Image: Henry Sanchez
From April 13-28, 2019, artist Henry G. Sanchez is premiering his BioArt Bayou-torium project, a combination science lab and art studio located along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou at 901 N. York Street. Funded in part by The Idea Fund, a re-granting program of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the socially engaged project is meant to help connect the city’s community with its bayou.
In addition to offering pontoon boat tours of the surrounding waterway, Mr. Sanchez’s main workshop and research space, which is a retooled shipping container, offers visitors microscopes, imaging equipment, and art supplies that they can use to respond to the tours and other activities. The lab is manned by bilingual (English- and Spanish-speaking) guides who are also knowledgeable about the flora and fauna of the bayou and its surroundings.
Image: Henry Sanchez
The BioArt Bayou-torium fits into Mr. Sanchez’s history of creating socially-engaged spaces that aim to inform and educate local communities. In a 2017 interview with Glasstire, Mr. Sanchez talked about his various projects, and about how his artworks come out of necessity:
“There’s lots of literature about social practice art. But I’m not doing my artwork for social practice theory. I’m doing my artwork for particular reasons. I’m doing it because I believe you need to follow through on your values. You have to follow through on your ideas.”
A few of Mr. Sanchez’s past projects have focused on waterways: Aqua-Culture, a 2014 show he curated at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas addressed “issues surrounding the use, management and engagement with water,” and his English Kills Project addresses the pollution of English Kills, which is the source of the Newtown Creek waterway in Brooklyn.
See the BioArt Bayou-torium’s full schedule below. To learn more about the project, listen to Mr. Sanchez talk to Glasstire in the podcast featured below.
April 20 & 21
Open daily from 10 AM – 5 PM
Pontoon boat tours: 1-2 PM and 2:30-3:30 PM
April 27
Open daily from 10 AM – 5 PM
Pontoon boat tours: 1-2 PM and 2:30-3:30 PM
April 28
Open daily from 10 AM – 5 PM
Pontoon boat tour: 1-2 PM
