I B SE N E SP AD A A b r asi v e S i l en c e
O c t obe r 29 - N o v e m be r 27, 2021
“Abstract art is direct and without reference to the viewer. It fills the imagination as a motive to attract the audience without realistic references.” -Ibsen Espada
I B SE N E SP AD A A b r asi v e S i l en c e
O c t obe r 29 - N o v e m be r 27, 2021
2143 Westheimer Road Houston, TX 77098 www.foltzgallery.com
This catalog was published to accompany the exhibition “Ibsen Espada: Abrasive Silence,” curated by Sarah Foltz Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas October 29–November 27, 2021 Copyright © 2021 Ibsen Espada. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form without written permission of the publishers. Published by Foltz Fine Art, LLC, 2021 Photography and Catalog design by Foltz Fine Art, LLC
Foreword
Ibsen Espada: Abrasive Silence Foltz Fine Art is pleased to present “Ibsen Espada: Abrasive Silence,” featuring over 40 recent paintings by the Houston artist. Espada has established himself as one of the most important contemporary Texas painters, who has been a vital part of the Houston art scene since his arrival in the late 1970s. Early in his career, Espada was recognized and selected as one of the youngest artists included in two seminal exhibitions – “Fresh Paint: The Houston School” in 1985-86 followed by “Hispanic Art in the United States” in 1987. Since then, Espada has continued to work in a personal mode of gestural abstraction, and to establish himself as an artist, exhibiting internationally with numerous solo museum and gallery exhibitions in the United States. For over forty years, Espada’s art has been “fermenting” through his dedication to his craft, finding new ways of seeing, building upon previous ideas, and continuing to evolve throughout the decades. While his previous signature use of bold, gestural
black strokes/lines has diminished in this most recent work, the viewer finds the artist employing different techniques in its place to create the vibrant, colorful and energetic movement found in earlier works; both styles distinctly Espada. Known for his unique use of materials and drive to push the bounds of new media within his practice, Espada embraces multiple modes and techniques, including painting on billboard canvas, hosing off the painted canvas, using windshield wipers or squeegees as an extension of his gestural mark making, and adding carborundum to create an abrasive, gritty surface texture. Espada utilizes carborundum throughout his latest body of work which enhances and activates the surface with its distinct texture and coarseness that shimmers in the light. Most of his work created during the 2020-21 global pandemic point to tantalizing new directions in Espada’s lexicon, as he allows the work to take 3
him where it might, exploring new pictorial ideas and possibilities. Over the past year, studio visits were not only occasions to see finished paintings, but also opportunities to witness Espada’s continual engagement with works in progress, often working in series on multiple works at a time – later indicated by color palette or the use of a particular stylistic expression. A canvas that had been dominated by a pink lattice in his “Gravity” series on one visit could assume a completely new palette and depth in complexity of layering within the space of a few weeks or months. While Espada’s style continues to evolve, his mark making is very much his own. Each body of work conveys his tendency towards growth, and represents a lifelong conversation, working between elements and various combinations. In a sense, Espada’s earlier works anticipate the new. There is a sophistication and acumen in these most recent works, stemming from the successful marriage of techniques, creating layer upon layer, revealing new 4
issues while emphasizing the surface. Espada’s drive to keep pushing and experimenting has led to a dynamic, new body of work whose chaotic interplay between layers and color will both challenge and captivate viewers. —Sarah Foltz Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas October 2021
Foltz Fine Art (formerly William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art) is a legacy gallery in Houston, Texas dedicated to elevating premier Texas artists—from Early Texas Masters and Mid-Century Pioneers to Contemporary Artists. The gallery started in 2006 as William Reaves Fine Art and has since welcomed Sarah Foltz as Gallery Director in 2013 and becoming sole owner in 2017. In her new role, Sarah continues to uphold the gallery’s strong reputation as a trusted art advisor, secondary market specialist, and champion of Historical, Modern and Contemporary Texas art. Prior to joining the gallery, Sarah completed her M.A. in Art History at Southern Methodist University where she focused her thesis research on contemporary Texas regional and Latin American art; and before this, she received her B.A. in Photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah is also an accredited member of the Appraisers Association of America.
PAINTINGS
M i x ed M edia
Gogustra
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C a r bo r u nd u m on I nd u s t r ia l C an v as 48 x 36 in | 2017 5
Contesa
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 48 x 36 in | 2020 6
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Transecula
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 48 x 36 in | 2020
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Abrestula
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 48 x 36 in | 2020 8
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Masquerade
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 40 x 30 in | 2020
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Habistro
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 48 x 36 in | 2020 10
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Arsico
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 40 x 30 in | 2020
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Alcantaro
M i x ed M edia on C an v as 48 x 36 in | 2020 12
Medruscula
M i x ed M edia on C an v as 60 x 48 in | 2021 13
Andromeda
M i x ed M edia on C an v as 60 x 48 in | 2020 14
Agrupula
M i x ed M edia on C an v as 60 x 48 in | 2021 15
Medrusa
M i x ed M edia on C an v as 60 x 48 in | 2021 16
WORKS ON PAPER
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Galasico
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 33 x 33.5 in | 2021 17
M i x ed M edia
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Nublica
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 34 x 34 in | 2021
M i x ed M edia
Nublico
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 34 x 34 in | 2021 19
M i x ed M edia
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Osaca
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 33 x 31 in | 2021
M i x ed M edia
Creshento
C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 24.25 x 27 in | 2021
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M i x ed M edia
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Escortino
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 24 x 27 in | 2021
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N u b l ig a
C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 33 x 34.75 in | 2021
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Bumeron
C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 36 x 39.25 in | 2021
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O c t a v ig o n
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 36 x 39.5 in | 2021 25
M i x ed M edia
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Truscula
C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 32.25 x 32.75 in | 2021
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Artifides
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 36 x 34 in | 2021 27
M i x ed M edia
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Phontifisen
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 36 x 34 in | 2021
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Desert Muse
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C a r bo r u nd u m on J apanese R i c e P ape r 33 x 31 in | 2021 29
SMALL PAINTINGS
Cordenance
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021 30
Altitiude
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Sabotage
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021
Conspirasi
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Revival
D i l l ig e n t M o t i o n
Balancing Venture M i x ed M edia 20 32
x
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C a r bo r u nd u m
C an v as 16 in | 2021
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Floated Anarchy
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021
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Exit Border
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 16 x 20 in | 2021 34
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M a gi c G h o s t
Hompee Domp
Nublica M i x ed M edia 20
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C a r bo r u nd u m
C an v as 16 in | 2021
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Steadi Blue
Trapesoide
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021 36
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Pendant Rose
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021
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Botticello
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021 38
Conspirasi
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Aqualong
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021
Souvenir
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Nuclear Rain
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021 40
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Folding Cards
M i x ed M edia and C a r bo r u nd u m 20 x 16 in | 2021
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Ibsen Espada (b. 1952) Ibsen Espada was born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico. His identity as a painter has been well established in Houston since he moved here in the mid-1970s after spending time in Puerto Rico with his mentor Cuban artist Rolando Lopez Dirube. Today Espada is considered a leading contemporary artist in Houston, and one of the few Hispanic artists to have participated in the seminal 1985-86 exhibition Fresh Paint: The Houston School, hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His work was also recognized and included in the highly-publicized 1987 exhibition Hispanic Art in the United States: 30 Contemporary Painters and Sculptors which debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston before embarking on a 4-city tour to the Lowe Museum in Miami, the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. From his auspicious inclusion in important exhibitions in the 1980s until now, Espada has remained true to his cultural and artistic roots. For a number of years, he worked as Dorothy Hood’s studio assistant once she returned to Houston after years spent in Mexico. He has been influenced by and has absorbed the work of other modernist masters, including the work of the Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam and the Belgian painter Pierre Alechinsky. However, to his credit, Espada has not been content to remain in a particular style, nor merely to reflect the examples of other artists. His mark making is very much his own and subject to continual change of mood. Espada has established himself as one of the most important contemporary Texas painters working in a personal mode of gestural abstraction. He
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has developed a bold approach that includes calligraphic marks that energize a painting’s pictorial space. He is unafraid of mixing materials in order to activate the surface of his canvas. He employs collage techniques such as the attachment of various papers to his canvases, and he also applies paint with unusual tools. Often, the thin, straight lines in his paintings are applied with automobile wiper blades. Recently, he has begun a series of paintings using large billboard materials, painting directly on top of the printed colors and signage. While growing up in Puerto Rico, Espada was a drummer in a band that played in bars and restaurants. He has carried his drummer’s sense of rhythm into his gestural approach to painting. The densely layered calligraphic marks in his works simulate to visually pulsating cadence that moves across the entire surface of the painting. It is this intense rhythmic and dance-like movement of Espada’s mark-making that gives credence to the poet and art critic Harold Rosenberg’s famous axiom, “At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act…what was to go on the canvas was not a picture, but an event.” Ibsen Espada has indeed captured the pulse of a painting’s ability to be an event. Espada has been recognized as one of the most prolific Hispanic artists working in Texas today and his work can be seen in museum collections, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; The Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont; and the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi.
Ibsen Espada (b. 1952)
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL 2018 Collision by Pete Gershon, book signing and exhibition, Glassell School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 2017 Painters’ Painters: Virgil Grotfeldt, Ibsen Espada, Michael Education Kennaugh, Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX 1977-78 The Alfred C. Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX 2017 Houston’s Expressionist Legacy: Richard Stout & Friends, 1972-75 University of the Sacred Heart, College of Arts and William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX Humanities, Santurce, Puerto Rico, BFA 2017 Focus on the 70s and 80s: Houston Foundations Part II, 1973 Art Students’ League, San Juan, Puerto Rico Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, TX 2016 Abstract Dialogue: The Artful Interactions of Ibsen Solo Exhibitions Espada, Dick Wray & Dorothy Hood, William Reaves | 2021 Abrasive Silence, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX 2013 Primitive or Is It?, Katy Contemporary Art Museum, 2015 Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams of Modern Art in Katy, TX Houston, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX 2012 1985 to 2000, New Gallery, Houston, TX 2014 Abstract Pulse: Ibsen Espada, Mike Hollis, Zoya Tommy 2011 Reformulaciones, New Gallery, Houston, TX Contemporary, Houston, TX 2008 Motion Detour, Gallery M2, Houston, TX 2014 Texas Abstract: Modern+Contemporary by Michael Paglia 2002 Color & Voice, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX and Jim Edwards, book signing and exhibition, Wade 2001 College of the Mainland, Texas City, TX Wilson Gallery; Santa Fe, NM 2000 Syncope, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX 2013 Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams of Modern Art in 1999 Previous Preludes, William Campbell Contemporary Art, Houston, 1950-80, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, TX Fort Worth, TX 2010 Houston Contemporary Art, Shanghai Art Museum, 1998 Modern Weavings, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX Curated by Gus Kopriva and Christopher Zhu, Shanghai, 1997 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX China 1997 Dyptichs, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 2004 Manifesto Abstracto, Plus Gallery, Boulder, CO 1995 Silent Motions, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 2003 The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX 1992 Drawings on Carborundum, McMurtrey Gallery, 2002 The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX Houston, TX 2000 Schwartz & Martinez Art Gallery, Coral Gables, FL 1991 Paintings, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 2000 New Works, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX 1991 Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2000 New Gallery, Houston TX 1990 Lone Star Visions, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, 1996 The Texas Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Beaumont, TX Texas Modern and Post-Modern, Museum of Fine Arts, 1990 Ibsen Espada: Veiled Messages, Amarillo Art Center, Houston, TX Amarillo, TX 1996 Contemplating Translucence: A Selection of Works of 1990 Janus Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Contemporary Texas Watercolorists, Two Allen Center 1989 Paintings, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX Lobby Gallery, Houston, TX 1987 New Paintings, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 1996 32 Texas Artists, Fifth Floor Gallery, The University of 1985 Recent Paintings, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, TX 1983 In Search of a Mark, Sally Reynolds Gallery, Houston, TX 1996 Proof of Love, DIFFA, Lynn Goode Gallery, Houston, TX, 1981 Ibsen Espada Paintings, North Harris County College, Curated by Alison de Lima Greene Houston, TX 1995 Art Journeys, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, 1980 Harris Gallery, Houston, TX TX 1978 Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, TX 1995 Texas Art for Russia, Art League of Houston, curated by Frank Williams, Russia (traveling) Selected Exhibitions 1994 Barbara Greene Gallery, Miami, FL 2019 NEXT: Three Houston Abstract Expressionists – Richard 1994 Pure Paint, Artist’s Loft, Galveston, TX Stout, Ibsen Espada & Jonathan Paul Jackson, Foltz Fine 1993 A Matter of Time-Dave Folkman: Time Pieces, Diverse Art, Houston, TX Works, Houston, TX 2018 Houston Artists: Gestural and Geometric Abstraction, 1993 Little Egypt Enterprises, 1974-1993, Diverse Works, 43 Born in New York; Raised in Puerto Rico
Houston, TX 1993 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 1992 El Impacto de Dos Mundos / The Impact of Two Worlds, Artspace, New Haven, CT 1991 Texas Printmakers, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX 1990 Ibsen Espada, Drawings…Gary Roth, Sculpture, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 1990 Tradition and Innovation: A Museum Celebration of Texas Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 1990 Mill Street Gallery, Aspen, CO 1990 Art 1990, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 1989 Arte Moderno Gallery, San Antonio, TX 1989 Exhibition (SoHo), New York, NY 1989 Black and White, AIR Gallery, Austin, TX 1989 Janus Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1989 Artists of the Americas, Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1989 Ibsen Espada and Frank Romero, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1989 Just Paint, Blue Star Art Space/Contemporary Art for San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 1989 Looking at Color, Transco Gallery, East and West, Transco Tower, Houston, TX 1989 Texas Art Celebration ‘89, Juried Exhibition, Assistance League of Houston, TX, Juror: Alison de Lima Greene 1988 Direction and Diversity, Selections from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 1988 Group Exhibition, Janus Gallery, Santa Fe, NM 1987 Hispanic Art in the United States: 30 Contemporary Painters and Sculptors, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Traveled to: Lowe Museum, Miami, FL; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY 1987 Third Coast Review: A Look at Art in Texas, Aspen Museum of Art, Aspen, CO; University of Colorado Art Galleries, Boulder, CO; Powerplant Visual Arts Center, Fort Collins, CO; Blue Star Art Space/Contemporary Art for San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 1987 Myth Makers, William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth, TX 1987 Abstract Sensibilities Now: A Selection From the Houston Area, curated by Sally Sprout, Lawndale Art and Performance Center, Houston, TX 1986 Paper, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX 1986 The Plate Show, Perception Gallery, Houston, TX 1986 Gallery Painters, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, TX
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1986 Prisoners of Conscience, Human Rights Show and Auction, Diverse Works, Houston, TX 1986 Raices Mexicanas, Traveling exhibition, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX 1986 Chulas Fronteras, Midtown Art Center, Houston, TX; Bathhouse Cultural Center, Dallas, TX; Cultural Activities Center, Temple, TX; Well Gallery, Corpus Christi, TX; Americana Museum, El Paso, TX; McAllen International Museum, McAllen, TX 1986 Juried Exhibition, Assistance League of Houston, TX, Juror: Michael Danoff 1985 Fresh Paint: The Houston School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Traveled to: Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc. (MoMA PS1), Queens, NY; Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK 1985 North Harris County College, Houston, TX 1985 New Gallery, Houston, TX 1984 Benefit Show for Diverse Works, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Houston, TX 1983 Recent Work by Suzy Paul and Ibsen Espada, Center for Art and Performance, Houston, TX 1983 Houston Salutes Its Artists, Midtown Arts Center, Houston, TX 1983 Erotic Show, Center for Art and Performance, Houston, TX 1981 Lawndale Annex, University of Houston, TX 1979 Roberto Molina Gallery, Houston, TX 1979 Winter Invitational, Galveston on the Strand, Galveston, TX 1978 Roberto Molina Gallery, Houston, TX 1976 Invitational Show, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX Scholarships & Awards 1996 Artists at Work, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX. Mural commission. 1995-96 Artist in Residence, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 1994-95 Artist in Residence, Bellaire High School, HISD, Houston, TX Artist in Residence, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX Artist in Residence, Taller de la Grafica, Guadalajara, Mexico, Pilar Bordes, director. Artist in Residence, Baytown High School, Baytown, TX 1992 Artist in Residence, Taller de la Grafica, Guadalajara, Mexico, Pilar Bordes, director. 1990 Artist in Residence, Art Museum of Southeast Texas,
Beaumont, TX Artist in Residence, Taller de la Grafica, Guadalajara, Mexico, Pilar Bordes, director. 1978 T.R. Curtis Memorial Award, Alfred C. Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX 1977 Frank Freed Memorial Award, Alfred C. Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX 1976 The Art Students Association, Houston, TX 1974-75 Gulf and Western Art Foundation, Dominican Republic, Scholarship to fund apprenticeship with Rolando Lopez Dirube. Collections • Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX • Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX • Baker & Botts, Houston, TX • Citicorp, New York, NY • Cushman & Wakefield, Houston, TX • Enron Corporation, Houston, TX
• Fulbright & Jaworski, Houston, TX • Hunton Andrews Kurth, LLP, Houston, TX • Hutcheson and Grundy, Houston, TX • Independent Financial, Dallas, TX • Katy Contemporary Art Museum, Katy, TX • Lyric Arts Center, Houston, TX • Maguire Thomas Partners, Roanoke, TX • Mayer, Day and Caldwell, Houston, TX • MBank, Houston, TX • Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX • Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX • Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX • Pace Entertainment, Houston, TX • Pacific Enterprises, Los Angeles, CA • Sheft & Sheft, New York City, NY • Southwestern Bell Corporation, St. Louis, MO • The Friedkin Companies, Houston, TX • Warburg Pincus, Houston, TX • Zapata Corporation, Houston, TX
Photograph by Michael Hollis
In Memory of Heather Korb Loving you forever.