered her studies at the Mosaic Art School in Ravenna, Italy. While her work reflects the classical in the materials she uses, her designs are contemporary, capturing the energy of the world around her.

In considering her work, Chris Silkwood reflects, “My Houston is a city of texture, expansive color, bikeways and greenbelts, architectural magnificence, waterways and highways and an abundance of diverse and exciting personalities that motivate, move us forward and continuously challenge our way of being. This exhibition captures the city around me. It is my inspiration. For me, it is Houston.”

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the Artist

Photographs courtesy of Chris Silkwood