MVP Arts Channel at HCC

“The present of my life looks different under trees,” is a quote from a passage in Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek in which she muses on the differences between “soft-shelled humans” and the trees with their bark shields and immense lifespans. Trees 'remember' the weather through their growth rings and, in fossilized remains, the pattern of these rings is used to study past climates. What will current, living trees tell the future?

This installation consists of sixty 11’ high panels, each one representing a year of weather data from Hobby airport. The lightweight, fabric panels hang from the ceiling creating an immersive environment. Each panel varies in width based on the rainfall intensity, and the color, from ice-blue to blue-black, represents the average nighttime temperature for that year. More shocking than any graph, this forest-like environment shows the story of rising temperatures and intensifying rain events.

The (Identity) collection is actually about women's rights, especially in Muslim and patriarchal society. — Mahtab Basiri

The HCC Northeast Art Gallery and Student Life Department commemorate Black History Month with an exhibit titled Resurrection featuring Houston artist Kentra Gilbert. 

Gilbert’s work features geometric pattern paintings on canvas and wood with various types of acrylic paint. She uses colors and shapes to create optical illusions and what she describes as a beautiful deception. After earning degrees at Southwestern Christian College and the University of Houston, Gilbert graduated from Houston Baptist University with a Master of Fine Art in 2017. 

During her time as a student and afterward, Kentra showed her artwork in numerous group shows and juried exhibitions; however, this is her first one-person-show in a Houston gallery. While at HBU, she received 2nd place in 2017 Rockport's Center for the Art's "Rising Eye of Texas." Among her achievements are becoming a finalist at the "Biennial: Origins in Geometry" (2017) and a recent participant of the "Fresh Look: Selection of Women Artists in the MADI Collection" and "Artist of the Month" for October at the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art (2019). She was selected multiple times as a participant in the "Citywide African American Artists Exhibition," a collaborative exhibit put together by Texas Southern University's University Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

Jessica Simorte and Max Manning both hold Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Cincinnati, and both have been exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally.  They are now based in Northwest Houston, and Simorte is on faculty at Sam Houston State University.

While the work of both is largely abstract in appearance, the artists are very much rooted in specific time, art practices, and places.  Simorte reflects on the deep relationships between people and places, with her work evoking fragments of rooms, windows, or remembered patterns of past places.

Manning seeks to be “retro-contemporary but not retrograde,” interrogating the “timeline of art history with one foot on the past and the other on the present.”  His work is particularly influenced by Cubism, with its interest in forcing the viewer to see the painting both as object and as subject matter.

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