Houston Center for Photography

Members' Critique Group with the Curator and Artists of A Composition of Possibilities
2021-09-21 18:00 - 21:00 UTC

A Composition of Possibilities Opening Reception
2021-09-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Houston Center for Photography
A Composition of Possibilities
Houston Center for Photography (HCP) is pleased to announce the opening of A Composition of Possibilities, a show featuring new collaborative work by three Mexico-City-based artists Andrea Martínez, Fabiola Menchelli, and Mike Counahan, curated by Leslie Moody Castro. The exhibition opens with a public reception on September 24, from 6 to 8 pm, and will conclude on November 7, 2021. At the opening, curator’s and artists’ remarks will begin at 6:30 PM.
Attend the Opening 6-7pm!

Attend the Opening 7-8pm!

A Composition of Possibilities marks the first-time collaboration between the three artists and their first opportunity to exhibit in Houston. It is also the first exhibition Moody Castro has curated here. The show in the city that is an important nexus of the Global South and a vital agent in the development of art history of Latin America, is an important step in the careers of the curator and three highly respected emerging artists in Mexico City. Martínez, Menchelli, and Counahan push against the pictorial traditions that have long weighed heavily upon Mexican and Latinx art, providing a refreshing insight into the contemporary artistic culture of the vibrant Mexican capital.
See-sawing between abstraction and the tradition-laden genre of landscape photography, Fabiola Menchelli, Andrea Martínez, and Mike Counahan share the common interest in the investigation of light, its impact on matter, and on our perception of matter. From stars to pebbles, light links the cosmos with the physical world we inhabit, connecting celestial and earthly bodies, and the visible and the invisible. Menchelli, Martínez, and Counahan’s work rejuvenates the seemingly antiquated medium by pressing against the core tenets of historical photography in Mexico. Traditionally, landscape was deployed instrumentally and charged with cultural signifiers of Mexican identity and pre-Columbian past, often through the distinct ethnographic lens. In turn, Menchelli, Martínez, and Counahan resist an ethnographic impulse and invite the exploration of materials, perception, and embodied experience as the unique means to shape our being in and relating to the world and others.
For the exhibition at HCP the artists have created a limited-edition collaborative heliogravure, which will be available for sale at the gallery.

Important Dates

Exhibition On View
September 24–November 7, 2021

In Conversation: Leslie Moody Castro, Andrea Martínez, Fabiola Menchelli, and Mike Counahan
September 30, 5:30–7 pm CST on Zoom
A virtual conversation with curator Leslie Moody Castro and artists Andrea Martínez, Fabiola Menchelli, and Mike Counahan, moderated by HCP’s Executive Director, Dorota Biczel
Register here!

Help HCP keep our staff, artists, and communities safe by following our Covid-19 guidelines, based on current recommendations from local, state, federal health officials, agencies, and authorities, including the CDC, as outlined below:

All guests are expected to wear masks at all times inside the gallery
All guests should maintain 6 feet of distance between those outside of their household while inside
Hand sanitizer and disposable masks will be available on site
Beverages will be served outside
If you’re unvaccinated, feeling unwell and/or have been exposed to COVID in the past 14 days, we ask that you please stay at home.

Mark your calendars for the 2021-22 exhibition season at HCP:

2021 Fellowship Exhibition juried by Drew Sawyer, the Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator at the Brooklyn Museum, November 19, 2021–January 9, 2022

2021 Fellows will be announced in mid-September

2022 Annul Print Auction, January 21–February 17, 2022
The Photobook Unbound: A Modern History, guest curated by Ashlyn Davis Burns, assembly, and Jon Evans, Chief of Libraries and Archives, MFAH, March 11–May 8, 2022
2022 Fellowship Exhibition, May 27–July 10, 2022
39th Center Annual, July 22, 2022–August 28, 2022

Calls for Fellowship and Center Annual participation will open in early October

View the Exhibition by Appointment

Admission to HCP is free and by appointment only. Using the button below, schedule your 45-minute appointment in advance to view A Composition of Possibilities in person during the following gallery hours:

Wednesday–Thursday: 11 am–7 pm
Friday: 11 am–5 pm
Saturday–Sunday: 11 am–7 pm

Schedule an Appointment
A limited number of free virtual tours are available for schools and community partners. Please email Natalie Rodgers at natalie@hcponline.org for details and to make an appointment.

Questions
For questions about this exhibition, please contact Samuel Rhodes, Exhibitions Assistant, at samuel@hcponline.org or 713-529-4755.

Focusing on Color
2021-09-26 | Online Learning

Camera Basics
2021-09-26 - 2021-10-03 | Houston Center for Photography

In Conversation: Leslie Moody Castro, Andrea Martínez, Fabiola Menchelli, and Mike Counahan
2021-09-30 17:30 - 19:00

Studio Lighting: Portraiture
2021-10-02 - 2021-10-16 | Houston Center for Photography

Seeing Gender: Women in Photo
2021-10-02 - 2021-10-23 | Online Learning

Photography in Public Spaces
2021-10-03 - 2021-10-10 | Online Learning

Photoshop I: Getting Started
2021-10-04 - 2021-10-25 | Online Learning

Photography I: Learning the Basics
2021-10-04 - 2021-10-25 | Online Learning

Developing Your Photographic Voice Intensive
2021-10-05 - 2021-10-26 | Online Learning

Photographer's Sketchbook: Building a Daily Practice
2021-10-05 - 2021-10-26 | Online Learning

Stitched: A Contemporary Look at Photography and Textiles
2021-10-06 - 2021-10-27 | Online Learning

The Art of the Self-Portrait
2021-10-08 - 2021-10-22 | Online Learning

Focus on Your Portfolio
2021-10-17 | Online Learning

People in Relationship with the Contemporary Landscape
2021-10-17 - 2021-11-14 | Online Learning

Videography I: Learning the Basics
2021-10-20 - 2021-11-10 | Online Learning

Out of the Box: Photo Basics Crash Course
2021-10-23 | Houston Center for Photography

Abstract Photography: Exploration & Experimentation
2021-11-02 - 2021-11-16 | Houston Center for Photography

Introduction to Large Format Film Camera Technique
2021-11-07 | Online Learning

Wet Plate Collodion: Ambrotypes and Tintypes
2021-11-13 - 2021-11-14 | Hardy & Nance Studios, 902 Hardy St, Houston, TX, 77020, United States

Introduction to Studio Lighting: Still Life & Product
2021-12-04 - 2021-12-05 | Houston Center for Photography

Landscape Photography: Art, Techniques and Beyond
2021-12-05 | Online Learning

Contemporary Reinterpretations of the Family Photo Album
2021-12-05 - 2021-12-12 | Online Learning

Bright Lights: Tips and tricks for photographing Your Holiday Lights
2021-12-11 | Online Learning

Getting Shown: Preparing for Art Festivals, Art Shows
2021-12-12 | Online Learning

Screening and Conversation with Yue Nakayama and Dorota Biczel: Looking for Love (and Job)
2021-12-30 17:00 - 19:00 | Houston Center for Photography
Attend the Screening!
Join our 2021 Carol Crow Memorial Fellow, Yue Nakayama, and HCP’s Executive Director & Curator, Dorota Biczel, for a screening and conversation about Nakayama’s Fellowship project, a 19-minute video entitled Looking for Love (and Job). The artist is back in Houston for the holidays, and the conversation will delve deep into the subjects of art-, place-, and relationship-making in the Gulf Coast. For several years, Nakayama’s films have tenderly and humorously explored how different belief and value systems clash and interweave in American multicultural society. However, Looking for Love (and Job) hits particularly close to home as the artist zeroes in on the mix of migrant ethnicities and species unique to Houston area.
A dedicated screening will start at 5:00 pm.

A conversation between Nakayama and Biczel, followed by Q-&-A with the audience, will take place immediately after the screening.
Admission to HCP is free. Using the button below, you can reserve your seat in advance to attend the event and view the 2021 Fellowship Exhibition in person.
Attend the Screening at 5:00 pm!

COVID-19 protocol: Masks required in the gallery. We recommend you only visit if you are fully vaccinated, have had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours before the event, and are feeling well.

In Conversation: Aaron Turner on Black Alchemy
2022-01-06 17:30 - 19:00 | Zoom
Attend the Event! – Thursday, January 6th, 2022
Before the 2021 Fellowship exhibition closes, join the 2021 HCP Fellowship recipient, Aaron Turner, and HCP’s Executive Director & Curator, Dorota Biczel, for a virtual conversation about the artist’s ongoing project, Black Alchemy. The conversation will illuminate Turner’s process, focusing on the roles that the studio, darkroom, and printing play in producing the work’s overall effects. The process is quintessential in the artist’s ongoing investigation of Blackness as a material, as an idea, and as a metaphysical framework. The conversation will also examine some of the key thinkers Turner draws upon to probe the limits of representation, as well as the different expectations associated with Black aesthetics.
Using the button below, you can reserve your spot in advance to attend the event. You will receive a zoom link to join on the day of the event via email.
Register now!
COVID-19 protocol: Masks required in the gallery. We recommend you only visit if you are fully vaccinated, have had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours before the event, and are feeling well.
Be sure to come by and see the work in person before the show closes on January 9th, 2022. Admission to HCP is always free!

Open Calls Demystified: How to Succeed with Calls for Entry
2022-01-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Online Learning

Exploring the Family Album
2022-01-28 12:00 - 13:00 | Online Learning
