Join for a tour of Tears and Politics: Works by Phil Collins and Christian Jankowski through the eyes of Rex Koontz. Koontz, director of the School of Art, University of Houston. His work centers on the art of the Ancient Americas. He is currently investigating the portable sculpture tradition along the Gulf Coast of Mexico between A.D. 100-1000. These objects, known as yoke, hacha, or palma depending on their form, are important for the understanding of the place of artistry in Ancient Mexican politics and culture. More general interests include the construction of meaningful urban spaces in this area and how the programs of sculpture, architecture, painting and performance seen in the center of these cities helped shape and focus the ancient urban experience.

Recent books include Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents: The Public Sculpture of El Tajin and Blood and Beauty: Organized Violence in the Art and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and Central America. He has done fieldwork in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras under the aegis of the Tinker Foundation, the University Research Council of the University of Texas and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. He is currently working on a digital tool for visual analysis, VWire, that was awarded a Digital Humanities Statup Grant by the NEH in 2011-12. He holds a BA, American College in Paris andan MA and PhD, Art History, from the University of Texas, Austin.