getting in shape

Downtown's Discovery Green shapes up with colorful new art exhibit

Michael Craig-Martin, High Heel (pink) Discovery Green Houston

Michael Craig-Martin’s colorful works step into Discovery Green.

Photo by Aric Attas

Houston continues to be a draw for national and international artists, as evidenced by pieces such as the “Cloud Column,” by global artist Anish Kapoor, which can be found at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Now, another celebrated international artist has picked Houston as a canvas. Renowned Brit Michael Craig-Martin is partnering with downtown’s Discovery Green Conservancy for a new exhibit that opens August 1 at Discovery Green’s Kinder Lake.

Appropriately dubbed “The Shape of Things: Michael Craig-Martin at Discovery Green,” the new work comprises a series of six sculptures boasting colorful, oversized steel forms that offer a playful perspective of everyday objects and challenge perceptions of space. The effect is like line drawings in the air.

The exhibition in Houston includes six sculptures ranging from 8 to 12 feet high, depicting everyday objects, such as an umbrella, a wheelbarrow, a light bulb, and a shoe. Visitors can walk around the pieces at Discovery Green, observing the extraordinary sculptures in a new context.

This is the first exhibition of the Craig-Martin’s sculptures to be seen in Texas, and only the second venue in the United States, according to a statement.

Craig-Martin’s work has been based on a growing visual vocabulary of everyday objects, as explored through a variety of media, including line drawings, paintings, large-scale installations, prints, and, since 2011, powder-coated steel sculptures. His highly recognizable style is marked by rigorously precise lines in bright, vivid colors.

“I have long been a fan of Michael Craig-Martin’s paintings and graphic work, and when I learned that his sculptures were being showcased in the United States, I instantly thought of Discovery Green as the perfect venue,” said Judy Nyquist, chair of the Discovery Green Conservancy’s public art committee, in a statement.

“These large-scale works are simultaneously simple and bold, elegant and humorous, minimal yet approachable,” she adds. “The over-scaled outlines convey the effect of windows, through which visitors can view and experience the landscape in and around our urban oasis in unexpected ways.”

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“The Shape of Things: Michael Craig-Martin at Discovery Green” is on view from August 1 to November 3 at Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney St.

downtown inspiration

Arts News

Houston arts organization spins up a new record label for creative works

Two CD copies of Tyshawn Sorey's Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)

Photo courtesy of DACAMERA Editions

DACAMERA's unique musical contribution to Houston now comes in LP form.

For more than three decades, Houston arts and music non-profit DaCamera has brought innovative and unique jazz and chamber music performances to the city. Now, they are launching their own record label called DaCamera Editions, starting with TyShawn Sorey's Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) releasing on January 30.

Since 1987, DaCamera has been a nationally-celebrated curator, commissioner, and presenter of modern works that often fly under the mainstream radar. With the establishment of an in-house record label, the music they are known for becomes more widely available to audiences.

"Following the thrilling experience of commissioning, performing, and recording Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), we saw an opportunity to launch our own label," DaCamera artistic director Sarah Rothenberg said in a statement. "DaCamera Editions will enable us to share our distinctive, curated mix of new music, classical repertoire, and jazz in a way that emphasizes connections to art, literature and the world in which we live, all under the DaCamera umbrella."

Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) is the perfect album to herald a new Houston record label. The meditative piece was a joint commission from DaCamera and the Rothko Chapel to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the renowned Houston landmark. Featuring soloists Davóne Tines (bass-baritone), Kim Kashkashian (viola), Sarah Rothenberg (piano/celesta), Steven Schick (percussion), and the Houston Chamber Choir, the 75-minute work was a critical hit when it premiered in 2022. It built on a previous work, Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, which debuted at the site in 1972. Sorey composed a bass-baritone part for Tines and expanded the keyboard role by adding piano. As part of the performance, Tines sings lines from the spiritual "I Feel Like a Motherless Child."

Both The New York Times and The New Yorker named the premiere of Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) as a top 10 classical performance of 2022. It was also a Finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

The album will be released on both CD and digital formats. Pre-orders are available at DaCameraEditions.com.

Future planned releases include Rothenberg's In Darkness and Light (May 2026), a piano album inspired by the anxiety of COVID and featuring Vijay Iyer’s eloquent personal memorial "For My Father;" and Tyshawn Sorey’s solo piano work For Julius Eastman, a tribute to the minimalist composer and activist whose work has undergone a 21st Century renaissance since his death in relative obscurity in 1990.

"DaCamera Editions will enable us to share our distinctive, curated mix of new music, classical repertoire, and jazz in a way that emphasizes connections to art, literature and the world in which we live,” Rothenberg said.

performing-arts dacamera music