May 17 - June 21, 2025
From Hooks-Epstein Galleries:
“Hooks-Epstein Galleries presents for the city and for the world, an exhibition of assemblage works by Texas-based artist, John Mark Sager. The exhibition will open on Saturday, May 17, 2025. A book signing with The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists author Robert Craig Bunch will take place from 2:00–4:00 P.M., followed by the Exhibition Opening Reception from 5:00-7:00 P.M. Sager will be in attendance.
After 25 years of dreaming and imagining, artist John Mark Sager presents for the city and for the world, a striking new exhibition of altered books inspired by the spirit of cities, architecture, and gratitude. The series features ten sculptural “towers”—each constructed from found books and materials—shaped by Sager’s enduring love for design, structure, and the stories embedded in form. Rooted in a lifetime of artistic exploration and a deep appreciation of material—steel, paper, glass, wood—this exhibition is as much a personal tribute as it is a personal achievement. The title, translated from the Latin phrase Urbi et Orbi, refers to a papal blessing addressed to the entire world.
For John Mark Sager, each piece of his artwork carries traces of a childhood shaped by the encouragement of a nurturing family who valued curiosity and creativity. Formative encounters set the groundwork for a life steeped in art and design: collecting found objects, building plastic models, and summers spent in a Texas junkyard behind an auto shop immersed in the mechanics of gears and springs. During his 37 years at the Blanton Museum of Art (UT Austin), Sager found creative fulfillment in arranging and lighting exhibitions, which was an intuitive process not unlike composing artwork. “There is an abundance of stimuli for the artist to respond to and synthesize,” Sager reflects. “We wade through history and swim in a multitude of ideas, eventually finding the stroke we can call our own.”
John Mark Sager completed his B.A. in Art at Texas Lutheran University (Seguin, TX). In addition to Texas, his work has been exhibited in New Zealand, Oregon, New Mexico, and Washington D.C. In 2023, there was a retrospective exhibition of Sager’s work, 50 Years of Building Beauty, at Davis Gallery (Austin, TX). Sager has also earned numerous jurors’ awards. From 2007-2021, he participated in the Cultural Arts Program Exhibition at the People’s Gallery in Austin City Hall and served as Juror in 2018. His work is in various private and public art collections; select public collections include the Art Center of Waco (Texas), the Amarillo Museum of Art (Texas), and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts (North Carolina). Sager was featured in Robert Craig Bunch’s The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists.”
Special event: May 17, 2025 | 2–4 pm
Reception: May 17, 2025 | 5–7 pm
Robert Craig Bunch + Artists Book Signin
2631 Colquitt Street
Houston, 77098 TX
713-522-0718
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