Every other year, the Teen Council (TC) of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston organizes and mounts a juried exhibition in the Perspectives Gallery.  The TC establishes a theme, issues a call for entries to high school students throughout the Houston area, and works with Museum staff to install the exhibition, publish a Perspectives-format catalogue, and plan related events and programs.  The themes of past exhibitions have held unique and particular resonance among teens:  Lather, Rinse, Repeat examined the significance of hair (a stylist even cut hair during the preview, leaving the clippings behind as evidence of the “performance”); Faux, Foe, Pho examined teens’ multicultural concerns regarding language, behavior, food, and art; and Mind the Gap examined the mental and physical spaces between objects, people and ideas.

For Hit Me!, the TC has organized an exhibition juried by Houston artist David McGee, who chose 24 works from the over 175 submitted by area students.  The show’s theme refers to a variety of contemporary collisions—violence, funk music, and the clash of generations—and includes inspired work in a variety of media ranging from a graffiti-covered wall to an installation populated with sock monkeys.  Includes an interview with McGee by Paula Newton; comments by Travis Rice, Carlos Lama, Natalee Harten, and Kaelie Barnard; and a catalogue of the exhibition.