ABOUT FACE

Art-scene power player Nestor Topchy honors his friends in the creative class with a show of personal paintings at the Menil.

Painter, sculptor and performance artist Nestor Topchy is so integral to the history and social landscape of Houston’s art world that it’s impossible to imagine what the city might be like without him. From co-founding the sprawling art and performance compound Zocalo/TempIO in 1989 with Rick Lowe, to envisioning the potential of HIVE (Habitable Interdisciplinary Visionary Environment), an artist-run community in development near EaDo, Topchy has always realized his artistic and architectural dreams.

Having turned 60 in July, Topchy has no intention of resting on his laurels, and is preparing for the first museum presentation of his ongoing project, The Iconic Portrait Strand , a collection of more than 100 paintings

By Chris Becker

of fellow artists and other creative luminaries, on view at the Menil Collection Aug. 4 through Jan. 21, 2024.

Born in New Jersey, Topchy came to Houston in 1985 to get his MFA at UH. He vividly recalls pulling up in front of Lawndale Annex, the temporary home to UH’s painting and sculpture departments, stepping out of his ’72 Mercury, and getting soaked by one of the city’s formidable rainstorms. Almost immediately, the sun came out and baked him dry. He graciously calls this baptism “interesting.”

He soon moved into Commerce Street Artists Warehouse, a 27,000-square-foot space transformed by its residents from a dank hellhole filled with human excrement and fiberglass residue into a lively creative space, with artist studios and a performance bay. Former Menil Collection director Walter