Odili Donald Odita (b. 1966) “Negative Space,” 2019. Series of thirteen flags on flagpoles. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York © Ironside Photography
Public Art of the University of Houston System (Public Art UHS) and the Temporary Public Art Program present the first curated exhibition of outdoor sculpture at UH. Titled Color Field, it’s on view through May 2021. The second project in the Temporary Public Art Program (supported by Houston’s Brown Foundation) is a traveling show organized in partnership with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Public Art UHS director and chief curator Maria C. Gaztambide states that “Color Field (inspired by the mid-twentieth painting style of the same name) is an optimistic exhibition that will offer multiple touch points for experiencing outdoor art in an immediate and natural way.” Taking this style of painting as a point of departure, Color Field considers a group of contemporary artists concerned with exploiting color for all of its expressive and evocative possibilities. “By placing [works] in and around UH’s iconic campus buildings, its main pedestrian arteries and existing permanent artworks in the Public Art collection, we truly want to incite dialogue not only between them and our campus’ natural and built environment, but also with other works for which color is also a central node,” Gaztambide says. “Taken as a whole, Color Field will allow us to consider some of today’s exciting contemporary artists in the context of modern masters including Carlos Cruz-Diez and Dorothy Hood, among others.”
Sarah Braman’s “Here.” Concrete, powder coated aluminum frames and laminated glass. Installation view at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas, 2019.
The seven participating artists include Sarah Braman, Sam Falls, Spencer Finch, Odili Donald Odita, TYPOE, Jeffie Brewer, and Amos Cochran. A description of works in Color Field is below:
- Braman’s Here (2019) is a powder-coated concrete drainage pipe that allows light from the sun to project through its color glass windows.
- Falls’ Untitled (Wind Chimes) (2014) is a larger-than-life functional wind chime.
- Finch’s Back to Kansas (2015) is a billboard-sized grid with blocks of color inspired by The Wizard of Oz.
- Odita’s Negative Space (2019) is a series of 13 flags/flagpoles inspired by the American flag and its related socio-cultural dynamics.
- TYPOE’s Forms from Life (2019) is a grouping of minimalist shapes resembling enlarged building blocks — a reference to how the basic information we learn as children shape our understanding.
- Brewer’s multiple vibrant-color abstracted steel pieces like Cloud and Kitty (2019-2020) are influenced by his fascination with pop culture and his background in design.
- Cochran’s sound pieces Color Field Outside/In and Color Field Inside/Out (2019) use violin, cello, harp, and piano to produce abstract recorded sounds.
TYPOE, “Forms from Life”, 2017. Painted aluminum. Dimensions vary. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 2019. © Ironside Photography.
For more information about Color Field, visit the exhibition page on the Public Art UHS website. For a look at the Public Art UHS collection, visit Glasstire’s Five-Minute tours, or watch students respond to several UHS works in a quirky video interview.
