HOUSTON, TX.- American artist and writer Christopher Myers mines the fruitful, yet enigmatic space between archive, myth, and emanation as he translates obscured histories from around the world into vivid contemporary forms. Across disaporas and diaries, It has been said that Myers works with materials that hold histories within them, of movement, migration, and exchange. His diverse, rigorously researched practice spans textiles, actions, shadow puppets, film, and sculptural objects, which are often produced in collaboration with artisans from around the globe. This exhibition will look back at the past five years of Myers’ inter-disciplinary work – bringing together epic appliqué tapestries with stained glass lightboxes and a new installation that highlights Myers’ ongoing work in performance. The artist will also visit UH to elaborate upon his recent television and theatre work, gathering a multitude of voices and techniques to colorfully navigate the porous terrain between records and those who live them.
Blaffer Art Museum was named in honor of the late Sarah Campbell Blaffer, a noted Houston art patron and collector. On the occasion of the building of a new $5.3 million Fine Arts Center at the University of Houston, Blaffer, the daughter of William Thomas Campbell, founder of Texaco, and wife of Robert E. Lee Blaffer, founder of Humble Oil (later Exxon), promised major works of art in her collection toward the building of a teaching collection housed at the University. Dedicated on March 13, 1973, the new museum immediately became a vital force in the presentation and promotion of the visual arts in Houston. Assistant Professor of Art Richard Stout served as Blaffer’s first acting director, and the museum opened its inaugural exhibition season with a solo show of the controversial work of Texas artist Michael Tracy in September 1973.
From the very beginning, exhibitions of works drawn from the Blaffer Collection were augmented by regular presentations of student and faculty work. In late 1974 William Robinson was appointed as the museum’s first full-time director. Under Robinson’s leadership, Blaffer exhibited world-renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque (1976), Edvard Munch (1976), Willem de Kooning (1977), and Frida Kahlo (1978). In 1976, the separate Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation initiated a touring exhibition program. The inaugural exhibition, American Abstract Expressionism, included important works by artists Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning. The program was one of the first of its kind in the nation to underwrite all major exhibition costs, offering exhibitions to museums and universities throughout Texas free of charge.
Today, the Blaffer is a premier non-collecting institution with a history of engaging international contemporary artists who have placed the museum at the center of a global dialogue on the arts and established the University of Houston and the City of Houston as important cultural incubators and destinations. The Blaffer has organized or co-organized wide-ranging solo and group exhibitions that have traveled to major institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Kunsthalle Zurich, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many others.
Blaffer Art Museum
Christopher Myers: of all creatures that can feel and think
May 20th, 2023 - September 3rd, 2023
