Reeves Art & Design presents “1YRLTR,” a group show featuring works by Houston-based arts group BIGBOND, showcasing works in a range of media, including painting, sculpture, and mixed media.

“1YRLTR,” pronounced “One Year Later,” explores themes of time, growth, observation, and reflection. The exhibition explores how the artists of BIGBOND navigate personal, social, emotional, and environmental challenges they have experienced since they began working together one year ago, in the fall of 2022, meeting through the MFAH Glassell BLOCK program.

BIGBOND participating artists Vernon Caldera, Alexandra Constantinou, Marina Fernandez, Robert Fox, Holly Josey, Suzette Schutze, Margaret O’Brien-Nelson, Lia Rodi, Chet Urban, and Michelle Whitney are a loosely organized but tightly-knit group of Houston-based artists who engage each other in critical thought, share ideas from their readings and writings, go see art, support other local artists, and fan each other’s creative flames with the purpose of strengthening their individual artistic output while nurturing bonds within Houston’s art community.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display on October 28.

In “A Human Day,” a solo show dedicated to the work of contemporary multidisciplinary artist Benji Stiles, Reeves Art + Design explores a survey of his diverse work including objects, paintings, videos, and installations from over the past five years.

With a unique and distinctive style that combines pastel hues with bold, abstract compositions, Stiles has garnered recognition throughout the Houston art scene. While the majority of the work in this show is recent, “A Human Day” is a testament to Stiles’ ever evolving mastery of color, form, and emotion. Featuring a wide array of large-scale canvases and smaller, more intimate objects and installations, the collection invites the viewer to immerse themselves in Benji’s vision.

Born in New Orleans, Robert Benjamin Stiles (Benji) is a multidisciplinary artist and educator who lives and works in Houston. He holds a BA from the University of St. Thomas, with a major in Art History and a minor in Studio Art and is currently a MFA candidate at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art). His work ranges from non-representational painting focusing on diverse mark making and color theory, to conceptual sculpture, assemblage, and installation work using a variety of media including historical and found objects.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until October 28.

The growth of Houston back at the turn of last century was unbridled. Opportunity could be found around every corner of the bayou city. During the 1920s alone there was a building boom that lasted a decade, giving local depression professional photographers plenty of work. Despite a crushing depression crippling the rest of the nation, Houston would survive better than most.

The photographs featured in the exhibit showcase the best of the best of commercial photography and photographers during the 1920s & 1930s. Using huge cameras that created an 8 x 10 inch black and white negative, these skilled craftsmen captured day to day life in and around Houston with amazing clarity. Each image is a visual time capsule revealing an important part of our community’s historical past.

The exhibition will remain on display through November 4.

The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts will present “Ode to East Texas: The Art of Lee Jamison” in the Main Gallery, and “Jose Cisneros: A Colorful World in Black and White” in the Cole Gallery.

Huntsville artist Lee Jamison spent more than a year exploring, sketching and journaling his way through East Texas. The result is a rich record of the land and culture as viewed through the eyes of an accomplished painter. As visitors wander through the Main Gallery, they’ll find themselves transported in a sensory expedition, feeling the rhythm of life that beats within the heart of East Texas.

Jose Cisneros was born in Mexico in 1910, and moved to the United States when he was 15. With a focus on the rugged and iconic horsemen of Texas, Cisneros transports visitors to a bygone era where the wild frontier was tamed by the fearless and skilled riders of the West. President George W. Bush collected Cisneros’ work; Cisneros was also knighted by Pope John Paul II and by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Both exhibitions will continue through January 6, 2024.

"At What Cost: Part II" is an immersive corn maze installation by Salvadoran, Houston-based multidisciplinary artist Lorena Molina. With stalks sourced from Texas farms, Molina's corn maze installation creates the grounds for meditation on the immigrant experience, US imperialism, and access to safety and freedom.

Corn mazes are a common staple of agritourism, created by farmers to generate extra income and enjoyed for family fun in the fall months. There are much larger historical and political implications of this crop, however, as policies like NAFTA have forever changed corn farming in Latin America and caused an influx of immigration to the United States.

The sensation of being disoriented or lost in a corn maze, Molina argues, is the sensation of immigration and diaspora. The way to and from is not always certain, and sometimes families, culture, languages, and histories can be lost on the way to a promise. The artist invites participants to use the maze as a site for meditation and contemplation of this experience, to honor the many places that people have left to be here. The center of the maze reveals the artist’s core considerations of the fragility of safety and freedom - who benefits from these ideas and who pays a high price for them.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will on display through November 4.