View Lopez's new instillations with the SITE Gallery silos now through November 30th. More details HERE
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FELIPE LOPEZ AND RACHEL GARDNER COLLABORATE FOR STARTUP ART FAIR HOUSTON
October 11th -13th, 2019 Hotel Icon ROOM 318 220 Main St. Houston, Tx Lopez and Gardner combine their ties of nature and spirituality for a special exhibition in room 318 at Hotel Icon for stARTup Art Fair Houston. Individual artist's work along with a new limited edition series in collaboration will be featured over the course of three days. For more information, please see the fair schedule below. ABOUT STARTUP ART FAIR: stARTup Art Fair is a unique contemporary art experience, a converging point in a boutique hotel setting where art professionals and the art loving public gather to discover today’s most talented independent artists and engage with thought-provoking conversations, installations and performances. At our fair, we feature dozens of independent artists selected by an ever-evolving jury of art world experts. This three-day fair will run October 11-13, 2019 at the Hotel ICON in Downtown Houston, and take place at the same time as the Texas Contemporary gallery fair which is within walking distance. Fair Days and Hours Friday October 11, 6–10pm Saturday October 12, 12–9pm Sunday October 13, 12–7pm VIP Early Access: Friday October 11, 6-7pm Opening Night Celebration: Friday October 11, 7–10pm (only general admission ticket needed for entry) Music, performances, food and drinks Ticket Types General Admission / $15 in advance ($20 at the door) Students/Seniors / $10 in advance ($15 at the door) Three Day Pass / $30 in advance ($40 at the door) VIP / $100 VIP tickets includes admission to all three days of the fair, an invitation to our "Early Access" preview Friday from 6-7pm, all access to our VIP lounge, and exclusive pre-fair VIP events. For more information and to purchase tickets, CLICK HERE To RSVP on Facebook, CLICK HERE Join us for a Weekend of Transformation Through Art and Music
Featuring an artist talk by Felipe Lopez Deborah Colton Gallery 2445 North Blvd. Houston, TX 77098 Exhibition Runs through June 15, 2019 Friday May 31st - 7:00 to 9:00 pm RSVP on Facebook HERE Join Deborah Colton, Lowell Boyers and Julia Robinson for an energizing evening of art and music! Lowell Boyer's current exhibition, Inscapes, are portraits of inner landscapes and imaginary worlds that we actually live in. Julia Robinson (Julia & the Standards) will perform, along with her accomplished Saxophone player, Cory Wilson and extraordinary pianist, Jeremy Nuncio. This evening will enhance your senses and will evoke the essence and soulful spirit that is within! Beverages and valet are complimentary. Saturday, June 1st: 2:00 to 5:00 pm RSVP on Facebook HERE Open House and Walking Tour with our Artists of our Current Exhibitions including Grayson Chandler: Cocoon, Lowell Boyers: Inscapes, and Felipe Lopez: The Want In My Nature. Lopez speaks about his exhibition The Want In My Nature including the Faucet Series, Ambient Horizon Series, and Ab Aqua Libertas” — from water comes freedom. He speaks from 3:30pm to 4:00pm. Felipe Lopez’s show casts light on water issues
By: Molly Glentzer CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE Lopez, who lives in Houston, was born in the Bronx to a family of Cuban-Americans. Water and fishing culture have always been part of his life and art. He has been tying his own fly fishing lures since he was a kid. Since 2016 he also has been suspending fancy lures in resin, within sculptures cast from the shapes of light bulbs, and incorporating them as elements of complex works that involve netting and painting. This newer faucet development takes him somewhere better. The installation at the warehouse-like space Forma 110 is elegantly minimal and lit dramatically, with a video playing high on one wall that helps to create a mysterious atmosphere. The spare presentation allows viewers to focus on the unique contents of each “bulb,” including the the colors of clear resin in which Lopez suspends his lures. I’m not crazy about the imperfections in the “bulbs,” and I could see a next step in which the artist actually embedded lights within each faucet. But that doesn’t dim Lopez’ concept. Each piece is a microcosm evoking relationships between nature and human civilization. The resin doesn’t just refract light; it’s a petrochemical by-product. The colors held there could represent oceans, sunlight and land; or even countries. (He pointed out one that is distinctively red, white and blue.) And he used commonly available faucets, the kind sold by the millions at big-box hardware stores — a statement about the consumption of our most precious commodity. One sculpture within a Lucite pedestal at the front of the space is lit from underneath, casting a glow — and a moment of extreme clarity. Lopez sees it as a sacred monument. “I wanted people to be drawn to it, like an altar,” he said. “This is very symbolic. I grew up with glasses of water and wine around the house as sacred spaces.” And he isn’t done with the theme yet. With an individual artist grant from the city, he is developing a multi-site public artwork, “Nature Illuminated,” that will debut later this year. molly.glentzer@chron.com HOUSTON - The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA) announced today the next milestone in the fulfillment of its Arts & Cultural Plan with grants totaling $1,631,698 to 109 artists and 32 arts and cultural nonprofits for public exhibitions, performances and festivals in 2019.
The grants, awarded through the Houston Arts Alliance, are funded through a portion of the city's Hotel Occupancy Tax that is dedicated to the arts as part of the city’s cultural priorities guided by MOCA. “The strength of Houston’s creative economy includes artisans, artists, creative workers and festivals of every kind that uplift and invite the sharing of cultural traditions,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Our artists and festivals showcase Houston’s cultural diversity, and it is no surprise that Houston is recognized in numerous national rankings as a premier destination to visit.” The grants are awarded via three new grant programs: Support for Artist and Creative Individuals, Let Creativity Happen and Festival. These new programs followed a year-long redesign of grants offered through Houston Arts Alliance. The grant programs are meant to:
Selection panelists were Nic Allen, Rabéa Ballin, Jonathan Beitler, Byron Canady, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Eric Dano, Laura Gutierrez, Harrison Guy, Emilie Harris, Vinod Hopson, Felicia Johnson, Mariam Khalili, Marian Luntz, Lavanya Rajagopalan, Emily Robinson, Grace Rodriguez, Kaneem Smith, Benito Vasquez, Christopher Vu and Jessica Wiggins. The City thanks each for their role in the grant process. Houstonians and visitors can find a multitude of offerings produced by the grantees on the Cultural Events Calender, which provides programs details and more. Several activities are discounted or free. Congratulations to all award recipients! Thank you for your dedication and contributions to the expansive arts and cultural landscape of Houston. Grantees: 2019 Support for Artists and Creative Individuals
November 2018 Let Creativity Happen!
2019 Festival Grant
To learn more about the City’s cultural programs visit https://www.houstontx.gov/culturalaffairs/index.html and follow the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs on Facebook @HoustonMOCA. Felipe Lopez: From Harvey to Heartfelt, An Artist’s Relationship With Water The Liquidity of a Right Opens February 8th at Forma 110 Houston, TX, January 11, 2018/PR Newswire/ -- Despite the waves caused by two major disasters including Hurricane Harvey, contemporary visual artist Felipe Lopez has managed to climb the ranks of well known emerging artist working in Houston and beyond over the past 5 years. This February, Lopez opens his new year with the exhibition Felipe Lopez: The Liquidity of a Right at Forma 110 (1824 Spring Street Houston, TX) with the opening slated for Friday, February 8th from 6-9pm. Exhibition runs through March 13th, 2019. The exhibition is open on Saturdays from 11am - 2pm and by appointment. Carrying with him his heritage as a first generation Cuban American, his work has always centered around nature and man’s relationship with the natural. Using water, fishing, and landscapes as the base, Lopez has transformed traditional and non-traditional materials into microcosms of the majestic along with large scale landings of landscapes that carry heavy conceptual weight. In 2016 in the Memorial Day floods, Lopez lost a rather larger portion of his early works and materials. Pivotal pieces were destroyed along with many paints, books, and brushes. Looking to avoid a similar tragedy, the artist moved his studio and materials. Bring along Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and another major blow happened. Most of the remaining work, including pivotal pieces from his early career, along with materials were waterlogged and lost. At this point many artists would take a hiatus or give up completely. Not Lopez. He knew that his relationship with water and the use of water in his work was only being transformed for the better. The forces of nature would now be omnipresent in each of his pieces, with a sense of awe and reverence of the power water holds. With a myriad of colors, configuration, and concept, his work since then has been a balance of mediums tied together with the remarkable strength of fishing net. Towards the end of 2017, Lopez returned to the start of his art studies by renting a studio within the historic building of MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts). This 40 plus year old non-profit, through the hands of art mentor Diana Muniz, helped shape Lopez’s eye and graciously offered a new safe haven for his art. Carrying the ripples of new collectors including Lester Marks, Jereann Cheney, and others, Lopez embarked on making his most formidable years as an emerging artist count. Shortly after moving into his new space, he embarked on making his most formidable years as an emerging artist count including a major 4 month solo entitled Ambiente Amore that included 5 series and a review by acclaimed art critic Raphael Rubinstein. In his new creative workshop, Felipe Lopez created a visceral dialogue that lures a viewer into each piece within the Space Is Only Noise That You Can See series while also elevating the color gradation of those works with luminous neon in sculpture. His iconic Light Bulb series which display his hand-tied fishing flies in resin speak to the microcosms of these natural landscapes while also taking a sculptural life in the Ambiente Chandelier works. Towards the end of 2018, Lopez decided to take his concepts of the natural a step further with the ever revered artistic concepts of light and water being elevated in a contemporary sculpture format. Taking the form of the light bulb, but this time in Edison Bulb form, and marrying it with a common place bath faucet has brought forth some of Lopez’s strongest work to date, both conceptually and visually. These works speak to the necessity of water in our daily life and also to the fragility of our water supply. Regardless of social status or culture, clean water is what ties us together along with nature depending on the same resource. The hand tied fishing flies coming from the faucet signify how one must consider important our ecosystem is to our own daily lives. These works are truly a contemporary catharsis for Lopez who has risen from the flood waters to produce pieces of contemplation and connection. Catching the attention of art powerhouses Mariana Valdes and Paola Creixell, Lopez swiftly signed with their gallery Forma 110 in Houston for another major exhibition to open 2019 entitled Felipe Lopez: The Liquidity of a Right. Located within Spring Street Studios in Sawyer Yards, Forma 110 will host a bevy of these faucet pieces with the opening happening Friday, February 8th from 6-9pm. In addition to this exhibition, Lopez starts the year with another major accomplishment: Mayor Sylvester Turner and the City of Houston approved Houston Arts Alliance recommendation to award Lopez a Support for Artists and Creative Individuals grant which will help fund his multi-location public art project entitled Nature Illuminated. “We are allowing old tech to effect the future of our health in an age when we know how precious life’s greatest asset is which makes up 60% of our physical state…”, says Lopez. “Regardless of people thoughts towards climate change, politics, or manufacturing practices, water is as precious as life itself.” Join us for a special studio show including beautiful new multimedia video and sculptural work along with paintings and more. This event will take place at Felipe Lopez's studio from 6pm - 9pm at my studio housed within MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling Through the Arts) located at 1900 Kane Street Houston, TX. To come for a preview before the show date and/or to RSVP, email felipelopezart@gmail.com
Please vote for my Space Is Only Noise That You Can See No. 7 as the People's Choice Winner for the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Competition. Help my work get to SCOPE Miami Beach 2018! Search "Lopez" in the voting section. One vote per day through October 28th. To vote, click HERE and cast your vote every day. Thanks in advance! Through the expansive storefront windows of Clarke & Associates in Houston comes a flood of light. It touches every surface—from the wooden floors to the bright paintings and fine nets hanging on white walls. This wash of light is an enhancing setting for the first solo exhibition by artist Felipe Lopez. On view through Aug. 24, Lopez’s Ambiente Amorepresents a plethora of multimedia works that range from paintings and monoprints, to sculptural, hand-woven nets, to cast resin light bulbs, and electric neon installations. At the exhibition’s center are water and light and the interaction of these two enchanting yet unruly phenomena. Seeking depth and mystery, Lopez immerses the audience in his experimental processes to produce an environment of harmonious and discordant sensations. Featured in the painting series Space Is Only Noise That You Can See, Lopez’s most captivating works depict a chiseled, V-shaped form. The inside of the V is layered with colors, typically beginning with bright whites or yellows at the tip followed by intense oranges or blues. Surrounded by a negative space below—often rendered with confident, painterly stokes—the light-filled V powerfully cuts through the canvas like a fiery William Turner sun. The glowing beacon is illustrated as if the viewer was glimpsing a sunset through a rocky valley or gleaning a corner of sky from the bottom of the ocean. In this abstract space, Lopez captures distance, depth, and a moment of transition with authority. The effect of the departing light is that of yearning—the feeling of being left and the need to follow. Yet, the viewer’s desire is abruptly hindered by the presence of shadowy, diamond-shaped patterns layered over the receding channel. Although sculptural, the netting appears only within the painting’s foreground and becomes an object of restraint for the viewer. In other works that explore the aesthetics of water through rippling spray-painted and printed forms, Lopez drapes an actual net over the top of the canvas to similar effect. Whether in a two- or three-dimensional state, the netting, unfortunately, returns flatness to the painting and counteracts the magic of the painted illusion of depth. Nature, ecology, and the fragility of the planet are some of the interconnected themes that the artist has noted as areas of interest in his work. With a personal passion for fishing, Lopez has crafted each net and lure in Ambiente Amore by hand. He often pairs the colorfully dyed nets with cast resin light bulbs, each containing a vibrant fishing fly. In series such as Ambiente Chandelier and Fractured Entanglement, the clear, upside-down bulbs hang heavy from the perimeter or inner matrix of the netting. Like water-filled pods, the bulbs capture a moment of man’s interaction with nature—the waiting trap in the water. The fishing fly’s plumy body, wide, artificial eye, and sharp hook are jarringly magnified in the rounded resin shape. While the works struggle to define the conflict between man’s reverence for nature and his skillful ability to harness it, the fluidity of the open nets and the strong forms that Lopez shapes them into add beauty and an aesthetic focus to the sculptural series. The artist takes experimentation with environment a step further in the neon series Space Is Only Noise That You Can See Sculpture. In Space Is Only Noise That You Can See #4 (neon), Lopez’s vibrant V becomes a cavity cut into a suspended box. Exuding warm, electric light, the recessed space is contained beneath wire mesh and embellished with feathered plastic. In its physical form, this familiar scene is less restrictive as the mesh seems to enclose the box’s space rather than confine the viewer. In a final, fully-immersive, aquatic experience, Lopez invites the viewer into Space Is Only Noise That You Can See #5 (neon), a mirror-clad room, darkened with a black sheet, and lit from above with colorful, amoeba-like forms—their plastic cilia in full bloom. Felipe Lopez’s ambition to explore new expressions and sensations is palpable in Ambiente Amore. While some of the sculptural works, particularly the neons, have an unfinished, experimental quality, many of Lopez’s paintings juggle conflicting perceptions of light and depth. Lopez’s exhibition will at most hypnotize and at least amuse—just beware of wandering into a floating net. —ALEXANDRA IRRERA LINK HERE |
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