Museum of Fine Arts Houston
presents
Celebrating Community:
Opening Day
Sunday May 20th:
Noon to 4pm
Family activities highlight the opening of the new Glassell School of Art; The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza; and the BBVA Compass Roof Garden.
Visitors can enjoy an array of family activities including art-making, performances, and more. The program brings many of the Museum’s community partners to the plaza to participate in the celebration, including MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts); MET dance; Texas Southern University; Houston Public Library; Houston Community College; Inprint; and Houston Independent School District. Guests can also embark on a docent-led overview of the new Glassell School of Art, which offers classes for all ages. For more information, visit www.mfah.org.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston / Glassell School of Art 5101 Montrose Boulevard
Activities from noon to 4 p.m.:
- Print & Play: Explore the process of printmaking with silly and everyday Recommended for children 5 and under.
- Wearable Flower Brooches: Celebrate summer and design wearable and colorful flowers inspired by Dutch still life paintings. Recommended for children 5 and up.
- Reflective Handheld Sculptures: Create shimmering and glistening works of art inspired by different metal sculptures. Recommended for all ages.
- Story Booth: Share a story using provided prompts for inspiration, or come up with your own.
- Inprint Poetry Buskers: Get a free poem from the Inprint Poetry Buskers. Using typewriters and the muse of immediate inspiration, these talented local writers will write you a customized poem on a theme of your choice. This activity will end at 3 p.m.
- Fashion Collages with Houston Community College—Participants can create their own vibrant silhouettes by gluing magazine cutouts over fashion croquis drawings. Recommended for all ages.
- Storybook Picnic with Houston Public Library: Grab a book and spend time reading fantastic adventures and epic stories under the shade of trees.
- Play Garden Quest III: The Legend of Stella—Use your cell phone to explore the new plaza and the sculpture garden through an interactive text- based game developed by the hang@MFAH leadership group.
- Project A-DOOR-E with HISD: Explore HISD’s Project A-DOOR-E Houston and see how students transformed doors from storm-damaged homes into works of art.
- Outside the Box: Creativity Challenge—Beginning at 12:30 p.m. on the BBVA Compass Roof Garden, challenge your family and friends to a fun and exciting group art-making competition. Recommended for all ages.
Performances:
Noon—Texas Southern University Jazz Ensemble
12:30 p.m.—Performance with percussionist Craig Hauschildt
1 p.m.—Ballet Folklorico Performance with MECA
2 p.m.—Performance with Aperio
3 p.m.—Performance with METdance
The campus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is being transformed with a new master plan: two new buildings, designed by Steven Holl Architects; a new conservation center, designed by Lake|Flato Architects; and a landscape plan by Deborah Nevins & Associates that knits together a century’s worth of signature architectural structures.
This event is generously underwritten by Learning and Interpretation programs receive generous funding from Melvyn and Cyvia Wolff; MD Anderson Cancer Center; Mitra Mujica-Margolis and Michael Margolis; the Sterling-Turner Foundation; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Houston Junior Woman’s Club; Mercantil Bank; Mr. William J. Hill; The Windgate Charitable Foundation; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Sharon G. Dies; The Powell Foundation; and the Susan Vaughan Foundation.
Opening Reception of
Thomas Swanston’s “Here to There”
with Artist in Attendance
Thornwood Gallery on Colquitt Street in Upper Kirby has an opening reception of the latest body of work by the renowned artist, Thomas Swanston. The artist will be present at the solo exhibition of “Here to There” on Saturday, May 19, 2018, from 5:00-7:00 P.M.
Thomas Swanston’s paintings depict the visual and spiritual beauty emanating from nature. Drawing inspiration from the environment, Swanston explores concepts relating to home and migration and the various connotations associated with each. Explaining this underlying philosophy of his work, Swanston states, “The recurring patterns of Sandhill crane migrations remind us of nature’s ability to renew and revive itself, rhythmically changing, yet remaining stable and consistent through the season. Such is also the human life, changing with each year and each generation. Like migratory birds, physical and spiritual travelers alike explore new or familiar places, always to return to the one special locale that they call home.”
Using gilded shapes intertwined with abstract washes of color and light, Swanston creates paintings that visually evolve and transform in conjunction with the natural light of a passing day. He brings the beauty of nature into the home and captures the idea that art originates not only through personal introspection but through the contemplation of nature and place.
The environment plays a key role in the construction of Swanston’s paintings and guides the context of each work. As a long-time supporter of the Audubon Society and Rowe Foundation, Swanston works to highlight the need for environmental change and migration of ideas necessary to bring us from “here to there.”
Thomas Swanston was born 1956 in Annapolis Md., Naval Hospital. He graduated from Hobart & William Smith Colleges 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts, with studies in London and at the Studio School in New York, New York. Swanston matriculated in 1980 and was one of only twelve of the first Parsons Master of Fine Arts Diploma offered.Swanston has been included in 8 museum exhibitions and is published in over 55 trade and lifestyles magazines.
Artist Talk:
Suzanne Manns
Architecture, Geometry and Ecosystems
Selected works from the seventies to the present
Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 4pm
Rudolph Blume Fine Art / ArtScan Gallery
1836 Richmond, Houston, TX 77098
(Refreshments from 3-5pm)
with Artist in Attendance
(Talk starts at 4pm)
Show duration: May 12 – June 9, 2018
Closing Reception: June 9, 2018 – 3-5pm
Suzanne Manns came to Houston in 1973 and in 1975 she was asked to teach printmaking at what is now the Glassell School of Art, where she played a crucial role in acquainting many artists with the art of printmaking. She established a substantial printmaking department, upgrading both its facilities and teaching concepts. She soon became the Head of the Printmaking Department and eventually taught all levels of drawing as well in the Department of Drawing and Design.
Cindy Lisica Gallery:
Javier Valle Pérez
Angel Oloshove
Cindy Lisica Gallery presents an extraordinary pairing of artists for an otherworldly duo exhibition this spring at 4411 Montrose. The swirly and supple forms of Houston-based ceramics sculptor Angel Oloshove meet the vibrant and visionary paintings of Nicaraguan artist Javier Valle-Perez.
Javier Valle Pérez (b. 1973, Managua, Nicaragua) is a key figure of contemporary Nicaraguan art and an integral representative of Latin, Central and South American art movements in the 21st century. He has a luminous resumé of international exhibitions, art fairs, awards (such as 1st Prize in the National Painting Competition of the Central Bank of Nicaragua), and his paintings are found in a variety of collections across the world. Valle graduated from the School of Plastic Arts in Nicaragua in 1998 and has developed a marvelous painting style with a personal fusion of the subconscious mind and our human physical reality. He combines drawing and painting with ideas of architecture, travel, storytelling, nature and fantasy. His canvases present thoughtful visual poetry with a dream-like atmosphere and harmonious color combinations of vibrant reds, turquoise blues, and warm yellows. Valle’s work is meaningful, profound and creates a spectacular visual journey.
Houston favorite Angel Oloshove (b. 1981, Temperance, MI) has held exhibitions of her ceramic sculptures and paintings at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Galveston Art Center, Forsyth Galleries at Texas A&M, San Angelo Museum of Art, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Lawndale Art Center, and Aqua Art Miami during Art Basel 2017. Oloshove attended the California College of the Arts (CCA) and was a studio technician at the Glassell School of Art at the MFAH before completing her artist residency in 2017 at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Her unique gradient “aura” glazes, bubble vessels, and fascinating lustre totem sculptures are respected locally and internationally. Oloshove is currently a finalist for the 2018 Artadia Award, and we are pleased to present her newest work and a site-specific installation at Cindy Lisica Gallery.