Efflorescence is an interactive installation by the Austin-based artist team of Ilya Pieper and Whiptail Designs that has been designed specifically for the Ion Plaza. Inspired by nature, Efflorescence represents the blossoming growth of Ion District and the community that it is creating. The swirling vines – with their interactive flowers – reflect the ideas, innovations and creations that define Ion District, while the dichroic color shifts echo the multifaceted ways in which our collective collaborative creativity and skill sets can be utilized and enjoyed by all. By using kinetics and dynamic light play to spur interactivity with visitors to Ion, Efflorescence is a living work of art for all to enjoy!

Artists: Ilya Pieper + Whiptail Designs
Programming: Input/Output
Location: Ion Houston
Date: 2023
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Art Installation
Role: Public Art Curator at Ion District

Photos and Video by Marc Furi Creative.

Slant of Light by Rachel Hayes
March 20 - April 3, 2021

Tulsa-based artist Rachel Hayes created Slant of Light, a site-specific, multi-part public art installation in her signature vibrant fabrics during the month of March for the world-famous Round Top Spring Antique Show. Twice a year thousands of people descend on the tiny Texas town, population 90, for two weeks to hunt for treasures at this festival of epic proportions. Slant of Light marked Hayes’ first project for Texas, as well as the debut of Round Top’s public art program, curated by Piper Faust Public Art.

Hayes created multiple groupings of works installed outdoors at three venues, The Compound, The Farm at Wellville and The Halles. The artworks utilized brilliant colors executed in various fabrics including organza, polyester, and cotton, while exploring textiles inspired by the location such as heirloom lace-encrusted handkerchiefs and vintage table linens. Hayes interest lies in inserting color and form into both built and natural environments using scale and the inherent responsiveness of the delicate fabric to create reflective experiences and inset a feminist perspective into land art.

Artist: Rachel Hayes (Instagram/Website)
Location: Round Top, TX
Date: 2021
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Artwork Commission
Role: Curator + Project Manager

Photos by Chris Bacman, Rachel Hayes and Piper Faust. Video by Ade Ishola.

The #EyeOnArt Program at the Ion, Houston’s innovation hub, are an adaptive reuse of the beloved Sears building on which Ion was built. The display windows are a unique opportunity to reimagine Sears' store windows and build on the collective memory of the space’s past, present, and future. Strategically placed, as the entry points and eyes of the building, the two highly visible display windows facing Fannin and Main Streets serve as beacons to draw the community in. The art displays are a visual expression of the intersection of art and innovation and are a reflection of Ion and Ion District’s effort to support local talent.

Lina Dib’s Self-Portrait in the Garden is an over-the-top kitsch environment that includes plants, astro-turf, pink flamingos, and bright screens. Initially the images on the screens are of greenery, the sea, and the sky, but as viewers move, they scrub the images of nature to reveal reflections of their own presence. When viewers stop moving, nature slowly takes over again. This uncanny window installation entices visitors to question the boundaries they draw between categories, such as the natural and the artificial, and to playfully engage in conversation with its surroundings and others.

Preston Gaines’ Fantasy Landscape consists of numerous, interconnected panels that provide visitors with a mind-bending, multi-sensory journey. Filled with explosive color, mysterious pre-recorded sounds, the Fantasy Landscape supplies a look into a hypothetical future and a new way of viewing objects in nature and their role in human life. Each color is intended to connect to various areas of the human body and affect individuals differently emotionally, physically, and mentally. This combination of sensory stimuli forms an experience that is both meditative and dissociative, creating a space for the eyes, ears, mind, and body to explore. The outcome is a living, blooming floral paradise whose beauty flourishes when visitors engage with it: an ever-changing landscape, always different, a reflection of the personality of viewers themselves.

Artist: Lina Dib + Preston Gaines
Location: Ion Houston
Date: 2022
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Art Installation
Role: Public Art Curator at Ion District

Photos by Alex Montoya
Video by UXD

The Galveston Beach Trio is the embodiment of “island time” and is a dynamic welcome to the brand new Royal Carribean Cruise Terminal in Galveston, TX. Strategically crafted of hand-cast bronze and mirror-polished stainless steel, these coastal creatures are as dynamic as their jazzy tunes.

Feathers, the Pelican’s warm bronze bill contrasts with its mirror-polished body. Similarly, the bronze structure of the sea turtle pops beneath its polished outer shell. The crab’s claws have been polished to a mirror finish by her excellent piano skills.

Artist: Brad Oldham + Christy Coltrin (Instagram/Website)
Location: Galveston, TX
Client: Royal Carribean International
Date: 2022
Type: Permanent Site-Specific Artwork Commission
Role: Curator + Project Manager

Photos by Shannon O’Hara.

The second round of the Eye On Art program brought us Collective Hive in the Fannin Street window by the local duo Lisa Morales and Stacy Gressell. The project is designed as an amalgamation of “found object” bees ranging in size from 12” to 4’, each with plexiglass wings. A number of different pieces of building-specific iconography, including maps of Houston, construction blueprints of the Ion, and photographs of the old Sears building, are attached to the wings of the bees.

Each bee’s body is created from recycled and repurposed materials, including keys, typewriter parts, old instruments, golf tees, clock parts, circuit boards, toy cars, and other trinkets. Materials for the bees’ bodies were accumulated from a “junk drawer” drive that enlisted the broader Ion community to donate old odds and ends, connecting Morales’s and Gressell’s artistic process with the community. Inside the window display, the found object bees are affixed to structures that emulate a close-up view of a beehive.

At Main Street, artist Maria Rodriguez led her artist team of Miriam Mireles, Bryce Saucier, Timothy Hudson, and Victoria Armenta to imagine and execute Exploración Orgánica. This installation stimulates each individual’s “own visual experimentation” as the contents inside the window shift their visual appearance from the continuous projection of micro footage of the chemical interactions from mixing oils, acrylic paint, ink, alcohol, milk, and water. The collective end product of this artistic chemical experimentation is the depiction of cosmic imagery as part of the installation’s construction as a three-dimensional sculpture.

The Eye On Art program at the Ion, Houston’s innovation hub, are an adaptive reuse of the beloved Sears building on which Ion was built. The display windows are a unique opportunity to reimagine Sears' store windows and build on the collective memory of the space’s past, present, and future. Strategically placed, as the entry points and eyes of the building, the two highly visible display windows facing Fannin and Main Streets serve as beacons to draw the community in. The art displays are a visual expression of the intersection of art and innovation and are a reflection of Ion and Ion District’s effort to support local talent.

Artist: Lisa Morales and Stacy Gressell / Maria Rodriguez, Miriam Mireles, Bryce Saucier, Timothy Hudson, and Victoria Armenta Location: Ion Houston
Date: 2022 - 2023
Type: Site-Specific Temporary Art Installation
Role: Public Art Curator at Ion District

Photos and Video by Marc Furi Creative.

Hello, Trees! A Walking Serenade by Montreal-based artist collective Daily tous les jours took inspiration from the century-old live oaks that form the heart of Discovery Green park. Daily tous les jours conceived Hello, Trees! as a metaphor for the way trees use nonverbal cues to communicate complex information. Comprised of a series of arches under the live oak canopy, visitors were invited to speak into input stations located at each end of the sculpture, and listen and watch as their voice messages were translated into light and sound patterns that traveled along the installation as you walk beneath—an immersive sensory experience that was unique to each visitor.

Artist: Daily tous les jours (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: 2017
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Morris Malakoff + Joel Luks/CKP Group, courtesy of Discovery Green

PFPA organized a pop-up exhibition featuring work by Houston-based artist, Tara Conley at Welville, a new luxury destination planned near Round Top, Texas.

Artist: Tara Conley (Instagram/Website)
Location: Wellville, Burton, TX
Date: 2021
Type: Temporary Pop-Up Exhibition
Role: Curator + Project Manager

A vibrant blast of geometric shapes took over the intersection of McKinney and Main streets in Downtown Houston, crawling on top of buildings, light fixtures and sidewalks. Color Jam Houston by Chicago-based artist Jessica Stockholder, represents the social and political balance between individual rights, freedoms, responsibilities and our collective well-being and coexistence. This weaving together of various color fields and shapes into a single whole is resonant with the reality of different owners, jurisdictions and codes that govern this section of public space consisting of a crosswalk, roadway, sidewalk, storefronts and Metro platform.

Stockholder is considered a pioneer of contemporary art for her creation of multimedia genre-bending installations that often extend beyond installation boundaries.

Color Jam was part of Art Blocks, a temporary public art initiative created and managed by the Houston Downtown Management District. From lessons learned about public art’s capacity to awaken change in areas that have not yet realized their full potential, Art Blocks strives to enliven underutilized areas of Downtown Houston.

Artist: Jessica Stockholder (Instagram/Website)
Location: Downtown Houston
Date: 2016
Type: Site-specific Temporary Artwork Commission
Role: Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Joel Luks/CKP Group, courtesy of Houston Downtown Management District

Los Trompos was a joyful, site-specific interactive art installation by internationally-acclaimed Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. The colorful, large-scale, temporary installation, elements of which take their form from the common toy, delighted Discovery Green visitors of all ages. Los Trompos drew inspiration from spinning tops, the internationally popular children’s toy. Twenty 3D structures featured a variety of colors and shapes, creating a vibrant sea of movement. The tops only spinned when manipulated by two or more people, fostering an engaging connection. Los Trompos were woven in a traditional style used by Mexican artists, each with a unique shape inspired by nature and traditional Latin American design, architecture and folk art.

Artist: Esrawe + Cadena (Instagram/Esrawe’s Website/Cadena’s Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: 2015
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Artwork Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Daniel Ortiz/CKP Group, courtesy of Discovery Green

Over the past decade Yinka Shonibare MBE, a British-Nigerian artist living in London, has become well known for his exploration of colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalization. Working in painting, sculpture, photography, film and performance, Shonibare’s work examines race, class and the construction of cultural identity through sharp political commentary of the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe and their respective economic and political histories.

Wind Sculpture IV features a unique pattern inspired by textiles that European colonists produced based on Indonesian batik patterns and resold in Africa. Despite the fabric’s cultural origins, it is commonly mistaken as indigenously “African.” The monumental sculpture, nearly 20 feet tall and 11 feet at the widest point, suggests a swathe of Dutch wax cloth billowing in the wind and makes poetic reference to the integral role this natural force played in colonial expansion: “I’m fascinated by movement and dynamism. I aspire to capture a particular moment in each piece; my headless sculptural figures refer to the broader colonial period, while these Wind Sculptures conjure the tangible from the intangible – transforming the transience of a passing breeze into something fixed and monumental.”

Artist: Yinka Shonibare (Instagram/Website)
Location: Hermann Park
Date: 2015
Type: Temporary Artwork Loan
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

For The Shape of Things at Discovery Green, Michael Craig-Martin comprised a series of six monumental steel sculptures offering a playful perspective of everyday objects which challenge our perception of space, appearing like line drawings in the air. This is the first exhibition of the British artist’s sculptures to be seen in Texas, and only the second venue in the United States.

Artist: Michael Craig-Martin (Website)

Location: Discovery Green

Date: 2019
Type: Temporary Sculpture Loan

Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Sarah Rufca Nielson + Daniel Ortiz/CKP Group, courtesy of Discovery Green

The Blue Trees by Australian artist Konstantin Dimopoulos is an environmental art installation that takes a familiar urban landscape and changes it for a brief period of time into something surreal, unfamiliar, even uncomfortable. Working with over 200 volunteers, Dimopoulos colored the trunks and branches of the crepe myrtle trees at Waugh and Memorial Drive with a biologically-safe colourant that eventually faded on its own. “The Blue Trees has a strong regenerative aspect to it, an organic work that is continually changing and evolving. From season to season the trees grow through the cycles of nature and the colors begin to change and disappear. Time passing is a part of the concept; time that determines our own existence is measured through these trees,” says Dimopoulos about his award-winning project. By transforming living trees, Dimopoulos elevates their role in our lives from everyday landscape to objects of appreciation.

Artist: Konstantin Dimopoulos (Instagram/Website)
Location: Houston, TX
Date: 2013
Type: Site-Specific Temporary Commission
Role: Project Manager at Houston Arts Alliance (with Tommy Gregory)

Photos by Thomasid Rolls, Jaana Eleftheriou and Adele Dimopoulos, courtesy of the artist.

New York-based Orly Genger re-worked her vibrantly colored sculpture made of knotted climbing rope for the banks of Brays Bayou on the Bayou Parkland side of Hermann Park. Measuring 225 feet long by 17 feet wide and painted in a wide range of colors including Eggnog, Springtime Bloom, Limeade, and many more, Boys Cry Too seemed to pop off of the Park's terrain. Genger is known for her large-scale constructions of brightly painted, knotted nautical rope. Spanning the genres of craft and fine art, Genger mines the intimate, domestic, and traditionally feminine practice of knitting to create sprawling, monumental installations. With the help of assistants, Genger looms, crochets, weaves, and knots heavy twine over the course of many months to create a single work.

Artist: Orly Genger (Instagram/Website)
Location: Hermann Park
Date: 2014
Type: Temporary Artwork Loan
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Arcade, a series of dynamic streamer sculptures by Texas-based artistic duo Sunny Sliger and Marianne Newsom of The Color Condition, brought dramatic color and whimsy to Avenida Houston. The Color Condition considers the idea of “play” throughout Arcade, which consisted of three separate installations that created a dialogue among parts of the Avenida Houston campus. The works — made from strips of table cloths, shower curtains and painters drop cloth — responded to the environment, creating new colors as the light changed and new patterns with each gust of wind.

Artist: The Color Condition (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green + Avenida Houston
Date: 2017
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Joel Luks + Meilin Hyde/CKP Group, courtesy of Discovery Green

A former Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Core Fellow and a resident of Houston for many years, Sharon Engelstein is known for her organic, bubbly sculptural forms. In Hermann Park, a grand Mamadillidiida figure looms protectively over her wandering brood of smaller Dillidiidae. Though not immediately recognizable, the Dillidiidae are identical quadruplets. Curiously familiar, these tumbling forms invite interactivity, creating a game of delight and discovery.

Artist: Sharon Engelstein (Instagram/Website)
Location: Hermann Park
Date: 2014
Type: Long-term Temporary Artwork Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Discovery Green illuminated downtown during the winter seasons of 2014 and 2015 with Field of Light by internationally-recognized artist Bruce Munro. The site-specific art installation consisted of 4,550 radiant, frosted glass spheres atop slender stems connected by illuminated fiber optic. The spheres and stems waited quietly until dusk and then bloomed with gentle rhythms of colored light as darkness fell over the park.

Artist: Bruce Munro (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: 2014 + 2015
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Artwork Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Joel Luks/CKP Group, courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Sliced and juiced, Sluice is an artistic intervention unlike any you will find in another grocery store. A celebration of sustainability through repurposed material adds a splash of color and movement to the clean lines of the vestibule entrance to the store. A flock of juicy disks flies through the foyer, gushing from the wooden fruit on the wall. Each wooden slat was lovingly painted by an H-E-B employee as a testament to the company’s dedication to the site-specific art commission.

Artist: Flying Carpet Creative (Instagram/Website)
Location: H-E-B Buffalo Heights
Date: 2019
Type: Site-Specific Permanent Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Firmament was a vibrant 52-foot-wide canopy of over 21,000 LED lights by acclaimed Burning Man artist Christopher Schardt. Guests to Discovery Green were invited to gather under the structure as the LED lights display celestial, playful, psychedelic and brightly abstract images. A continually changing musical element engaged visitors’ senses creating an enveloping, comforting, communal environment below.

Artist: Christopher Schardt (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: 2016
Type: Temporary Artwork Loan
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Discovery Green

The Portable On Demand Arts (P.O.D.A.) Project was a temporary public art exhibition that provided a non-traditional platform for artists to explore the cultural, ecological, political, scientific, and socio-economic forces shaping Houston’s aspirations for the future. The Houston Arts Alliance teamed up with Portable-on-Demand Storage (PODS) to supply eight shippable storage containers to local artists and arts groups to use in making their own public statements. Aerosol Warfare’s container celebrated Houston’s diversity through an explosion of colors and urban art techniques using spray paint, while BOX 13 ArtSpace artists worked collaboratively and independently to create a time capsule of culturally significant artifacts, transforming their unit into a Box of Curiosities. Metalab Principals Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana worked with the University of Houston College of Architecture students to create a container around the notion of PLAY, capitalizing on the context of the park setting and open space, offering an energetic creative outlet for both creators and the participants. Each artist or artist group addressed the containers in unique and unexpected ways, adding their own flavors and philosophies to the traveling exhibition. The works were on public display first at Discovery Green, then made their way to various locations around the city.

Artists: Aerosol Warfare, Box13 ArtSpace, Jillian Conrad, The Joanna (Cody Ledvina + Brian Rod), Lynne McCabe, Gabriel Martinez, Metalab, Anthony Thompson Shumate
Location: Discovery Green + multiple locations throughout Houston
Date: 2011
Type: Temporary Traveling Art Exhibition
Role: Project Manager at Houston Arts Alliance

Momentum, commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Dance in Houston, uses large blocks of color and dynamic lines to evoke movement, diversity and artistic expression as a reflection of Houston’s artistic community.

Artist: Moni Yael Garwil (Instagram/Website)
Location: Institute of Contemporary Dance in Houston
Date: 2020
Type: Site-Specific Mural Commission

Photos by Moni Yael Garwil

Internationally recognized artist Mark Dion created the Buffalo Bayou Invasive Plant Eradication Unit to serve as a workstation, laboratory, book mobile and beacon for public outreach in the battle against invasive plant species along the Buffalo Bayou and its tributaries. Commissioned by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the customized truck, similar to “a rugged emergency response vehicle” is equipped with various tools, illustrations, field guides and books. Dion’s mobile unit is not only a work of art, but also a working outpost that supports volunteers, encourages participation, educates on the local environment, and establishes a sense of urgency to the issue of invasive plants. Blurring the distinction between the truck’s status as artwork and a functional tool is, Dion has stated, “how an artist today makes a consideration of the landscape.”

Artist: Mark Dion (Instagram/Website)
Location: Buffalo Bayou Park
Date: 2011
Type: Site-Specific Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Houston Arts Alliance

Photos courtesy of Buffalo Bayou Partnership

While researching H-E-B history for project inspiration, Houston-based artist Elaine Bradford came across an advertising campaign from the 1930s when tagged chickens were given away, good for handfuls of nickels or free groceries. And so Elaine’s funky flock suspended chickens in colorful custom-fitted crocheted sweaters was born. The chickens, in line with the H-E-B lore, are accompanied by large coins created by Rene Cruz for the Heights store entryway. The sweaters’ color combinations come straight from popular H-E-B products, such as “That Green Sauce” and “Spicy Whataburger Ketchup.”

Artist: Elaine Bradford with contributions by Rene Cruz (Instagram/Website)
Location: H-E-B Heights (Houston, TX)
Date: 2019
Type: Permanent Site-Specific Artwork Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Gust is an interactive art installation inspired by simple celebrations of community and by Mexican folk traditions of hand made art. Cocolab, a Mexico City-based multimedia design studio, created the artwork consisting of 1,600 hand-made pinwheels specifically for the Brown Promenade at Discovery Green. The pinwheels are animated by fluctuating breezes as well as by interactions with the public, creating a kinetic field of color underneath the park’s century-old live oak allée. Gust is intended to provide a joyful gathering place for people to come together, to feel and see the breeze, and to play.

Artist: Cocolab (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: 2018
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Morris Malakoff/CKP Group, courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Ascending Focus is an interactive artwork composed of a visual score of graphic symbols that can be played with an iPhone. Ascending Focus is part of a series of work titled Format3, which draws upon a system of 81 “sound symbols” derived from three basic shapes, mapped to sound samples from their corresponding elements — square, circle, triangle/earth, water, fire. This installation, which combines graphic artwork, virtual objects, and sound, explores new possibilities in music composition and performance. When equipped with the Format3 app, the iPhone becomes a musical tool, allowing the audience to participate in the creation of unique, spontaneous soundscapes.

Danish-born collaborative duo FOO/SKOU (Louise Foo and Martha Skou) merge technology with analog processes to explore composing, making, and experiencing sound in the digital age.

Artist: Foo/Skou (Instagram/Website)
Location: GreenStreet, Downtown Houston
Date: 2020
Type: Site-Specific Temporary Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Shannon O’Hara, courtesy of Midway

Paloma, created by French light art studio Pitaya, is a series of 200 luminous aluminum birds installed in the live oak trees lining the Brown Promenade at Discovery Green Park. During the day, the birds appear to be origami sculptures with cheerful touches of colors, but as the night falls, their white light creates a poetic and contemplative atmosphere. Here and Now, a multi-channel sound installation by Houston-based artist Lina Dib, accompanies Paloma to create an immersive environment of bird and human sounds focusing on global migration. The choreographed audio compilation dances along the Brown Promenade in conversation with Pitaya's sculptures, revealing and illuminating the magnificent oak trees of Discovery Green.

Artist: Lina Dib (Instagram/Website) + Pitaya (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: November 2019 - February 2020
Type: Site-Specific Temporary Installation
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Morris Malakoff/CKP Group, courtesy of Discovery Green. Video by Dallas Evans, courtesy of Pitaya.

más que la cara (more than the face) investigated what the intersection of masks, technology and public play might look like. YesYesNo created an intuitive, engaging experience for kids and adults, and explored the idea of the augmented face. The commission explored what kinds of geometry can be connected to faces and, in particular, how different facial movements and expressions can drive them. The project also references the history of 1111 Main Street, the former location of the Sakowitz department store, harnessing the power of shop windows to capture people’s attention and create moments of magic and delight on the street.

más que la cara was part of Art Blocks, a temporary public art initiative created and managed by the Houston Downtown Management District. From lessons learned about public art’s capacity to awaken change in areas that have not yet realized their full potential, Art Blocks strives to enliven underutilized areas of Downtown Houston.

YesYesNo, led by Zach Lieberman, is an interactive collective that specializes in the creation of engaging, magical installations that combine creativity, artistic vision and cutting-edge R&D. YesYesNo aims to develop work that puts creativity and awe at the forefront of interactive media.

Artist: YesYesNo (Instagram/Website)
Location: Downtown Houston
Date: 2016
Type: Site-specific Temporary Artwork Commission
Role: Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Joel Luks/CKP Group, courtesy of Houston Downtown Management District

The H-E-B Enthusiasts is a series of six custom artworks by Heather Gauthier, a San Antonio-based artist. Gauthier shares the enthusiasm that many Texans have for the supermarket chain and blends her whimsical compositions with animals adorned with some of the store’s bountiful offerings. Her friendly animals welcome shoppers into the store with offerings of doughnuts, fresh produce, and delicious snacks in a grouping of large canvases on the main entry wall.

Artist: Heather Gauthier (Instagram/Website)
Location: H-E-B Meyerland (Houston, TX)
Date: 2020
Type: Permanent Site-Specific Artwork Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Blue By You by San Antonio-based artist, Ansen Seale is an interactive light installation composed of acrylic, aluminum and LEDs. It reacts in realtime to visitors in the Bellaire HEB foyer. As shoppers move in the space, the work responds by changing color, leaving a trail behind the person walking. The viewer becomes the creator, riding a self-generated wave of color to and from an everyday experience.

Artist: Ansen Seale (Instagram/Website)
Location: H-E-B Bellaire
Date: 2018
Type: Site-Specific Permanent Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Images by Ansen Seale

Trumpet Flower delivered a unique visual experience with a functional purpose—a shade structure— that drew the attention of viewers and users alike. The shape was inspired by a trumpet flower, but inverted so that it opens down into the open space created by the surrounding buildings. Slats of brightly colored recycled wood were painted at a community painting party and woven together to complete the functional sculpture.

Trumpet Flower was part of Art Blocks, a temporary public art initiative created and managed by the Houston Downtown Management District. From lessons learned about public art’s capacity to awaken change in areas that have not yet realized their full potential, Art Blocks strives to enliven underutilized areas of Downtown Houston.

Artist: Flying Carpet Creative (Instagram/Website)
Location: Downtown Houston
Date: 2016
Type: Site-specific Temporary Artwork Commission
Role: Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Joel Luks/CKP Group, courtesy of Houston Downtown Management District

The Main Street Marquee is a billboard-sized canvas affixed to the building face above the Main Street Market in Downtown Houston. This rotating art space showcases the talent of local and regional artists. The Main Street Marquee is part of Art Blocks, a temporary public art initiative created and managed by the Houston Downtown Management District. From lessons learned about public art’s capacity to awaken change in areas that have not yet realized their full potential, Art Blocks strives to enliven underutilized areas of Downtown Houston.

Artists: Sarah Welch, Jasmine Zelaya, James Glassman, Nataliya Scheib, Armando Castelan, Giovanni Valderas, Jamal Cyrus, Chun Hui Pak
Location: Downtown Houston
Date: 2016 - 2019
Type: Rotating Temporary Art
Role: Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Joel Luks and Morris Malakoff/CKP Group and Johnny Than, courtesy of Houston Downtown Management District

moonGARDEN, a series of 22 illuminated spheres ranging in size from 6 to 30 feet in diameter transformed the Discovery Green and Avenida Houston into a magical moonscape. Designed by Montreal art collective Lucion the larger-than-life inflated globes were brought to life with innovative shadow play, dynamic lighting and interactive elements that allowed visitors to become part of the experience.

Artist: Lucion Media (Instagram/Website)
Location: Discovery Green + Avenida Houston
Date: 2018
Type: Temporary Site-Specific Commission
Role: Curator + Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Daniel Ortiz/CKP Group, courtesy of Discovery Green. Video by Droneworks, courtesy of Lucion Media.

Elaine Bradford’s whimsical installation for the Vinson Neighborhood Library is a life-sized, crochet-covered Asian elephant that spews colorful yarn sweaters from its trunk onto nine Canadian geese suspended from the ceiling. Pachikadi and His Flying Friends, tells a story about geese wanting a little more color in their lives and a fantastical elephant that lends them yarn from its own vibrant sweater. Bradford draws inspiration from children's stories such as those by Dr. Seuss, Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll. The installation is an entry point for viewers not only to the library, but also into a world of imagination.

Artist: Elaine Bradford (Instagram/Website)
Location: Vinson Neighborhood Library
Date: 2011
Type: Site-specific Permanent Commission
Role: Project Manager at Houston Arts Alliance

Enchanted Promenade by the French art and design collective TILT, featured colorful, giant peony bouquets along the Brown Promenade. Enchanted Promenade came to life through color-changing LED lighting. At night, the stamens grow brighter with a blazing red light that emanates through its petals and scatters warm light throughout. Below the soaring stems of the plant, diffused lighting subtly enhances an inviting seating area for visitors to lounge and enjoy the view.

Artist: TILT (Website)
Location: Discovery Green
Date: 2016
Type: Temporary Artwork Loan
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Discovery Green

Color, movement and perception are the primary subjects in the work of famed Franco-Venezuelan artist, Carlos Cruz-Diez (b. 1923, Caracas). In the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, the artist dematerialized the vast space, creating an immersive and ambiguous environment that questioned our perception of time, perspective and volume. Spatial Chromointerference, a site-specific projection of continuously moving chromatic modules on the walls, columns, walkways and floating objects within the Cistern, invited visitors to become an essential component of the artwork. We participated as both actor and author in an ever-changing, color-infused event.

Cruz-Diez’s acclaimed contributions to color theory and kinetic practice have shaped modern and contemporary art on an international scale. His early study of the Venezuelan kinetic art movement and Impressionism informed the artist’s revolutionary explorations into color, and his later interest in Bauhaus and European avant-garde led him to abstract interactive projects. Cruz-Diez’s prolific body of work has established him as one of the key 20th century thinkers in the realm of color and light.

Artist: Carlos Cruz-Diez (Instagram/Website)
Location: Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern
Date: 2018
Type: Site-specific Artwork Loan
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos by Paul Hester, courtesy of Buffalo Bayou Partnership

Houston-based artist Trenton Doyle Hancock transformed the interior walls of Hermann Park Railroad's train tunnel into a fantastical landscape populated with creatures both real and imagined. Destination Mound Town is a contribution to Hancock’s ongoing narrative in his artwork of the Mounds, a group of mythical half-animal, half-plant characters. Train passengers are transported into a day in the life of the Mounds, beginning the journey as they arise in morning and exiting the tunnel as they settle in for the night. To view the installation, hop on the Hermann Park Railroad at Kinder Station, or at any of the remote stops, and keep your eyes open as you enter the tunnel.

Artist: Trenton Doyle Hancock (Instagram/Website)
Location: Hermann Park
Date: 2014
Type: Permanent Artwork Commission
Role: Lead Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group

Louise Bourgeois, considered one of the most prominent female artists of the 20th century, explores her personal fears and life experiences through her artwork. Beginning in 1984 until her death in 2010, Bourgeois developed a rich body of work around the spider, from delicate works on paper to colossal installations. From a family of weavers, Bourgeois employs the spider as a maternal figure: looming, protective, and nurturing. Spider appeared to delicately float above the waters of the Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool as she kept watch over the grounds of Hermann Park.

Artist: Louise Bourgeois (Website)
Location: Hermann Park
Date: 2014
Type: Temporary Artwork Loan
Role: Project Manager at Weingarten Art Group

Photos courtesy of Weingarten Art Group