Previous Exhibitions
Hanging by a Thread by Allison Hunter
November 10, 2011 - February 29,2012
In her solo-exhibition of photographs, paintings and video, Hanging by a Thread, Allison Hunter explores the beauty and fragility of insects in our increasingly toxic environment.
Hanging by a Thread is Nancy Wazny's Pick of the Week, "This new batch of work explores the delicacy and fragility of the insect world. Much like her work with animals, Hunter erases the background, giving the insect a kind of nobility...Trust me, there's some gorgeous animation as well witty vintage narration. Bees in Hunter's hand are simply amazing." Read more by clicking here.
Allison Hunter is a visual artist who over the past twenty years has worked in photography, video, drawing, sculpture, and installation. Hunter earned her first MFA at the Cantonal Art School of Lausanne, Switzerland (1990, Drawing/Photography), and her second MFA at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York (1997, Video). She is also one of Houston Arts Alliance former Individual Artist Grantee recipients. For additional information click here.
Houston 175 - Portrait of Houston: 1900–2011
October 20-November 4, 2011
In celebration of the 175th birthday of the City of Houston, Alliance Gallery will be holding an exhibition, hosted by DiverseWorks ArtSpace and organized with Mark Cervenka and Susan Baker from the University of Houston Downtown, of historical and contemporary art work by Houston painters and photographers. Entitled Portrait of Houston: 1900–2011, the exhibition seeks to give an overview of the artists who have engaged the city of Houston as their subject matter.
View Channel 13's live broadcast from Alliance Gallery by clicking here and then visit www.houston175.org for information on all the projects and events.
Artists featured in Portrait of Houston: 1900-2011 are David Adickes, John Biggers, Jack Boynton, David Brown, Frederic Browne, Emma Richardson Cherry, Frank Dolejska, Henri Gadbois, Dixie Friend Gay, Dorothy Hood, Frank Martin, Leila McConnell, Hattie Palmer, Robert Preusser, Richard Stout, Stella Sullivan, and Lillian Warren.
Leigh Anne Lester: Beautiful Freaks/Nature's Bastards
September 8-October 14, 2011
Houston Arts Alliance Gallery presents the exhibition Beautiful Freaks/Nature's Bastards, work by 2011 Hunting Prize Winner Leigh Anne Lester. Opening Reception Thursday, September 8, 6 - 9 pm. On view through October 14.
The exhibition will feature sculpture, carbon drawings, embroidery and cut paper pieces. Lester's works address the place between the genesis of genetic modification and its after effects. Using beauty as a tool to entice viewers, Lester asks them to consider the paradox of beauty as a balance of order/control with abandon/uncertainty. Lester's "Frankenstein Flora" brings into play a sense of what's possible, whether good or bad, thus creating an artistic premonition of the consequences of genetic modification.
Lester holds a BFA in Painting from the University of Texas and is co-founder, co-owner and co-curator of Cactus Bra Space, an alternative exhibition venue in San Antonio.
The Hunting Art Prize, sponsored by international oil services company Hunting PLC, is an annual competition that awards $50,000 to a single artist. Founded in the UK in 1981 with the commitment to provide recognition, sponsorship and visibility to deserving artists from emerging to established, The Hunting Prize relocated to Houston in 2006, and is the largest annual award given in North America for painting and drawing.
Boundless Motion
July 16-August 31, 2011
The Brazilian Arts Foundation (BAF) is proud to present Boundless Motion, an eclectic combination of recycling materials and contemporary art. The exhibit showcases works created by the BAF Seniors Arts Program, local Brazilian artist Tony Paraná and guest artist from Salvador, Bahia Brazil Jorge Leite Lopes. The exhibit runs July 16 through August 31, 2011 at the Alliance Gallery. The exhibit Grand Opening will be July 16, from 6:00pm – 9:00pm.
The BAF Seniors Arts Program offers seniors at the Wesley Community Center weekly art and exercise classes. The art classes are designed to aid in externalizing emotions, enhance creativity and develop individual expression. The instructor also incorporates light stretching and gentle movements into the art class to improve energy levels and concentration. The classes are free to seniors. Their work represents the endless progression of human creativity.
Tony Paraná is a self-taught Brazilian artist from the state of Bahia. Many of Tony’s works, which range from community life to local architecture, portray the rich and eclectic flavor of this northeastern state. Tony works in oil, mixed media, sculptures, and mosaics to create unique art that imbues warmth and movement. His works have been exhibited in Sao Paulo Brazil; Los Angeles, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Houston, Texas.
Jorge Leite Lopes is a self-taught artist, producer, and creator… He uses raw, discarded materials, such as plastic containers, broken toys, bits of tile and electronics to create uncommon pieces of art. In 2004, he developed a technique that molds 2 liter plastic bottles by cutting and heating. This process is called “bottle mutation”. His works have been seen throughout Brazil in galleries, festival sceneries and various performances.
Seeing the Unseen: The Folk Arts of Houston’s Faith Communities
March 31-June 30, 2011
Houston is a remarkably diverse city — and in no domain of city life is that diversity more apparent than in its faith communities. Both the long-lived communities of Houston, as well as more recent immigrants to the city, have sought membership in churches, mosques, temples, and the like that represent their religious traditions but also aspects of their cultural, national or ethnic identity.
The photographic exhibition: Seeing the Unseen: The Folk Arts of Houston’s Faith Communities begins the massive process of exploring these communities and their artistic traditions. Through photographic documentation of distinctive sacred spaces, important ritual events and diverse religious communities, Seeing the Unseen shares aspects of the visible and artful manifestations of religious life in the Houston metropolitan area.
From architecture to ritual, procession to celebration, attire to handcrafted objects and other forms of visual culture, Seeing the Unseen provides not only a vantage on the folk arts of faith, but the role they play and the relationship they have to each other in complex festive and religious events. The exhibition opens Thursday March 31, 2011 and continues until June 30, 2011.
Photographers represented by images in the exhibition are Debra Ham, Ananta Patel, Tracey Rubio and Regina Vigil. All documentation was conducted in 2010-2011.
Seeing the Unseen: the Folk Arts of Houston’s Faith Communities is part of Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites, a major project of the Folklife & Traditional Arts program of the Houston Arts Alliance. It involves concerts, onsite presentations of diverse artistic traditions by several faith communities, educational workshops, lectures, and a photo exhibition. At its core, Sacred Songs, Sacred Sites addresses religious and cultural tradition as central to community identity, history and heritage, as such, a truly significant way to introduce Houstonians to their many neighbors.
Isa Leshko: Thrills and Chills
October 14-December 31, 2010
Houston Arts Alliance, in partnership with Houston Center for Photography, presents the exhibition Thrills and Chills, featuring the work of photographer Isa Leshko. The exhibition opens Thursday, October 14, with a reception from 6pm-8pm.
This body of work features black and white images taken at parks, county fairs and along boardwalks using a stripped down Holga toy camera. The exhibition will be on display at Houston Arts Alliance through December 31, 2010.
Award winner Leshko has shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA., the Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, CA., Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, OR. and the SoHo Photo Gallery in New York City. Her work is currently part of the Photo Forum exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Leshko is represented by John Cleary Gallery.
"Amusement park rides terrify me, which is why I began photographing them. I am fascinated by what compels people to surrender themselves to these mechanical beasts. The rides seem to challenge the very limitations of being human. We can't fly; yet these vertigo-inducing machines allow us to soar through the open air. The experience combines elation with fear; thrills with chills."
-- Artist Isa Leshko
If We Only Knew Now What They Knew Then, Works by Melanie Crader and Katy Heinlein
July 29-September 9, 2010
Houston Arts Alliance - space125gallery presents the exhibition If We Only Knew Now What They Knew Then, Works by Melanie Crader and Katy Heinlein. Opening Reception Thursday, July 29, 2010, at 5:30 pm. On view through Friday, September 9, 2010.
Melanie Crader - A native of Louisiana, now residing in Houston, Crader explores fashion, gender, social class and identity. This body of work, which she has named Take Away Project, offers a series of printed stories which viewers are encouraged to take with them. Crader believes stories change from teller to listener, thus creating a fractured narrative, giving each story a life of its own.
Katy Heinlein - By creating simple and theatrical sculptures, Heinlein generates interplay between gravity, tension and movement. She uses cloth as her medium because it can be both vague and suggestive, as well as partially revealing. Her work is about mystery and obscurity, the seen and unseen.
Monte Large: GLOW
MEET THE ARTIST: April 1, 2010 6 pm - 8 pm
GAS LAMP PROJECT: April 2, 2010 5 pm - 7 pm
EXHIBITION ON VIEW: March 11 - April 30, 2010
In conjunction with FotoFest, GLOW at space125gallery is a video-based installation that portrays warmth and humor. Artist Monte Large elected to work in the subdued palette of winter to combat the lull in energy associated with the limited light of the season, and to heighten the light levels and colors of the exhibition. GLOW invites interaction, movement and interpretation.
space125gallery will be open for extended hours on Friday, April 2, 2010 from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. to allow visitors to see the exhibition along with Large's Individual Artist Grant work Gas Lamp On West Alabama (corner of West Alabama & La Branch). Utilizing light, Large transformed an abandoned 1940's-era gas station into a beacon. By enlivening the building, Large is playfully provoking passing viewers to engage with the work."Some didn't know if they should approach it, others used it as a sort of stage to showcase themselves dancing or acting. This was precisely the idea of the exhibit. It allowed the viewer to make of it what they wanted," noted Large. The artist is known for creating works that bridge the worlds of art and business, and for stimulating dialogue on cross-disciplinary art practices.
Monte Large is an Individual Artist Grantee: just one of the many programs in which HAA supports Houston's artistic community. The City of Houston annually supports this and more than 200 additional arts grants.
Libbie Masterson: STILL
December 10, 2009-February 19, 2010
Houston-based photographer, Libbie Masterson, will install a photographic exhibition of the remote areas of West Texas entitled STILL at space125gallery located at 3201 Allen Parkway.
Funded by an Individual Artists Grant courtesy of the Houston Arts Alliance, the exhibit will open Thursday, December 10, 2009 with an artist reception that is open to the public from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The gallery will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the show will remain on view through Thursday, January 7. Extended through February 19, 2010.
Previously, Masterson has based her massive photographic exhibits on luminescent, icy scenes. For December’s show, she strays from this realm to explore what could be considered the most extreme opposite - yet possesses beauty equally as majestic – the rugged landscapes of the state’s western regions. STILL will be comprised of Masterson’s latest collection of black and white images shot in the mysterious evening light. The effect of the dimming light as it situates into the night sky emanates nostalgia and timeless preservation, and with this exhibition, Masterson succeeds in emulating the serenity of nightfall across the land she describes as “so foreign and yet right in our home.”
The name was chosen to reflect the stillness associated with nightfall and also the unchanged landscape there. Simultaneously, a single-cell photograph is referred to as a “still.” Playing upon the various connotations of this word, the exhibit is intended to display the grand openness of the vast territory while emphasizing an intimate connection, provoking nostalgia within the viewer.
Bringing the scale down to a more personal level, Masterson has also stepped away from the wall-scaling effects of the larger-than-life exhibits and compiled a portfolio of single images. Her intentions of distilling tranquility and delivering it to those who behold the photographs, reading through them “like a book or a family album,” are directed at inspiring the viewer to “be still oneself.”
Masterson comes from a family of many artists. This background provided direction to follow a path experimenting with such varying visual art mediums as painting, glass blowing, printmaking, stone carving among others. Although painting has historically been her preferred artistic outlet, a timely “accident” let her to explore the world of photography in depth. Taking shots of Iceland’s frozen brilliance to document areas she intended to paint, she decided the images were breathtaking as photographs by themselves.
Driven by her desire to psychologically transport those who view her work to the elusive landscape pictured as the subject, she began constructing illuminated exhibits where the images glow from the photographic panels. She has now been photographing for four years installing massive, panoramic exhibitions, which bring these intangible places within feet of city dwellers.
She began her extensive education of the Fine Arts at a young age by taking classes at the Glassell School of Art junior school. Much later down the road, she earned a BFA at the California College of Art (formerly the California College of Arts and Crafts). She supplemented her studies with classes at the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington and Parsons School of Design in Paris. The Houston native has been represented locally by the Meredith Long Gallery where her paintings were shown for a decade, the Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and she is proud to be a part of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Her talents have recently spilled over onto the stage upon being commissioned by the Dominic Walsh Dance. Theatre to create a stage design for the production, “Amadeus.” It has been performed in Houston, Sarasota Florida, and New York City and was then developed into a full-length ballet titled “Mozart” - more - Masterson / page three with the Sarasota Ballet Company for the 2008-09 season. Her work will also lend its ambiance to the Tokyo Ballet in May 2010.
Currently she is fulfilling a residency at the Dora Maar House in Menerbes, France, a Brown Foundation Fellowship awarded through the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Topiary Text Lead
September 3-November 16, 2009
The Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) presents the exhibition Topiary Text Lead. Featuring the work of Peter Brown, Deborah LeBlanc, Liana Lopez, Delilah Monotya, Kia Neill and Linda Walsh.
Topiary Text Lead is a collection of botany conscious and socially conscious works that are bound together by an aesthetic and psychological connection. Through the varying visual stories presented by Individual Artist Grantee recipients Peter Brown, Deborah LeBlanc, Liana Lopez, Delilah Montoya, Kia Neill and Linda Walsh there are didactic undertones that promote a reflection of our current state and foreshadow tomorrow. The images within the exhibition are both subtle and sharp; they range from abstraction to realism and possess both calming and intuitive characteristics.
Peter Brown, Deborah LeBlanc, Liana Lopez, Delilah Montoya, Kia Neill and Linda Walsh are all Individual Artist Grantees. The Individual Artists Grant program represents just one of the many ways in which HAA supports Houston's artistic community. The City of Houston annually supports this and more than 200 additional arts grants.
Interconnectivity
July 9-August 14, 2009
The Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) presents the exhibition Interconnectivity. Featuring the work of Serena Lin Bush, Magsamen + Hillerbrand and Tish Stringer.
Interconnectivity is an exhibition themed around human emotion and is a video portrayal of human connection through the body, conversation and ordinary acts of human interaction. This is the first all video exhibition to take place in space125gallery. The exhibition will be on view through August 14, 2009. Opening reception will take place July 9, 2009 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Serena Lin Bush, Mary Magsamen, Stephan Hillerbrand and Tish Stringer are all Individual Artist Grantees. The Individual Artists Grant program represents just one of the many ways in which HAA supports Houston’s artistic community. The City of Houston annually supports this and more than 200 additional arts grants.
The Transitional Museum: Architecture by Mauricio Rodriguez Anza
June 3-June 26, 2009
space125gallery will open its doors in June to The Anza Falco Museum of Art and Design. The exhibition will unveil plans for the much anticipated M Pavilion, predecessor to the upcoming Anza Falco Museum of Art and Design. Its iconic architectural components suggest to visitors the type of exhibition spaces and artistic content that the Museum will offer to the public of Houston once it opens its doors in the Spring of 2010.
In the last two decades, the world has seen an explosion of space dedicated to the study and public exhibition of modern design. The Anza Falco Museum of Art and Design is working towards bringing just such a space to the City of Houston. The museum will center its attention and resources on the complex relationship between the emergence of design as an artistic, technological, economic and social force in the past one hundred years and the international artistic trends and ideologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that influenced its development and expansion. The museum will house exhibition space, along with educational and research units devoted to the critical exploration and development of design.
Nuevas Visiones: Mayan Visions new works by Sergio Santos
March 26-May 8, 2009
Nuevas Visiones: Mayan Visions is a selection of new works by Sergio Santos in which the Houston photographer examines the intricate connection of his ancestry rooted in Mayan/ Spanish culture. For Sergio the photographs represent the tension felt through this historical conflict that extends into present day and continues to affect Latin Americans and their descendents. The images are not a historical depiction, but a photographic interpretation of passages from the Mayan creation account, the Popul Vuh.
In the exhibition Sergio uses digital photography as an intentional contrast between technology and pre-Columbian mythology. “Being of Latin American descent is a confounding matter to have ancestry that is so diametrically opposed. We are the fruit of one forefather (the Spanish) and murder of the other forefather (The Mayan),” Sergio notes. The works will be on display through May 8, 2009.
Sergio Santos is an HAA FY08 Individual Artist Grantee.
Up for Discussion: Building Art in Houston
February 5-February 28, 2009
In conjunction with the exhibition Civic Duty: Building Art, Building Houston in space125gallery, Houston Arts Alliance presents a three-part panel series Up for Discussion: Building Art in Houston. Up for Discussion explores the form and function of the civic art practice through moderated discussions. Each session will pair an exhibiting artist and a design professional to examine the work and processes of city building.
Civic Duty: Building Art, Building Houston
January 29-March 6, 2009
The Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) announces a two-part series of exhibits examining processes and methods used to create civic art in Houston beginning January 29 through March 6, 2009 at space 125gallery. The first of the series is entitled Civic Duty: Building Art, Building Houston and will showcase the different artistic processes that lead to some of Houston’s cultural treasures ranging from Hobby Airport to Kashmere Gardens to the revitalized water treatment facility near Lake Houston.
The installation of these new public artworks in Houston neighborhoods is the culmination of a long process that begins with the allocation of funding from the city’s “percent for art” ordinance and the selection of the artist through a request for qualifications.
“Civic Duty: Building Art, Building Houston” is a group exhibition of nine contracted proposals for civic artworks integrated into the operations and neighborhoods of Houston. The exhibition focuses on the connection between artists commissioned through the HAA Civic Art + Design program and City of Houston department leadership. Each of the artists was commissioned to produce original and site-specific permanent civic art projects in Houston locations. The exhibit will include renderings and material samples of newly installed projects and commissions currently in fabrication, underscoring the range of approaches contemporary artists use to create original artworks in municipal contexts. They worked closely in cooperation with building and facility teams including programming staff as well as architects to create artwork that is exciting for and appropriate to the city-owned facility where it is intended.
Projects highlighted in the exhibition include a diverse commission by artists Reginald Adams, Elmgreen/Dragset, Sharon Engelstein, Matthew Geller, Tim Glover, Jim Hirschfield and Sonya Ishii, Gordon Huether, Donald Lipski and Bert L. Long Jr.
Sediment: Mark Schatz and Jared Steffensen
November 6, 2008-January 5, 2009
space125gallery at Houston Arts Alliance presents the exhibition Sediment, featuring work by sculptors Mark Schatz and Jared Steffensen.
Sediment confronts the notions of both personal and geographical sediment, representing the visceral point at which nature and culture collide.
Landscape is a raw material that has been accumulated over time. It is geographically layered and represents an insight into the history and sediment of daily life.
Through natural periodical upheavals and societal disruptions it is re-ordered, shaken and resettled. Schatz and Steffensen's approach to Sediment parallels and transcends sociological boundaries and momentarily collides with viewers.
Moving and storage boxes (marked, worn, moth-eaten, taped and re-taped) are the catalyst for the works represented in space125gallery. As a raw material, the layers of cardboard accumulate and gradually silence the messages printed or scrawled on the previous layer. The artists' conscious use of color and attention to detail results in a fusion of connectivity through visual landscapes.
Mark Schatz is a Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grantee. The Individual Artist Grant program represents just one of the many ways in which HAA supports Houston's artistic community. The City of Houston annually supports this and more than 200 additional arts grants.
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Printed Thursday, May 17, 2012