A building on the campus of The Menil Collection is getting a new life, after being closed for nearly a decade. The organization announced this week that the Fresco Building, which shuttered in 2018, will be transformed into a space for semi-permanent, site-specific commissions.

Brooklyn-based artist Teresita Fernández will open the first installation in 2027. She's creating a monumental immersive work that will debut as The Menil Collection celebrates its 40th anniversary.

“The Menil Collection has programmed its 40th anniversary year with strong exhibitions that explore the museum’s past, present, and future,” said Rebecca Rabinow, director of The Menil Collection. “As one of the highlights, Teresita Fernández’s extraordinary installation at the Fresco Building will join the Menil’s other single-artist buildings, the Cy Twombly Gallery and the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall. In recognition of the Fresco Building’s origins, her ambitious, site-specific artwork will address themes of spirituality and the human condition.”

The Fresco Building sits among residential bungalows and two neighboring institutions, the University of St. Thomas and the Rothko Chapel. It opened in 1997 as the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, under the auspices of the Byzantine Fresco Foundation, and originally housed two 13th-century frescoes that were restored and held on an extended loan from the Holy Archbishopric of Cyprus. Those frescos were returned to Cypress in 2012. The building was then decommissioned as a chapel and held a series of installations before closing in 2018.

The re-purposing of the chapel and Fernández’s commission are in keeping with the Menil’s history of working with living artists who draw inspiration from the museum’s campus, collection, and archives. Menil founders, John and Dominique de Menil, were among Houston’s most-noted art collectors and philanthropists, championing emerging artists from around the globe. The Menil Collection’s main building opened in 1987, showcasing paintings, sculptures, drawings, and other works in the couple’s vast collection. As more buildings became part of the Menil campus, it has become a must-visit for art lovers in Houston and from around the world.

“It is an immense honor to have been chosen to reimagine the Fresco Building within the prestigious context of the Menil’s campus,” said Fernández. “Creating an immersive, site-specific installation for this building is especially meaningful to me because of the Menil’s deep commitment to artists and the transformational power that contemplative art experiences can offer. For the last thirty years my practice has questioned how we construct notions of landscape and place; this project gives me a unique opportunity, on a monumental scale, to continue to unravel the intimacies between human beings and matter as well as the more numinous landscapes we carry within.”

Once the new Fresco Building is open, Fernández’s installation will remain for five years.

Photo courtesy of The Menil Collection

The former Byzantine Fresco Chapel on the campus of The Menil Collection will open next year as an art installation space.