#mainstreetprojects

IT’S RAINING CATS AND DOGS! By Vincent di Nguyen and Peter Nguyen

Public Reception: Thursday, June 9, 2016, 5 – 9:30pm Location: 3600 Block of Main Street, Midtown, Houston, Texas

Main Street Projects is pleased to present a large-scale mural project, scheduled to be executed in June of 2016, that will present a large-scale mural project to include work from two members of RVMP (rēˈvamp): Vincent di Nguyen and Peter Nguyen, brothers and Houston natives.

A public celebration for the artists will be hosted on June 2nd, 2016 with an public reception from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Proceeds from the June’s event will go to supportWriters In The Schools, the local non-profit beneficiary for the month

Each successful in their own right, these brothers began their art studies as students at Klein Forest High School in an impactful arts program and under the direction of department leader Raberta Sajda. This standout program for the arts provided a collaborative model that encouraged and prepared students for higher education in the arts, with alumni graduation from such influential arts institutions as SCAD, RISD, MICA, SVA, Cooper Union, and Yale. Vincent di Nguyen graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Clients include HarperCollins; Scholastic; Sterling Publishing; Random House; Simon & Schuster, Inc; and Marshall Cavendish. Di Nguyen has contributed to such feature filmprojects as Rio, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Horton Hears a Who!, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and Robots. He also illustrates children’s books and has been featured in such publications as Spectrum, Society of Illustrators Annual; Communication Arts Illustration Annual, and Out of Picture: Art from the Outside Looking In, volumes I and II. Vincent’s brother, Peter Nguyen, spent his childhood drawing and painting on whatever he could get his hands on. Currently working as a Color Key Artist at Blue Sky Studios, his work has influenced feature films such as Horton Hears A Who and the Ice Age series and Rio 2. His artwork can also be found in “Out Of Picture II” and in DC Comics publications, achieving a boyhood dream to be a comic artist. In addition to his printed projects, Peter’s art has been exhibited in galleries domestically as well as internationally, such as Paris, France. Peter is currently residing in New York City and continues to work for animation and comic books. His art has graced the covers of Batman Confidential and Detective Comics. Against the trend of Houston artists who find success elsewhere and continue to pursue projects outside of Houston, this duo has made it a point to return to their hometown with enthusiasm and friendly nostalgia. Visual elements incorporated into this site-specific mural highlight the brothers’ signature style of illustration. From “raining cats and dogs” to “Burger Time,” an insatiable cactus ,and graffiti playtime, the mural includes icons and associations from their childhood spent in Houston/Texas.

Organized independently but promoted with the support of cultural parters, all mural and art installations are debuted according to the Mid Main neighborhood calendar of events. This series of events invites a diverse audience to engage civically with public art and with local businesses to support a different local non-profit each month. Mid Main neighborhood owner/operated businesses The Continental Club, Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top, Tacos A Go-Go, Sig’s Lagoon, My Flaming Heart, Double Trouble, The Alley Kat and Natachee’s Supper ‘n Punch donate 5% of their sales during the block party event to the non-profit of the month. In addition, donations are collected in the Art Garden, where the block party takes place, to benefit the participating non-profit organization.

This project is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance

Main Street Projects, is pleased to present A Hope, Prayer, and a Dream, a presentation of public art in which seventy-seven national and international photographers join in for a collective photographic presentation encompassing an entire city block of Main Street for the duration of Houston’s 2016 FotoFest Biennial.

For this artistic execution artists Laura Corley-Burlton and Marti Corn have curated a showcase that shares the work of photographers from all over the nation, including such noted artists as Anne Berry, Christa Blackwood, Tami Bone, Fran Forman, Ann George, Sandra Klein, Rita Koehler, Galina Kurlat, Louviere + Vanessa, Heather Oelklaus, Vicky Reed, Jennifer Shaw, Amanda Smith, Aline Smithson, and Keliy Anderson Staley. This presentation is very much inspired by a collective desire to reflect the very human response to the unrest and chaos that seems to be raging throughout the world today.

Utilizing the Main Street Project space, two vacant historic buildings located in the developing epicenter of Houston’s downtown art community, this team takes advantage of the original Alley Theater’s windows to showcase layered photographic installations and simultaneously debuts a photographic mural in the Mid Main Houston Art Garden.

This installation is hosted by Main Street Projects, a participating space in the 2016 FotoFest Biennial, is an alternative art venue for site-specific art installations in Mid Main Houston, located in the 3600 Block of Main Street.  A public celebration for the participating artists will be hosted on March 3rd, 2016 with an opening reception from 5:00 to 9:00 pm. Five percent of sales from the local businesses during the opening reception will go to support the Houston Center for Photography. This public-space presentation will be on view to the pedestrian public through the end of April 2016.

Main Street Projects is an alternative art venue in Houston, Texas for site-specific, contemporary art installations featuring local, national and international artists. It was founded in 2012 by artists Theresa Escobedo, Galina Kurlat, and  Rahul Mitra,  with the generous support of building owners Bob and Lane Shultz and Pete Gordon

Main Street Projects is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance

White Painted Ladies is an exhibition designed to invigorate the real and fictional aspects of Future Possibilities. All the essential “P’s” are included; pregnancy, photosynthesis, and painting.  

In 1995, David Bowie designed wallpaper for Laura Ashley for the War Child Fashion event. A few years ago, Cody Ledvina painted his blue women white. In 2015, Allison van Heugten placed the white painted ladies in the original Alley Theatre’s window niches for Main Street Projects.  

Cody Ledvina  was born in 1984 in Houston, Texas and currently lives and works in London, UK. He co-­‐founded the Joanna, an unconventional art space, and The Brandon, an experimental project in the form of a gallery. Cody regrets to leave you with nothing more than an unfinished account of his recent activities as an artist. Please use your imagination.   

Allison van Heugten is an architectural designer in Houston and has worked with Diverse Works and The Brandon to develop exhibitions. She is interested in creating spectacle moments within the city’s existing infrastructure.     A public celebration for the participating artists will be hosted on September 3rd, 2015, with an opening reception from 6:00 to 9:00 pm.  

Main Street Projects is an alternative venue in Houston, Texas for site­‐specific installation featuring local, national and international artists. It is run by Brandon Dimit, Theresa Escobedo, Galina Kurlat and Rahul Mitre with the generous support of building owners Bob and Lane Shultz and Pete Gordon.

This presentation by Main Street is funded in part by a  grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

“the title of this show is taken from perhaps the most famous zen buddhist koan, which can be described as teaching parables.

koan are very old, mostly very short [verses], which seldom, if ever, are directly [resolved].

they are not proper riddles, but situations and stories with which to shape your awareness.

i find that my experience with them and my experience with western art have been very similar. and for good reason:

truly fine art is seldom a one-liner with a call and response and neither are koan.

for many of us, in viewing art we see not only what was made but the awareness that made it. sometimes, it is more the latter.

duchamp said that great thing about the artist having no control over their art besides making it; society takes what it wants. i think that’s right. in many regards, it’s just not important what i say about my art…

Here is what I don't do in my art (as quoted from carolee schneemann’s interior scroll): take one clear process, follow its strictest implications, intellectually establish a system of permutations, [and/then] establish their visual set.

but if you want to know what i think i am up to, i am giving birth.

i exert my conscious influence over my state of mind rather than the materials. when i am successful, the making happens of itself without much rational interference. our existence is much bigger than we can rationally contain or convey.

beauty, sometimes despite our best efforts, is born and not made.”

- Heath Flagvedt

This presentation by Main Street is funded in part by a  grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Main Street Projects Roberta Harris Reconsidered

April 2, 2015 – April 25, 2015 Opening Reception and Block Party: April 2nd, 3700 Block of Main, 5pm - Midnight

Main Street Projects is pleased to present Roberta Harris Reconsidered as its April 2015 installation in the Windows on Main. This month’s pubic art installation, presented collaboratively with co-curator Catherine D. Anpson, offers a sample of artworks that span the course of Houston artist Roberta Harris’s five-decade career. The exhibition will be presented in conjunction with Mid Main Houston’s April First Thursday monthly block party, which invites a diverse audience to engage civically with local businesses to the benefit of local non-profit Camp for All.

“Harris’ arsenal extends from some very convincing Pattern-and-Decoration painting to lyrical Post Modern sculpture making, as well as some rather wild canvases filled with figuration and an exuberant visual language that even in reproductions, jumps off the page.”

-Catherine D. Anspon