October 8 - December 3, 2022
From Sculpture Month Houston:
Sculpture Month Houston is excited to present its sixth exhibition titled Synaptic at the Site Gallery at The Silos at Sawyer Yards. Since 2026 Sculpture Month Houston has celebrated 3 dimensional and installation art and the artists who create them. This year’s theme is a rarely explored subject: the transformation of neural systems into tangible sculptural objects.
The participating artists are: Christie Blizard, Laurie Frick, Jeff Gibbons, Dave Greber, Stephan Hillerbrand/Mary Magsamen, Hillary Holsonback, Meredith Jack, Ronald L. Jones, Sharon Kopriva/John Berry, Dameon Lester, Beili Liu, Virginia L.Montgomery, Chris Sauter, Matthew Steinke, Brad Tucker, Meredith Tucker.
The human brain is the least understood and the most mysterious od all organ structures. The neural networks seemingly effortless can perform the most complex cognitive tasks at lightning speed. These functions are all produced by a tangled web of 100 billion neurons or nerve cells and supported by a network of 100 trillion synapses. These synapses are responsible for the neuron to neuron transmissions, they stimulate and inhibit, they connect and sever and all the while forge new pathways and networks: a striking analogy of the creation of art.
The main mystery of the brain, however, may be how basic chemicals like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and a few others plus an electric spark can be transformed into ephemeral images, thoughts, feelings or emotions. How can that be? The sciences have no good answers, the conceptual jump from a constellation of biochemical substrates converted into colorful images or deep emotions is simply beyond the current scientific knowledge base.
So we asked our artists to imagine the individual silo being a cerebral cavity and to look at the brain from “the inside-out” and give us their interpretations. After all, art is not bound by scientific dogma or the constraint of an abstract and cumbersome logic. Artists are comfortable working in the liminal space of fiction and reality and they would like to share their creative interpretations and unorthodox insights. They also may find some humor in these inherent contradictions and invest their installation with a lighthearted note. They are the intermediaries working “between a thought and a thing”.
Reception: October 8, 2022 | 11 pm – 2 am
1502 Sawyer Street, Suite 400
Houston, 77007 Texas
Get directions