1YRLTR: A BIGBOND Showcase

B I G B O N D

I met my fellow BIGBOND artists about a year ago through the BLOCK program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Though we were strangers at the time, we instantly clicked and formed a big bond (thanks Margaret for the title!). Then one day in art class, we were challenged with creating our own group show. I spent the next year getting to know the work of these artists, having instant admiration for their work They were kind enough to trust me and I am so happy to see their reactions to the works together! Some claiming they never knew our work could be so cohesive!

They gave me access to their new and old work, and I quickly began to see patterns You will see pinks in all hues! Combining my collages along with Chet’s Picket Fence and Robert’s sculptural works brought me into my galactic era. Alexandra’s tv landscape takes us to another world. The soft pink hues in Suzette’s abstract pieces echo those in Holly’s psychedelic landscapes. As do Michelle’s neon hues pair with Lia’s dark dreamscapes. Marina gives us geometry combined with memories while Margaret’s sublime waterscapes remind of a modern Francis Bacon.

Over the course of a year, I viewed and listened to their works, artist statements and drives and this is what I came up with. I hope you enjoy it!

Vernon Caldera Curator

Michell Whitney

Through soft sculptures, costumes, paintings, poems, drawings, moving objects, performances, and shadows, Houston-based multi-disciplinary artist Michelle Whitney makes exuberantly imaginative, yet subtly dangerous alternative worlds filled with networks of creatures and umbilical pods Drawing upon her degree in psychology and her experiences in leaving the conservative religion she was raised in, Michelle’s work examines the systems of beliefs that people are born into, the social control exerted to ensure beliefs and behaviors stick, and what it actually takes to break free from these systems Michelle seeks to engage a broad audience through the approachability of the soft sculptures she makes while subtle layers of danger, contradiction, and absurdity challenge that which is often left unquestioned.

Michelle earned a BA in psychology from Arizona State University, an MBA from Rice University, and completed the intensive studio arts critique- and seminar-based BLOCK program at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s Glassell School of Art. Originally from Utah, Michelle previously lived and worked in NYC, enjoys exploring backstreets to discover other cultures’ desserts, junk food, fashion, and art, and is always on the lookout for treasures and oddities.

Michelle Whitney

Mommy Long Legs

(Something’s Wrong with Me)

2023

Acrylic, Ink, & Resin on Canvas with Yard and Fabric Stiffener

H 118” x W 30” x D 1.75”

Alexandra Constantinou

Alexandra Constantinou is an artist from and living in Houston. She majored in Strategic Communication and minored in New Media Studio Art at TCU.

Constantinou has continued her personal education with the BLOCK program at the Glassell School of Art and as a member of the artist collective, Open MFA. Previously, she has worked at art galleries, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and The Idea Fund. As a research-oriented artist, Constantinou’s communication studies and current work in science education and outreach inform her practice as she observes science unfold Constantinou’s work has been shown nationally in exhibitions and film festivals and traveled through outer space.

From the Artist:

“I use textiles as a base and an embellishment in my art to connect our human histories – focusing on women, queer folk and my own experiences – with our exploration of the universe. I have been combining history and present-day circumstances, along with worldbuilding and developing my own symbols, to make art as a map of my own thinking and internal cosmos. By layering tradition, myths, craft, gender, orientation, science and exploration, I want to find a different way forward. Creating intimate objects meant to be held and worn and used, like clothing and blankets, gives viewers an immediate connection and guides them into the stories stitched throughout my art ”

Suzette Schutze

Suzette Schutze is an interdisciplinary ecological artist and naturalist whose work has been exhibited locally and nationally at museums, public spaces & natural areas. Her work focuses on the fragility and forces in and throughout the natural world. As a multidisciplinary artist, her practice speaks to others from experiences in a more-than-human world highlighting place and connectedness through clay and pigments of color.

Suzette is currently exhibiting works in two group exhibitions: “Journey to Oaxaca: Visual Testimonies of an Immersive Cultural Experience” located in the Bucher Gallery located at The Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Art Houston in Houston, Texas; and “CAMEO EA 202” located at Lee College in Baytown, Texas. She recently exhibited work as an award winner in the San Antonio Art League and Museum’s 93rd Annual Juried Annual Show, and was in “Multiplicity” a group exhibition of ceramic works in Houston, Texas. During the Fall of 2023, Suzette will be in two group exhibitions in Houston, Texas: BLOCK XXIII and 1 Year Later.

Suzette Schutze

Nice, France

2022

Pastel & Acrylic on Watercolor Paper

H 29.25” x W 23.25” x

D 1.5”

$1,200

Suzette Schutze

La Foret

2022

Pastel & Acrylic on Watercolor Paper

H 2925” x W 23 25” x D 15”

$1,200

Suzette Schutze

La Foret

2022

Pastel & Acrylic on Watercolor Paper

H 29.25” x W 23.25” x

D 1.5”

$1,200

Margaret O’ Brien-Nelson

I was born in Trieste on the northeastern most coast of Italy. My sister and I were put in buggies and carted over cobbled streets and docks from which we sailed to America for the first time. Family photos show the sadness of departure and apprehension. That was the first one. Each trip left me imprinted with the power and solemnity of water. The water opened my eyes to a basic but profound universal view at a very young age.

My current paintings are a collection of encounters with water. In my departure from painting bridges, streets and shell roads of the Galveston Bay area I knew I was going off the deep end.

The dive was more than worth it, I needed to do it for myself to grow as an artist. To be able to give expression to something I have known for so long. The waters split open, you enter and the world changes. Your eyes register a place altered by a fixed instability - streams of visual information that parallel and cross your senses. Color, light, and weight are changed. You float, swim, flutter and dive in what feels like another universe. Disconnected with your terrestrial self.

Margaret O’BrienNelson

Corpo d’Acqua #2

2022

Oil on Canvas

H 36” x W 36” x D 1.75”

$2,850

Margaret O’BrienNelson Corpo d’Acqua #3

2022

Oil on Canvas

H 36” x W 24” x D 1.5”

$2,200

Margaret O’BrienNelson

Liz Floats: W. Palm Beach, Fla 2021

2022

Oil on Canvas

H 30” x W 30” x D 2.25”

$2,500

Margaret O’BrienNelson

Corpo d’Acqua #3: Water Dance 2022

Oil on Canvas

H 60” x W 48” x D 1.5”

$3,950

Margaret O’BrienNelson

Respite: Liz WPB 2022

Oil on Canvas

H 40” x W 30” x D 15”

$3,500

Margaret O’BrienNelson Holding Pattern 2023

Gouache, Graphite, & Eraser

H 13.5” x W 13.5” x D 2”

$950

Chet Urban

Chet Urban is a Houston-based multimedia artist who makes sculptures and quilts from industrial & post-consumer materials as well as two dimensional monoprints. Originally from Upstate NY, Chet maintained studios in Brooklyn & the South Bronx while also sailing in the merchant marine. Chet moved to Houston in 2011, and resides in Montrose with his wife and daughter

He recently completed a two-year program as a member of the BLOCK XX2 cohort at Glassell Studio School at Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

From the Artist:

“I make grid based work that is formally in dialogue with historical Minimalism and minimal art which also critiques and reflects my observations of the immediate world, culture, and society we inhabit today Recent sculpture and works on paper reflect on the iconography and symbolism of the white picket fence in American mythology I also use polypropylene tarpaulins and other industrial or consumer material to make quilts and objects which explore modern masculinity, housing scarcity and ecology. Additionally, I also make monotypes. A multi-year series of these on paper and canvas explore my personal and the collective anxiety during the COVID pandemic These serve as process works and as documentation of events during the pandemic. More recently this series and process has begun to transition thematically and reflect on identity, reflection and the power of politics and capitol.

I am interested in materiality. What does a material hold in itself? What does it transfer to us as a symbol? What associations and judgements do we make about a material? How does that change as the audience changes? How does our memory, often first associations with material, impact our future and present projections onto that media?

Craft is important to me Craft, mainly through the access it provides to direct insight to labor and the humanity embedded in production This is not a craft of precision It is a craft of work, messy at times and imperfect - a juxtaposition to the ideal fictions and myths. If not more real, perhaps closer to accurate which is to emphasize our humanness & humanity which is often too obscured by ego and consumerism.”

Chet Urban Picket

2022

Painted Wood, Mirror, & Marking

Paint

H 53” x W 53” x D 1.5”

$4,500

Chet Urban

Untitled (Picket on Paper)

2023

Acrylic on Paper

H 31 25” x W 41 25” x D 175”

$1,850

Chet Urban

Memorial 1

2023

Monotype & Acrylic on Canvas

H 52” x W 46” x D 0.13”

$3,250

Chet Urban

Epiphany

2022

Monotype & Acrylic on Canvas

H 45” x W 48” x D 0.13”

$3,250

Robert Fox

Robert Fox was born and raised in the Pittsburgh, PA area, While interested in art and photography from an early age, he trained in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, receiving a Ph.D. from Yale University, followed by a 40-year career as a professor and researcher in England, California, Connecticut and Texas During the last ten years he has trained at the Glassell Studio School of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, focusing on painting, sculpture and ceramics. He is currently in his second year of the Glassell BLOCK XXIV program, and is preparing to transition to a full time art practice in Santa Fe, NM.

From the Artist:

“My practice explores the interface of mathematics, the sciences, and art in the areas of conceptual and generative art. I’ve made a series of painted wood relief wall hangings that follow a simple rule base of subtraction and addition Some of these works explore symmetry and breaking symmetry. In the body of work shown here, abstract sculptures are conceived by the exploration and manipulation of parametric equations. The sculptures shown all represent deformations of a cylinder as the starting equations The results of the equations are displayed visually and optimized as inviting tactile forms. Each object is fashioned from PLA plastic using a 3D printer. The black forms are closed biomorphic objects displayed in an abstracted environment.”

Robert Fox

Untitled Edition 1/25

2023

PLA Plastic

H 4.5” x W 12” x D 12”

$400

Robert Fox

Untitled Edition 1/25

2023

PLA Plastic

H 8.5” x W 6.5” x D 7”

$400

Robert Fox

Untitled Edition 1/25

2023

PLA Plastic

H 10” x W 8.5” x D 7”

$400

Robert Fox

Untitled Edition 1/25 2023

PLA Plastic

H 9” x W 8” x D 7”

$400

Holly Josey

Holly is a landscape painter currently living and working in Houston, and a member of Block 24 at MFAH’s Glassel School of Art.

This series is the result of work created before, during, and after lockdowns. The constraint of those times brought unforeseen discoveries and permanent change into her studio practice. Holly drew from “mythical memories” of her formative years in rural Northern Wisconsin – a time when forests and lakes were still “untouched and wild – silent and still” .

With “long looking” among the trees and landscaping at her home, Holly builds drawings in charcoal from the morning shadows of the tallest trees. Acrylic paint comes next into play blocking in shapes as the sun moves across the sky. Surrealistic moments happen. In high noon shadows - almost impossible for the hand to keep up withlimbs, leaves and vines give sharp-edged, quick information. Later things slow down as the Moon gives shadows of restful illumination.

It is all a process of time, gesture, and light. Holly calls these paintings, “ a type of borrowed glory”.

Holly Josey

Fireball & Lightning

2020-2022

Acrylic, Charcoal, Pastel, & Graphite on Canvas

H 48” x W 36” x D 15”

$1,800

Holly Josey

Elmwood Mellon Sits Upon a Rock at 8AM Watching Progress Egress 2022

Acrylic, Graphite, Charcoal, Crayon, Pastel, & Oil on Canvas

H 30” x W 40” x D 15”

NFS

Holly Josey

Potted Magnolia

2021-2022

Acrylic, Charcoal, & Graphite on Canvas

H 46” x W 48” x D 1.5”

NFS

Holly Josey

Self Portrait 2022

Acrylic, Graphite, Charcoal, & Pastel on Canvas

H 36” x W 48” x D 15”

NFS

Lia Rodi

Internationally raised and Houston-based abstract ar st Lia Rodi draws on her many years of experience as an architect and outdoors woman in her construction of bold, striking, psychological spaces. In her pain.ngs, she creates beau.ful, visited, and make-believe places where processing life and sensing the unseen intersect.

Rodi spent her first four years in Korea, her forma.ve years in Germany, and has lived all over the United States, including MassachuseHs, Texas, Oregon and Montana where she honed her love of the outdoors. She holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree, a Master of Architecture degree, and a Cer ficate in Pain ng from the MFA Houston where she is currently in her second year of the BLOCK XXIV program.

From the Artist:

Lia Rodi is an abstract painter who conjures unseen, immersive and imaginary places of the wild through line-song, biomorphic forms, color-magic and mythological mirrors Her pain.ngs are built of sketch-painting and color magic, melding drawing and pain.ng as one. Fluid and at times frenetic mark-making create an interplay of flat shapes and sculptural, biomorphic forms that challenge spatial dimensions. Urgency and immediacy of form are reinforced by striking color combinations that defy the expected Shifting of the abstract and figural in constant motion introduce movement, time, and narrative. Forms merge and dissolve into line-song through loud slashes, quiet washes, and silent flow. Stitching it all together, a pre-rational gesture of graffiti-like linework descends into a visual language representing the subconscious Hovering just before reason, the line work acts as an anchor into the imaginary.

Rodi’s work summons elements of Trompe-l'œil, abstract expressionism, surrealism, and biomorphism She is inspired by Amy Sillman, Etel Adnan, Georgia O’Keefe, Jade Fadojutimi, and Cy Gavin, among others. She seeks the primal, the natural, and the equilibrium provided by the Wild and the sublime. Whether on foot or on canvas, Rodi uses painting as a medium to traverse and summit the metaphysical, cresting both the real and the imagined

Lia Rodi Grab Me

2021

Oil on Canvas

H 16” x W 20” x D 0.75”

$2,600

Lia Rodi

King and Queen

2023

Oil on Canvas

H 30” x W 30” x D 0.75”

$3,600

Lia Rodi D10 2022

Oil on Canvas

H 30” x W 30” x D 0.75”

$3,600 wwwreevesartgalleryhoustoncom

Mariana Fernandez

Marina Fernandez is an Argentine-born visual artist with a formal education as an Industrial Engineer. Her paintings play with spaces and places. She invites you to a world constructed by her own geometry derived from mental and emotional maps. Before coming to Houston about 9 years ago, she lived in Asia for 15 years. Fernandez is an avid learner. Not only has she studied with artists in China and in Singapore, but also learned to speak Mandarin to better understand their culture and ways of living. She is a current student at The Block program at Glassell School of Art.

From the Artist:

“I make carefully planned compositions of geometric shapes intertwined with less precise and organic forms. My work is an exploration of places through a particular spatial relationship, drawing parallels between a place in the world and a moment in time. I’m attracted to maps, especially vintage ones created before we could see terrain from above. I imagine my paintings as descriptions from a hundred feet in the air and right in front of our faces. I gain inspiration exploring the juxtaposition of industry and nature, human calculation, natural forms, and diverse patterns. The use of transparencies and ambiguous shapes bridge the two ways I see the world: geometric and calculated while at the same time spontaneous and free. The abundance of negative spaces created by my brushstrokes are related to the Japanese concept of “Ma”: the space between edges, like a pause between two spoken words, or the space between two musical notes on a page. My work represents places filled with nothing but energy and feelings. They extend an invitation to pause and observe beyond lines and shapes to experience the universe that I create.”

43° 4’ 22, 9836” N, 89° 24’ 4,4280” W #2

2022

Acrylic on Canvas

H 55” x W 46” x D 1.5”

$4,400

2021

Acrylic on Canvas

H 40” x W 30” x D 15”

$1,950

2021

Acrylic on Canvas

H 40” x W 30” x D 1.5”

$1,950

Rapsodia

2022

Acrylic on Canvas

H 30” x W 24” x D 15”

$1,600

Empty Places #5

2021

Acrylic on Canvas

H 40” x W 30” x D 1.5”

$1,950

Marina Fernandez Coordinates Series

Marina Fernandez

Marina Fernandez

La Esquina de Siempre II

Marina Fernandez

Marina Fernandez

La Esquina de Siempre I

Vernon Caldera

Vernon started making art by painting the doors of his closet as a 5 year old in Nicaragua. His first memories were of visiting the artist Alejandro Arostegui’s studio in Mexico City while his family waited out the war in Nicaragua. His family moved to the US in 1985 and eventually settled in Houston. In junior high, he won a Houston Public Library competition for his drawing “Tree of Life” and had his official artistic debut in a group exhibition at their downtown branch Vernon graduated from Strake Jesuit excelling in sports and studies in Spanish literature. While in college, he was able to take art history classes at the Prado Museum in Madrid further cementing his love of art. After graduating with honors from SMU in Dallas, he moved back to Houston into the famous Isabella Court Apartments in 2003, a landmark arts in building in downtown Houston since 1929.

After launching several successful graphic design, interior design, and terrarium businesses, in 2020, as a result of the pandemic, he taught himself how to paint using YouTube videos. Later that year, he began taking classes at Glassell School of art located at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. He quickly moved from beginning painting to advanced painting. In 2022 was accepted into the school’s gifted students program known as BLOCK.

From the artist:

“I am a multi-disciplinary artist interested in the repetition of patterns in nature both on a physical and conceptual level I make narrative-driven work influenced by my time growing up in Mexico, Nicaragua and Houston, as well as my travels. I am inspired by the decadence in colors, ideas and visual storytelling of Mexican muralists, the Primitivism movement of Nicaragua and the old Spanish masters at the Prado. I like the idea of contemporizing these historic influences to my life as a gay man in Houston in 2023.”

H 37” x W 25” x D 15” $1,800

H 37” x W 25” x D 15” $1,800

H 37” x W 25” x D 1.5” $1,800

2023

Acrylic on Canvas

H 40” x W 30” x D 15”

$4,250

2023

Acrylic on Canvas

H 48” x W 36” x D 15”

$5,800

2023

Acrylic on Canvas

H 40” x W 30” x D 15”

$4,250

Vernon Caldera Queen 2021 Collage

Vernon Caldera Jack 2021 Collage

Vernon Caldera Rey 2021 Collage

Vernon Caldera El santo de Diriamba

Vernon Caldera Amarrado

Vernon Caldera La Procesión de lava