August 14 - October 9, 2021
From the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft:
“Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is thrilled to present In Residence: 14th Edition, an annual exhibition of work by its 2020 – 2021 resident artists. This exhibition features work in paper, metal, clay, fiber, and stone by Chloe Darke, Abbie Preston Edmonson, Hong Hong, Hillerbrand + Magsamen, Stephanie Robison, Michael Velliquette, and Kirstin Willders. HCCC Curatorial Fellow María-Elisa Heg notes, “The innovation, skill, and spirit of these artists embody what makes HCCC’s artist residency program so unique. This edition opens just before HCCC’s 20th anniversary, a milestone that marks the resiliency and vibrancy of this program.”
The contemplative works of Hong Hong and Michael Velliquette harness the versatility of paper in each artist’s distinctive approach to this ancient medium. Hong embraces the ephemerality of paper and the physical act of pouring pulp, creating large-scale pieces that change as they dry in the open air. Velliquette carefully researches and chooses paper stock that will hold up to his meticulous process of building mandala-like, architectural sculptures that draw the viewer into a meditative state.
Ceramicists Abbie Preston Edmonson and Kirstin Willders express personal and societal experiences through their own visual vocabularies. For Edmonson, processing grief and trauma has led her to explore a metaphorical approach to material, using clay and paper as vessels holding deep wells of emotions that are often difficult to express. Willders encodes a ritual language into her ceramics to create a dialogue between queer identity and the historical use of reliquaries, adorning her vessels with talismanic arrangements of hair, metal chains, and sprigs of herbs.
Chloe Darke and Stephanie Robison explore the capacity of human perception with incongruent combinations of materials, ranging from quarried stone to cultivated bacteria, that invite curiosity, amusement, or even disgust. Darke fashions tools for an imagined arcane laboratory that seeks out and hides knowledge, inviting viewers to draw their own conclusions. Robison’s work combines the softness and malleability of felt with the rigidity of stone, undermining the expectations of each material, with hard sculptures that seem to melt and ooze and soft forms that feel capable of bearing weight.
Hillerbrand + Magsamen, the inaugural recipients of the new Interdisciplinary Craft + Photography Residency (presented in collaboration with Houston Center for Photography), use photography as both a starting point and a step in their craft process. Moving fluidly among photography, sculpture, and embroidery, their practice also encompasses filmmaking and set building to provoke inquiry, play, and experimentation.
In Residence: 14th Edition was curated by HCCC Curatorial Fellow, María-Elisa Heg. More information about the Center’s artist residency program can be found at: https://www.crafthouston.org/artists/residents/.
About Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this fall, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is a nonprofit visual arts center dedicated to advancing education about the process, product, and history of craft. HCCC continues to serve as a treasured resource in the Houston arts community and the region by showcasing emerging and acclaimed artists in exhibitions, introducing visitors of all ages to contemporary craft through hands-on and virtual programming, and supporting the development of working artists through its artist residency program.
HCCC is currently open limited hours: Thursday through Saturday, 10 AM – 5 PM. Admission is free. Before visiting, the public should visit www.crafthouston.org to view visitor guidelines, including the requirement to wear face masks and practice social distancing throughout the building. HCCC is located in the Museum District at 4848 Main Street, three blocks south of the Wheeler Ave. MetroRail station. Free parking is available directly behind the facility, off Rosedale and Travis Street.
HCCC is supported by individual donors and members and funded in part by The Brown Foundation; Houston Endowment, Inc.; the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance; Texas Commission on the Arts; the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kinder Foundation; the Morgan Foundation; Windgate Charitable Foundation; and the Wortham Foundation. HCCC is a member of the Houston Museum District and the Midtown Arts District.
For more information, call 713-529-4848 or visit www.crafthouston.org. Find HCCC on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @CraftHouston.”
On View: August 14, 2021 | 1–5 pm
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft - HCCC
4848 Main Street
Houston, 77002 TX
(713) 529-4848
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