Interview

"You often show up to hang an art work on a blank wall, only to find a defibrillator or fire extinguisher has been installed there."

"By creating work about being a father, I think I’ve only given myself more confidence as a parent."

“All roads lead to Houston! All roads lead to Houston in Black art.”

"These pieces have choices to them. Once they’re out of my control, they fall into the control of the viewer. They have a life beyond me."

“I don’t know if it’s some kind of weird time warp or something, but I feel like I run into different versions of myself at different stages.” 

"This idea of self-sabotage, lust, and immortality are running themes in my work, and I always have those three shadows behind me in the studio, so that’s probably where I’m headed."

"The objects have also become significant as symbols for #BLM. It’s interesting how both sides appropriate the objects for their own use."

"I’m not interested in a straightforward depiction, or a direct transfer from my brain onto a surface. I distrust the image and I distrust myself." 

“I moved to Seattle! And the thing about Seattle is that it is the emerald city, in an evergreen state. And so you can't be there and not focus on plant life.”

"I’m out here making really brave art, taking risks. It’d be nice if I had a little help locally."

“We see this monolithic idea of what the world thinks is Blackness, but we know that the Black experience is whatever the Black person has. That’s the Black experience. And that’s the individual experience.”

"I was more interested in the high drama of the opera, combined with the irrationality of Dada’s legacy in response to the savagery in the world."

“There can’t be that divide, because ultimately I’m going to be the one getting the scrutiny; I’m going to be the one that has to answer for [the art], so my life has to reflect that, you know — walking it like you talk it.”

"I heard someone actually scream out [during a performance] 'When is she going to do a magic act?' I was trying not crack up and I thought: this is just perfect.”

Shirin Neshat's retrospective exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is made up of her acclaimed oeuvre of photography, video and film from the past 30 years.

"Architecture is always the jumping off point for me."

Watkins was recently designated by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft as a Texas Master.

Welcome to "In Residence," a new interview series that introduces readers to artists who come to Texas from other parts of the country — and other parts of the world — to participate in artist residency programs. 

“A lot of the artists [here],  you grow up with them in the neighborhood, you just go from playing video games together to writing grants together. That's the path: playing outside, playing video games, grants. ” 

"Latinx art is still waiting to be taken up by museum acquisitions and a collector base. It’s an art still in the process of legitimation."