Call for Artists
All artists working in clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, and found/recycled materials are encouraged to apply to CraftTexas 2025. The online application is open February 1 – April 30, 2025. Learn more.

The Artist Residency Program at HCCC provides local, regional, and international artists with a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. HCCC Curatorial Fellow Zaynab Hilal notes, “The Artist Residency Program offers artists the ideal opportunity to refine their craft while also trying their hand at new techniques. This exhibition features the prototypes, experiments, and meticulously crafted works of the 2023-2024 cohort. I am excited to present the diverse array of pieces that emerged from the artists’ time in Houston, where they mingled, shared ideas, and drew inspiration from the city’s culture.”

In Residence: 17th Edition was curated by HCCC Curatorial Fellow, Zaynab Hilal.  

Learn more about the Artist Residency Program here.

Designing Motherhood invites audiences to consider why and how designs have been developed to facilitate reproductive health, and to ponder the political, economic, and social implications of medicalizing reproduction. The exhibition explores experiences of (in)fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, parenthood, and early childhood through blown-glass weaning vessels and hand-carved rocking chairs to art jewelry inspired by breast pump flanges, pacifiers, and nipple shields.

“Handcrafted objects are the intermediary space between the womb and the world. From handwoven swaddling cloths and knitted baby blankets to embroidered baby carriers and basket-woven bassinets, craft is often the first human experience of the material world,” notes HCCC Curator and Exhibitions Director Sarah Darro. “HCCC’s presentation of Designing Motherhood draws out the intertwined properties of labor, care, embedded history, material intelligence, and intergenerational knowledge shared by craft and parenthood, ultimately asserting such reproductive experiences as forms of craft themselves.”

With the aim of spotlighting contemporary experiences around human reproduction, this multivalent project consists of a traveling exhibition, a book published by MIT Press, an Instagram account, a design curriculum, a Narrative Portraiture project, and ongoing public programs with community partners across the globe. “Our aim was to have this exhibition speak to all visitors in some way,” states the Designing Motherhood curatorial team. “We wanted to showcase the beauty, elegance, and ingenuity of so many quotidian objects related to the arc of human reproduction, and for our visitors to stop and contemplate the social and cultural context surrounding these designs.”

Designing Motherhood is curated and organized by design historians and writers Juliana Rowen Barton, Director of the Center for the Arts and Curator of Gallery360 at Northeastern University; Michelle Millar Fisher, Ronald C. and Anita L. Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts within the Contemporary Art Department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Zoë Greggs, Executive Assistant at BlackStar Film Projects; Gabriella Nelson, Associate Director of the Voices for Health Justice program at Community Catalyst; and Amber Winick, an independent early childhood and design researcher and curator. Since 2021, the exhibition has traveled to the MassArt Museum in Boston and the Bill and Melinda Gates Center in Seattle. Opening concurrently with HCCC’s exhibition is another iteration of Designing Motherhood at the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (ArkDes). Learn more about the exhibition here.

HCCC Curator & Exhibitions Director, Sarah Darro, is the organizing curator of Designing Motherhood at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Developed in collaboration with local and regional community partners, a robust slate of public programming will accompany the exhibition.

Major support for Designing Motherhood has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Thanks to our program partner, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. The mission of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast is to ensure the right and ability of all individuals to manage their sexual and reproductive health by providing health services, education, and advocacy.

Home Affairs Collective’s ArtSit

Reservations Available on Saturdays
Currently on view in Designing Motherhood, Home Affairs Collective’s ArtSit is an adjustable chair that allows children up to five years old to view art at eye level. The chair is available for families to use with assistance on Saturdays for the duration of the exhibition. Sign up here to reserve the ArtSit, and enjoy a new way to explore the exhibition with your child!

La Fuente del Deseo presents Treviño’s wide-ranging sculptural practice within three architectural installations: the pawn shop, the playground, and the plaza. This experiential framework immerses visitors in the artist’s visionary world and source materials. Iconic jewelry pieces, including the Ms. Honey door-knocker earrings worn by Beyoncé in her groundbreaking Renaissance visual album, and the red ski mask dripping with gemstones and silver chains worn by Bad Bunny for his Rolling Stone cover issue, are featured alongside handwrought cast-silver works within the pawn-shop installation, while her monumental, Siéntase Señora nameplate-necklace bench and swing sets, emblazoned with early 2000s norteño song lyrics, are the focus of the playground installation.

The exhibition’s title is derived from the massive jewel-encrusted fountain at the heart of Treviño’s newest body of work, showcased within the plaza installation. This functional, three-tiered water fountain, presented alongside a penny-press machine, invites the public to become part of Treviño’s cultural production. By churning pennies through the sculpture, visitors are able to flatten and emboss her custom graphics onto the coins. The souvenir coins, sporting aspirational phrases like Ven Dinero and Yo puedo más que tú, can then be collected or cast into the central fountain’s pool in exchange for a wish. Treviño has completely encased her “fountain of desire” in found and discarded jewelry objects to produce a gleaming mosaic that visually reverberates due to its undulating reflective surfaces.

La Fuente del Deseo extends Treviño’s material investigation of adornment as a conceptual and physical site of personal history and cultural identity by transforming traditionally intimate, personalized jewelry into public monuments and sites of convening.

Georgina Treviño: La Fuente del Deseo is curated by HCCC Curator & Exhibitions Director, Sarah Darro.

Hispanohablantes: los materiales de la exposición están traducidos al español en la galería.

About Georgina Treviño
Georgina Treviño is a contemporary artist and jeweler from Tijuana, Mexico, based in San Diego, California. In 2004, she earned a BA in applied design with an emphasis in jewelry and metalsmithing from San Diego State University. Treviño’s work has been acquired by the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), the Racine Art Museum (Racine, WI), Alain Servais Collection (Brussels, BA), and Jorge M. Pérez Collection (PAMM Museum, Miami, FL). Her work has been included in national & international exhibitions at institutions including Embajada Gallery (San Juan, Puerto Rico); VETA Galeria (Madrid, Spain); Museum JAN (Amsterdam, NL);  Mingei International Museum (San Diego, CA); CECUT Tijuana Cultural Center (Tijuana, Mexico);  Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (Ciudad Juárez, Mexico); Rubin Center for the Visual Arts (El Paso, TX); Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY); Racine Art Museum (Racine, WI); Schmuck 2015 Munich Jewelry Week; New York City Jewelry Week; and Salon Cosa Mexico City. Treviño’s practice has been featured in publications including the L.A. Times, Elle, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Allure, Marie Claire, The Fader, Paper Magazine, PlayBoy Magazine, and Office Mag. She has also worked directly with celebrities like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Rosalia, 2Chainz, Bella Hadid, Lizzo, Doja Cat, Post Malone, Kali Uchis, Karol G, and companies like Nike®, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Bimba y Lola, Fenty, Guess, and Spotify on custom work and collaborations. Learn more about the artist at www.georginatrevinojewelry.com.

THIS SIDE UP is the first curatorial project of its kind to frame the materials-based knowledge and making practices radiating from the museum industrial complex within the discipline of craft. HCCC Curator and Exhibitions Director Sarah Darro notes, “THIS SIDE UP is an exhibition about the making of an exhibition. Its design and layout reflect the art object’s journey from artist studio to art-shipping transit facility to clandestine preparation room, and finally, to public presentation in the museum gallery.”

The throughline of the exhibition is an investigation of labor and visibility (or invisibility) within the field. For instance, two new series, “Passage (those that carried us)” by Vivian Chiu and “Quotidian Relics” by Adam Manley, transform the art storage crate into a conduit for larger discourses on migration, labor, and value–not only referencing the bodies of artwork they hold but also serving as a metaphor for the journey of their makers and the network of people who steward them through space and over time. On the other hand, renowned art handlers Willem de Haan and Clynton Lowry, founding editor of Art Handler Magazine, present sculptural, wearable, and editorial works that showcase the highly specialized, skilled, and often undervalued anonymous labor and making within museums. Their practices also demonstrate how art handling has informed and inspired adjacent creative production, from fashion design to meme-making and community organizing.

The exhibition and its associated programming provide visitors with a unique opportunity to experience the “behind-the-scenes” work of museums and prioritize the viewing of crafted objects that are typically obscured. By providing new visibility for these oft-overlooked and many times purposefully concealed objects, this exhibition highlights the masterful craftsmanship of these makers and their vital role in facilitating the art experience.

THIS SIDE UP is curated by HCCC Curator & Exhibitions Director, Sarah Darro. Exhibiting artists include Vivian Chiu, Willem de Haan, Clynton Lowry, Adam Manley, and more. HCCC received material donations and exhibition support from the registration, preparation, and exhibitions teams of the following museums: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA; Museum for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA; Wharton Esherick Museum, Malvern, PA; Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA;  and Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI.

The Artist Residency Program at HCCC provides local, regional, and international artists with a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. HCCC Curatorial Fellow Cydney Pickens notes, “The resident artist experience is often characterized by the finished artwork. Uniquely, this exhibition will include photos, mementos, clippings, and sketches from each resident’s studio to illustrate the nonlinear nature of creative production and show some of the fun and silly moments from this past year.”

In Residence: 16th Edition was curated by HCCC Curatorial Fellow, Cydney Pickens. More information about the Artist Residency Program can be found here.

Hispanohablantes: los materiales de las exposiciónes están traducidos al español en las galerías.

Opening Reception
Friday, February 9, 5:30 – 8:00 PM
The opening reception will feature neon performances in the Main Galleries by Lily Reeves and James Akers, as well as Treachery of Material: The Surrealist Impulse in Craft in the Artist Hall.  The evening will also feature open studios by the current resident artists.  Beer generously provided by Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co.

Light Charmer Interactive Tour
Saturday, February 10, 3:00 – 5:00 PM

NEON NEON: Lighting Up the Screen
Wednesday, April 18, 7:00 – 10:00 PM

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to present Light Charmer: Neon and Plasma in Action, a group show featuring artists who create a spectacle of light, color, and movement through neon and plasma sculpture and performance. Viewers will be enchanted by the variety of glowing artworks on display.

While the advertising world has largely abandoned neon signage in favor of LEDs and fluorescent lighting, many contemporary artists have embraced the dynamic mediums of neon and plasma, challenging common misconceptions that these materials are only suitable for two-dimensional art.  “In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the aesthetic of neon art and signage. However, few people realize the level of hand skill and scientific knowledge that it requires,” says HCCC Curator Kathryn Hall. “Through experimentation with blown-glass forms, unique gas compositions, and the interplay of light and sound, these artists demonstrate new and exciting potential for a material that has been in a state of commercial decline.”

As a throwback to the neon of a bygone era, Brooklyn artist Kate Hush puts a new spin on animated signs by addressing feminist issues through the flashy aesthetic of the material. Her femme fatales reference the dangerous and tragic women that once dazzled the silver screens of film noir. Her recent body of work responds to the absurd female stereotype of the crazy, unstable woman and plays into the fantasy of the dangerous vixen. For instance, in I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair (2015), the artist straddles the line between the mundane and psychotic, leaving it ambiguous as to whether the large red drops originating from the young woman’s head are hair dye or blood. The blinking lights generated by the animation of the piece only increase its dramatic effect.

Other artists in the show are enthralled by the science of these luminous materials. In their purest form, noble gases produce different colors and, when combined, create a wide spectrum of possible light effects, as exemplified by the works on view. Plasma is a perfect medium for artists who want to incorporate performance into their works, as the electrons in the material collide into one another, creating a series of explosive effects. The plasma works of Eric Franklin, Mundy Hepburn, and Aaron Ristau, for instance, come alive when the gases respond to human touch through glass. Demonstrating a highly specialized knowledge of the medium, these artists engineer custom gas mixtures to create vibrantly colored filaments of light inside blown- and found-glass forms.

Artists James Akers and Lily Reeves work with neon gas, the namesake of the art form, which produces a red glow when combined with high-voltage electricity in an airtight chamber. The two artists activate their sculptures, which they make by bending commercial tubes, in live performances. In Neon Sword Fight (2015), Akers and Reeves wield “Star Wars”-like light sabers in a battle between opposing forces of good (cool-blue argon) and evil (orange-red neon). Like many of the works in the exhibition, Akers’ and Reeve’s sculptures are not just meant to be seen, they are meant to be experienced.

Light Charmer: Neon and Plasma in Action is curated by HCCC Curator Kathryn Hall.  The exhibition is supported in part by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and Barbara and Mark Paull.

Featured Artists
James Akers (Arlington, TX)
Sarah Blood (Alfred, NY)
Michael Flechtner (Los Angeles, CA)
Eric Franklin (Portland, OR)
Mundy Hepburn (Old Saybrook, CT)
Kate Hush (Brooklyn, NY)
Hannah Kirkpatrick (Norfolk, VA)
Lily Reeves (Phoenix, AZ)
Aaron Ristau (Loveland, CO)
Ashlin Williamson (Austin, TX)

Please Note
This exhibition contains low light levels, flashing light, and sounds that may be disruptive to some visitors. Some of the plasma sculptures produce electromagnetic radiation that may interfere with medical devices, such as pacemakers and hearing devices. It is recommended that individuals with medical devices keep a safe distance away from the artwork.

Image credits: (1) Michael Flechtner, “Sea Goat,” 1991. Neon, radio, audio controller. Photo by Scott Cartwright. (2) Sarah Blood, “Untitled (Enough),” 2018. Phosphor-coated glass, argon, mercury vapor, sequins, fabric, blackout, power supply. Photo by Scott Cartwright. (3) Exhibition view of “Light Charmer: Neon and Plasma in Action.” Photo by Scott Cartwright. (4) James Akers and Lily Reeves, “Neon Swords,” 2018. Neon, 3D-printed plastic, power supply. Photo by Scott Cartwright. (5) From left to right: Michael Flechtner, “Flash Cameras (Red and Blue),” 1988. Neon, plexiglass, strap. Michael Flechtner, “Clifford the Little Neon Dog,” 2015. Neon, MDO, D-rings. 9 x 16 x 20 inches. Photo by Scott Cartwright. (6 – 7) Kate Hush, “A Bad Man Is Hard to Blind,” 2016. 8mm and 12mm glass tubing, argon, neon, 120v animated power supplies. Photo by Scott Cartwright. (8) James Akers, “The Wild One (B),” 2018. Circuit bent toys, wires, custom circuitry, neon. Photo by Scott Cartwright. (9) The exhibition is supported in part by the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass and Barbara and Mark Paull. (10) James Akers and Lily Reeves, “Neon Sword Fight,” 2015. Neon, argon, wood. Photo by Charlie Golonkiewicz. (11) Eric Franklin, “Skull 1,” 2013. Borosilicate glass, neon, mercury, acrylic, electronics. 12 x 12 x 12 inches. Photo by artist. (12) Kate Hush, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,” 2015. 8mm Italian glass tubing filled with argon and neon gas, animated 120v power supplies. 50 x 40 x 2.5 inches. Photo by Shahryar Kashani. (13) Hannah Kirkpatrick, “Camera Obscura Crate,” 2015. Wood, surveying tripod, glass, metal, surrounding light. 5 x 2 x 2 feet. Photo by artist. (14) Hannah Kirkpatrick, “Camera Obscura Crate,” 2015. Wood, surveying tripod, glass, metal, surrounding light. 5 x 2 x 2 feet. Photo by artist.

Opening Reception:
Friday, October 19, 2012
5:30, Artist Talks
6:00 – 7:00 PM, Reception

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to present In Residence 2011, an exhibition of work created by the eight artists who began their residencies at HCCC in 2011:  Celia Butler, Jamie Diaz, Nathan Dube, Marcia Erickson, Paula Haymond, Leslie Shershow, Melissa Walter, and John Zimmerman.

Each fall, the In Residence exhibition series features a collective display of the creativity that permeates the Artist Hall—a space that serves as home to the resident artists’ studios, as well as small exhibitions.  The HCCC Artist Residency Program not only gives its selected artists studio space but also provides an environment in which they can share ideas, collaborate, experiment, seek advice from peers and speak with the general public about their work and the greater world of contemporary craft.  (Click here to read more about the Artist Residency Program.)

Mixed-media artist Celia Butler represents a growing trend of artists who make inter-disciplinary craft. By combining pulled-sugar objects with photographs that directly reference fashion media, Butler’s work explores issues surrounding the image of the contemporary idealized female. Incorporating imagery evocative of childhood, perfection, innocence, fragility and sweetness with sexuality and adolescent awakening, Butler’s beautifully enticing, delicious works invite viewers to re-evaluate and critique the physical and behavioral stereotypes imposed on females of all ages.

Ceramic artist Jamie Diaz’s functional porcelain is inspired by the innate human need for attachment and relationships.  Individual vessels, such as cups, teapots, sugar bowls and creamers, nestle together inside larger fluid forms. Diaz considers the quantity, size and placement of each piece when developing her compositions for these groupings. In her works, each individual piece has a home, a designated placement within the larger group of objects.

Metalsmith Nathan Dube explores gender identity from the male perspective in his exquisitely crafted, comical objects. Using an aesthetic that fools many into thinking his hand-wrought pieces are industrially manufactured, Dube creates modern, grown-up interpretations of mischievous toys for boys. Pieces, such as Popgun, which consists of a spit-wad shooter that allows you to take aim at an iconic cowboy from one of three generations: John Wayne, Paul Newman or Billy Crystal, examine the role of cultural influences in forming contemporary, American male identity.

During her residency, Marcia Erickson sought to refine her functional ceramic pieces by exploring the myriad possibilities of surface texture and design allowed by the materiality of clay. Using stamps, sgraffito (a technique of scratching through the surface to reveal the color below), and a variety of glaze combinations, Erickson’s works articulate and record her reactions to her everyday environment.

Paula Haymond was drawn to wood as an artistic medium when she discovered the lathe, a machine tool that rotates the wood on its axis, allowing a worker to cut, sand, drill and shape the wood.  After she turns her vessels, Haymond uses a variety of techniques to color, pierce and carve, transforming the wood into whimsical, narrative pieces that express the wonder she finds in the natural Texas landscapes and the open pastoral scenes of her native home of Indiana. She is enticed by the wide variety of woods available, and her imagery is often inspired by the material’s natural characteristics, such as the grain, cracks and figures.

During her time at HCCC, metalsmith and jeweler Leslie Shershow created a body of work titled Maine Series. Using wood and silver, rope and crystals, these architectural pieces reference her nostalgia for the ramshackle houses of the Maine landscape she inhabited each summer as a child. In Siding, intricately fastened pieces of wood evoke slowly deteriorating planks on a dock or the roofing shingles covering boathouses and seaside shacks, allowing the viewer’s imagination to conjure scenes of a homey, nautical and serene landscape. Employing the inevitable deterioration and weathering of man-made structures, Shershow pays homage not only to the stingy, self-determined home-improver but also conjures the histories hidden in buildings and the impossibility of undoing time.

Melissa Walter’s purely abstract and decidedly un-wearable wall works have grown out of her background as a jeweler and metalsmith. Initially interested in the space and relationships between people and the objects, these sculptural works relate only to each other; they cannot be worn. Ranging in different sizes, these lozenge-shaped wall pieces nonetheless are meditations on adornment and the possibilities of objects to mediate relationships. Mounted in groupings of two or more, these works nest and stand-off, gather and disperse, like groups of people jockeying for personal space.

“Big History,” a field of study that attempts to understand and contextualize the universe’s history holistically, from the Big Bang until the present day, pervades the work of ceramic artist, John Zimmerman. Zimmerman translates this concept into sculptures that juxtapose the forms of ordinary, ubiquitous contemporary objects with incredibly articulated relief surfaces meant to evoke the stratification of rock and the accretion of time. His works are heavy, but not just in weight—these objects are reminders that all living things, inanimate objects and new innovations alike are inextricably products of the past, dependent upon evolutionary history and previous discoveries for their existence.

Pictured: (1) Celia Butler, “Sugar Gloss.” Archival inkjet print. 2011. Photo courtesy of the artist. (2) Nathan Dube, “Popgun.” Silver, nickel, brass champagne party popper, walnut and paper. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist. (3) Marcia Erickson, “Pair Cups.” Woodfired porcelain. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist. (4) Paula Haymond, “White Linen.” Magnolia, turned, carved and textured with NSK Presto, high-speed dental drill. Titanium white with airbrushed acrylics underneath to create more of a golden appearance when the irises are textured. Gold acrylic accent along the top rim. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist. (5) Leslie Shershow, “Siding.” Wood, silver, silver, paint, steel and calcite. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist. (6) Melissa Walter, “Untitled (teal and black).” Masonite, cement, charcoal, acrylic paint and beeswax. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist. (7) John Zimmermann, “Stratified Traffic Light.” Glazed ceramic and mixed media. 2012. Photo courtesy of the artist.