Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County (ALMAAHH), an organization dedicated to building an institution for Latino creatives in the city, has announced an open call for its upcoming juried exhibition We Are Houston. This exhibition will showcase, according to the organization, “artists living and working in the Greater Houston Area who self-identify as Latinx or of Latin American heritage.”
The show is in celebration of ALMAAHH’s second birthday, and will run from November 12 – December 2. As the museum does not yet have a physical building (that is one of the organization’s longer-term goals), the exhibition will be held at POST Houston, a new development on the north side of the city’s downtown.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, the organization plans to host programming to help bring an audience to the show. This is, essentially, ALMAAHH’s first large-scale program series, and will help introduce the museum’s concept to a wider public.
We Are Houston will also be, in part, a fundraiser for ALMAAHH: the museum has planned for the exhibition to culminate in an online auction of the show’s works, which will run on Artsy from November 21 – December 5. The sale will conclude on the 5th with a live auction of select pieces and a “Latinx Gastronomy Night.” Artists will split the sale price of their work 50-50 with ALMAAHH.
Geraldina Interiano Wise, ALMAAHH’s Board Chair, told Glasstire about the organization’s impetus for the exhibition: “This is an opportunity to get to know Latinos through how Latino artists see the world.” She continued, “We put the tagline ‘we are Houston’ because that’s how ALMAAHH is coming into Houston: embracing the fact that we are Houston, that all of us make up Houston. It’s a very inclusive view of the city.”
The exhibition will be juried by Maria C. Gaztambide, PhD, the Executive Director, and Chief Curator of Public Art at University of Houston, and Gilbert Vicario, The Selig Family Chief Curator at the Phoenix Art Museum. The submission deadline is September 3. For details on how to send in your work, please see below.
Specifications:
Artwork may be created in any media, including video, installation, performance, and new media. Two-dimensional works must be suitably framed or edge finished. Artwork and wall sculptures must be wired and ready to hang with appropriate hardware. A diptych or triptych is considered a single work. Finished works only. If you are a student, you must disclose it and be declared Art Major at an accredited university in the Greater Houston Area.
Submission requirements:
Please send the following in one email. Please direct questions and submission materials to [email protected]
—Contact information.
—Resume: up to 5 years.
—Artist statement.
—Bio: Up to 100 words.
—A brief statement explaining the artist’s ties to Latin American culture, as well as its impact on their work.
—Up to three pieces per artist.
—A brief statement of each piece.
—If submitting a sculpture, please include side view images.
—If submitting a video, please send a 5 min excerpt.
—If submitting an installation, please send images or a proposal description.
—If submitting a new media art piece, please include images if available or a description of the project.
—Cataloging information for each piece: title, year, media, dimensions (framed and unframed if applicable), and suggested value.
—One to two digital images for each piece sent in JPEG format. If available, 2000px on the long edge.
—File names should be: “LastName_FirstName_jpg”, “LastName_FirstName _Entry2_Title.jpg”, etc. Please note that images information cannot be changed after submission.
