These questions permeate through every page of this issue, echoing far beyond gallery walls. In uncertain times, art remains essential. It invites interpretation, reflection, sometimes confrontation. And it has the rare power to unify while embracing contradiction.
Art is not static. It is shaped by the world that surrounds it: by migration and memory, protest and progress, technology and tradition. At ArtHouston, we strive to chronicle this dynamic evolution, locally and globally.
In this issue, one of our writers, Morgan Cronin, takes on the ambitious task of checking the pulse of the art scenes in both Houston and New York, interviewing a range of artists working in sculpture, painting, photography, and more. From established voices to rising talents, the conversations explore how these creators are navigating identity, place, and the shifting cultural currents of our time. Their insights offer not just a snapshot, but a mirror, and perhaps even a compass, for where art might be headed.
Houston continues to grow as an artistic capital, and the conversations here are richer for being in dialogue with national and international perspectives. As always, we are proud to highlight the artists, institutions, and movements shaping the city’s vibrant creative fabric. This fall, Untitled Art fair arrives in Houston for the first time, banking on the strength of our city’s world-class art institutions, distinguished galleries, and the exceptional artists who form the backbone of our creative community.
Art will always be a force that reminds us who we are, and who we still might become.
Yours faithfully,
John Bernhard
Joh n
Photo by Hall Puckett
Curated
Framing
ART & SEA BREEZE
Rockport Center for the Arts
ARTS LEADER
Houston Arts Alliance
The Houston Arts Alliance has appointed Taylor Jackson as its new CEO, marking a historic first as both the organization’s first woman and first person of color in the role. Previously HAA’s Interim CEO and Director of Grants, Jackson brings a strong record in equity-focused arts funding. She led initiatives that doubled grant applications and launched community-informed funding processes. Board Chair Michele Leal Farah praised Jackson’s “visionary leadership” and commitment to innovation. Jackson, formerly Executive Director at Providence ¡CityArts!, holds degrees from Brown University and Rhodes College. She succeeds John Abodeely, who served from 2017 to 2024.
A DEBATE TO THE DEATH
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Comedians Ronny Chieng and Hasan Minhaj are taking their outrage on the road. This fall, the duo brings their hate-fueled tour to Houston, presented by the Hobby Center on October 5, 2025. Billed as a “Debate to the Death,” the show takes on America’s most pressing issues: Presidents, War, the Economy, Immigration, Dating, and even the impending Race War, all with biting satire and zero decorum. Forget calls for unity. This is a night of pure pettiness, where grievances are aired, and no topic is too sacred.
Think CNN Townhall, but more unhinged. Are you in? the Economy, Immigration, Infrastructure, Food, Dating, Family Values, and of course, the impending Race War. This is not a call for peace. It’s a call for pettiness. Are you in?
Houston art lovers, discover a coastal cultural gem just a short drive away— Rockport Center for the Arts. This vibrant hub offers a rotating lineup of compelling exhibitions from top regional and national artists, housed in a stunning bayside facility complete with
sculpture garden and classroom spaces. From thoughtprovoking paintings to dynamic textile art, RCA’s fall season promises inspiration for all tastes. Make it a weekend escape: explore the galleries, stroll the shore, and experience one of Texas’s premier art destinations. Visit rockportartcenter.com to plan your trip. Art, sea breeze, and discovery await.
ARTFUL ESCAPE
Pearl Fincher MFA
Discover world-class art just around the corner at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, a must-see destination in Northwest Houston. Since 2008, this vibrant and welcoming museum has brought exceptional rotating exhibitions drawn from renowned public and private collections. With a rich calendar of educational programs, community events, and hands-on experiences, the Pearl offers an inspiring destination for art lovers of all ages. Visit pearlmfa.org to learn more.
Taylor Jackson Photos courtesy of The Houston Arts Alliance.
SCULPTURE TRAIL
True North 2025
Sculpture Returns to the Heights Boulevard Esplanade
Eight striking new sculptures have taken root along Houston’s iconic Heights Boulevard for the twelfth installment of True North , the city’s acclaimed temporary public art installation. Named after the compass bearing of the boulevard itself, True North transforms the 60-foot-wide esplanade into an open-air gallery, featuring works by both established and emerging Texas artists.
This year’s featured artists— Elizabeth Akamatsu, Olaniyi R.
Akindiya AKIRASH, Amanda Barry Jones, Susan Budge, Dave Clark, Tim Glover, Felicia Schneider, and Ben Woitena —have installed large-scale pieces that weave through the trees and trails of the historic Heights neighborhood. The artworks are best experienced on foot along the 1.5-mile path, though they’re also visible to cyclists and drivers.
Launched in 2013 by Redbud Arts Center founder Gus Kopriva in partnership with local artist Chris Silkwood, True North is
organized by a dedicated volunteer team with support from the Houston Heights Association and the City of Houston. This core team—Donna Bennett, Dean Ruck, Gus Kopriva, Chris Silkwood, and Kelly Simmons—continues to guide the project with vision and passion.
Despite setbacks in 2024, including damage from a powerful derecho and Hurricane Beryl, the team, along with city departments and local volunteers, has worked tirelessly to restore the boulevard’s natural and artistic beauty. Special thanks go to Bartlett Tree Experts for remediating a post-storm fungus outbreak affecting sculpture sites.
As artist and team member Dean Ruck notes, “Temporary public sculpture brings vitality to communities and liberating opportunities to artists amongst us.” Once again, True North invites Houston to explore imagination in the open air.
Clockwise from top: Ben Woitena - Mandatory-Dogs , Susan Budge - Cosmic-Kachinas, Olaniyi R. Akindiya AKIRASH - Bright-Days-Ahead, Amanda Barry Jones - Nature Reclaims-Wood Pile, Tim Glover - Margys-Menagerie, Elizabeth Akamatsu - Saty, Felicia Schneider - On-Your-Mark , Dave Clark P.O.D.S.
AN EVENING WITH JANE FONDA
Performing Arts Houston
A cultural icon and tireless advocate for a better world
Performing Arts Houston is thrilled to welcome Jane Fonda to Jones Hall on Monday, October 20, 2025, at 7:30 PM, for “An Evening with Jane Fonda”—a rare, intimate night of storytelling, insight, and inspiration.
A trailblazer whose career spans over fifty years and more than fifty films, Fonda is celebrated not only as an actor but as a producer, author, activist, and fitness pioneer. The event promises an in-depth look into her dynamic journey—from her Oscarwinning performances in Klute and Coming Home, to her decades-long dedication to human rights and environmental causes, as well as her
enduring influence as a wellness icon.
Tickets start at just $39, offering Houston audiences the unique opportunity to engage with a two-time Academy Award winner, cultural legend, and inspiring advocate. Whether you admire her cinematic achievements, activism, or fitness legacy, this evening is your chance to hear her speak candidly and passionately on her life’s work and what lies ahead .
Don’t miss it! Reserve your seat now for a memorable conversation and celebration of one of America’s most impactful public figures, live at Jones Hall.
CHINATI WEEKEND RETURNS
Marfa, TX
In October 1987, Donald Judd inaugurated what would become the cherished tradition of Chinati Weekend, inviting friends, artists, and members of the local and international community to gather in Marfa for a weekend of open viewing, special exhibitions, talks, music, and shared meals—all free and open to the public.
Since then, Chinati Weekend has evolved into a cornerstone of the Chinati Foundation’s programming and a much-anticipated cultural event for the entire West Texas region.
The 2025 Chinati Weekend will take place from Friday, October 10 through Sunday, October 12, coinciding with the seasonal opening of new exhibitions across Marfa’s galleries.
A highlight of the weekend is the Saturday night benefit dinner, which supports the Chinati Foundation’s ongoing efforts in preservation and public programming.
Jane Fonda, photo by John Russo
From top: Robert Irwin, untitled (dawn to dusk), 2016. Donald Judd, 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, 1982-1986. Dan Flavin, untitled (Marfa project), 1996. Permanent collection, the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas. All photography by John Bernhard
CraftTexas 2025
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Get ready for a dynamic showcase where innovation meets tradition and today’s most compelling craft artists take center stage.
This fall, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) presents CraftTexas 2025 , the twelfth in a series of juried exhibitions highlighting the best in Texas-made contemporary craft.
Juried by Abraham Thomas, the Daniel Brodsky Curator of Modern Architecture, Design, and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the exhibit includes 50 pieces by 49 artists, highlighting works that speak to diverse themes, including caregiving and expanded approaches to quilting and landscape exploration, while challenging craft boundaries through the innovative use of found and repurposed materials.
Autumn returns, and with it, the quiet rustle of silhouettes taking shape in the cavernous heart of the Silos. Sculpture Month Houston presents its ninth annual exhibition, Re-Figurations , a continuation of Fragmented Figure , though this new chapter looks further and deeper. Here, the human form is not only fractured but transformed, shaped through the strange lens of modern alchemy known as Artificial Intelligence. There is promise in this, mystifying and seductive, like a dream half-remembered. Yet beneath that gleam lies an unease that cannot be easily named. When the genome is edited, when thoughts are linked to machines, what remains of the self?
Ancient myths have already rehearsed this future. They gave us chimeras, cyborgs, and artificial beings, prophetic shadows of
The CraftTexas series provides a unique opportunity for Texas artists to have their work viewed by a nationally recognized juror and displayed in an exhibition that strives to broaden the understanding of contemporary craft. From over 350 submissions, Thomas selected works that exemplify the diversity of contemporary craft in Texas. In his juror’s statement, he shared: CraftTexas 2025 demonstrate that craft remains a vital and relevant means of cultural expression, addressing contemporary concerns while honoring deep material traditions. These selected works collectively highlight that Texas continues to nurture some of the most compelling
what now stands not in legend, but beneath the gallery lights. The public is invited beginning Saturday, October 4, 2025. The exhibition continues through November 22. This year also brings the Biennial Festival. Thanks to generous support from the Houston Arts Alliance and the City of Houston, over forty venues will take part in a citywide celebration of sculpture. Most Saturdays, following the 2 p.m. tours, special programs will unfold.
At SITE Gallery Houston, the artists gather: Victor Blanchard, Elizabeth Chapin, Celia Eberle, Dave Greber, Clara Hoag, Dion Laurent, Tala Madani, Jack Massing, Patrick Medrano, McKay Otto, Jonathan Read, Patrick Renner, Chris Sauter, James Sullivan, Kamila Szczesna, and Nestor Topchy.
From left:
Jane Eggers, Artichoke, 2023, Clay, 22x12x6 in. Photo by Eve Chenu. Younha Jung, 77023, 2023. Steel, 6.5x20.5x2.5 in. Photo by Hugh Hargrave.
Julia Gabriel, Intermittent Comms, 2025 Cotton Fabric , reclaimed shirts, photo transfer. 35x48 in. Photo Julia Gabriel Weber.
Last Artist Standing
SHARON LOUDEN
A look at how seasoned artists stay relevant and inspire new generations. Last Artist Standing presents essays on the lives of thirty-one artists over the age of fifty, which explore how they have sustained their creative lives and the different paths they have taken throughout their artistic careers. By sharing these artists’ stories, this book hopes to offer examples of living an engaged and creative life that can be replicated across all age groups, both within and beyond the art world. Intellect Ltd
Nuyorican and Diasporican Visual Art
ARLENE DÁVILA
Although Puerto Rican artists have always been central figures in contemporary American and international art worlds, they have largely gone unrecognized. This volume provides a critical survey of Puerto Rican art production in the United States from the 1960s to the present. Duke University Press
The Art of Ricardo Lowenberg
RICARDO LOWENBERG
Renowned Houston painter and sculptor Ricardo Lowenberg has released The Art of Ricardo Lowenberg, a visually striking, largeformat coffee table book that turns any living space into a gallery. This limited-edition publication is a masterful blend of imagery, storytelling, and design—an essential addition for art lovers, collectors, and interior design connoisseurs alike. Lowenberg’s work radiates brilliance and reflects the cultural richness and creative power of Houston’s vibrant art scene. www.ricardolowenberg.art
Why Cy?
TACITA DEAN
Why Cy , an artist’s book by Tacita Dean, is a photographic response to a night Dean spent in the Cy Twombly Gallery in February 2024. Featuring immersive and hypnotic color and black-and-white photographs, as well as a separate booklet of notes by the artist, Why Cy is a surprising, meditative expression of Dean’s close relationship to the artist and his work. MACK and The Menil Collection
Short Stories
JOHN BERNHARD
Short Stories is a vivid collection shaped by the pursuit of freedom, the weight of memory, and the enduring allure of the American Dream. With the eye of an artist and the soul of an immigrant, John Bernhard brings to life the people and places that left their mark on him, from lost lovers and chance encounters to the strange poetry found in exile. A striking debut in short fiction by a storyteller who has seen the American Dream from the inside out. ArtPub
Yayoi Kusama
LEONTINE COELEWIJ
The definitive catalog offering an in-depth exploration of Yayoi Kusama’s seven-decade career, including rare early works and new productions. This catalog accompanies the Fondation Beyeler’s major autumn 2025 exhibition in Switzerland dedicated to the celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (born 1929). HATJE CANTZ
Lenice Colangelo
Lenice Colangelo explores a range of media, from drawing and painting to ceramics and jewelry. Her work begins with bold mark-making using charcoal and mixed media to depict figures or landscapes. She carefully balances shapes and spaces, giving equal weight to background and form. Layers of mixed media enhance the expressive, emotional tone of each piece. www.lenicecolangelo.com
Lee Broom
At a time when the demand for portable lighting continues to rise, Chant offers a sophisticated alternative to the norm. Its distinct geometric form and use of hand-blown glass in place of plastic sets it apart in the category, bringing craftsmanship, tactility, and purity of design to a practical object. www.leebroom.com
Lenice Colangelo, Hidden Strength
2025, mixed media on canvas, 48 x24 in.
Alejandro Gutierrez & Romain Froquet
A collaborative painting between Texas/Mexico artist Alejandro Gutierrez and France’s Romain Froquet, a curated project titled Dialogues by Yvonamor Palix Fine Arts. @ypfinearts
Martha Tuttle
In her multidisciplinary practice, Martha Tuttle explores the physical and spiritual relationship between humans and the natural world. Tuttle combines elements of painting, textile, sculpture, and installation in her abstract compositions, highlighting the textures and translucency of the natural materials she employs. www.pazdabutler.com
Alejandro Gutierrez and Romain Froquet, Veil, 2025 Acrylic and Oil on canvas 70 x 48 in.
Martha Tuttle, The Colors of a Cholla Cactus After Rain in the Late Summer or Early Fall
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM HOUSTON
by SABRINA BERNHARD
Tomashi Jackson: Across the Universe at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (on view through March 29, 2026) surveys nearly a decade of work, showcasing her interdisciplinary approach across painting, printmaking, video, photography, fiber, and sculpture.
Rooted in research and deeply engaged with history, Jackson’s vibrant practice draws on California mural traditions and mid20th century social movements. Her work interrogates systems of power while honoring the achievements of communities of color. Using textiles, paper, archival images, earthen materials, and ephemera, she creates layered compositions, merging geometric abstraction, expressionism, and halftone crosshatching, that explore how legislation shapes lived experience.
Recent pieces are mounted on awning-like structures that
extend into space, casting colored vinyl lines onto walls, evoking shelter and projection both literally and symbolically.
“This opportunity to share more than ten years of my work visualizing public narratives across disciplines to the city of my birth is a long-held dream come true,” says Jackson.
CAMH Co-Director and Chief Curator Ryan N. Dennis adds, “I was able to get to know Tomashi through our work together in 2015 at Project Row Houses. It’s a privilege to bring her major survey show to Houston at a time when her work connecting social movements and legislation is more timely than ever.”
Jackson’s practice reveals progress as a constellation of moments, circling through legal and social change. Her works document the ongoing struggle for enfranchisement and the structural imprint of civic action.
Tomashi Jackson, I see Fields of Green (Put the Ball Through the Hoop), 2022. Acrylic, mixed media. Image courtesy of the artist and Tilton Gallery.
heir eyes The world through t
Eight artists reflect on the past, present, and future of art
by MORGAN CRONIN
If you’re reading this, you have likely found yourself wandering the corridors of Houston’s Sawyer Yards, or one of the many galleries in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, or somewhere else entirely—the experience is all the same—white walls adorned with magnificent canvases, striking photographs, and sculptures that tower overhead as you walk the halls. You’ve probably found yourself ensnared by gravity, pulled by a work so mesmerizing that you can’t help but stare into the constructed world created by the artist. This is what art does. It moves us.
When J ohn Bernhard, publisher and editor-in-chief of ArtHouston Magazine, asked me to write this article and told me I have “carte blanche,” I was paralyzed. What does
one write, what does one say, when they can say anything? I didn’t have the answer, so I asked eight artists to find out what it means to create in a world that is constantly shifting and evolving through personal, political, cultural, and technological lenses.
“For me, it’s sort of like breathing,” says Syd Moen , a 360° photographer who uses digital manipulation to challenge space and time.
“I’m tryin g to show a big picture. I know that sounds simple, but there’s a lot to the big picture that sometimes we’re so focused on one thing, we don’t see the things behind us.”
A s she says this, I’m scrolling through her website, viewing photographs of 360° images from an aerial view
Above: Syd Moen Opposite page: Chu Okoli
Opposite
Next
From top clockwise: Deborah Bay, Nick Daddazio, Valentina Atkinson, Robert Forte
page: Alessandra Albin
page: Vincent Fink
that depict some of Houston’s favorite landmarks like the skyline, White Oak Music Hall, River Oaks Theater, and Rothko Chapel. Each shot, perfectly encapsulated, serves as a callback to Moen’s minor in historical preservation.
“When researching a building, a family, anything, we
often look at photographs. They’re touchstones that bring us back to who we are, where we live, our memories, and I think that’s so important. It’s a sign of our time,” Moen says. “It’s a connection to a different era and people who have come before us.”
Deborah Bay , a photographer who specializes in constructed studio photography, with collections like The Big Bang, which explores gun violence and the impact on plexiglass, and similarly on the body through muscle and bone, says, “It’s the best of times, and the worst of times.”
With new tools and an ever-changing landscape, art, in many ways, is becoming more democratic. For photographers, digital cameras have created new, more cost-effective ways to work and manipulate photographs. Technology has made the process more streamlined and accessible through platforms like social media, and digital marketplaces, which didn’t exist 30 years ago, but by the same token, platform and visibility don’t necessarily translate to sales.
For Chu Okoli , an artist whose paintings incorporate a trademark technique inspired by life and the prose of the universe, he notes that social media and other online platforms are great for promotion and visibility, but not necessarily where buyers or collectors are finding his work.
“My collectors are mostly people who are settled in life. I try not to spend too much time on sites like Instagram, which draws a younger audience who isn’t buying my work. Most of my collectors are not on social media,” says Okoli. Inst ead of posting, or scrolling, or swiping, Okoli encourages mentees and other artists to do what they love, “Do what you love, and your people will find what you love.”
Artist and abstract watercolorist Valentina Atkinson , equates the process to music saying, “Sometimes I compare painting to jazz. There’s rhythm and it’s very logical, and like jazz, it can be surprising, like with the little tap-tap when the drums come in unexpectedly,” she says. “I like the feeling it gives me. Art is about expressing emotions and connecting people.”
Alessandra Albin , who is a painter and sculptor, holds a similar belief. “I have this idea that we are made of small pieces,” she says. “I am not an artist who works by herself. I open my studio to everyone, especially colleagues so that we can discuss. I am not afraid of going to another studio and saying, ‘Please help me, I am lost in this drawing that I am doing.’ Critique is very important, as is community, maybe more important than showing to the public.”
On a Th ursday, I find myself perusing galleries in the Landmark Arts Building on 28th Street in Chelsea. Inside Atlantic Gallery, during the closing reception for Robert Forte ’s Art Matters, I come across a work that
strikes me, an all-black canvas with bursts of color: vibrant shades of blue, red, green, and yellow depicting two shadowy figures under a railway bridge, standing on the platform alongside the tracks. What first strikes me is the use of color, particularly the contrast of brightness against the black canvas and shadows. My impression is that this is a work that holds secrets, but more so, a work that paints over the secrets, the shadows, with color.
I a sk Forte about the piece and he tells me the work is a reimagining of his childhood growing up in the Bronx. He had constructed the painting from memory and imagined the scene set beneath the subway and Long Island Railroad.
“The ele vated railway painting is very personal, not only does it go back to my childhood when I was very frightened by the form of transportation, but back to my mother who made me more frightened by grabbing my hands and holding me back away from the edge. There’s a lot of anxiety in the painting but also grown-up anxiety in the form of the two adult figures meeting in the shadows, which is how I merge my personal emotion.”
Forte tells me he enjoys using figures to tell stories. “The key to abstraction is you don’t tell the viewer what you’re painting,” he says.
For surrealist artists like Vincent Fink , whose work captures the multidimensional through painting, sculpture and drawing, often exploring sacred geometry and sacred patterns, he says, “Novelty is the holy grail of art.”
In his art, F ink seeks to tap into the sense of awe and inspiration that comes with exploring the mystery of self and the world. He holds the belief that, “everything is vibration,” and that “all knowledge in the universe can be accessed,” whether through the Akashic Records or collective consciousness, he says, “I believe that unending curiosity unlocks a better world. I create art that sparks discovery and rewards the viewer with a deeper sense of connection within themselves and with reality.”
I a sk my neighbor, Nick Daddazio , a sculptor, sketch artist, and playwright to weigh in on the plight of the modern artist. He says, “What’s important is the artist. You do it because it’s the only thing you want to do. Success is being able to make a living from your art.”
For artists, to make art truly is like breathing. And as Daddazio says, “You either make art or die,” but in a world where identity, technology, culture, and politics blur, maybe the better question is: What will we breathe into next?
GYULA KOSICE:
THE FIRST U.S. SURVEY OF THE PIONEERING ARGENTINE ARTIST,
INTERGALACTIC
WHOSE VISIONARY WORK FUSED POETRY, LIGHT, AND SPACE TO IMAGINE NEW WORLDS BEYOND OUR OWN.
by ARTHUR DEMICHELI
In the hush between stars and circuitry, between poetry and invention, the name Gyula Kosice glows like a neon filament. This fall, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston lifts the veil on Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic , the first major U.S. survey of the Argentine visionary whose work shimmered with utopian light.
Born Ferdinand Fallik in the twilight of Czechoslovakia, and reborn in Buenos Aires as a poet of plastic and plasma, Kosice (1924–2016) conjured floating cities, kinetic dreams, and sculptures that breathed, dripped, and flickered with life. Opening October 26, the exhibition unveils more than seventy works, illuminated with water, air pumps, light, and gas, offering a portal into the future he once imagined.
Kosice was a prominent figure in the international avant-garde of the mid-20th century, and co-founder of both Arturo (1944) and Madí (1946), two constructiveart groups based in Buenos Aires. His practice introduced original artistic ideas, including interactive sculptures, which questioned the relationship between object and spectator, as well as cutout frames which transformed the painting into a ludic object. He also experimented with a wide range of materials, such as neon tubes and various types of plastics, many of which had rarely been used in art at the time and was the first artist to ever incorporate water as an artistic medium. Like his contemporaries Julio Le Parc and Carlos Cruz-Diez, Kosice also incorporated light and motion into his work.
In the 19 60s and 1970s plastic was seen as the material of the future, and its use in art production represented a
radical transformation of the product’s function. Kosice’s pioneering use of plastic involved researching things like its durability, malleability, the use of adhesives and polishing.
In line with this approach, the exhibition is grounded in extensive material research into the use of plastic conducted by María Amalia García and Mari Carmen Ramírez, the curators of the show, who worked with scientists and conservation specialists affiliated with MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) and the MFAH.
Intergalactic focuses on Kosice’s experimental production, in which material research and movement were constant and essential features. The large-scale survey includes works that the artist created between 1950 and 1980, including acrylic sculptures, kinetic reliefs and drops of water, most of which incorporated lights and were activated by aerators and motors. In exploring how art could utilize architecture and environmental science to address issues of climate change and socioeconomic inequality, Kosice’s work was especially prescient.
“Our 2009 acquisition of Gyula Kosice’s masterpiece, The Hydrospatial City , is witness to our commitment to acquire and display the extraordinary works of art that emerged in Latin America in the 20th century, by Kosice and his many contemporaries,” commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH. “We are delighted to co-organize this traveling exhibition with our partner institutions, and we welcome back The Hydrospatial City after its travels to MALBA in Buenos Aires and the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.”
Opposite page: Gyula Kosice, Constelaciones no. 2 (detail) from The Hydrospatial City, 1971, acrylic, paint, and light. Courtesy of the MFAH, museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment.
“Gyula Kosice’s radical vision continues to challenge us, with novel ideas about society, the environment and art that seem as forward-thinking now as they were more than a half-century ago,” commented Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham curator of Latin American art at the MFAH and director of the museum’s International Center for the Arts of the Americas. “Kosice’s fascination with technology, and his commitment to expressing the possibilities of a hopeful future, led to the groundbreaking works of art that we are presenting.”
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Kosice’s most ambitious work, The Hydrospatial City (1946–2004), from the MFAH collection. An experimental, room-size installation that was fundamental to the artist’s explorations throughout his six decades of production, The Hydrospatial City challenges the limits of earth-bound life by imagining selfcontained pods for habitation in the atmosphere.
Kosice’s earliest iterations of the project, in 1946, were at first conceptual, as he sketched the work in manifestos, poems, drawings and brass maquettes that have since been lost. Kosice then began work on its current form: an
ambitious installation of architectural sculpture consisting of seven lighted constellations and 19 hydrospatial habitat models. Imagining a livable, transparent utopia floating a kilometer and a half above the Earth, The Hydrospatial City is driven by hydrogen and oxygen extracted from water vapor in the clouds. Conventional divisions of the home—with functionally dictated rooms like kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms—are replaced with new forms of modular habitats. The nomadic hydrospatial life envisioned by Kosice paves the way for a new form of coexistence wherein a playful, emotional version of mankind is encouraged. In doing so, The Hydrospatial City reinvents the experience of community living.
To walk among Kosice’s creations is to drift between substance and speculation, to stand ankle-deep in the tides of a mind that refused to be tethered to Earth. His art does not merely reflect the world; it reinvents it, piece by piece, in light and motion. At the MFAH, Intergalactic is not just an exhibition. It is a voyage, a quiet invitation to imagine what might come after gravity, after borders, after now.
This fall, the Menil Collection unfurls a luminous tribute to one of modern art’s boldest spirits. Robert Rauschenberg:
Fabric Works of the 1970s is not a retrospective in the usual sense, it is a curtain drawn back on a seldom-seen
chapter, light catching on gauze, memories suspended in the folds of cotton and lace. Organized in celebration of
the artist’s centennial and in partnership with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the exhibition opens September 19, 2025, and will run through March 1, 2026.
Rauschenberg was born in the heat and salt of Port Arthur, Texas, a refinery town where ships drift close enough to touch and the air tastes of brine. The son of a working-class family, he escaped first into the Navy, then into the sanctums of New York’s postwar art world. By the mid-1960s, he was being called the most important American artist since Pollock, and perhaps more unpredictable.
In the 1970s, he turned to cloth. Not as costume or canvas, but as material, a tactile alphabet from which he could stitch meaning. Diaphanous silks, used drop cloths, mosquito net, stained muslin and sailcloth. He draped, knotted, propped and suspended them. They didn’t merely hang, they breathed.
The Menil’s director, Rebecca Rabinow, spoke of a personal bond. “Robert was a close friend of the museum. He first met the museum’s founders John and Dominique de Menil in the early 1960s. He attended the inauguration of the museum in 1987 and subsequently was the subject of several major exhibitions organized by the Menil’s curators. We are proud to continue this lineage and work with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
to mark the centennial of the artist’s birth, directing attention to an intriguing yet understudied facet of Rauschenberg’s oeuvre.”
The show follows a path shaped by breeze and memory. It begins with the Venetians (1972–73), ghostlike constructions of netting, chairs, shoelaces, all objects as vulnerable as the city that gave them their name. In Sant’Agnese (1973), netting hangs between two battered chairs
like an unspoken conversation, tender and private.
Next come the Hoarfrosts (1974 to 1976), where Rauschenberg printed images from newsprint onto sheer cloth. He layered them like whispers, translucent sheets catching light and time, as fragile as frost blooming on a winter leaf. The name, he said, came from the way they shimmered.
The Jammers followed (1975 to 1976). Bright, unstructured, some -
times playful, these works evoke breeze-blown sails. Defined by unadorned swaths of often brightly hued cloth and silks supported by propped lightweight sticks, they owe as much to Rauschenberg’s 1975 residency in Ahmedabad, India, a city famous for its textile industry, as they do to his love of windsurfing along the Gulf Coast.
Michelle Whit e, Senior Curator at the Menil, said, “This exhibition looks at Rauschenberg’s fascinating use of woven materials in the 1970s, which reflect his career-long interest in not only the intersection of art and life, for which the artist has become so well known, but his acumen with fabric stemming from his early interest in fashion design and deep understanding of how woven material can so beautifully relate to the body.”
The sho w concludes with two collaborations from the late 1970s that showcase Rauschenberg’s long career in set and costume design for avant-garde choreography. The artist created Tantric Geography , a set with dramatic and colorful billowing curtains created for the piece Travelogue , 1977, in partnership with longtime collaborators, musician John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. Also on display is documentation of the televised dance performance of Brazos River , 1976, featuring sets and costumes created by Rauschenberg. This hypnotic and fabric-filled broadcast of a dance by Viola Farber sets the stage for the dynamic place fabric played for the arts in this pivotal decade.
At every turn, there is an intimacy to these works. They seem created not for permanence, but for sensation. “This is more than a celebration,” said Courtney J. Martin, Executive Director of the Rauschenberg Foundation. “It is an invitation to rediscover Rauschenberg through a new lens, as Centennial exhibitions across the globe illuminate the depth and diversity of his transdisciplinary vision.”
The exhibition carries personal echoes. John and Dominique de Menil bought their first Rauschenberg in 1961, when his reputation was still tender. They continued to collect his works as his star rose. When Walter Hopps, a Rauschenberg champion, became the Menil’s founding director in 1981, the bond deepened. Hopps brought several exhibitions to Houston, including The Early 1950s (1991), the monumental retrospective (1998), and Cardboards and Related Pieces (2007). Each traced a different arc through the artist’s restless, radiant career.
And now, as if drawn once again by the scent of the Gulf and the breath of fabric lifting in a gallery’s still air, Rauschenberg returns to Houston. Not with noise or fanfare, but with cloth, with softness, with light. His fabric works hang like memory itself, weightless, luminous, and hard to hold.
His fabric works hang like memory itself, weightless , luminous, and hard to hold .
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Venetian), 1973. Cardboard, driftwood, and fabric, 90 × 28 1/2 × 110 in.
After two decades of friendship, three of Broadway’s brightest stars are reuniting on stage for a night that promises music, mischief, and memories. Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now! brings together Tony nominee Kerry Butler, Tony nominee Laura Bell Bundy, and Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur for their first performance together since the original cast of Hairspray took Broadway by storm.
With sixteen Broadway shows between them, these powerhouse performers return with wigs, props, and full choreography in tow. Through song and story, they revisit their origins, rise to fame, backstage adventures, and personal transformations, from co-stars to mothers and lifelong friends.
The show is a joyful journey through the golden era of their careers, featuring showstoppers from Hairspray, Legally Blonde, Wicked, Beetlejuice, Xanadu, Gypsy, and more.
Audiences can expect a nostalgic mix of Broadway classics and pop anthems from Little Shop of Horrors, Titanique, The Sound of Music, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast , and even Gloria Gaynor.
With behind-the-scenes tales and heartfelt reflections, Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now! offers fans a rare chance to step into the inner circle of three legends who never stopped believing in the magic of the stage—and each other. Performances scheduled: Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
From left: Laura Bell Bundy, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Kerry Butler. Photo courtesy of The Hobby Center
CURATED VISION
by JOHN BERNHARD
photography by SAM FROST
As Untitled Art prepares to launch its inaugural edition in Houston this September, all eyes are on Michael Slenske, the award-winning writer and independent curator leading this ambitious expansion. Known for curating cutting-edge exhibitions in his home of Los Angeles and shaping the voice of Untitled Art’s programming in Houston, Slenske brings his discerning eye and deep industry insight to one of the country’s most dynamic art scenes. In this exclusive interview, he shares the vision behind choosing Houston, his approach to curating a diverse gallery roster, and what sets this new chapter of Untitled Art apart.
Michael Slenske, photography by Sam Frost. Previous spread: Michael Slenske, photography by Sam Frost
“Houston is by many measures the most diverse city in the country. It’s also scheduled to be the third biggest city in the country and home to one of the most dynamic art, cultural and culinary scenes.”
JOHN BERNHARD: Your current leadership role at Untitled Art Houston marks a new chapter, how does curating in Houston differ from your experiences in Miami?
MICHAEL SLENSKE: The Houston fair will take the same format of the diverse, international programming that is the hallmark Untitled Art, Miami Beach but operate in a boutique setting with just 85 galleries showing one to four artists. It’s a chance for people to slow down and dig deep into curated positions from top Texas and international galleries from 20 countries.
JB: You’ve written admiringly about Randy Twaddle and David Thompson’s “Houston. It’s Worth It.” campaign. How did their approach to celebrating the city influence your curatorial perspective for Untitled Art’s Houston edition?
MS: Well, I’ve known Randy for about 15 years now and what I appreciate about his artistic approach and the Houston. It’s Worth It. campaign specifically is that it opens up a set of local tropes and images to a broader context. It was a viral, crowd-sourced, guerilla marketing campaign before any of those terms were buzzworthy. In terms of our approach, we’re taking an international art fair but building it from the ground up, which means we want our platform and exhibitors to be international in scope, but the fair’s focus will radiate outward from the local and regional to the national and international. We’re working with 20 Texas galleries and just about every arts institution in town. Art fairs, at least the ones I love, are a lens on the cities they operate in, and we want to magnify all the great programming that has been happening in and around Houston for decades.
JB: What aspects of the local Houston art scene stood out to you when scouting for this inaugural edition?
MS: Houston is by many measures the most diverse city in the country. It’s also scheduled to be the third biggest city in the country and home to one of the most dynamic art, cultural and culinary scenes. All of the major museums in Houston are in expansion mode—from building new galleries to broadening their programming. Beyond that there is a wealth of top curators and artists working at an international level. It’s a scene that is under the radar in some ways, but also has many layers and is long overdue for an international art fair to come in and highlight all these cultural offerings.
JB: Some of Houston’s most established galleries —Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Texas Gallery, Moody Gallery, McClain Gallery, and Inman Gallery—are participating in the fair. At the same time, you’ve made space for lesser known but compelling spaces like F Gallery, Laura (the Gallery), and Basket Books & Art. Given your strong curatorial criteria, what guided your selection process?
MS: Well, if you were to think about an art fair as a great party, you’d want to cast the right mix of people to be on the dance floor. You want established galleries to learn from emerging galleries and vice versa, and Untitled Art is known for its international reach, so we also wanted to make this a very diverse mix, which in many ways is a reflection of the city itself. It’s local and global, established and emerging, and for me that’s a party I’d want to go to.
JB: The term “Nest” appears in your exhibitor roster. Can you explain what Nest represents within the context of Untitled Art?
MS: The Nest sector is an initiative designed to reduce some of the traditional barriers galleries face at art fairs. For the Nest sector Untitled Art provides financial support to emerging galleries and nonprofit organizations. It’s about expanding access to exhibitors and the collecting community by amplifying diverse voices within the contemporary art market while platforming artists and galleries from underrepresented backgrounds and regions.
JB: What type of collector are you hoping to engage with the Houston edition, and how does that audience differ from the one you typically see in Miami?
MS: Miami Art Week is a behemoth with many fairs and two decades under its belt, whereas this is year one of Untitled Art, Houston. That said, we expect to host a mix of established and new collectors, museum groups, and arts professionals from around the globe.
JB: What impact do you hope Untitled will have on the broader cultural ecosystem of Houston and Texas in general?
MS: We remain humble in our first year, but our hope is that Untitled Art, Houston is the genesis of a broader Houston Art Week that becomes the premier art week in Texas. We think there is no limit to the potential of Houston as a top international art capital.
JB: Looking ahead, how do you envision the evolution of Untitled Art? Are there plans to expand into other cities, and do you anticipate returning to Houston next year?
MS: While we’re always looking at new opportunities, Untitled Art, Houston 2026 is the only expansion in our immediate future.
“We think there is no limit to the potential of Houston as a top international art capital.”
ANDRIACCI
JOYFUL
MONUMENTALIST
OF MODERN MEXICO
by RACHEL LANE
Bold, imaginative, and unapologetically colorful, Fernando Andriacci (b. 1972, San Juan Bautista Cuicatlán, Oaxaca) stands at the forefront of contemporary Mexican art. Blending ancestral symbology with a singular modern flair, Andriacci has crafted a visual language that is at once deeply rooted and daringly inventive.
Raised in the culturally rich landscape of Oaxaca City from the age of eight, Andriacci began formal training at the Casa de la Cultura Oaxaqueña and later at the Rufino Tamayo Visual Arts Workshop. He was selling artwork by age twelve and exhibiting alongside established artists by seventeen. His work spans painting, sculpture, and monumental public
Fernado Andriacci, La Magia de un Beso Ceramica , 29x90 in.
installations, all defined by their saturated hues, whimsical forms, and dynamic textures. Andriacci’s recurring motifs, like zoomorphic beings, mythic hybrids, and vibrant geometries, evoke pre-Hispanic mythologies while engaging with contemporary themes of identity, nature, and community.
International recognition followed swiftly. Andriacci has exhibited across Mexico and in countries including Japan, Germany, Colombia, Italy, and the United States. His monumental sculptures, now installed in public spaces throughout Mexico, serve as cultural landmarks and symbols of civic pride.
A passionate advocate for public art, Andriacci believes in creativity as a democratic force and a catalyst for joy. Works such as La Luciérnaga and La Elefanta de la Abundancia
have transformed urban spaces into immersive, story-filled environments. Despite occasional resistance from traditional sectors, he continues to push boundaries, recently with his experimental series Irreverencias and his 2024 portrait of Benito Juárez at the Museo Vivo del Muralismo, a powerful addition to Mexico’s political mural tradition.
This fall, Fernando Andriacci is presenting algarabias , his first solo exhibition in Houston. Hosted by the Consulate General of Mexico in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural and Tourism Institute and Serrano Gallery, the show will run from September 1 through October 30, 2025, at the Consulate General of Mexico.
Andriacci’s work reminds us to see the world not only as it is, but as it could be—playful, poetic, and alive with imagination.
karin
B roker
by SABRINA BERNHARD
photography by PAUL HESTER
When I sat down with Karin Broker, she told me “I live in the dark, that’s why I’m so damn happy.” And somehow, that single sentence captures both her as a human and her newest body of work, beautiful rage (a real and concise history of the female gender). Opening September 6th at Heidi Vaughan Fine Art, the show is an unflinching, and unexpectedly tender, portrait of womanhood. The concise history drawn in pencil but built like sculpture isn’t theatrical, it’s methodical and beautiful.
“ I live in the dark, that’s why I’m so damn happy.”
Broker, long celebrated for her large-scale drawings and intricate sculptural assemblages, turns to a new material for this series: velvet plastic laminate. She calls it her “nirvana.” It bridges the gap between her past and present: the unforgiving hardness of printmaking plates and the softness of graphite and gesture. It’s warm in tone, she describes it as a lovely liver color, and soft to the eye, but tough and malleable under pressure. Broker draws, smudges, erases, and even draws with the eraser, sculpting each image until it feels alive. “You can’t sculpt drawings,” she told me. “But with this material, you can.”
The proc ess is laborious and obsessive, and it begins long before the first mark is made. Broker’s beloved assistant, Barbara Inaba, hand-sands each 8 x 5-foot panel for over eight hours to activate the surface, to make it “living,” as Broker puts it. Barbara also draws the intricate lace doilies with surgical precision, that Karin then, lovingly, messes up.
“Barbara has the best eye,” Broker said. “She’s such a perfectionist.”
It’s a perfect pairing: Barbara brings the precision; Karin builds the fury.
Broker has always hated working on paper or canvas, too stiff, too unpredictable. But this new surface gives her everything she’s been craving: control, warmth, evolution. During our interview, she demonstrated it in real time, smudging and redrawing directly in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Days earlier, she had woken up at 3 a.m., gone to her studio, and started erasing a professionally photographed, complete piece. She lightened it so drastically that it transformed into something entirely new. She smiled recounting it. “Until I get it to the gallery,” she told me, “It’s fair game.” The tension between control and chaos, permanence and play, is the beating heart of her new series.
Each piece in beautiful rage shares a visual manifesto: an ornate vase, a towering bouquet, and an immaculate, lacey doily underneath. The doilies, Broker says, represent women’s instinct to nest, to care, to take pride in beauty and softness without shame. The vases symbolize the cultural idea of woman as vessels, but Broker fills them with something more complicated than flowers. Looking closer, you see images of Saint Mary Magdalene in ecstasy, Sister Judith beheading her friend, and Sister Cabrini, who Broker reveres for her legacy of caring for children. These aren’t passive icons, they are mythic, messy women whose stories carry violence, defiance, and care. Then, there’s the layered and overwhelming bouquet, teetering on the edge of collapse. The flowers are both breathtaking and exhausting. That is the point. “Women just keep doing more and more.” She explains, “and we keep giving.” Around the bouquet sits a ring of stark, clean white, Broker’s visual boundary. Her deliberate end to the lushness doesn’t appear by accident, Barbara meticulously cleans the edges up. “There has to be a stop,” she said. In that sharp, spotless edge, I realized that Karin isn’t making art about women, she is protecting them.
The drawings don’t scream, but they don’t need to. The rage is quiet, spectacular, and relentless.
Broker’s only sculptural piece in the series, titled “Self Portrait, Sort Of,” is a towering female form covered in thorough drawings. It was the first work completed and the seed for the entire exhibition. She and Barbara spent over five months completing it.
For Broker, beautiful rage isn’t about performing anger, it’s about chronicling the emotional and physical labor women carry daily. She described it best when talking about her love for drawing bouquets, laughing at herself for leaning into something so traditionally feminine.
Karin Broker, Lilith and the Garden of Eden, 2025, Graphite on Plastic Laminate, 60x96x3 in.
Photography by Paul Hester
…if women aren’t taken seriously in the a rt world, why should I care? I’ll draw what I want. “ ”
“At 28, I remember thinking, can you not be any more girl?! But then I realized, if women aren’t taken seriously in the art world, why should I care? I’ll draw what I want.”
This is Brok er’s first time exhibiting at Heidi Vaughan Fine Art, and she calls the space “a geode.” A proper space to be intimate with her giant pieces but also feel protected. A good place for rage to bloom.
“My job is for all the girls,” she told me, and it’s clear in every mark she makes.
And in this show, you feel that. You feel the care, the beauty, the sharpness of her pencil and her point. Broker’s work doesn’t ask for your permission. It holds you in place, makes you look, and doesn’t let go until you see it all.
Karin Broker, Judith and friend, 2025, Graphite on Plastic Laminate, 60x96x3 in. Karin Broker, Mary M, 2024, Graphite on Plastic Laminate, 60x96x3 in.
MO CHANGING MENTS
BRENDA J. BUNTEN-SCHLOESSER
by MATTHEW LYNCH
Houston welcomes a poignant and powerful new exhibition this fall as artist Brenda J. Bunten-Schloesser unveils Changing Moments, a 20-year retrospective of her transformative fiber art. On view from September 20 through November 8, 2025, at Bay 100 Gallery, this compelling collection invites viewers to explore the moments that shape us, from upheaval and uncertainty to rest and renewal.
Bunten-Schloesser, an Indiana native now based in the Bay Area of Texas, has spent over three decades working with fiber as her chosen medium. Her tactile, deeply expressive works are rooted in surface design, a discipline she has pushed into bold and unexpected territories. She hand-paints white cotton fabric
with reactive dyes, then cuts and sews the material into intricate fiber sculptures and textile mosaics. Natural elements like cotton cord and found objects are often woven into her pieces, adding texture and emotional resonance.
“My objective is to incorporate ‘the dance’ into my work,” Brenda says, “using perspective and space to create a sense of depth that draws the viewer into the image.”
Each piece in Changing Moments captures the essence of transition—whether sparked by a personal revelation or a quiet moment of reflection. Her art is not only visual but meditative, shaped by the time spent in contemplation, stitching together experience and emotion. There is an optimism that pulses
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Above from top clockwise: Brenda J. Bunten-Schloesser, Intertwined , 2018, graphite and acrylic mediums on rag paper, 19x15 in. Three generations of inspections and collaboration. Clara Jeannette Goodman-Bunten & Edna Gail WoodShonkwiler Betty Jo Shonkwiler-Bunten Brenda J. Bunten-Schloesser, Intertwined , 2018 54x32 in. Brenda J. BuntenSchloesser, Weathered, 2019, painted cotton, 54x24 in. and Weathered, 2019, graphite and acrylic mediums, 22x15 in.
page: Brenda J. Bunten-Schloesser, He Stilled the Storm to a Whisper, 2009, painted cotton hand quilted 83x28 in.
page: Brenda J. Bunten-Schloesser, Bless Your Inheritance , 2012, collage of painted cotton, 63x50 in.
“ My objective is to incorporate ‘the dance’ into my work using perspective and space to create a sense of depth that draws the viewer into the image. ”
through her work, a belief in the human capacity to move forward, no matter the path.
“Fiber is a part of our everyday life,” she explains. “It comes from plants or animals, keeps us warm, and shelters us. It holds our stories.”
Brenda’s work has been exhibited across the United States as well as internationally in South Korea and Denmark. A graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, she is a full-time artist whose practice continues to evolve and expand in Houston’s vibrant creative community.
This is more than a retrospective, it’s an invitation to share in a journey of change, through fiber, form, and feeling.
FANDREW DURHAM GALLERY IS A LENS ON TEXAS ART, INTIMATE, AND ROOTED IN PLACE.
JOHN BERNHARD: Your gallery has become a strong voice for Texas artists. What drew you to focus so deeply on regional talent, and how do you choose the artists you represent?
ANDREW DURHAM: “Texas has a wealth of creativity, and I felt compelled to create a platform that highlights our regional talent. When
selecting artists, I look for unique voices that challenge norms. I consider several questions: Are we going to work well together? Do I genuinely appreciate the work? Would I want to include it in my own collection? Is this something that excites me? If I can answer “yes” to all of these questions, I am likely to consider working with them in some fashion.”
Andrew Durham Gallery is located in the Houston Museum District. Opposite page: Andrew Durham.
JB: How would you describe the curatorial vision behind Andrew Durham Gallery? Are there certain themes or artistic approaches you gravitate toward?
AD: “Much like my process for selecting artists for the gallery, many of the curated shows develop organically. Bob Russell, the Gallery Director, and I maintain constant communication with the artists to understand where they are in their creative processes, which allows us to program shows accordingly.
For example, Mac Whitney’s “Interconnected Elements,” which was organized in conjunction with Gallery Sonja Roesch, emerged from a casual conversation. Sonja approached me to do a joint show for Mac, knowing that he and I were friends, and it fit perfectly with
our calendar. In a sense, I observe the direction the artists are moving in and follow their lead.
In some instances, we have aligned our programming with relevant art events in Houston, such as Sculpture Month Houston and FotoFest.”
JB: Houston is a diverse and dynamic city. How does the local culture influence the exhibitions you mount?
AD: “I believe Houston’s rich tapestry of cultures profoundly influences our local artists and therefore our exhibitions. It is the job of the artist to express their ideas and perspectives through their work. I strive to present works that resonate with the local community while also pushing broader conversations. Collaborating with local artists and
cultural organizations helps ensure that our exhibitions remain relevant and reflective of Texas’ diverse identity.”
JB: You are an artist yourself. How has your own practice informed the way you run the gallery and interact with other artists?
AD: “Well, I don’t know if I would call myself an artist since I haven’t produced a body of work in a long time. I definitely have an artists’ mindset and it deeply impacts how I run the gallery. I understand the challenges and triumphs that artists experience, which fosters empathy and respect for their vision and the work that they are producing. This allows me to communicate more effectively, understanding their vision and providing a space where they feel supported.”
Andrew Durham Gallery installation view: Ann Stautberg, 11-20-20, P.M., 2021, Oil on archival printed canvas, 85”x64” (left). 4-2-20, A.M., 2021, Oil on archival printed canvas, 45”x60” (right). Opposite page: Tom Orr, Waterfall III, Two color etching, 41”x32 1/2”, 2018 (left). Scott Madison, Pewter Portal, Satin Finished Aluminum, 9 1/2” h x 6 1/2” w x 6”d, 2016, (right).
JB: Many of your shows blend emerging voices with more established names. What role does mentorship or dialogue between generations play in your programming?
AD: “The blend of emerging and established artists in our shows is intentional. I believe that mentorship and dialogue between generations enrich the artistic community. By facilitating these connections, we create opportunities for collaboration, learning, and growth. On the gallery side, I have been overwhelmed by the support I’ve received from other Texas galleries. Initially, I was concerned about how I would fit into the gallery landscape of Houston, but I quickly discovered how incredibly supportive other galleries and gallerists
have been. Individuals like Gus Kopriva, Heidi Vaughan, Sarah Foltz, Betty Moody, Sonja Roesch and Barry Whistler in Dallas, to name a few, have all served as mentors by generously sharing their experiences and knowledge with me.”
JB: Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of the Texas art scene, and how do you see your gallery evolving with it?
AD: “I’m incredibly excited about the future of the Texas art scene, particularly the Houston art scene. There’s a palpable energy and a sense of community that’s growing stronger. As for the gallery, I envision evolving alongside this dynamic landscape, perhaps expanding our programming to include more inter-
disciplinary projects and community engagement initiatives. It’s vital to remain adaptable and responsive to artistic developments while ensuring we continue to champion voices that deserve recognition. There is so much room to grow in showing Houston’s strength in the arts. At the gallery, we are excited about our upcoming exhibitions that will close out the year. Currently, we are featuring a group show with Gerardo Rosales, Jim Hatchett, and Curtis Gannon, which runs through September 27th. Additionally, Dallas artists Frances Bagley and Tom Orr, both of whom had shows earlier this year at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, will be opening a new exhibition at our gallery on October 18, 2025.”
At the vibrant intersection of “controlled chaos” and deeply felt narratives lives Romeo Robinson, an artist whose mixedmedia portraits go beyond representation to explore what it means to exist, struggle, and belong. Born in 1949 and raised in New York City, Robinson’s artistic path began at the Germaine School of Photography in the late 1970s. After decades in Houston’s oil and gas industry, he turned to art with unwavering passion post-retirement, starting his practice at age 62 and reaching new heights in his mid-70s. Robinson works primarily in acrylic, charcoal, pastel, and collage, layering color, text, and found materials with an
intuitive energy he dubs “controlled chaos.” This technique gives rise to complex visuals that evoke both immediacy and introspection: what emerges is not just a likeness, but a psychological world. His protagonists, a mix of unwitting teenagers, community elders, and iconic figures, stand as testaments to themes like racism, immigration, belonging, selfworth, and hunger.
Driven by a desire to fill visual voids, Robinson has portrayed cultural luminaries and everyday African American figures alike. “I like to portray African American figures… because that’s not something we see a lot of in museums… I want to do that,” he says.
Among his striking works: a bold rendering of Maya Angelou and a haunting portrait titled James Baldwin, Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. These pieces embody his conviction that art can be both a mirror and a megaphone for underrepresented voices.
Robinson deepened his practice through formal studies at Houston’s San Jacinto College and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Glassell School of Art—culminating in his completion of the prestigious BLOCK program in 2019.
He has since exhibited widely: at Sawyer Yards, Monterroso Gallery, and in group shows at the African American Artists
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Robinson reminds us it’s never too late to embrace creativity. His journey from refinery operator to celebrated artist exemplifies growth, reflection, and reinvention at any age—a story that continues to unfold, frame by frame, stroke by stroke.
Through his art, Romeo Robinson creates compelling narratives that invite us to pause, reflect, and connect.
His portraits are not just visual depictions, they’re intimate stories etched in color and collage, vivid explorations of what it means to live, remember, and feel.
Romeo Robinson, Maya Angelou, ca. 2021, acrylic and collage on canvas, 48x36 in.
Left page: Romeo Robinson, James Baldwin, Ignorance allied with power is... , ca. 2021, acrylic and collage on canvas, 48x36 in.
right: Romeo Robinson, The Time is Now , 2022, acrylic and collage on canvas, 48x30 in.
left: Romeo Robinson, Gordon Parks , 2022, acrylic and collage on canvas, 48x36 in.
Galleries
Houston Museum of African American Culture.
Painted Stories
Featuring New Paintings by Jim Hill
September 6October 2, 2025
ARCHWAY GALLERY
2305 Dunlavy St. 713 522-2409
AEROSOL WARFARE
2110 Jefferson 832 748-8369
ANDREW DURHAM GALLERY
1821 W. Alabama St. 713 522-2336
ANYA TISH GALLERY
4411 Montrose Blvd. 713 524-2299
ART MACHINE G ALLERY
1502 Sawyer Street, #215 281 513-1691
ART OF THE WORLD
2201 Westheimer Rd. 713 526-1201
ARTIQUE
1024 Studewood St.
281 467-6065
ART LEAGUE BAYTOWN
110 W Texas Ave. Baytown
281 427-2222
ARDEST GALLERY
25200 Grogan’s Park Drive
The Woodlands 832 296-6723
ARDEN GALLERY
239 Westheimer Rd. 713 371-6333
ART LEAGUE HOUSTON
1953 Montrose Blvd. 713 523-9530
ASHER GALLERY
4848 Main St. 713 529-4848
ASSEMBLY GALLERY
3302 Canal St. 713 485-5510
AVANT-ART GALLERY
2625 Colquitt St. 713 657-5802
BARBARA DAVIS GALLERY
4411 Montrose Blvd. #D 713 520-9200
BISONG GALLERY
1305 Sterrett St. 713 498-3015
BOOKER LOWE GALLERY By Appointment 713 880-1541
CASA RAMIREZ FOLK ART
241 West 19th St. 713-880-2420
CATHERINE
COUTURIER GALLERY
2635 Colquitt St. 713 524-5070
CHANDLER ART GALLERY
2639 Colquitt St. 281 772-5333
COLECTOR GALLERY
2623Colquitt St. +52 81 1769 8300
COMMUNITY ARTISTS
4111 Fannin, Suite 100A. 713 523-1616
DAVID SHELTON GALLERY
3909 Main St. #B 832 538-0924
DEAN DAY GALLERY
2639 Colquitt St. 713 520-1021
D.M. ALLISON GALLERY
2709 Colquitt St. 832 607-4378
DEBORAH COLTON GALLERY
2445 North Blvd. 713 869-5151
DEVIN BORDEN GALLERY
3917 Main St. 713 529-2700
DIMMITT CONTEMPORARY ART 3637 W Alabama St. #160 281 468-6569
ELLIO FINE ART
3201 Allen Parkway, #180 281 660-1832
GALLERY SONJA ROESCH
2309 Caroline St. 713 659-5424
THE GITE GALLERY
2024 E. Alabama St. 713 523-3311
GALVESTON ART CENTER 2501 Market St. Galveston 409 763-2403
GLADE GALLERY 24 Waterway Avenue The Woodlands 832 557-8781
HARAMBEE ART GALLERY 901 Bagby St. harambeeartgallery.com
JOSH PAZDA HIRAM BUTLER
4520 Blossom St. 713 863-7097
HEIDI VAUGHAN FINE ART 3510 Lake St. 832 875-6477
HOOKS-EPSTEIN GALLERIES
2631 Colquitt St. 713 522-0718
HOUSTON CENTER FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
1441 West Alabama Street 713 529-4755
HUNTER GORHAM GALLERY
1834 1/2 Westheimer Rd. 713 492-0504
INMAN GALLERY
1502 Alabama St. 713 526-7800
JACK MEIER GALLERY 2310 Bissonnet 713 526-2983
JONATHAN HOPSON GALLERY
904 Marshall St. 832 819-2918
KOELSCH GALLERY
1020 Peden St. 713 862-5744
KOSLOV LARSEN
4411 Montrose Blvd. #C 713 505-1499
LAWNDALE ART CENTER
4912 Main St, 713 528-5858
LAURA RATHE FINE ART
4444 Westheimer Rd. F105 + 2707 Colquitt St. 713 527-7700
MOODY GALLERY
2815 Colquitt St. 713 526-9911
MONTERROSO GALLERY
3911 Main St, 281 682-6628
NICOLE LONGNECKER
1440 Greengrass Dr. 346 800-2780
O’KANE GALLERY
UH-Downtown One Main Street 713 221-8042
PABLO CARDOZA GALLERY
1320 Nance St. 832 548-0404
PERIMETER ART GALLERY
2365 Rice Blvd. Suite E 713 521-5928
REDBUD GALLERY
303 E. 11th St. 713 862-2532
REEVES ART+DESIGN
2415 Taft St. 713 523-5577
RUDOLPH BLUME FINE ART
10771 Westpark Drive 713 589-9684
OFF THE WALL GALLERY
5015 Westheimer Rd. Galleria II, Level II 713 871-0940
SHE WORKS FLEXIBLE 1709 Westheimer Rd. 713 522-0369
SICARDI|AYER S| BACINO GALLERY
1506 West Alabama St. 713 529-1313
TEXAS GALLERY
2012 Peden St. 713 524-1593
FOLTZ FINE ART
2143 Westheimer Rd. 713 521-7500 galleryLISTINGS
THORNWOOD GALLERY
7026 Old Katy Road #231 713 528-4278
THROUGHLINE
3909 Main St. Isabella court
WOODLANDS ART GALLERY
208 Nursery Rd. The Woodlands 832 668-534
LA RUCHE HTX + RUBY PROJECTS
1705 Ewing St. 713 304-0362
M c CLAIN GALLERY
2242 Richmond Ave. 713 520-9988
SERRANO GALLERY
2000 Edwards St. 713 724-0709
SEVEN SISTERS GALLERY
805 Rhode Pl. Suite 500 346 618-1011
Ibsen Espada Floated Anarchy , 2021 mixed media and carborundum on canvas 20x16 in.
Tania Botelho Studio 102 281-660-5061 IG-@taniahbotelho
Andy Gonzalez Studio 202 713-291-7533 www.artistandy.com
Cheryl Russell Studio 318 713-256-8979 https://cherylrussell.art
Clovis Postali Studio 215 832-696-5789 www.clovispostali.com
Fariba Abedin Studio 303 713-417-7777 www.faribaabedin.com
Serrano Gallery Studio 317 713-724-0709 www.serranogallery.com
Gretchen Bender Sparks Studio 112 713-444-7562 @gretchenbendersparksart
Vicki Hessemer Studio 121 713-504-9118 www.vickihessemer.com
12-5PM
PerformingArtsSCHEDULE
ALLEY THEATRE
713 220-5700
THE DA VINCI CODE
Sep 19 - Oct 12
THE NIGHT SHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Nov 28 - Dec 28
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Nov 16 - Dec 28
HOUSTON GRAND OPERA
713-228-6737
THE GERSHWINS PORGY AND BESS
Oct 24 - Nov 15
PUCCINI
IL TRITTICO
Oct 30 - Nov 14
DA CAMERA
713 524-5050
OTHER WORLDS: SEASON OVERTURE
Oct 3
WALTER SMITH III QUARTET
OCT 17
MATTHIAS GOERNE, BARITONE; DANIIL TRIFONOV, PIANO
Oct 29
RAPHAËL FEUILLÂTRE, GUITAR: LATIN PASSIONS
Nov 3 & 4
NICHOLAS PAYTON QUARTET
Nov 14
BRENTANO STRING QUARTET
Dec 2
EKEP NKWELLE
Dec 6
THEATRE UNDER THE STARS
713 558-2600
25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Oct 21 - Nov 2
IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS
Dec 9 - 24
HOUSTON SYMPHONY
713 224-7575
KING FOR A DAY: THE MUSIC OF ELVIS
Oct 3, 4 &5
JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET + THE THREE-CORNERED HAT
Oct 10 &12
GERSHWIN & GRIMAUD: JAZZ MEETS SYMPHONY
Oct 17 & 19
HOCUS POCUS POPS
Oct 24
BROADWAY MEETS HOLLYWOOD
Oct 31 & Nov 2
FRIGHTFULLY FUN!
Nov 1
SHALL WE DANCE?
Nov 8 & 9
NOSFERATU: SILENT FILM WITH LIVE ORGAN
Nov 16
JOURNEY TO LIGHT: VALČUHA CONDUCTS SHOSTAKOVICH 10
Nov 21 & 23
TCHAIKOVSKY’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1
Nov 28 & 30
HANDEL’S MESSIAH
Dec 5 & 7
JOYFUL FANFARES: HOLIDAY BRASS
Dec 6 & 7
VOCTAVE: IT FEELS LIKE CHRISTMAS
Dec 8
VERY MERRY POPS
Dec 11 & 14
OH, WHAT FUN!
Dec 13
JOSÉ HERNÁNDEZ’ MERRY-ACHI
CHRISTMAS
Dec 15
ELF IN CONCERT
Dec 19 & 21
Melissa Molano and Zachary Fine
Porgy and Bess Ekep Nkwelle
713
Melody Mennite and Christopher Coomer, artists of Houston Ballet
HOLLY WONG, SACRED LETTERS
ELLIO FINE ART
by SABRINA BERNHARD
ELLIO Fine Art Gallery proudly unveiled Sacred Letters , the powerful solo debut of acclaimed artist Holly Wong. This deeply personal and visually arresting exhibition invites viewers into a realm where art becomes a conduit for spiritual transformation and healing. Featuring a striking array of collaged paintings on shaped aluminum, intricate mixed-media drawings on paper, and sculptural fiber assemblages, Wong’s work shimmers with both technical mastery and emotional depth.
At the heart of Sacred Letters is a luminous suspended installation crafted from light-reflective film, displayed under a giant skylight. The natural light interacts with the work, enhancing its ethereal presence and drawing viewers into a meditative space. Each piece in the exhibition echoes Wong’s ongoing journey toward wholeness, exploring how memory, pain, and resilience intertwine. Through drawing, painting, and sewing, methods rooted in both personal ritual and cultural craft, Wong reconstructs
fractured experiences into layered expressions of hope. The exhibition’s title reflects Wong’s intimate investigation into spirituality’s role in reshaping trauma. The artist mines her past to create surfaces that speak in a language of light and form, stitching together moments of rupture into radiant harmonies. Collectors and viewers alike are drawn not only to the bold materiality of her work, but to the profound narrative of renewal it embodies.
A Presidential Scholar in the Arts and MFA graduate
from the San Francisco Art Institute, Wong has exhibited in over 100 exhibitions across the country, including at the de Young Museum and the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Sacred Letters marks a defining chapter in her evolving practice, one rooted in authenticity, resilience, and the quiet power of transformation.
Holly Wong lives and works in San Francisco and is represented by ELLIO Fine Art Gallery in Houston.
Left page: The largest work in the exhibition, Spell Tapestry , is an installation of fragmented colored film suspended as a luminous blanket across the span of the Gallery’s skylight. Photography by Light 42 Studio.
BRUNA MASSADAS
M c CLAIN GALLERY
At McClain Gallery, The Edge of the World marked Bruna Massadas’ first solo exhibition with the gallery, offering a deeply personal and luminous exploration of birth, transformation, and place. Drawing from her own birthing and postpartum experience, the Brazilian-born, Montana-based artist presents a series of vibrant paintings and intimate works on paper that revolve around a central symbol—the canal.
Rendered in saturated acrylic and textured oil stick, Massadas’ vertical and horizontal canvases pulse with color and motion. Each composition orbits a single sun, whose reflection drips and flows downward, forming the canal. At once path, passage, and metaphor, the canal becomes a conduit through which vision and memory shift.
Massadas describes early motherhood as a time of visual fragmentation, likening her perception to the brushstrokes of Van Gogh and the points of Seurat. That liminal space birthed her move into abstraction, where emotion, sensation, and landscape converge.
Her paintings shimmer with spiritual and sensual energy, recalling Agnes Pelton and Hilma af Klint, yet remain rooted in the physical through hand-applied texture, a vivid palette, and a horizon that wraps around the viewer. Like her son Rio, named for the river, Massadas’ work flows between worlds. The Edge of the World is both intimate and expansive, a radiant journey through motherhood, memory, and meaning.
HARRISON, VALENCIA & WARREN
ANYA TISH GALLERY
Last summer at Anya Tish Gallery, The Weight of Place brought together three Texas-based artists— Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren —for a compelling group exhibition rooted in memory and landscape. The show explored how we revisit emotional, psychological, and physical spaces through material and form, drawing on personal and collective memory.
Harrison’s large-scale mixed media works reflected on geology and transformation. Built up in layers, her surfaces mimicked sediment and erosion, echoing the slow unfolding of time and memory. The result was immersive and meditative, like wandering through a shifting terrain of past and present.
Valencia presented delicate porcelain sculptures that resembled petals, stones, and natural fragments. Minimal yet deeply tactile, her forms suggested memory as something intimate and elemental. Her pieces felt quietly resonant, as if shaped by both nature and the act of remembering.
Warren contributed luminous paintings of urban scenes caught in twilight. Her work captured a liminal atmosphere, where parking lots and streets became poetic spaces of solitude. The paintings felt like places glimpsed in a dream, held not by detail but by emotion.
Together, the artists offered a thoughtful reflection on how we carry place within us. The Weight of Place was a testament to memory as something we can see, touch, and feel.
Megan Harrison, Marea Alta, 2024, Ink, acrylic, sand, and gesso on linen, 53x80 in.
Bruna Massadas, Candle, 2025, acrylic and oil pastel on paper, 8x6 in.
Michael Roque Collins is coming back to the
Houston spotlight RETURN FLOATING
by RACHEL LANE
After ten years without a major exhibition in Texas, Michael Roque Collins will open a solo show at Foltz Fine Art this fall. Titled Floating Worlds: Paintings and Works on Paper, 2015–2025 , the exhibition runs from October 18 to November 29. The opening reception takes place on October 24, followed by a panel discussion on the 25th. Collins will give an artist talk on November 1.
With over fifty solo exhibitions at nationally and internationally recognized galleries and museums, Collins’ renewed presence in Houston’s gallery scene is not just a change of venue. It marks the closing of a cycle and a return to the very soil where his vision first took root.
His father, W. L. Collins, once headed the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, now the Glassell School
of Art. Michael grew up in that rarefied world where intellect and imagination were not mere companions but inseparable lovers. In the shadow of Rothko’s chapel and the soft-spoken rigor of Houston’s modernist giants, Collins found not just mentorship but origin.
But to say Michael Roque Collins is a “Houston artist” is like saying Borges merely wrote books. His paintings seem
to wander through ages and across worlds. They recall the narrative intensity of Goya, the theatrical chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, and something ineffable, something that feels shaped by his Southern past. His palette is deep, blooded ochres, bruised indigos, the velvet of decay and the radiance of transcendence. The works are vivid and emotionally charged, composed with sweeping complexity. And they are sublime.
Michael Roque Collins, Sailing with Yellow Bird, 2018-19, oil on linen, 72x60 in.
“I’m interested in the eternal human narrative,” Collins once said in his studio, where bones of canvases hang like cathedral rafters. “The journey through suffering, the metamorphosis, the dream that breaks us and also redeems us.” He paints as if the world depends on it.
In discussing the upcoming exhibition, Collins explains that Floating Worlds includes large, medium, and small works of oil on linen, as well as works on paper and mixed media on photographs. “I explore lush surfaces, which combine multiple symbolic elements. I investigate themes such as the symbiotic, romantic relationship of darkness and light, the cyclical nature of life and death, the complexities of inner psychological life, and the mysteries and vital importance of individual spirituality.” These ideas find visual expression through metaphoric subjects— dreams of primitive ritual forms, the figure, modern-day power plants, classical architecture, coastal scenes, and above all, gardens. All are conceived allegorically, “where ideas are expressed in an indeterminate state, hopefully leaving the viewer floating in worlds of mystery.” For Collins, each work
balances the dialogue between art about art and art about life.
“Michael’s work,” says a curator who has followed him since the 1990s, “has always existed in an emotional space that defies fashion. He is deeply out of step, and that is his power. While others chase trends, he constructs temples.”
Indeed, Collins’s work is perhaps closer to literature than to the world of contemporary painting. One thinks of Dante, Rilke, maybe even Faulkner. His triptychs are not linear stories but palimpsests, layer upon layer of lived experience, both personal and archetypal. Though autobiographical elements exist, they are transmuted. A dying tree becomes a cross. A flooded stairwell, a descent into purgatory. A half-lit face, an oracle.
I am interested in the eternal human narrative.
Houston, the city that raised him and has not forgotten him, will finally see the scale of his evolution. In recent years, Collins has shown widely in Europe and across the U.S., garnering critical praise for his uncompromising vision. And yet he never strayed from his roots. He recently retired from teaching at Houston Baptist University, where he shaped young minds not with style but with conviction.
What makes Michael Roque Collins singular is not just his command of form or his philosophical depth. It is his refusal to concede to cynicism. In a time when irony reigns, he paints with sincerity so vast it becomes dangerous. He dares to believe in beauty, in suffering, in the redemptive act of creation.
Come October, Foltz Fine Art will not merely host a show. It will host a summoning. The paintings will not hang, they will breathe. And those who walk through the gallery might find themselves changed, having passed through a landscape that is both dream and scripture.
When asked recently what he hopes viewers will take from this new body of work, Collins paused. His voice, when it came, was quiet but clear.
“Hope,” he said. “Even if they must travel through darkness to find it.”
Michael Roque Collins, Pleasure pond II, 2023-25, oil on linen, 50x40 in.
Indeed, that has always been the journey, through the dream, through the fire, through the unnameable night, to emerge, finally, into light.
J on a h B a ll a rd
Your work is deeply rooted in the natural world and ancient symbology. How do you translate those timeless elements into something that feels personal?
I’ve studied a lot of classical symbolism, but I think these images and ideas come to all of us—in dreams, visions, or even quiet moments we might overlook. My work is about translating what I see into something simpler, almost like a visual shorthand, so it’s easier to connect with. I believe the world is a mirror of the self, so the symbols that show up for us really depend on where our focus is. My paintings are a way of exploring that relationship—between what’s within us and what the world reflects back.
You describe your creative process as a form of ritual. Can you walk us through how intention and repetition shape the way you approach a new piece?
My process is a ritual of simplification. When I approach a new piece, I try to work in a single, focused session so I can stay connected to the vision as it unfolds. Repetition is part of that, especially through color. I often use pink because it holds this neutral emotional space—it’s not telling you to feel happy, sad, or anything in particular. That neutrality creates room for the viewer to bring their own experience to the work, almost like they’re navigating a story that exists within one consistent world.
What are your thoughts on being chosen as the Featured Artist for the Bayou City Art Festival?
I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to be the Featured Artist. The Bayou City Art Festival has such a strong reputation and history, and I’m especially excited to debut a new piece at the show—one that feels like a conversation with Houston, revealing the part of us already alive in the world we’re imagining. Being selected alongside so many talented artists, many of whom I admire and am fortunate to call friends, makes the experience all the more meaningful.
Above: Jonah Ballard, Heat Dream, acrylic on canvas. Right: Jonah Ballard, working on Appointed Hour, alongside his one year old son in the beginning of 2025.
Where are you from? Give me your life story in 100 words.
I’m a Mexican-American native Texan born on the outskirts of Houston. I always knew that I wanted to experience the city ‘s energy so I attended The University of Houston and received my Bachelor of Arts in 2016. At that
I took the theme as looking at the past, present, and future, considering who has made impacts in the past, who is currently leading these efforts, and what can we do to continue that legacy as a member of the Hispanic community and of this city. With this concept in mind, I did some research and decided to highlight six Hispanic icons who have made an impact on the city. I chose Gonzo247 for Houston’s street arts movement, Selena Quintanilla for Tejano music, Lina Hidalgo for local politics, Ellen Ochoa for science and education, “Mama” Ninfa Laurenzo to
point I decided to call the city home, started my design career, and have been working in the field since. I am a Houston based graphic designer who specializes in branding & digital advertising. I make work that is as beautiful and engaging as it is functional, placing heavy emphasis on collaborating with my clients and creating designs that resonate with a wide variety of people and communities.
If you are (or were) participating in a project or program Powered by Fresh Arts, please tell us about that experience.
I had the great opportunity to participate in the 2024 Hispanic Heritage Month sign project powered by Fresh Arts & Midtown Houston. It was a great opportunity to design something for my city and my culture. The project consisted of an open call to design a wrap for the “Midtown” sign at Bagby Park with the theme of “Pioneers of Change, Shaping the Future Together.”
represent the city’s cuisine, and Jose Altuve for sports. Each of these icons took space on one of the letters of the Midtown sign. One of the letters, the seventh spot, was intentionally left open for the people of this city, for anyone who wants to step up and carry the torch, to continue the legacy of those who came before us and made a difference.I have only great things to say about the experience, the people at Fresh Arts, and Midtown Houston. I would highly recommend anyone thinking about submitting their work for future Hispanic Heritage month open calls to do so.
What types of mediums do you work in? I’ve played around with many different mediums during my time as a designer and have a special place in my heart for printmaking, but at the end of the day I am a Graphic Designer through and through. The tools I end up using the most are all digital. I work with Adobe programs such as InDesign, Photoshop
and Illustrator to create digital and tangible works for my clients. I love to create Illustrations so the program that I am most proficient in is Illustrator with Photoshop coming in as a close second. In Illustrator you are working with vector objects which makes any design or logo you create to be scalable without losing any detail. This comes in handy in my line of work, where you can take a logo and size it down to the size of a bottle cap or blow it up to put on a 12-foot banner. The great thing about working digitally is that you can create many versions of your idea and make changes to them easily as you go along. The tricky part is in creating that logo design that will look great at any size, but that just comes with experience and practice.
What is your work usually about? Why do you choose to focus on these issues?
As a graphic designer when I work for a client the theme is set by the client and their needs. When I work on my personal projects, I tend to create based on what I am interested at the moment. Some of the themes that I seem to always come back to are related to my background as a Mexican-Houstonian from Texas and to music. I enjoy making work dealing with Mexican culture, Houston themes, and Texas because it’s my culture and what I know. I have knowledge and experiences from which I can pull from, and I feel like it leads to interesting design creations. I am also
very influenced by music and Houston’s music scene. I just enjoy listening to all different types of music, finding new sounds, and seeing how that appears or influences my design. Finding a really good new album or musician can inspires me to want to start creating. One of my dream projects would be to work on an album or vinyl cover design, especially for any Houston musicians.
Why do you create art?
Design to me, first and foremost, is creating to relay a message you want to portray. Storytelling is a major component in this. You can createbeautiful work but if the message doesn’t hit, it will not be as effective. The visual elements of a design are the vessel in which you carry the message. So when I think about creating and why I create, it comes down to helping people tell and share their stories. It is always very satisfying as a designer when a client is ecstatic with their brand elements that you created for them, because that will be how others will remember them and how they will share their unique point of view.
THE CU ING MIU GAZE
The Texan Expansion of a Modern Myth Maker Manfred Delgado
by WILLIAM HANHAUSEN
He is a contradiction you don’t want resolved—refinement and ferocity, elegance and edge, nobility and blood. Manfred Delgado does not paint for comfort. He paints for memory. For reckoning. For the moments just before silence becomes sound. In a world preoccupied with surface, his work reaches under the skin—past form, past posture—to where the truth lives.
Born in Costa Rica, Delgado arrives in Houston not as a visitor, but as a seer. A maker of modern myths whose brushstroke slices through illusion. His paintings don’t illustrate—they invoke. They ache. They dare. They linger.
“I don’t paint to decorate,” he says. “I paint to reveal.”
What he reveals are not just images, but emotional anatomies. The canvas becomes a body—open, exposed, unflinching. His expressionism carries the dignity of ritual and the fire of rebellion.
And for years, Rofuto Gallery in Miami has been the temple that dared to carry his flame.
In the hyper-visual roar of Art Basel Miami, where trend often trumps truth, Rofuto chose stillness. Depth. Risk. They didn’t just exhibit Delgado— they trusted him. At Red Dot Miami and in private showings, his work became the gallery’s heartbeat—a centerpiece of curated defiance. Within Rofuto’s deliberately raw yet refined aesthetic, Delgado emerged not merely as an artist, but as a voice.
This relationship, forged in confidence and clarity, is not incidental. Rofuto Gallery gave Delgado the international frame his work demanded. They saw that his themes—emotional duality, conflict and courage, vulnerability dressed in armor—resonated far beyond Latin America, far beyond gender, even far beyond painting.
The gallery itself is more than a space—it’s a proposition. A carefully assembled cohort of progressive artists offered to the collector not as trend, but as testimony. In its private Wynwood viewing room, art is not consumed. It is confronted. And now, with vision expanding westward, Rofuto prepares to plant new roots in Houston.
Delgado leads that expansion.
His recent Matador series strips away the spectacle of the arena to reveal the inner ritual—the tremble before resolve, the fear beneath form. These are not paintings about tradition. They are portraits of emotional ceremony, where courage faces itself, not the crowd. The drama lies not in victory or death, but in the decision to step forward anyway.
And Houston is ready.
This is not a passing flirtation, but a long-brewing migration. Delgado’s
presence in Texas has been quietly building—his work already in the hands of serious collectors across the city, his name whispered in studios and salons, his paintings finding homes where strength and sensitivity are not contradictions, but companions.
In 2026, Rofuto’s expansion will formalize—through partnerships with visionary galleries and immersive projects that blend visual art, gastronomy, and spatial storytelling. Delgado stands at the helm. One such initiative includes a collaboration with an haute cuisine destination in the Galleria area, where his paintings will live not on walls, but in atmosphere—woven into the experience, not displayed outside it. Why Texas? Why now?
Because Delgado’s work belongs to places that understand the tension between past and present. Between root and reach. “Texas contains multitudes,”
he says. “Latino memory and global ambition. Grit and elegance. It’s proud, complicated—like all of us.”
Delgado’s language—spray paint and acrylic, gesture and shadow—maps the chiaroscuro of identity. These are not masculine works. Or feminine works. These are human works, seen through the prism of myth and struggle.
Yes, Delgado has been called a matador of the psyche. A gentleman of grief. But his art opens doors for everyone who’s ever stood before themselves, trembling but unwilling to retreat.
Like Dalí, he seduces with ceremony. Like Bacon, he distorts not for shock, but for honesty. But unlike either, Delgado folds into his work a kind of sacred hospitality—an invitation not only to witness, but to feel.
There’s a literary rigor in his practice that echoes Rainer Maria Rilke— not only in tone but in courage. These
paintings, like Rilke’s verses, are not safe. They are not polite. They are soul mirrors, elegantly cracked.
To stand before a Delgado canvas is to remember something you didn’t know you forgot: The quiet before applause. The weight of a hand on your shoulder. The scent of ritual—smoke, sweat, and hope. The decision to rise again, not because it is easy, but because it is necessary.
Texas isn’t just his next stage—it is his echo.
And as Rofuto’s bold vision expands westward, and Delgado steps forward once again into the emotional arena, we are reminded that the art that lasts is not the art that shouts—it is the art that bleeds, endures, and gently returns us to ourselves.
Very Delgado.
Very human.
Very eternal.
Manfred Delgado, Vice, 2023, AC & Spray
Right: Manfred Delgado, Ducktail, 2023, AC & Spray Opposite page: Manfred Delgado All photography courtesy of the artist
DAVID A DICKE S
by JOHN BERNHARD
The morning of July 14, 2025, arrived with an odd unease, the kind that stirs before the news arrives, as if the soul senses something the mind cannot yet name. I couldn’t explain why, but I felt compelled to call David Adickes, that gentle giant of Texas art. Perhaps it was the Bastille Day light slipping through the blinds that reminded me of France, of him.
It was Linda Wiley, his beloved friend and sweetheart, who answered. Her voice, soft and cracked at the edges, carried the weight of something irreversible. “David just passed,” she said. A silence followed. Not just over the line, but in the room itself. The air thickened. My throat closed, and goosebumps rose as if memory had brushed against my skin.
I first met David in the 1990s at an exhibition of his work in the grand lobby of the Inn on the Park, just off Woodway. Carolyn Farb, ever the gracious hostess and avid champion of his art, had insisted I attend. She had promised I would be enchanted, and of course, she was right. David stood apart in that crowd, soft spoken, wryly humorous, with a brilliant mind that captivated me. To my delight he conversed in perfect French, so that our private banter danced just beyond the ears of the guests.
Born in 1927 in the pine-lined town of Huntsville, Texas, David was the third of four boys. As a child he had a pencil in one hand and a tune in the other. He drew, he sang, he dreamed. But it wasn’t until after Texas A&M, and a stint as a steward for the Air Transport Command flying back and forth from Paris, that the artist quietly emerged.
In 1948, thanks to the GI Bill, he returned to Paris, not just the city, but the dream itself, and studied at the atelier of Fernand Léger. That relationship marked him like a baptism. France seeped into his bones, never to leave, even as he
returned to Texas soil. “Texas is my home,” he once said, “but I enjoy the privilege of working in France because that country has remained loyal to permanent aesthetic values.”
He lived a life that seemed spun from myth: teaching at the University of Texas in the fifties, painting in Tahiti under Gauguin’s ghost, circling the globe with James Michener who later wrote his monograph’s introduction, sculpting titans in bronze and concrete. His was a Texas imagination but dressed in Parisian brushstrokes.
There stands his monumental Sam Houston along I-45, towering among the tallest sculptures on Earth. Downtown, the Virtuoso lifts its arms in eternal orchestral flight beside the Lyric Centre. And at the airport, the bronze figure of President George H.W. Bush greets travelers. Each one a quiet monument to David’s boundless curiosity.
His timeline, his triumphs were all chronicled in ArtHouston’s 2023 Spring issue. But the man lived beyond lines and dates. Over the years, our friendship deepened quietly, like ivy climbing a familiar wall. I came to admire not only his brilliance, but his astonishing longevity. At ninety-eight, he was still in the studio, still dreaming, still creating. In his canvases, you can hear a flute. You can smell the lavender fields. You can see boats rocking in the French dusk. If his paintings could speak, they would do so with a French accent, soft, lilting, and just a touch amused.
And now he is gone on the eve of Bastille Day. As if summoned by the country he loved. There is something solemn and poetic in the timing, as though his farewell carried the quiet promise of liberté, égalité, immortalité.
“I am thirsty for a drop of eternity,” he once wrote.
I think, David, you’ve found it.
David Adickes, 2023. Photography by Nathan Lindstrom
he Heart
of Healing & Leadership
by KARINE PARKER
This summer, beneath the wide Texas sky, something extraordinary unfolded. A group of young people from across countries, cultures, and life experiences gathered not just to grow, but to give. Guided by Be Peace–Be Hope , the Friend of the World (Copain du Monde) Youth Leadership Camp invited them into a journey of healing, creativity, solidarity, and servant leadership. At the heart of it all: art, resilience, and the deep belief that every young person carries the capacity to build peace, within and beyond.
In a world facing mental health crises, natural disasters, and increasing disconnection, we urgently need spaces where youth are empowered to heal and lead. Kerrville’s recent floods reminded us how quickly life can unravel, and how deeply communities need each other to recover. This camp was not only a place of safety and belonging, but a space of service. Our youth applied what they had learned, resilience practices, socio-emotional tools, mindfulness, empathy, and offered it to others: from the flood victims in Kerrville to patients at Harris Health. Their leadership emerged from compassion, not command.
Through Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, our youth discovered that their emotional scars weren’t something to hide, but something to honor. With the support of Peace4Kids facilitator Cathie Arteaga, they shared stories and co-created visual pieces that embodied pain, hope, and transformation. And with the Prelude Music Foundation, music and dance became both refuge and release. In those moments, art became more than expression, it became resilience in motion.
When youth are given tools to reflect, create, and release, they begin to carry lighter emotional backpacks. They make room for empathy, courage, and true leadership. That is the healing magic art made possible at our camp.
One unforgettable afternoon, the youth stepped into a Texas dream, welcomed by visionary Paul Sorensen at his Sandy Creek ranch, a sanctuary built over two decades of love, care, and intention. With the generous invitation from ArtHouston Publisher John Bernhard, and the healing presence of Curry Glassell, this visit became more than an outing, it was a moment of deep reconnection. Surrounded by
City of Kerrville Memorial. Photography by Martin Greenwel Opposite page: Be Peace–Be Hope and Prelude Music Foundation. Photography by Brandon Hamilton.
horses, golden light, and wide, quiet landscapes, our youth experienced the grounding, restorative power of nature.
Earlier that week, Eagle Camp offered similar moments of stillness and reflection. Between workshops and teambuilding activities, the natural beauty of the river, trees, and skies created space to pause, breathe, and simply be. These moments reminded us that leadership begins with inner stillness. Paul Sorensen’s words stayed with us all: “Leadership is making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that your impact lasts in your absence.”
That same spirit echoed throughout the camp. The City of Kerrville, through Dalton Rice and David Barrera, responded to our call for solidarity and gave our young leaders firsthand insight into what it means to lead with resilience, compassion, and community spirit in times of crisis. Our youth were deeply moved by the stories and strength of those affected by the devastating July 4th floods.
At Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, Monique Garner-Johnson and her team opened their doors, offering an experience rooted in service, trauma education, and healing. Youth created heartfelt cards for patients and learned how leadership shows up in care, in presence, and in everyday acts of kindness. These moments reminded us that leadership isn’t always loud. It is rooted in service. In listening. In showing up with a heart ready to act.
This camp was made possible by an incredible constellation
of Be Peace–Be Hope partners: ArtHouston Magazine, ACS, Bellefontaine, ECDC-HMC, Engie, Nativity Academy, Peace4Kids, Prelude Music Foundation, Rotary USA–France Inter-country Committee, Rotary Club of Houston International, Rotary District 5890, Secours Populaire français & 13, The French Farm, Xavier Academy and many others who believe in the power of planting hope.
Together with the youth, we are building a movement, one that understands that resilience and peace are not born in isolation, but in shared spaces where healing, creativity, and solidarity thrive.
At Be Peace–Be Hope , we believe that healing the world starts by healing the heart, and that youth are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but present-day healers.
When we center art, when we teach emotional literacy, and when we serve together, something shifts. We don’t just raise strong and compassionate individuals, we cultivate a more connected, more peaceful world.
As Kaveryann, one of our inspiring young participants, shared: “I loved everything during the Youth Leadership Summer Camp, and I would love to come back. The camp made me a more relaxed and happier person than I was before, and I want to thank everyone who made me feel that way.”
Her words are a testament to the power of art, service, and community in action.
For more info visit: bepeacebehope.org / @bepeacebehope
Paul Sorensen (center) led the young ones through his Sandy Creek ranch. They walked the land, watched the horses, and felt something quiet and strong in the land around them.
Photography by Brandon Hamilton.
PUBLISHER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JOHN BERNHARD
EDITOR-AT-LARGE PIERRE-ANDRE FOLLONIER
DESIGN JOHN BERNHARD / BERNHARDPUB.COM
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS MORGAN CRONIN, SABRINA BERNHARD, MATTHEW LYNCH, RACHEL LANE, ARTHUR DEMICHELI, KARINE PARKER, YARAMI PENA, WILLIAM HANHAUSEN, PIERRE-ANDRÉ FOLLONIER
PHOTOGRAPHERS HALL PUCKETT, NATHAN LINDSTROM, PAUL HESTER
Arthur Demicheli is a freelance copywriter and photographer from New York who has worked in the marketing, advertising, and publishing industries since 1992.
Arthur has been a dynamic part of ArtHouston’s team for many years. He holds an MA in Humanities from the University of Geneva. He is an avid fan of art, film, and photography history.
Morgan Cronin
WRITER
Morgan Cronin is a New York City based writer, originally from Houston. She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and is currently a secondyear MFA candidate at the New School, where she is studying creative nonfiction. She has been a regular contributor to ArtHouston. Her work has appeared in the Culture Trip, Houston Press, and elsewhere.
Paul Hester
PHOTOGRAPHER
Paul Hester is a photographer of things that do not move and do not talk back (Except for his grandchildren, who move quickly). He photographs art and architecture, lava flow fields, and other demonstrations of the passage of time. He taught photography at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts and in the Rice Media Center. He enjoys time in New Mexico, Fayetteville, and Houston.
Matthew Lynch
WRITER
Matthew Lynch is a graduate of Rollins College where he earned a degree in Economics. He works for ArtHouston, where he explores his passion for the arts and storytelling. ArtHouston enables Matthew to think differently about the world and urges his readers to do the same. He also loves traveling, music, golf, pickleball and spending time with friends.
Sabrina Bernhard
WRITER
Sabrina Bernhard is a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a BA in International Relations and in French. She is working with ArtHouston to fulfill her passion for the arts, while further developing Houston’s admirable cross-cultural reputation. Sabrina is passionate about travelling, la Francophonie, music, and culture.
Hall Puckett
PHOTOGRAPHER
Hall Puckett is a photographer based in Houston. Early on when friends and family asked him what he was going to do with a major in psychology and a minor in photography his response was “I guess I’ll just have to take pictures of crazy people!” Funny how things work out. He currently lives off the north loop in a “transitional neighborhood” with his wife, two rescue dogs, and a cat.
Rachel Lane
WRITER
Rachel Lane is a passionate writer and reporter. Known for her sharp insights and evocative prose, she delves into contemporary art, uncovering emerging talents and cultural trends. With a background in art history and journalism, Rachel bridges the gap between creative expression and storytelling, offering readers fresh perspectives on the ever-evolving art world.
Pierre-André Follonier
WRITER
Pierre-André Follonier is a retired Swiss banker turned writer with a passion for art. Based in Geneva, he is an avid collector whose discerning eye reflects in his prose. A contributing writer at large for ArtHouston, he brings global perspective and cultural insight to the page, blending financial acumen with a lifelong love of the arts.
William Hanhausen
WRITER
An art venture capital investor, a former Professor of Marketing at the Universidad Anahuac, Mexico City. Member of the Latino Advisory Committee at the MFAH, and member of the board of the Museum of Texas Art. While what he describes as “Latino Art is not Latin American Art”, he is a maverick of “Latino and Chicano Art an underrepresented american style”.
editor’s pick Weci | Koninut
Creators: Dave Jenniss, Julie-Christina Picher Collaborators: Eruoma Awashish, Étienne Thibeault, Serge Maheu Co-producers: Init, Houston First Corporation Tour Producer: Creos
Productions)
Last summer, Avenida Houston hosted the world premiere of Weci | Koninut , an immersive outdoor installation by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss. Presented by Houston First in collaboration with Quebec firms Creos and Init, the multisensory experience merged Indigenous storytelling with interactive technology. Larger-than-life dreamcatchers and luminous structures evoked the six seasons of the Atikamekw culture, transforming the public plaza into a poetic forest of light and sound. Visitors were invited to slow down, connect with nature, and dream within this moving tribute to ancestral lands and collective memory.
